derek

Nancy Blakes? Got one of those in Cork too? Or are you refering to the legendary one here in Limerick?

So, lads, is this any better? The colour is actually green, but looks grey in the pics.

God! I love that bridge. I may have mentioned this a few times before

Patrick, the pace of progress here is astounding. You don,t bother much with the whole sleeping and eating thing then. No?

What a super idea, church, cemetery and stream............ Big difference here Patrick is that yours will undoubtedly be excellent if the amazing Brookhall Mill is anything to go by. And you will actually complete yours, with the astounding patience you seem to possess. Mine seemed like a good idea at the time , but then it was cruelly neglected. Hopefully when I see yours done it will give me the kick to complete mine. Hmmm..., those dodgy walls are definitely going anyway. Keep up the good work.

048 looking great. Hope you keeping safe with the crazy fires down your neck of the woods.

I appreciate the interest, thanks a lot. Believe me I need all the help I can get ha ha. Here is a bridge quite close to where I live. Stone sides and all. Still think I might try something along the lines of DJDs pic though. I,m a glutton for punishment.........

The difficulty I have making changes to the bridge is that it is fixed in place. I had to make the alterations without moving it. But if ye insist, I,ll see what I can do, Sigh! Think I prefer the image supplied by DJD here. The other one ( Galteemore) looks too contemporary to my eyes. ( But what do I know) Think I gonna have to employ a hacksaw blade here and just lop off the top section. Leave it with me..........

Hmmm........ More mutilation. Could be worth it though. I,,ll have to have a think.

The bridge at the back of the layout, which was originally put in to hide a crappy piece of painting on the backscene( by me), has been bugging me for a while. It just didn,t look like anything from"real life". It came straight from my head to be honest. So I decided to change it for something which I hope looks a little better. See what you lads think. So it started with....... Abomination: Followed by Mutilation: Decoration: And finally,....Transformation:

Just stop now

Christ! I was only dreaming.......

If only..............

Or even 071s? In for a penny.....................

Oh dear, oh dear. Spare a thought for us poor " catcher uppers". I only have two Irish locos and virtually no rolling stock( by "virtually" I mean I have no rolling stock whatsoever). Park Royals ordered for the new year, hoping Leslie will bring out those wagons he has been talking about recently( cie bagged cement wagons) and hopefully pick up another couple bits and pieces. And now I am going to have to force myself to buy at least one of these babies. Hmmmm, wonder what a slightly abused kidney is making on the ol Ebay?

These bridges are unbelievably good. Fantastic work Ernie Especially the top shot. Amazing

"Just someone"

Ok, so the results are in. Locomotives on their own go around fine. The 141 maybe better than the A. Or that could be my imagination. Anyway they both ran without problems. When I tried with a coach from the steam train I had a derailment. Then with one from the blue inter city it was fine. So the conclusion is that it depends on what you run. Here are the vids. Pardon the bad camera work. Oh and pics of the improved track side VID_20230729_173105.mp4 VID_20230729_170230.mp4 VID_20230729_171353.mp4

Sean, you have read my mind. Thinking about trying just that , all day at work today. Gonna run the 141 around first as it "only" has the 8 wheels before trying the A with its 12 wheels. Time is tight at the moment so I will carry out these experiments tomorrow and report back soon as. To be honest, I think I have made up my mind not to do any ripping up to the degree I was planning. Just not worth the grief, I dont think, for what I will lose. If I want any pics of the Irish trains at the station, the hand of God will be employed to airlift them in. Running operations can be confined to the much longer outer track. I will take Jonathans advice though and replace the platforms with something more suitable. And the station building will have to go. Watch this space............

Its a go so.............? Gonna have to be really.

Yes , but the class 37 is on a loop of 371 radius curves. This is my problem, the A class, 141s and so on won,t run on a radius that tight. So I will have to bring the inside loop out to roughly where the woman is holding the gate open to accomodate 438 radius. ( i don,t have space by the backscene to the right) This means coming 134mm into the field and cutting right through the stone bridge, and all the elevated road. It,s gonna be carnage but I think it wll be worth it to see my Irish stock at the station finally. And I should be able to get a goods siding out of it with some careful planning.

Thanks Dave, must have me a looksee

Leslie , count me in also. In the broken wheel version, I would definitely have a number of them.

Having thought about what Jonathan correctly pointed out about the platforms and having come to the conclusion that none of my recent (and future) purchases would be able to pull in to the station, I am now seriously considering ripping up the inside 371 radius loop and replacing with a 438. This would give me the chance to make new platforms and station building. Its a big step though as a lot of roads and bridge, tunnel etc would have to go or be altered. Seriously thinking of doing it though. What do you lads think? Think it would be worth the grief? Votes on a 20 spot to this address

Why no further updates on this amazing piece of work?