Brendan8056

Welcome back to the world of Irish modelling. I have posted various bits here about re-gauging to 21mm. Rather than repeat myself you can hopefully search for my posts. Also I would suggest subscribing to "New Irish Lines", if you have not already done this. The latest releases from IRM and Murphy Models are 21mm friendly. As David Holman does, I also make my own axles using a drill and some files, very little skill is needed, if I can do it.

I wish my part of Hounslow had curry smells, sadly I am downwind of Mogden sewage works. Really well done, as are all your projects. those Peco laser cut houses do seem really good value.

Colin R, no problem at all. They have the same chassis as the corrugated opens. Conversion to 21mm is easy, it takes about 10 minutes, including moving the brake shoes out. Before and after views of open wagons side by side.. Of course the flats and all the vans will use this chassis as well. Well done IRM on the superb and clever design.

I am getting old and forgot the local route, it is a mile from where I live. Just take the Piccadilly Line all the way from Heathrow to Kings Cross/St Pancras. The bonus is a ride on the 1973 tube stock.

Good Morning, I would not use "Heathrow Express", I believe they still charge premium fares for a 10 minute quicker journey,. Use the "Elizabeth Line" instead, then Circle/Hammersmith and City lines, but expect long walks at Paddington and St Pancras as the signage deliberately sends you on long routes to "control passenger flow". There are also Dover trains 2 per hour from London Victoria to Dover, but these trains now take at least 2 hours, they were slowed down to make the St Pancras trains look faster (seriously, extra stops and slower speeds), likewise the London Bridge services. Unless your tour operator has sorted transport at Dover Priory I don't think there is any bus service to the cruise line terminal. Apart from what I have just said above, enjoy the holiday!

It's a B4/B5 bogie, viewed from underneath. The brake bits are push fit, but the factory may have put a dab of glue on them? For 21mm you would need to reposition them, and that would require glue to hold in place. I should add that nothing I have done affects the running of the bogie or the pick ups for the lighting.

If it helps with the re-gauge discussion I just took the easy route (P4 modellers look away). The pic has before and after wheelsets. Take the half axles, put pinpoint side upwards in a vice, and use a few taps of a hammer or similar object to push the axle down, leaving just enough to allow the wheels to slot back in. Join the pair of half axles with the plastic sleeve, use a wheel gauge and all is done bar putting the wheels back in the bogie frame. Works for me, and the lads on IRM/Accurascale stand at Alley Paley seemed to like it as well. (The Bulleid opens looked lovely, and have 28mm length axles, ready for proper gauge modelling) You do have to discard the brake blocks, but if needed you could probably glue them in place.

Like John I have modelled 21mm Irish for 30 plus years and would not go back to the very narrow 16.5mm. I have just worked out how to easily re-gauge the NIR coaches just released (where fitted with the Irish bogie). A small vice, an object to hammer with and a wheel gauge to make sure it is correct. The result is in the picture, one wheelset at correct 21mm gauge. I had to remove the brake blocks/links but otherwise all runs freely. For anyone new to Irish Railway modelling it is the easiest ever to model the correct gauge, of course you can still kitbash, scratchbuild and modify, that is the fun side of it.

When I say the only mobile phone I have is the works one, and it is only switched on when I am at work, people stare strangely at me. The same look as when I tell them I have never owned a car or a microwave oven.

Hello, " New Irish Lines" is superb as ever. the website does appear to be offline. I would suggest you try emailling Alan O'Rourke. alanorourke@hotmail.co.uk. Anyone who is serious about Irish Railway Modelling should consider subscribing, I always find every edition inspiring and interesting. Lots on this forum write articles for it.

If it helps I was able to download the videos to my computer. Then I went to Downloads and played them with "VLC Media Player". They played perfectly. I find VLC a good programme for playing a wide range of videos that other programmes don't play, and it was free to download. They are well worth watching, as always.

Darius, Well done with the class 74. It really looks the part, one of the better MTK kits. I did a class 71 many years ago from an MTK kit and also used the Lima class 33, the body was so heavy the chassis bent. Having said that the MTK kit went together really well and if I saw an MTK kit for a class 74 at a good price I would consider buying it.

Hello, This afternoon I have been helping get a layout ready for a show in 4 weeks (this show at Lenham, Kent http://frenchrailwayssociety.org/ ). We have converted it for DCC and most of us have used various Roco DCC sets, which are widely available and easy to use. One of the group has an NCE powercab, which we all had a go with and it is very user friendly. The scrolling control is very good for slow speed shunting and engines can easily be selected very quickly. Up and down keys can also be used to control locos and it works well with sound fitted ones. All our locos have 2 digit numbering for DCC. The display is very clear about what loco is selected and whether it is in forward or reverse. The display can also be set to show the amps the loco is drawing, very useful. We did find the locos do not like even a hint of dirty track, which will be a pain at shows, as track gets dirty very quickly. It seems the NCE user guide is rather poor, and it is best to look at you tube videos about using the system. I hope that helps with your choice.

I think Phil (Murphaph) is right, I am certainly going to buy some ,and hope 21mm is easy to do. At least the axle lengths are 26mm, unlike some other Irish ones which are 24.5 (HO scale) axle length, so in theory this should mean less work to move axle boxes out a bit. The only past "generic" range as good as this was the Grafar (Graham Farish) 00 gauge bogie coaches made in the 1970s and early 1980s. The suburban versions could be converted to British third rail EMUs or modified to look Irish, and the corridor ones looked very Southern Railway or GSWR. Well worth looking out for on the secondhand market. Well done Hattons.

Well done on making the move nearer to the proper gauge! Here is a link to a couple of articles in "New Irish Lines" about 21mm gauge diesel locos, including the 121 class. It is well worth subscribing to this magazine if you model Irish railways. https://www.dropbox.com/s/d86eqxk57ajch81/New Irish Lines Vol. 9 No. 3 - 2021 May.pdf?dl=0 I was rather brutal with my 121 rotating hubs, to get clearance. When shortened I carefully glued them in place so they are now fixed. You have to have very good eyesight to see them rotate at normal viewing distance. I have had no problem with the extending of the wheels to the axle ends, the excess play does not seem to cause any problems.