Flying Snail

It has happened: an example is the Dicky Taras - although it was a biggish batch of seconds and you're probably asking after individual models with defects??

Regardless - the statement used in the title was wrong when they wrote and published the book. It did make for a more catchy title though ...

I can't see it coming in on time and on budget either. However, we should remember a few things: A project likes this must incur significant upfront costs for route selection and design before a spade ever gets in the ground. As with all construction projects, changes costs money. The row over Charlemont, for example, means returning to the drawing board and incurring redesign costs. The 2023 figure, I think, included MetroNorth costs - which has since been dropped. Many of these changes are driven by politicians responding to their constituents - this is a feature of the political and planning system we have rather than one specific administration. I expect there'll be more tinkering before it gets going ... regardless of who's in government at the time. If you want a project like this to have any chance of coming in on time and budget, then a good design phase is essential to produce a properly specified and costed plan, followed by having the discipline not to make changes as you go through construction. Ands of course, even with both of these, there's likely to be cost increases. There's often good reasons why you need to change your plans as you go along - not to mention increases that may arise on the cost of labour and materials.

a week I think its impressive alright - Luas had just over 48m trips in 2023 I think

The metrolink will be hugely beneficial to more than just the people living along its route: it connects the airport to the city centre and rail network and provides 3,000 park and ride places. And the parts of Dublin it serves directly are not insignificant. There will be 53 million trips annually. Swords in particular will benefit massively.

I got mine yesterday: 68619 - the Late BR Lined Dark Blue one (Liverpool Street Shed Pet). Wow. I was blown away by the detail .. they really are stunning!!!! And the accessibility of the cab and smokebox is great. Really innovative - I didn't realise how much I'd value the magnetic cab roof until I had it and saw the cab detail .. can't stop playing with it now: roof comes off, roof comes on, roof comes off ....

The link works for me. Long way to go yet on the Metrolink project before any works begin, but good to see some progress.

I would guess that the issue is that the filetype is not supported by the software running this forum. The filetype that your camera saves images as by default is called HEIF/HEIC - that's the bit at the end of your file's name after the dot: '.heic'. Try exporting your photos into another common file format such as JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg) or PNG (.png) before you upload them.

It's a yes for me (one).

I have to confess that I too thought you were trying to flog a "newsed" model loco at first glance.... You'd definitely get more than £250 for that loco ... although there's a limited market for 1:1 scale on here though

The WL&WR fire front (I"m presuming thats what it is) is a very nice piece!!

I think you're close to the mark here west_clare_wanderer: preservation costs money, something Ireland didn't have much of until after the mid 90s. Even today, when it comes to heritage there is little interest in incurring ongoing expenditure if there's not a clear (monetary) return on the investment. I don't agree that there's a 'Railways = British = Bad' narrative. I just don't see any evidence for it - outside of this forum, I've never heard anyone suggest anything like that. If there is a prejudice against them, I'd be more inclined to think that it's not that railways are considered British, but instead that they're not considered uniquely Irish. As such, when you consider that a lot of our heritage investments are associated with tourism and generating tourist revenue - then having high running costs and not being uniquely Irish means that they get overlooked.

It definitely looks at home in that rake. The colours seem a good match. Well done!

The Magnorail system models cyclists' legs turning the peddles with transparent perspex/acrylic wheels. Perhaps something like that could work with the horse's feet while a motorised van pushes the whole contraption along???

I hope you're not gone too long - I really enjoy following along your workbench

Worsley Works also have a kit for the Pullman coaches - wouldn't one of them also have shown up behind an 800? EDIT: The answer is yes ... I asked this very same question, in this very same thread back in March

I have both. They are very good references for GSWR & GSR locomotives, with good photos of locomotives. However, the focus of the photos are very much on the locomotives - there's occasional shots of carriages and wagons in the background but I wouldn't recommend them for that purpose. The Locomotives Of The GSR book also has other motive power such as the various railcars and inspection vehicles as well as the Drumm battery trains.

Nice repair - blends right in!!!

Intersting topic @Mol_PMB! In addition to the narrow gauges, Guinness Brewery would also have included the 5'3" tramway to Hueston, and Cómhlucht Siúicre Eireann also had its own 5'3" shunters to manage traffic at its plants.There's also a number of industrial sidings such as the Shannonvale Mill one in Cork that was operated by horse. Some interesting pictures of both narrow and broad gauge industrial railways here: https://transportsofdelight.smugmug.com/RAILWAYS/IRISH-RAILWAYS/INDUSTRIAL-LOCOMOTIVES

Agree that its nice to be reminded that Ireland had narrow gauges other than 3'. In fact, despite it being another 3' gauge, I think the BnM railways are an excellent example that there's also more to industrial systems than the sterotypical urban factory setting so many of us associate industrial railways with. At least one author has claimed that Guinness had the largest industrial railway in Ireland. In fact that title goes to the BnM network - its network even dwarfed the County Donegal which is often referred to as being the largest narrow gauge railway in these islands.

Agreed - 'simple' solutions are often not simple to implement!

On the face of it, it seems very simple for Accurascale to just implement a shipping rule to 'send all US orders valued between $335 and $800 via the mail and all others via courier until Aug 12'. However, it's not that simple at all. For instance, let's suppose Accurascale implement the above shipping rule - but then US tariffs change again before Aug 12 in a way that makes shipping orders between $335 and $800 cheaper by courier instead of mail. What happens if Accurascale fail to spot those tariff changes and don't change their shipping rule accordingly - resulting in their customers missing out on the lower cost option. Would a US customer be entitled to be upset at Accurascale for imposing the higher cost option on them? It seems obvious to me that to avoid the above scenario, Accurascale would have to commit resources (i.e time and money) to: track US tariff developments on an ongoing basis for changes; and, for each new change - investigate various scenarios involving shipping options, order values etc. - and then implement new rules to pick the best shipping option. The safer (and cheaper*) option for Accurascale is to let their American customers do their own research and choose their own preferred shipping option - that way American customers only have themselves to blame if they have to pay higher than expected tariffs. *I expect Accurascale have crunched the numbers when making their decision and have taken into account size of the US market, and the likely negative impact on sales etc.

As mentioned above - had Harcourt St. and Broadstone remained in use in 1966, they would have received two of the names of the executed leaders that were allocated to other stations. In addition to Dev and Collins, another prominent name associated is Countess Markievicz - she ended up on the anti-treaty side of the Civil War, so she probably presents the same civil war politics dilemma (btw, we have since had public buildings and spaces named after all three of these). But, if you want to continue the 1916 theme and pick a name that would be acceptable to both sides of the Civil War - then I suggest you also think about those who died in the fighting in 1916. The most senior of the rebels to die in the fighting was probably The O'Rahilly, who had tried to stop the Rising going ahead, but still turned out to take part. He died covering the retreat from the GPO - cut down by a machine gun, he was refused medical treatment and left on the street to bleed out despite the rebels' surrender. He lived in Herbert Park, so Harcourt St would be a good candidate for him. Another prominent death was the pacifist Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, who was arrested while trying to prevent looting and summarily executed. Now all that being said, if a station was being named in more recent times I think it more likely that the search for names would be broadened out to include literary and civic figures as well, so if your scenario involves a modern day renaming of the two stations you might consider some of those too?

Enjoy the process, and share some pics of the build!

@Noel converted a Lima Mk 1 into a Generator Van - he talked through the process on his workbench thread