derek

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?

Amazing stuff. Its a pity to see an end to it.

Drive for five talk will start soon

LUIMNEACH ABU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My God! How did I miss this? The craftsmanship here is truly mindblowing. The work on those buildings is nothing short of spectacular. ....... So, do you actually live in the attic or do you leave it from time to time? Makes me want to rip mine up and start over, but then I realise that I would never have the patience ( or skill) to come any where near this layout. Fantastic. Keep it up

Thanks Denis. 027 is dragging a few blow ins around the place for now . Will put that right when the Park Royals arrive Gonna do a bit of "trackside" work, next. Fill in the gaps between the obvious edge of the grassmats and the ballast.

Have things looking a lot greener now. Just used grass mats , couldn,t justify getting a static grass set up for the area I was doing. Would probably never use it again. Mats worked out ok I suppose, but there was a lot of follow up work to try and disguise the joints. Used Heki mats on the old layout a few years back but discovered that Marks Models dont sell them anymore. The lads there recommended Noch instead, so I gave them a go. The backing on the Heki was a lot stronger, I thought, and the Noch grass went black when in contact with PVA glue. Still though, I am happy enough with the result so far. Here are a few pics of the latest bit of progress That grass is really too pristine. Going to have to "dirty" it up a bit. Hmmmm, reminds me of something. Oh yes.......

God! That 078 is absolutely beautiful. Drooooooooolllll............

Prob wouldnt have the work for it at this stage. Maybe if I re do the bridge and tunnels on the old part of the layout....... Oh, and stone walls of course. Hmmmmm.............

The Borris Railway is indeed wonderful, just had a look there. Seriously impressive. And that roller thingymebob looks the business. You would want it for something as large as that excellent viaduct. Wonder where a man could get hands on such a thing?...........