Glenderg

I commented on those before, they are certainly "contractor designed" and with the thin walls and meagre cross sections on the drop sides, I cannot see them lasting a season. The IE ones had to go through 3 iterations of bolt-ons before the operators were *reasonably content with them - linkages centrally, spill trays at the ends to avoid fouling the coupling/brake lines of the wagon, and the rounded tops on the sides for the bucket to slide off. Chieftain are a Tyrone outfit, well used to robust farm machinery, low loaders, and the likes. I'd be surprised if they weren't back in their factory for "upgrading" as they gain more rail experience. https://chieftaintrailers.com/chieftain-trailers/rail/ R.

Not prototypical, but if you want speed I can prepare the only loco that can....

"Arthur's Quay", the cheek! ( and yes, the track plan is a bit unorthodox... )

Formerly Robert Reade's - now Ryan's on Store Street, is kind of the spiritual home of IRM. First steps to getting IRM off the ground/tiles were made there. Close to Connolly, loads of bus routes, busaras across the road. Grub's spot on, nibbles no issue, and I can get us a reserved spot handy enough. It's a Tipp pub, not that it's ever put this shannonsider off, despite the abuse.

Just wanted to say a big thanks to all you lads for the thumbs up, RedRich in particular. When a spark of an idea translates to a real thing in plastic there's a chance the urgency for success can overcome oneself, and mistakes/compromises be made at the expense of getting "product to market" It just doesn't happen in this oddball "band of brothers". Personally, without Garfield's late night persistence on pushing the envelope, we'd not have had the CAD that led to the changes, nor Fran advocating why you guys want livery X versus livery Y, nor Stephen at the helm to make the business case to make X thousand units of packs A to D. This takes a team effort, beyond belief, I can't at any stage claim any heroics. I just do design, and I can't even remember this project, I've been on other stuff since !!! Richie - Sometimes Technical Director P.S. I just noticed that we published a sketch of a system for a wagon door type unit inadvertently, or at least an "explainer" for our Asian colleagues....jaysus

I broke the ladder, and that's my pint on the left. Colour match to a sup is astonishing, but further investigation is required...!

Ha! In fact it was a hangover from the grey livery, though the distance between the lettering was smaller on the greys. The roundel on that wagon was the 450mm variant with less chunkiness, whilst the others ran with the later 350mm tighter roundel. Bet yer glad ya asked now!!! It was the only wagon branded thus, and ran all the way through her ivory life like that. There's plenty oddities in them, not ones the same, and even an Easter egg on one, as there was on the ballasts.

That is just "right", top job as always. When can we see this layout in the flesh... I'm willing to travel!

My auld fella, a solicitor, had a fella, plumber I think, come into him in the 80's to transfer land or make a Will. A few years ago his daughter came into have the man's will read and estate executed. Says she "oh, I think my dad borrowed this book of you.." The book? "Companies acts of Ireland 1963",staple reading of all daycent mechanical contractors...

A bit saucy all right.I'm sure the mods will move it if it's in the wrong place, but keep posting stuff if you find it! R

I agree fully JB, though I'm not sure there's demand for 6 wheelers to satisfy the lads' Minimum Order Quantity of 1000 units! There's no doubt that if you were across the ditch, items that are seen as relatively niche here, would fly out the door, such are the numbers of folk modelling in the UK. But shur we'll keep plugging away, never know what'll land from the sky. R.

Plenty of interest to me in North Wall, and it's only a walk away with the high viz and measuring tape... (I'll have to snake in to Lmk so tomorrow, wouldn't want any feens robbin the camera, would I kid?)

More of a North Wall man, meself

The medium, as you describe it, demands a level of precision and accuracy to design that is on par with anything I've entertained with my Asian counterparts. In fact, you can attain a higher level of fidelity with brass than you can with plastic, due to the tolerances of injection moulding gates and so on. Try any brass kit, any at all, and I guarantee that the person who authored it went through several iterations of design, etch, build & discard, to finally get to a finished item, for the market. The brass kit makers lot is one of pilgrimage, that involves the bending of metal to perfectly mesh on the fold, to be soldered and line up absolutely true. Anyone who has tackled a Kearney/SSM, John Mayne, or even a UK brass kit will know that if you know what bit sticks to what other bit, it's impossible to have it warp or bend. To say that "I was not criticising any particular kit, but rather the results the medium itself yields in the hands of 'some' average builders. And photos from layouts bear this up" is tantamount to a fella saying "the sky is mostly blue, but on the odd occasion it's green, but I've no photos to back this up". Complete Balderdash. This is an appallingly incorrect message to propagate on this, or any of the other fora you post on, that brass kits are inordinately difficult and are the preserve of a select few, and you should withdraw those comments. It's the same as a dapol kit - stick A to B, then to C. It's just heat, solder and flux as opposed to glue and pray. Resin and Whitemetal kits will bend and warp like Pat Hickey at an OCI inquiry, but not brass. Lastly, I have yet to see a warped brass finished kit on either here, or RMweb in all my years of perusing both. I'd be enlightened if such photos actually existed and would encourage you to post them in a new thread, so I can ally any "brass fears" you may have , in an appropriate place. To keep this "on topic" here's a cracking offer, if anyone's in the mood. http://www.ebay.ie/itm/322741898367?ul_noapp=true Rich.

