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Hi enniscorthyman Well done on the bubbles, they look amazing in the outdoor shots- looks like they've been in service for years, i think its the wood that adds that character. I see you have a few more to do! Branchlines are the guys for Blackbeetle motors if you cant source it elsewhere murrayec

Hi Here are a few shots of the business side of the DART model. Sporting my new cast white metal boxing and screw on lid. As you can see its getting pretty tight in there with chip, pantograph arc light control, socket and connectors, and an MS weight! Yet to try and fit a speaker.... The skirts are cast white metal also. murrayec

Hi Phil Love the puddle and point throw, as said before these little additions have an amazing affect on the scale also I see the cow has elevated status, very nice murrayec

Hi Tony Looks a great layout, I was just thinking the same thing- you have some tight points turns there as BosKonay noted, get your layout into some track plan program and see what happens! The stobart rail 201 looks great, I'd do it, but remember its fictional murrayec

The standard is 24 passengers. They are a nightmare, always arriving late, leave their feet behind, and require Trans7 to stay in place.... murrayec

Hi BosKonay You've come out! I'm starting on yours next week in an initial batch of six, I'll work on the six until I'm frustrated again and then work on individual orders at a time. Construction will go a lot faster this time as I have some new jigs and things to help. murrayec

Hi Broithe Not fully, the driver is standard but the passengers are an option. This driver is Oisin McDonald by the way, they are named! murrayec

Hi All Just went over the 50,000 views today, I'm chuffed... Here are a few shots of DART 05 just coming to completion Test running in the morning and off to its owner murrayec

Hi jhb171achill I do like the art of graffiti! but not what's available to view on the towers and the whole line from Bray to the city, and further. There is not a gram of art in it, it's just vandalism.... murrayec

Hi Walter Excellent, you are recovered, I hope to 100% Look forward to seeing you Sunday murrayec

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Hi I got the tender up and rolling last week, here are a few photos... murrayec

Hi I keep all the plastic- hope to make an injection moulding machine on my pillar drill! I have the heaters and the thermo but time is needed to turn some metal and bash out the moulds...## murrayec

Hi 1,000!... That's a factory murrayec

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Hi Tony Great to see you posting the development of your layout Shapeways would be expensive, I'd go with the Kirley option. That voyager looks like it tried to get under a low bridge! murrayec

Hi dave182 I switched to biomass fuel (sawdust logs) for home heating in a back-boiler stove, a packet of four logs cost €7.50 compared to €3.70 for a bail of bricketts at the time, they both weighed roughly the same. When using the stuff I found two packets of biomass produced the same energy as one bail of bricketts, it also produced a huge amount of thick black tar if I damped down the air intake. The stove and flue had to be cleaned once a week otherwise the tar gummed up the whole works. I could not always get the stuff, or my orders were reduced to spread what was available In the end I went back to bricketts, far cheaper, less hassle James Lovelock has published some interesting facts & figures on biomass production and its use in America, in some areas there is only biomass crops farmed and no food crops, and the trend is escalating! Also bio-diesel burnt in trucks is just as environmentally harmful as the real stuff. If their going to move it by train the hoppers will have to be on the scale of Fran's video above or a train of small stock like the cement wagons, up to 60 or so! Trucking would be a nightmare and environmentally wrong. We invent these alternative fuels and call them green but in actual fact their not. The cement industries here have a product they call 'Green Cement' because it comes in an environmentally friendly bag! - cement production and its use is one of the most environmentally unfriendly production systems in the world. Oh yes and- we pay huge fines to thems in Europe for digging up the bogs, somewhere in the region of €25 million annually. I hear BosKonay saying - '60 wagons'........ murrayec

Hi Here's one for yeah!! I was commissioned last week to make DART hats for the Darts tonight in the Point Depo..... They are truncated DARTs, they are quite cute at this size. The full model would have had a serious overhang and probably take someone's eye out! murrayec

