murrayec

Hi islandbridgeejct Have to agree with Glenderg, this is a great thread, an insight to track building and other things Turbocad is a bit of a pig, I use Autocad and would recommend you migrate. Some people look at Autocad and say its to complex but alas their all the same, they all draw somehow with you at the controls, its just down to the little tools they have and how you use them and Autocad is more powerful in this respect. Master a few commands in Autocad and then the rest follow in the same way. I've used plenty of systems and found Autocad the simplest and the most reliable. One can find a copy of Autocad Lite (no 3d) on-line and start there, that you mastered TC to this point Autocad Lite will be easy, then consider upgrading. As for the layer situation you describe above- this should not happen? it sounds like a bug in the program Eoin

Hi Paudie No need for plaster, unless you want, I usually use PVA or MDF sealer straight on the foam then undercoat and apply scenic. Where the model may get a bit of ware and tare one can use a hessian material with a few coats of PVA, it gives a very strong reinforced plastic finish to the surface. Eoin

Hi Walter Excellent to see your full range of modelling, I love the Gauge 1 layout I hope the show went well Eoin

Hi Paudie As Dave says- it's foam- Woodies best- I use standard aero-board insulation for flat stuff like the platforms and building up under things, it comes in all thickness's up to 50mm. Then the pink stuff is polyester roof insulation, its very similar to art foam (the blue stuff) but half the price- its used for detail and structures, its much stronger and comes 60mm thick and it can be cut down to slivers of .5mm. All cut with hot wire cutter on a board with a few straight edges, set-square, and paper templates from the drawings pinned to the foam. Ventilation is a must when cutting and stay away from the Kingspan stuff- nasty black smoke! I can post a picture of the set-up if you like Eoin

Hi IrishN That's a neat little DART you are working on, well done Walter You are a master at doing rock- the rocks in the first photo are amazing, it looks so real and you have kept the scale Eoin

Wrennie You put your right hand over your left eye and turn clockwise 3 times, best to do in an area with no obstructions just in case you feel a bit dizzy! Eoin

Hi All Here are a few photos of progress, track is now down and points wired, though a few kinks to be sorted. The sod has been cut and the station platforms, the road bridge and the timber yard foundations are installed. There is a hold-up area behind the timber yard screen through the road bridge- that's the track on to Wicklow town! Eoin

Hi Mark Thanks for the comment, and good to see you are considering a saving plan. The show was good fun, very busy mid morning and good to see all who came over and said hello Eoin

Hi We did our station site inspection today- of all gloomy days! Here is closetmodeller carrying out the station platform tarmac survey- way, way off in the distance. There is a kind of old style black & white quality to this photo? The station building is very nice but suffers from inconsiderate placement of ducting, signs and all kinds of stuff, though necessary for the running of things but badly thought out! A bit of maintenance wouldn't go a miss Eoin

Wow Walter You have covered the whole range of gauges! You must have a hive of workers over there or a club helping? You will have to cover N Gauge for the next show as my green thing will be out in 'N' soon! Good luck at the show and buy me a tractor Eoin

Hi All Just noticed I have not posted this year yet- well lets set that right! Happy new year to all Here are a few shots of the first 2 DARTs completed in 2015 First a 90's DART;- Oops some tape still on the windows!! And a DART25;- I'm now completing orders 16, 17, 18 & 19- scheduled to be complete at the end of the month. Orders 16 & 17 are going to be interesting to see with the new 2014 IR logo DART Livery Eoin

Hi Ray Bray Head layout would be a fascinating project, I've done some preliminary sketches of the like, very hard to scale down at OO gauge to fit in a home layout but would be amazing;- You should consider the Modular Layout System for this;- http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/2465-Modular-OO-Layouts?p=37052&viewfull=1#post37052 Eoin

Hi In the background of this shot is my mountain, I saw it from there and couldn't believe the size That's a samson post on the back for the skiers to attach their ropes Cool machine Eoin

Hi I have to agree with scahalne, it looks excellent the way it is. I got one for a Christmas present- looking forward to getting stuck in after watching yours. Use the green Delux cyano for sticking in glass- it wont bloom, its for that kind of thing Eoin

Hi Right on JHB, The destruction of DL's heritage started in early times and carried on into the stage some called 'The Celtic Tiger', its still happening today what with the new library development taking over Marconi House and the water storage quarry built to keep clean water for the men building the pier. The list is endless. I'm not against new development, sure I made a living from it, but I do believe in keeping our history and developing on it to share with the interested, not destroying it. Dun Laoghaire has nothing to offer a cruse ship now, a long time back DL city fathers and politicians turned their backs on the harbour and ancillaries. It would not surprise me if the Harbour Company decided to quarry the harbour walls for the granite to build apartments! Eoin

