Horsetan

With the vast majority of what would have been heritage stock having been scrapped ages ago, I don't think there's much of a choice...

He'd be the Irish Guy Williams.

My parents took me across to Mullingar in 1988 to meet the family of one of their tenants. My memory is of being told why the excellence of Ireland's education system was so closely linked to emigration, and also noticing that the family used one end of a dishcloth to dry dishes, and the other end to wipe their hands with. I can't remember accepting a cup of tea....

No.

If you're needing to portray sheet metal, only brass or nickel-silver will do it. Plastic or whitemetal is generally too thick. Also, the FIA "Twins" were fine in OO, but didn't run quite so well if converted to EM or P4....

Right-hand drive, too.

Are ye doing over four miles an hour!?

Good to know.

Ah, the mental turf-burning locomotive.

I haven't heard anything. IThere must be other things going on.

Wars have started over less...

Sure now? 'cos I thought they were black but, when I looked closely, they turned out to be a very very very very very very very very very very very dark blue.

More froth in these things than a capuccino.

No GVs on the BR network. Trains were equipped with ETH / air-con and had on-board generators on non-HST coaches, etc, so a gen van was unnecessary.

Aha, OK so.

I really like the portrayal of the cows in their field. Are they small, or far away....?

Aren't the Irish Mk.3s wider than the British ones? Or have I been misinformed?

That's the cover of Maurice Walsh's "The Quiet Man (and other stories)". The next gear type to find is the big 20-tooth one, same 0.5MOD pitch. The axle centre distances for this one work out at 7.95mm.

The gears fit straight into the Hymek gear casing: First thing to note is that the gear mesh is quite soft, and everything revolves loosely. But it's when you combine these Hong Kong cogs with the original Heljan ones, that you notice a slight difference: I've put one HK cog in the middle of some Heljan ones. Spot anything here? In fact, the HK cog has slightly thinner teeth than the Heljan, so the mesh is a little looser and, when combined / compared with Heljan, seems to have a marginally smaller overall diameter. It is so slight, yet makes quite a difference for the purposes of the experimental Sulzer bogie, because it means that the HK gear teeth do not impinge upon the space required for the new centre axle, and we really need to reclaim as much room as possible here. For anyone wanting to experiment with these generic 0.5MOD cogs, they are available from Hong Kong eBay seller "sellerbible". This particular pack cost just £1.49, and the seller does not charge for international postage, which I think is quite remarkable.

...and in the 1960s/70s, Fleischmann got into the act by making some models which turned out to be 1:82 or 1:85....

Ah, that clarifies things.

Wasn't aware that Bachmann had produced Clonmel station. If it's the Carlow Station building (ref. 44-063A), it can be had brand new for about 25 Euro at the moment.