Hi heirflick Great shots, lovely to see especially the second last head on one murrayec

Hi Some of you are up early This baby will be shunting her own rolling stock- 3 carriages are planned, one first class which looks like a stage coach and two third class, one will be enclosed and one open to the elements. An enclosed carriage still exists and is on display up north. There is an OO gauge one planned but I thought it would be easier to develop the design of the model in O gauge first. Mr & Mrs Fry built one which still exists in the Fry Collection, I tried to get a look at it while preparing my drawings but to no avail. murrayec

Hi All I got a bit more done on the Hibernia over the last few evenings Her are a few shots of the outer frames attached, foot plates installed, one of the vertical cylinders erected and of course the name plate;- The port face and valve gear has yet to go on the back of the cylinder, and then I can plastic mould it to make the second one murrayec

Hi Thanks guys for interest Nelson, I will take you up on that offer when the time comes, but the 3 1/2'' version is some time off, it's in a long queue of large scale projects- it's round about no. 5. Though you will like large scale project no. 3 as well- an 'Northumbrian' 3 1/2'' which will be completed first, its a kit of cast and blank metal parts I bought through one of the mags and is a training exercise for the 'Hibernia'- I've done a bit on the wheels..... to many things going on..... you know how it is murrayec

Hi All Here is a project I have been working on for a long, long time! But it is now finally coming together as you can see from the attached photos of a test build of the chassis in plastic card. The Hibernia was one of the first loco's to run in Ireland on the Dublin & Kingstown Railway in the 1830's, it was built by Sharp Roberts & Company in Manchester from a Roberts earlier design loco called 'The Experiment' . The first design was unsuccessful, mainly due to the vertical cylinders & bell-crank drive design pounding the track and rattling the engine to bits. Unfortunately these design failures were past on to the Hibernia and two other engines;- Britannia, and Manchester bought by the D&KR directors, much against recommendations by some of the engineers advising the company. But the loco's came at an economical price tag. I reckon Sharp Roberts had a box of scarps hanging around in a dark corner of the workshop, remnants of the ill fated Roberts Experiment, and found a way of offloading the box for a fee. The Hibernia after 8 years of troubled service decided to commit suicide, so while the engine-men were attending to their own servicing- it blew up. This prompted the D&KR to have the two remaining engines of this type inspected and overhauled, but they were sold a year and four years later. Reference for The Experiment = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiment_%28locomotive%29 Reference to Hibernia side elevation drawing = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Colin_Douglas_Howell/Galleries/Planet_and_other_similar_2-2-0s_of_the_1830s = http://www.memoryprints.com/image/88968/unattributed-steam-locomotive-hibernia-1834 When I first saw a drawing of the Hibernia some 30 years ago I was fascinated, it's curved cast iron chassis, vertical cylinders, mad looking bell-crank drive arrangement, and side railings- typically Victorian and alike a horse drawn coach design. I love it. Back then I set about researching the loco and collecting what information I could, there are no photos (cameras did not exist at that time), side view drawings are all that I could find and even these turned out to be incorrect, though through perseverance and many discussions about this type of early loco design I eventually completed a full drawing spec. The pictures are of an O Gauge test chassis model, just erected in the last week, this test assists in getting the brass work drawing correct for etching the parts and see where there may be trouble assembling the model. The ultimate goal of this project is to build a working live steam 3.5'' Gauge model, hopefully in less time it has taken me to get to this stage. Next stage is the cylinders, bell-crank and drive rods murrayec

Hi Tony Walter does packs of these little guys, they come in all colours and are screw fix to the wires-(do solder the wire ends first), they are a neat little plug n socket and can daisy chain through the hole shown in that green one. I throw a bit of shrinkie over the body and shrink it, to cover the screw head- just in case. Boskonay's idea can be made yourself with small block connectors and brass nails with heads removed. They do require a screw driver to disconnect which can be a problem when in under a layout. murrayec

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