Oh and another thing- the mouth of the harbour is not wide enough, them boys that drive them ships slow into a harbour don't like walls close by. Did you ever watch a Wave Cutter coming in, they would line the boat up outside, watch the wind, and when it was favourable they gunned it in. While the boats were travelling to DL they monitored the Dublin Bay weather, if things were looking bad they would turn the ship around and go back! Eoin

Hi And so does the station design, here is closetmodeller's sketch of Greystones station hot off the scanner ready for CAD to make the templates to cut out the platforms and do the other stuff;- Eoin

Hi The harbour when built was high-tec and one of the biggest at the time- for sailing ships! When coming to completion the steam ship era was taking off, so to save costs the pier walls were shortened and the planned protection wall across the mouth of the harbour was abandoned- the plan was for ships to sail behind the wall, drop sail and fall into the harbour. This was a grave error, the mouth of the harbour faces Northerly and when the North wind blows the whole of Dublin Bay sands ends up in the harbour! When the contract was signed for the Wave Cutters to dock it was conditional that the Harbour Company dredged the harbour regularly at their expense (well our expense). Also when a Wave Cutter left the dock, they had very little control at low speed so they gunned it for a few seconds to line up with the exit and backed it off until outside the harbour mouth. This caused massive disturbance under water and caused major pile up on the harbour bed, so the dredging had to be done continuously. It was a deadly system, they had a dredging plough on wheels on the bottom connected to an awesome hired boat that carried out this work by remote control, again at our expense. Aside from my mad Lighthouse the museum would have been a major attraction for DL, yes it was disappointing. Eoin

Hi The Space Needle is the design our Lighthouse Project Tower was based on, we formed a partnership with DLR Architects in Seattle for the competition. A few years before the above competition we had another client looking at building a harbour hotel to add to their chain of harbour hotels around the world, they are still a big player. We proposed Carlisle Pier to them and we had the opportunity to meet with the Harbour Co director Mr Hanaho, who was very unfriendly and downright aggressive. Our client was looking at a 5 star hotel development, which Dun Laoghaire most likely could not support, cruse liners would ferry the hotel clients from hotel to hotel around the world. Again DLR Planning Dept was totally behind this idea- 5 star guests coming to plain old Dun Laoghaire, even if they bused to the city the spin-off would have been great for DL, fully behind it- bring it on! Our clients were preparing to submit proof of funds to the Harbour Company to enter into negotiations- suddenly 9/11 happened and the project stalled. A cruse liner cannot enter DL harbour, its not deep enough. Eoin

Hi The main factor is that Dublin Port from about 10 years back have been wooing Stena to use the Dublin port facility for no charge, the Dun Laoghaire Harbour company has known this for years- that's why they had those silly design build competitions to decimate the Carlisle Pier about 6 years ago with an apartment development! now they are going to do the same thing with St Michaels wharf to get an income. I'm predigest on this matter- we submitted for the Carlisle Pier comp back then- a Dublin Bay Museum harking back to the emigration period, restoring the pier and railway shed, and railway line to exhibit Dublin Bay heritage;- sailing boats, steam ships, and trains. The landmark feature of our proposal was a 100 meter tower with revolving restaurant and viewing area on top. Alas we got nowhere, the Harbour Company's plans were to privatise the pier, build apartments and sell them! We did have the full backing of the DLR Planning Dept, although they had reservations on the tower. The Maritime Museum was very interested in the replica Steam Ship for an exhibit hall. If you look closely one can see a little green Hibernia loco about to enter the Railway exhibit hall at the front of the building, running on the restored spur from the main GS railway line. Eoin

Hi Yes, the MM socket varies on the different coaches, I fitted Kadees 18, 19 & 20 onto cravens- but the coupler socket is a bit high so I super glued them to the underside of the socket! if you use the green Delux cyano you can snap them off again if needs be. If using Kadees- always use the setting up jig to get them at correct height. The instructions suggest using a .8mm strip of shim metal across the track rails and the trip pin should just touch the shim- if you don't have the jig. Kadees come with a very helpful leaflet to help setting them up Eoin

Hi I've had that problem with all the MM coaches- this is what I do;- The socket is a bit tight so I shave down the end of the coupler bayonet ends insitu- just a little and with a brand new scalpel blade. Then clamp the bayonet together with a tweezers and pull the coupler out. Best done in a cradle to protect the coach, and while pulling it out twist the couple to one side so that one bayonet enters the socket first. If you shave a small amount off the bayonets the coupler can be used again Eoin

The colour one is on page 62 of IRISH TRACTION in Colour by Derek Huntriss

Hi B Some very nice layouts there, very neat work- the majority of the scenes are very uncluttered.. very neat Looks like it was a good show Nice to see Eoin

Hi Interestingly, 3D Applied Solutions were demoing their €20,000.00 3D printer at the Cork Model Fair today, the machine looked impressive and it printed 2 25-30mm diameter pill boxes and 2 separate screw on lids in around 2 hours. Though the surface suffered the usual lairing surface dimples, with very poor low angle surfaces- basically steps. €20,000! yes some years to go yet.. Eoin