Anders112

Hi everyone, looking for a hornby R965 analogue control with transformer or just the transformer please and thank you. Unfortunately my current one had a big fall on the sheds concrete and is now RIP.ie Thanks in Advance

Well done @amdaleyplatforms look great how did you go about slabbing them ?

A lot of progress has made on the layout in recent weeks. Both helix’s are up and running,successfully connected underneath by a very sparse fiddle yard (extra points ordered and need some figuring out). Here’s a quick video of 183 with some bubbles on a successful run “up and over” both helix’s. ED72835E-9424-4A91-BFBA-03E9E22108E5.mov 5D22DDC9-E618-4B96-9122-52890A2FE4EE.mov ive roughly done out the track plan for both the station including the middle road,the sidings of drogheda engine shed and crossovers for the navan branch. The points starting the middle road on the north end of station engine shed yard looking from platform 1 Buckie’s bridge,112 comes form the navan branch to go with a cabra cement. 112 and 21 bulk cements wait green signal to go to north wall. While a pallet cement train waits on the navan branch. It’s a big step in the right direction.still some work to be done to the track in terms of getting the correct shape and making sure the platforms will be evenly spaced out. while I’m delighted that the helix’s are working,the transition from the helix to the baseboard is putting a bit of strain on the motor of the locos due to the slope. Going to start brainstorming ideas of the next couple of days. but it’s good to have the trains running again. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Dave

I also received my package form @M18Hellcat. Nir 112 and BL flats. Pristine condition but also the level of detailing added to 112 to the hoses and the addition of the orange socket can be shown when you compare it to a real image of 112 at cabra with a out of service bogie cement wagon in 1996. (image sent by Colm o Callaghan) @M18Hellcat has been absolute gentleman to deal with, he gave an extremely fair price of two rare products,I’ve spoken to him numerous times on the phone,we chatted everything trains to other hobbies and about his visits to Ireland. Delighted with doing business with him,Top gent

They also came with pink fuzzy dices too dam autocorrect…have never edited anything as quick in my life

Pardon the pun but building it drove me around the bend… Took a couple of attempts,lots of cups of tea (with biscuits of course) and several “re-reading” of the instructions . Mine was a kit off eBay,that took several weeks to come but on the home stretch with it now @dropshort105how did you get on with yours ? Was it a kit or did you make it from scratch ? I didn’t realise the amount of track they eat up, currently on eBay looking for cheap second hand hornBy R609 and r607 curves as I’m short a few. Wishing you best of luck with yous and looking forward to hearing how you got on with it

Some progress was made today on the layout front New track plan created with two levels. Will upload the new plan in the coming week. IMG_9532.mov

Some more Aussie train tails and Back on Irish Soil A couple of more of the down under adventures. The main highlight was hanging my feet out of the side of the world famous buffing billy unfortunately for everyone else and fortunately for me we had a diesel that day. C22A634C-CE48-4CA3-9A70-32ABF1F96B97.mov Also got to see big diesels at Melbournes Newport railway museum,where I got to go into some cabs and see big H- the biggest steam engine in the southern hemisphere very friendly staff,almost had me volunteering for them The main perk of living in Melbourne that outweight the Homesickness was the fact our apartment was a five minute walk to South Yarra Station.So close in fact I could hear Freight trains rumbling through and get on the platform to take a video or a peak. A regular of mine was the Wednesday 7:42pm Steel train,like clockwork every week night I add. IMG_7728.mov We weren’t the only ones to have an A class… V Line own A class…with a GM engine. Seen here on my daily commute into southern cross station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V/Line_A_class I did mention in my last post about the 071s Aussie cousin the N class, fortunately I did manage one day to get a trip behind one on the 7:40 Southern cross to Swan hill service IMG_8041.mov IMG_8055.mov Right that’s enough about Down under…back to Ireland Have been home for the guts of 6 months and boy did I miss it. Enjoyed the Year down under and one of the best decisions I ever made but you could never replace our little island and our sense of community. Looking forward to getting back and giving my drogheda layout a big go. Have managed to get see a few Irish Gms since I’ve been back,spot the expat who still thought he was in Aus I even made Irish rails Insta story while I was 17,000Km away in aus from the April 2022 RPSI outing in Dundalk! Layout and research. while I might have been away, the plans for the layout have been throughout and looking forward to sharing with yous soon what I have planned for it even more as fans of the this forum,I have more maps and images form archives to share of drogheda. All the best Dave IMG_7915.mov IMG_6514.mov

Looking for a Murphy models 141/181 Fan grill for my Irish rail 183 , if any one had one from a non runner or any spare. It would be greatly appreciated . Thanks

