Flying Snail

As mentioned above, OO is a scale built on the premise of compromise so I would strive to be 'as accurate as is practicable', rather than as accurate as possible. The gates look great, and its most likely that they won't look out of scale to most eyes anyhow.

Maybe this is one of those instances where social media is 'tone deaf', but I had not intended that meme to be an expression of intolerance towards being young. I had a giggle to myself at the thought that this was an 'old' community and when I realised that it largely is. I'm in my late 40s and am only now coming to accept that to many I'm old too. The meme was intended to be a playful reference to the fact that all too soon the lads will be old too. WestCorkrailway and LNERW1, are both very welcome on this forum in my eyes (you've both certainly made a bigger contribution to the place than most, including me), and I hope that meme didn't make you feel otherwise. I'll take my own advice in future and stick to posting about trains.

They had a secondhand sale at the start of March - announced on their Facebook page. So this could be a continuation of that. They don't really put much of their secondhand stock up on the website, but every so often they'll put pictures up on Facebook. So its no harm to keep an eye there too: https://www.facebook.com/MarksModels

There's some interesting stock there, including a butter van thats out of shot in my screen grab above, but to the lefthand side of the original image.

There's one 'gondola car' pictured here in Waterford in GSWR markings, pre 1910 as the timber bridge (aka Timbertoes) is still in situ. The GSWR lettering is blurry, but when I zoom in I can make it out Original picture is in the NLI archive here https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000326744

That would have been nice indeed. Do you know if it was considered? The DART livery has remained relatively consistent over the years - in that it has remained green (although with various combinations/permutations). I wonder would that have put them off a retro 1984 livery, in that it wouldn't contrast as much against the current livery?

Wow - that's a fine looking loco!

Wow - goes to show life can throw curveballs at any time. My condolences on your FIL's passing. I'm glad your incident wasn't more serious and I hope you're feeling better and that things settle down for your family again soon. Also, well done to your son, hopefully his capable response will turn out to be a helpful experience for him too!

Nice to see another 90s livery rolled out. It really pops, especially in today's green 'n' grey world!

Speaking of possible coaching stock to run behind the 800s. One of the pullmans wouldn't look out of place behind them. Would the four pullmans sent to Ireland in the 20s have been constructed to Irish loading gauge? I know they had Irish gangways and the bogies are probably different too, but would they have otherwise resembled their British contemporaries?

They do indeed, thanks for sharing! I've just sent @Weshty an email expressing interest.

Returning to the question of whether the 800s can be converted to 21mm gauge. Paul Isles had this to say about it over on RMWeb ..... "The design is 21mm friendly, in that that all the bodywork, frames, valve chests etc are scaled to the prototype, and with the wheel sets being 00, there is room to 'expand'. The con rods etc have been spaced out from the wheels in an effort to maintain the look of the prototype, while ensuring that they operate reliably, but this will be subject to further testing. The EP that was running at Malahide was the very first example provided by the factory, and has been updated since (although the updated version is with ESU for PCB design). HOWEVER, Finescale 21mm modelling is even more of a niche in Ireland than it is in the UK, so any 21mm friendly attributes are there purely to give the right appearance to the locomotive, rather than to directly accommodate 21mm modelling. If that's your 'thing' then I will wish you luck, and look forward to seeing what you do with the model."

That's an absolute unit!

If they could be re-gauged to 21mm, IRM/AS would have stated it in the specification/common features for the loco. They haven't stated it, so I'd be highly surprised if its possible - especially with that valve gear. (if you take a look at the Hunslet on their web page you'll find confirmation that it can be re-gauged. No such confirmation for the 800)