RedRich

Good man Mark. Rich,

That looks good Dave, It certainly captures the look of the prototype as Tony has mentioned. I can't wait to see more pics. Rich,

Good luck to George. People are spoiled for choice with the excellent services provided by the members of the group that take commissions to carry out this work. Rich,

Hi John space is definitely a major issue when considering a model railway in 00 21mm. When you consider the size of a C or D switch and compare it to the largest of Peco switches it does seem huge. There are some nice small stations on the network that would make a nice model in their current state. Thomastown, Bagnalstown, Carrick On Suir to name but a few. My own layout of Clonmel will more than likely be compressed to allow me to model the goods shed main station building and the crossing at the Tipp side of the road bridge. However if I can twist the arm of SWMBO to allow a bigger man shed then I might be able to squeeze in a bit more rail. The introduction of the range of products that are available from the P4 Track Co now makes it a lot less of a challenge to build correct gauge track. C&L also provide machined switches and fully assembled crossing vee's. Both companies also provide point kits with all the work done for you. You would have to use you're own sleepers though with a P4 Track Co kit as the sleepers have locating pips for the chairs set at 18.83. There are a lot more gauges and fine tuning gauges available to the modeller now since the Modelling Irish Railways book was published, so it is even less of a daunting task now. Rich,

Fran you are spot on regarding the air dryers. The company that manufacture them are Graham White of Salem Virginia. I have to admit that I am beginning to acquire an interest in Railway prototypes from across the Atlantic. I did have a passing interest many years ago in the B&O Railroad Company. Rich,

Richie, modelling 21mm is a bit of a specialist subject and the thing that turns most people off is the filing of the vees and and switch blades. Compensation is another thing that puts people off also. The Scalefour Society provides through it's stores the relevant switch and vee filing jigs as well as gauges for building the track. I use Templot for drawing the track as you can really get the track to flow in a way that you just can't with standard proprietary track. You can adjust the adjacent track centers on double line track move the sleepers around and it even sets the placement for the fishplates every 17th sleeper. I am only scratching at the surface of what Templot can do and after 5 years I am still learning. There is a Templot user group as well so if you get to a point where you need help you will be sorted out in a jiffy. Martin Wynne who designed Templot is on the group every day and there is nothing that he couldn't help you with. Having seen you're exceptional skill as a modeller Richie I am certain that you would have no problems adapting. If there is anything you would like to know don't hesitate to ask. Rich,

That looks a beast of a machine Fran, nice livery too. The model manufacturers must be delighted at the prospect of having so many liveries to reproduce. I noticed that they use the same air dryer filters as those on the 201's. Rich,

I love sport myself Eamonn I'm looking forward to the Olympic games when they start. As a Waterford man I have great memories of John Treacy taking silver in the Marathon in 84. I'll be glued to the telly when the boxing starts as I did a bit of boxing in my younger years. St Paul's boxing club in Waterford has produced some good fighters down through the years. Rich,

At the end of the day that's the most enjoyable part Vincent. Rich,

You lucky boy. Rich,

Great work Stephen, once I get to the stage where the electrical work is done, I tend to come to a stand still as the fun of operating the layout takes over. This is great for anyone thinking about building a layout as it is a work in progress. I think you could be in the running for the best layout on the group so far, well done. Rich,

Doesn't it just, are you going to be the lucky recipient of that masterpiece Stephen. Rich,

Richie, Ayrton Senna payed the ultimate price for his sport and lost his life. There are cyclists that have died also when competing, does the fact that Senna was driving a car make him any less of a man. Rich,

That kind of behavior has no place in football and FIFA should do everything they can to stamp it out. I don't want to get into the who's tougher footballers or cyclists, both sports can be tough at the highest level as with any sport. My brother in law plays junior league football and 3 years ago he had a horrific injury where he had an open fracture of the fibula and tibula. The bones were sticking out through his sock. The game was played in West Waterford and it took half an hour for the ambulance to arrive and Mark was in that agonizing pain without any pain relief. The medics couldn't give him anything only gas in the ambulance and it took another half an hour to get to Waterford Regional Hospital. As a consequence of that injury he now has steel bars in his leg. After nine months rehab and physio he went back training and played again. He fractured his other leg in January and was back playing again last month. He doesn't get a penny for playing and received little in insurance after the injury and he still has the guts to go out and train and play every week. There was a famous Kilkenny hurler that was without a doubt the greatest hurler of his generation (and he deserves to be spoken about in the same reverence as Christy Ring) who also played soccer and I have spoken to the man on a few occasions. One time we were discussing the merits of both games and he said that you are more highly at risk of having a career ending injury playing soccer than playing football or hurling. Cycling is a sport of endurance, willpower, and stamina and trying to compare it to soccer is a waste of time as both of them demand different things of the participant. Rich,

The Y25 no matter how much it was adapted or butchered would still (at best) only give you a tiny passing resemblance of the prototype. Railway modelling is all about fun at the end of the day and I don't think the issue with the bogies should be sufficient to stop people from purchasing them. I will buy a couple of sets myself to support this venture from the retailers and make the changes where I deem it necessary. Good luck with whatever course of action you take regarding the bogies. Rich,

You beat me to it Richie. I am looking into the possibilities of having bogie side frames produced by laser cutting for these wagons and will keep people updated as and when I have a price for production. Rich,

The Irish Autoballasters aren't fitted with Y25 bogies so what would be the point. Rich,

You're right Vincent, there was still a fair bit of freight traffic 6 or 7 years ago on the network. Unfortunately it was the end for beet traffic around that time though. As Bos has said the railway is pretty boring now, but at least we can recreate those times with our models and that's what counts. Rich,

Fran I think it would be fair to say that those of us on here that have a go at weathering are probably at junior infant level compared to this guy. Where as he has earned his PHD. The use of oils, acrylics, gouache, powders, and airbrush that he uses are amazing. Just look at the faded timber on the wagon carrying the rails and the lumps and bumps on the scrap metal wagons. The man is a genius. Rich,

When you step up a level to international tournaments World Cup, Euro's etc you need creative midfield players. Modric worked his socks off tonight for Croatia. He was playing in the spaces between the midfield and forwards as well as the midfield and defense. He passed the ball, he worked hard when he hadn't the ball, and he ran the game for Croatia in those areas. We don't have players like that and that was our downfall. As much as some of the refereeing decisions were poor I still think we were punching above our weight. How Corluka managed to escape a booking throughout the game is beyond me. Rich,

Welcome Dave, the baseboards look great. Any good layout should have really good baseboards and for anyone that might be a bit nervous about cutting timber you are providing a top class service. It's nice to see the leveling feet provided also. Good luck with you're venture. Rich,

Thats looking damn impressive Des. It's always great to see a manufacturer have the b**ls to show a model at the various stages of production. You have brought a hell of a lot of excellent models to the table since taking over SSM and this looks to be on the same level if not better, well done . Rich,

Great work as usual Anto, from yourself and Gareth. The break van looks just how I remember them scruffy, unkempt, but functional. I think the Hornby 08 just has the edge on the Bachmann version. Rich,

I look forward to seeing them Gareth. Rich,

Surely Vinny Byrnes would mix up an aerosol can for you that wouldn't break the bank. I had a local autofactors mix up an aerosol of 2011 a few years ago and it cost €11.99. Rich,