Joys of having a half day Wednesday… getting home before herself to pick up these beauties lovely new bigger boxes with the bubbles, lovey model,Well done Irm Great quality build and shipped so quick, have hand it to yous great customer service now to decide to weather them or not

Someone got a bargain during the week,Nir 113 for €190. From an American eBay Train shop. Looks like the handrail has just clipped out…a 5 sec fix. https://ebay.us/m/z06YbC

Going down under Have been a bit quiet on the layout scene over the last year. Like most young people in their mid twenties, I took the brave step of moving to Australia. So last July,I packed my suitcase and unfortunately my make shift layout (photos below) and moved 17,500km to the other side of the world. While I’ve haven’t been making layout plans, I have being keenly taking an interest in Aussie trains both real and model. Currently in Melbourne were they have very familiar sounding Loco hauled trains…not only is the gauge the same as Ireland but the locos are GM built too IMG_7694.mov The main attraction is the V line N class locomotives which is the Aussie cousin of the 071, they actually have the exact same GM EMD 645 engine,just listen below! IMG_8041.mov https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/V/Line_N_class The current loco hauled scene here in Melbourne is that comparable to the 071 hauling mark 3s around the late 2010s, before this Christmas N class locos were seen a lot hauling passengers but haven replaced by new DMU velocity units that remind me of the 22s back home. There is two runs of the velocity,the more comfortable 2002 built and the brand new 2025 units. The later, have meant that N class are currently being phased out of passenger hauled traffic and going onto regional freight lines. the new 2025 velocity units haven’t been well received by the general public who travel long distances in uncomfortable seats and no on board buffet and no seats due to no N class haulage. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/V/Line_VLocity IMG_8055.mov Next up is the Y class locomotive,which is a shunter of rolling stock in and out of Melbourne southern cross. Baiscally is a Aussie 121 in both appearance and sound. IMG_8209.mov Model railway scene in Melbourne- There is a lot more model railway shops over here but they mostly sell ho gauge ! A real surprise for me is how much cheaper is peco track and DCC controllers are over here.The main shop in Melbourne is Traineorld, which has a massive layout built in store and huge range of stock. https://trainworld.net.au So what’s the future of the layout ? Looks like I’ll be back on Irish soil in the next few months. Looking forward to having a proper go at building this layout. I have a few adjustment in mind, main one being from Gibbos friendly suggestion above of having a loop that drops down to another level Think I might have bitten off too much than I chew with have the Navan line connected to a working Platin cement yard. I might just solely focus on Macbride station first and have the Platin yard as a possible extension down the line. Just food for though and I’ll will updates with the new plan whenever I get back on Home turf. For the meantime, going to enjoy the next few months of travelling Down Under and some more sunsets like this. See yous on the other side. Thanks Dave IMG_8055.mov

The static grass looks excellent, identical to how the abandon sidings of the yard used to look great stuff. also came across this archive while snooping through rte archives. https://www.rte.ie/archives/collections/news/21331637-ira-bomb-railway-line-again/ I believe that’s barrack street yard at forty seconds with a IR super train livery 141 with some 42 flats ? Hope this helps with the layout

https://touch.adverts.ie/models/murphy-models-rpsi-craven-coaches/35827425

Unfortunately won’t make the show today as I’m currently 17,000km away Down under in sure everyone will probably have paddy’s Murphy’s ears burned off with asking about the 071s, any info would be greatly appreciated had a great chat with paddy Murphy at last years show about the memories associated with his models. Enjoy the show

And of course I was wrong

Sure it would be rude not to Include the 111s in this forum , here is 113 out of the GM EMD paint shop yet to receive its yellow/orange warning panel and its buffers If I’m correct was 113 delivered with a yellow warning panel while 111 and 112 were delivered years earlier with an orange warning panel ?

Found this link to Some interesting photos of 071s at EMD La Grange from Preston Cook's collection on a group on Facebook. A modellers dream having such GM power lined up in their Brand New as delivered supertrain livery with white CIE roundel The inside of 080 as Pristine as can be, also note the use of the accommodation Bo-Bo bogies to move the 071s around the plant Enjoy Dave

My Dad who was a Driver from the 1980s to the late 2000s used to always refer to the 141/181s as the “Bo-Bo’s” due to their wheel configuration ,I’m not sure was it a personal name he had for them himself or if it was a local name (drogheda)

thanks very much for the feedback @Galteemore, I was thinking on the production version I would cut out the board to in the middle as shown here in the picture marked with yellow X’s. It would give access to both baseboards. also thinking of making the navan branch which is marked in green in this photo - longer so I could park the Tara’s, bulk cement and gypsum at meeting of the branch line and Belfast line just like what they do in real life

