Mike 84C

I can only echo David's and Noel's comments. In those suggested formats I'm on board.

NIce video DJ Dangerous but if Rosslare is to be developed as a freeport with increased shipping to the EU then it makes perfect sense to close as many rail links as possible as quickly as possible. Is it called joined up thinking?

GSR 800 thats going to be mighty a mighty fine Railway your building. Your photos keep telling me to get my finger out!! So please keep showing your progress.!

Brilliant presentation Leslie and what a photographer Lance King was. I thought the colour balance in the photos was just stunning, no garish contrasts or strange shades of green or blue. Were they digitally enhanced? And I wish my eye for composition was half as good. Thanks again for a really good show. Mick

On our local news, Pig farmers are really wound up because they cannot sell their pigs at contracted weights so are getting less money. Meanwhile UK supermarkets are importing pigs from the EU and UK pigs are still on farms unable to be exported to the EU. Are these the economics of madness? all the pollution involved? Road transport has always been too cheap in my experience.

Excellent JIm, it must have given a lot of pleasure and thats what its all about.

PM Sent.

Here's a couple of snap's of my K1. It also started out as a BR version. I had forgotten how long ago I had done the conversion .

Hey Fran, I do not think anybody see's you as being negative, you are the guys who take a commercial risk, which with the best of market research is a bit of a wet finger in the wind process. And if the products do not sell then Irish Railway Models departs the market place. So please keep bringing out high quality models which shake up the market place and improve the status of our hobby. I for one would buy steam but would buy anything which fitted into that grey/green era, my chosen field. Meanwhile out with the saw and lets hack(make!) an Irish steam loco from something! Mike

Not a big step from a WT to a W class, that would be rather good.

The Laidlaw-Drew burner is the same type used by the Festiniog Rly in its oil burning days, the burner was fixed vertically in the middle of the firebox with a machined saucer shape on the burner end which sprayed the oil out and a swirler caused the resulting fuel mist to rotate. The result was better fuel mixing with the combustion air coming through the pan plate which in effect replaced the ashpan. The firebox mod's were refactory concrete in the pan plate and cast refactory concrete slabs to protect the firebox foundation ring and the bottom10/12" of the firebox. Be interesting to know how the burner was positioned in CIE loco's. I thought some Big Boys also Challenger's were stoker fitted and burnt black diamonds! If you come across a DVD Winter on JInpeng Pass, lots of double headed QJ 2-10-2's, there is a footplate sequence where the fireman is heaving coal into the firebox as well as the mech;stoker. it's a very good, well filmed dvd. I love to watch times gone by.

Lots of very interesting and well reasoned comments on this thread. For my two pennorth, quite a few years back I suggested getting 461 scanned and getting the makings of a kit. As I remember posters on here came up with a number of legitimate reasons why a kit was not a good idea, others offered to go and scan 461 if money could be found. My feeling is and K801 has hit the nail on the head, younger people will buy models of what they see and for me that puts 461 and No4 right in the frame and does not take any sales away from the likes of SSM or 00 works which I feel is very important as their support has been enjoyed by the hobby for quite a while. As for a model of 800, a little work around a Mainline/ Bachmann Scot or rebuilt Patriot should present a reasonable model, I'll post pictures if mine ever gets finished! Over here in GB a friend whose son, in his twenty's, works for one of the TOC's has a very busy railway in his loft, when I visit its all action but one unit looks the same as another a 66 looks like a 66 but all in very different liveries. No Kings, Duchess's, A4's, Brittania's but he models what he see's. But that is not for me, steam and first generation diesels will do nicely.

The Ikea flatpack dining table is very heavy, the great joy was you can only click and collect, a quick and painless process . You could buy food but not use the toilets!! How does that work?

My copy arrived today, only eight days to get to Lincolnshire! I totally agree with JHB's comments my only disappointment was the flat finish paper instead of gloss which takes photos better. But what a book unseen before photos, dimensions and well reasoned comments. Top marks to the Authors and I shall dive into it as soon as I've built a flatpack dining table from Ikea.!

The biggest PITB would be regauging steam engines. My fleet so far 3 Woolich's 850, Bandon tank , GSWR 0-6-0t, J15, NCC Jinty, and a couple in gestation. Plus five diesels and about 50 items of rolling stock! Just looking at that list suggests I need to build some real estate pronto!

Level crossing gates? maybe an early point indicator but I doubt it.

If I had started with no 16.5 gauge locos and stock. It would be far to expensive to convert, sadly.

I too have joined the club of order placers. " The Grand Order of Book Buyers" Only 1000 printed? I hope they do twice that 'cos there's many book browsers here on the big island.

Gentlemen thanks for your replies, I shall order a copy.

Is this a revision of the 2008 book? I do not do facebook so have seen no comments. If it is a major improvement on the earlier edition , which I have, I would be tempted but at the moment its a but ?? Mick

Looking seriously good David, you used your time far more productivly than I did. Happy New year and lets hope 2021 is much better than 2020 and No pushing in the Vaccination queue!

Deffo; worth a look I bought the the locoshed + extension so it holds 4 loco's. it came with & unasked for the water tower building and a crofters cottage. Very well packed and a pleasure to deal with . You really have to look at them as the start of a journey and put some work into them. Ben Alder on RM Web has a Far North line thread plus a blog which shows what can be done with them and they are all based on real buildings. I'll post mine when I've started them BUT don't hold your breath! Mick

To both humble scribes! many thanks. The Festival train and coaches I knew little about but we all must know about the Jeeps last years. It was the detail that interested me, like how few Jeeps there were to work that volume of traffic and fill in for failed railcars and specials. With very little maintenance or backup, for me that speaks volumes about the men that crewed them and the basic design of the locomotive.

I wonder what the weight and range of battery powered 40/44tonne trucks will be by 2050? Also how much field work an electric tractor will do? All things I'm sure our politicos will have considered and planned for when declaring a carbon free future by 2050. Me? long gone.

Thanks for taking the time to shoot those historic photographs, the end of an era and lets hope the 1400 redundant employees all find jobs soon. No time is good to be put out of work but at Christmas, as often happens, just seems worse.