Horsetan

Thurles Is Not Enough

That's a bit like BR Mk1 underframes being used as car transporters for the Motorail service

CIE Another Day

I have a Park Royal on order as well. Spare 8' Commonwealth bogies would be useful - they would go under an Irish Freight Models Laminate kit that I have.

That's what I bought four spare bogie pairs for (when they were on a discount offer): to go under the Murphy's RPSI Mk2 trio here. The bogie pivots are obviously not the same, so a good deal of improvisation will be needed. Murphy Mk2s are difficult to dismantle and, despite a few goes at it, I haven't managed to prise the bodyshell off the underframe. The other thing is the conversion to 21mm. The back-to-back for P4 profile wheels comes out at either 19.67 or 19.87mm depending on whether your flangeway gaps are dead scale or not. IRM Mk2 bogie wheels are mounted the same way as is common in 2mm finescale: the wheels are "live" with pinpoint 1.5mm split axles held in an insulating muff so that they can conduct the electric needed for coach lighting. Most P4 coach wheels have plastic centres on a solid 2mm axle. On the face of it, this won't work properly in an IRM bogie as the lighting circuit will be lost unless you can arrange extra pickups to "wipe" the tyres without touching the axle and a standard P4 axle is usually too short for 21mm gauge. Having messed with the problem over many weeks, my thinking is that the IRM method has to be replicated, so: - live P4 wheels and tyres (12mm diameter steel, available from Alan Gibson Workshop); - wheel centres sleeved down from 2mm to 1.5mm (if I can get micro tube for it); - IRM 1.5mm split pinpoint axles and muffs if, and it's a big "if", these parts are also available as spares. Yes they have been allocated part numbers in the IRM instruction diagrams but I need to find out if they can be supplied.

I wonder if they'll be able to find sufficient drawings for it, though

Some of that may be accentuated by differences in ambient light.

What's not to like?

I understood that construction of the underframes of 36004/5 had been started, if not a lot else.

Wonder how the Alphagraphix thing is getting on....

God help us all

Have you got your hands on the MTK Western Class 52 yet?

As I've said before, were these somewhat cheaper, I think there'd be a bit of mileage in cutting and shutting the Generics to make them more like the common Irish carriage designs. However, it's not in Rapido's nature to be truly helpful (their RTR locos are notoriously difficult to convert to P4 and I suspect they are deliberately designed that way to prevent tampering), so it is what it is.

You weren't to know, but Junctionmad died in May last...

I'm guessing this is about as desirable as having "Me hole" as temporary Taoiseach again

I wonder what the required pressures are? When Citroën was making cars with oleopneumatic suspension / brakes / steering, the LHM fluid was pumped through the pipes at something in the order of 2200 psi and above.

Sure the only raw materials we can offer him are turf and data centres.

I wonder how serious they are about hydrogen fuel cell propulsion. Certainly a few car makers are trying to make it work, especially Toyota.

...and turning grubby within weeks!

Actually no. Bulleid wasn't that fussed - if anything, he welcomed different ideas. It was John Click.who liked having his own way, and brooked no opposition from anyone. It was his way, or no way.

If you remember K2 no.461 being used in the Michael Collins film, you may remember seeing a distinct bounce with every revolution of the wheels!

I'd say the Warship is probably the best of the MTKs so far. It seems less misshapen than the others. A couple of years ago I accidentally came into possession of most of one MTK kit that I didn't even know existed, as I'd never seen it in any of the catalogues available when Colin Massingham was active. It claims to be for the WD 2-8-0 and is predominantly etched brass. The instructions refer to both the 2-8-0 and 2-10-0 variants and bears the name "Elcrappo", which Colin notoriously gave to his range of 7mm scale kits - this WD is however supposed to be 4mm scale, so the artwork may have been "shot down". I have no intention of trying to build it as I already have a Dave Bradwell WD, which is at the opposite end of the extreme when it comes to quality! I might use bits of it in to make a 2-10-0 as I've not seen an etched one built.

Was there a dynamometer car available to the GSR/CIE network at that time? I can't remember ever reading about the existence of one.

I wonder if IRM would be floating around Uranus and having a sniff.

I'll be happy if they just stick to what's already in the works. I'm waiting like everyone else for a Park Royal (a preserved one) maybe this year, and a Hunslet (another preserved one) in early 2027. That said, I'd be impressed if IRM were to dare to have a go at the ex-DSER K2 no.461. I'd likely buy one in the hope of converting it to 21mm.