Pre existing layout: The start of the Journey Finally got around to taking pictures of my current makeshift layout before I started planning this project and writing this forum: a couple of things to note space for future layout: fortunately im quite lucky to have a large garage 6m x 9m shed to set up shop for my layout.( see pictures below) this gives me a great foundation to start and to give ample space to plan and built the future baseboard for this layout. I plan on having two baseboards joining together( I’ve marked baseboards on my original drawing of the layout in picture 3 below) the main baseboard which will have the majority of the layout -Drogheda Macbride station and Buckys siding (red baseboard on layout plan in picture 3) the additional baseboard will go off the main baseboard at an angle which will include the navan branch line from the station all the way out to Platin and the Platin sidings.( green base board in picture 3). This then gives plenty of space between two to walk around and access to track, or as the the scholar @dereks coined it “reachability” The current baseboard: in the picture below is the left over baseboards from my childhood layout that my dad built for me many moons ago. This is currently just thrown together to allow me to run the trains for fun and to enjoy as I built my collection why is the layout on the ground you may asked ? Well the layout sat on four trestles but unfortunately are missing in action since I returned home from Uni Future baseboards : Thankfully with the garage there is a lot of space to spare, this will allow me to construct an even bigger baseboard and allow me to be smarter with the shape of it. Currently pondering about buying a baseboard from Modelrailsbaseboards,especially as you can take them apart quite easily. This will decision will be made after I fix a number of track plan issues that I currently am experiencing current track plan and parts of the layout. Below I’ve attached photos of the current layout and protypical photos of what McBride was like in the 90s. The track I have available is what I had to make do with from my childhood collection Above the 3 roads of drogheda station including the famous middle row,filled with 201 and bubbles,cravens in the middle row and some IE mark 2s. Below is some image of the 3 roads from the southbound section of the platform ** issue- I feel like on the layout these three roads should be closer to together access to the Yard: which is a curved point off the inside main line vs what it looked like in real life below issue- as you can see in this pic where my Bachman 2700 is parked, the sharpness of the the running line radius restricts the length of the yard,in future I may have to invest in flexitreck to made the the running line where the mark 2s are parked to be longer and less sharp to give more inside room for the yard ** Currently struggling with connecting the middle row to the outside bend, I think flexi track is going to be needed in order to connect the middle row and outside bend. The prototypical looks so easily connected Notice the points inline with the 1st mark3 carriage how it curves out of the outside bend as the platform starts The view from what will be buckys bridge… think I’m looking forward to modelling this part the most as it will be give me a chance to do a lot with the trees both sides of the track below are pictures of the navan branch and platin section of the current layout : The navan branch will need to be longer and required a less of a curve Platin: I’m currently quite happy with the track plan of platin bur will need to make the sidings longer,again will come in due time when a more permanent baseboard arrives enjoy the pictures,any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated and I’ll accept with open arms Thanks Dave

Love the latest Supermacs ad on the bridge attention to detail on this layout is magnificent… all the better when it’s on the humorous side

managed to get my hands on this beauty of a Mk111 DVT from the collection without costing an arm and a leg. also helps when you have relatives up North to avoid paying brexit charges (hope revenue arnt keen Irish modellers ) DVT with the rest of the Mk111s and 201 propelling

Little update on the Tara’s : finally got around to installing the bogies on the Tara’s. Personally I didn’t like the bogies supplied with the MIR kits as they were too flimsy and the ride quality wasn’t great. So I bought a pack of IRM black bogies and transfered 4 Tara’s. First job was to remove the little clip that normally attached to IRM wagons such as 42 foot wagon which I borrow off for demonstration next job was trying to secure the Irm bogies to the MIR Tara’s kits..after numerous cups of teas I came up with a idea that actually worked… I made some alternative changes to the bogies supplied by MIR,I removed the metal axle and coupling arm (coupling arm wasn’t clearing the IRM bogies). a lot of swinging was involved with Mr hammer So all that I was left with was the middle bit of the bogie housing, this then acted like a washer to secure to irm bogie in place with help of the little screws that came with the kit One Tara ready for the tracks The four Tara’s weathered and fitted with bogies side of view of the 4 completed Tara’s, the remaining 3 will be finished once pay day comes next step is to get suitable coupling fittings for the Tara’s and that should be them done Forgot to include the photos of the IRM bogie attached to the wagon with the MIR bogie centre screwed to the bogies

Latest two arrivals to my Drogheda and platin layout… there’s just something about the tippex livery with the dayglo 154 came in the post today and just like @Flying Snail 189 was last week adventure of trying to get home from work before the post man landed with it