irishthump

A little more scenic work; a couple of sidings in the corner of the layout! A layer of ordinary plaster which I covered with a coat of cheap brown poster paint. Stuck down some basket liner and added some extra flock for variety, then ballasted the track. Those cheeap Hornby buffer stops look a bit plain so I added a couple of offcuts of rail to try to improve them. It still needed some more detailing but I could'nt resist parking some stock on the sidings!

Well the MK3's are almost finished. Applied the transfers (from Railtec) all that's left is to paint the gangways, which to be honest I had forgotten! Oh yes, and fit replacement buffers!!!

The body can be a bugger to remove as you have to be able to exert enough pressure on the sides of the body. The best way to do this is to remove the handrails which I found to be a nightmare! An easier method for me was to turn the loco over and if you turn the bogies out of the way you can pop the tabs on the body with a small screwdriver.

Nice neat painting job there. Conor. You could add some detailing to make it even closer to real thing. It looks pretty much identical except for the roof vents and side grills. Can I ask what make is the baggage car?

Believe me, no fun at all in a confined attic space! Can I ask, in that first picture are you scratchbuilding the point levers and ground frames?

Aboslutely no offence intended but I have to agree.... I had a quick look at the model when I was at the show and while I think fair play for having a go, it would need to be improved an awful lot for it to have a chance of selling well.

I found them very easy to use myself, but the nibs don't last very long. I find the chairs on the sleepers tend to chew them up! They should really include more than 1 extra nib. I would also recommend getting an airbrush to weather the track rather than using aerosols, unless you have very good ventilation you are going to sufer from the fumes a spray can gives off. (Speaking from experience here!)

So are the headlights and front and back marker lights all controlled independently of each other?

Why are'nt the headlights on F0? That's the standard default for headlights on all decoders...

Managed to get there this morning myself. Some great layouts on show and I got a demo of the 071 from the man himself as well as a chat, what a gent Pm is! Missed Des and his Sulzer, but that's what you get for being late in the door....

How do you mean? Did it not work at all or did certain functions not work?

I'm hoping to get over there tomorrow myself, marathon permitting. But it looks like I will have missed most of the excitement...

Sorry to hear of your loss, Noel. The tamper and the layout look great, as always!

Spare a thought for those of us that are waiting for the SUpertrain livery...

BTW here's a link to some of these switches on Ebay... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15-pcs-Toggle-Switches-Spring-On-Center-Off-when-released-Spring-On-SPDT-/150888236868?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item2321a3c744 They sell a lot of interesting stuff and they're reliable, I've bought from them before.

Jayzus, that's pretty much the same. I would think you could get them in bulk for a lot cheaper.... @BabyGM: How many do you need? Bear in mind you can use one switch to control 2 points at crossovers and you should always have one or two extra in case one fails.

I picked up a couple myself last week, so he should have a few left.

These are the switches you need... http://www.nairnshire-modelling-supplies.co.uk/spdt-centre-bias-onoffon-switch-p-1062.html They are also called "sprung centre-off" switches. They can be got in Maplins but they charge an arm and a leg for them, if you're close to Mark's Models in Dublin he has them there for about €3 a pair.

Why would they be double-heading such a small train? Did one loco fail or is it just being transferred?

All I will say is - BALLS OF STEEL!!!

@ FrankS, The Bachmann NEM pockets can be hit and miss too. I find the 141's pocket sits just a shade low so you have to either stick a sliver of thin styrene under the coupler shank or bend it slightly to get it to align. The same with my Class 25 too. Don't even talk to me about those little springs! Thank god they give you spares with the couplers... I find a few always fall out when they are sent through the post.

I remember you advising me to get the #146 which I did but it sits too high when fixed to the floor of the coach. I got the offset version; #149 but it still required packing with very thin styrene to get it at the right height. But like I said it just would'nt behave itself on curves! When hauling coaches it was ok but shunting was a nightmare, especially when using delayed uncoupling. Coupling was iffy too as due to space my sides have long curves. As you know if you're not dead straight when trying to couple body-mounted Kadees they just won't work. You can get away with this when they are bogie mounted. I will have another go body mounting them again soon but I think I will need to buy a large selection of the different couplers and spend some time experimenting. As I wanted to get my stock up and running I decided to go with the "quick fix" and bogie mount them, which works great!

Well that clears that up, thanks Warbonnet! Looks like there's 2 choices; use "artistic licence" and paint them in Black and Tan to match the era of my other stock. Or paint them in IE livery and buy another 141 or two to haul them!

So CIE never used MK2 a's before then?

Guys, I have a few BR Mk2's I want to repaint and I was wondering about appropriate liveries. I know that IE bought some of these coaches around 1990 which were painted in the orange-with-2-white-stripes livery. I'm wondering did CIE ever run any MK2's coaches in Black and Tan in the 60/70/80's?