The BRASS 42' flat is so well designed that you'd have to go out of your way to make it warped or twisted. The mind boggles at that statement. R

I got stuck into it, only to have a sneaking suspicion I'd seen before beneath a fog of Arthur, so I said I'd give it a go whilst having the evening meal. Herself ate her dinner with Facebook on the phone, and all was well, until the bit about 4mm and Frank Hornby came on. The rant started slowly, but built to a crescendo - "would it have been that f**kn hard to scale the track and gauge correctly, ya bloody clown, so we'd not have to suffer the piss and vinegar of 00, EM, P4, and countless other f**ckin standards, like code 75, 82, 83, 100, and one more thing....." Missus just looked up briefly and said "I've no idea what yer on about, and the child is sleeping, so keep it down. Why don't you talk to the "lads" about this... I went into a huff, pretended I was seven, with that Class 31 in the roundy roundy under the bed, and the world was all right

But shur real world exchange rates never apply to those shows £5 on the box - "that'll be €7.50 please...."

Those toads above look very far off the DCDR wagon, which is based on the AA3 pattern from the turn of the century. You'd be well to wait for the Oxford Rail GWR 4 wheeled toad which is due to make an appearance soon, which has right WB, length etc. R

Ah, these. Contractor designed spoil containers, akin to their southern counterparts, but with little or no structural integrity. These aren't going to withstand one operation, no mind a full season of works. Thin uprights, thin steel, no central connector - one slap of a bucket and they'll be like confetti in the wind.

The crimson lake, with a high gloss finish looks sublime/glorious. Add a few curtains and things internally and you're transported! Hence why I chose other, but it didn't let me input a written response.

I had this craic happen on a few models and it boiled down to humidity, temperature, amount of water in the varnish. Turning down the pressure at which is was sprayed onto the model solved it for good. Don't ask me what the chemistry is. Great finish, but temperamental stuff. The wargaming lads have had this issue for years. My "cheat" is to take a bit of Windsor and Newtown varnish, spray it into a tub, decant it to the airbrush, and go from there. Never looked back, and the finish is sublime. BTW, that's a stunning piece of workmanship on the loco itself, words are not really needed. Richie.

Stone is "16" coursed, close jointed random rubble stone, with a dash of the wrong shade of green. IRM will be assisting on this very worthy project, so I'd encourage anyone who has a passion for active preservation for both the rolling stock and architecture efforts to do as live aid 1984 said - give what you can. (Now, Geldof is a gob*****, but the lads in Ballyglunin need a hand, we can ape the things the RPSI were doing in 1964..., hon lads, get movin.....)

John, Autodesk 123D was retired some time ago, and has been replaced with Tinkercad. I use 123D regularly to export file formats that are China friendly, and I can't understand why they parked it at all. Noel, Shapeways are old hat. FUD, at best can do 0.1mm. 10 micron printing is now possible, using SLA techniques - that's 0.01mm layers. 0.1mm is not anywhere like injection moulding at all, and never will be. Laser sintering, polyjet printing, ceramic jet are all far superior to fused deposition modelling, which is that melting filament. Fine for making a replacement handle or similar at home, but no good at all for the miniature world. In fact, 3D printing is going the route of cranking out parts at a speed to beat Injection Moulding, sacrificing resolution along the way, the industry has no time for us that want to produce a single item at really high quality. Have a look at this - 10 micron resolution wargaming figures. Dave, Shapeways is purely a commercial entity that exists by selling on units after. Creator gets a slice, Printer makes a chunk too. And the rule of thumb is that the fee to the customer is 5 times the cost of the material. Imaterialise, on the other hand, don't have a library of content you can pick from, and it's a single Client - Producer relationship, but the quality of prints is night and day above anything I've seen come out of Shapeways. Anyway, your OP is mighty vague - any chance you'd give us an idea of what you're planning? Rolling stock? Loco's? SLA in N - Gauge is the solution if you do go and print in 3D.

More than welcome. R.