jhb171achill

It's actually a radio. You can get Radio Eireann on it. It is. But it's got a radio built into it too.......

It most certainly is. I think that for those with either the skills to hand-build everything to that gauge, or with the wallet to pay for it, 21mm is the way to go. I'm at "costing" stage now. My own skills are most certainly not those of Mayner, David Holman, Eoin or others of this planet, thus some stuff I would have to have made. It's as simple as this. If I can afford it once all the bean-counting is done, I'm going for 21mm. If practicality dictates, through a melted credit card, that I can't afford it, 00 it is.

Hope you didn't pay him, Brassnut........! Good luck with your corrective endeavours. many on here can answer any questions you have.

I'm convinced. The only issue will be budget. If I can afford the track, it's 21mm. If I can't, it'll be 00. I hope that whatever results will also appear at exhibitions once it's in a state fit to do so. Next challenge: proper 6-wheelers. I'll start with some old botch-job wooden stock in green, just to get things going but the intention is to have the likes of Worsley 6-wheelers behind J15s - thus, a proper GSWR train, none o'those oul Mk 2, 3 or 4 tin-can yokes for me!

I'll take two standards.

Very many thanks, Tony. I'll consider this. Interesting - and highly persuasive! The layout can be operated with a max of two engines, but what will end up being the main issue is that there will eventually be a collection of about 15 locos, steam and diesel, possibly 20 carriages and about 40 goods stock. They will represent the GSR era, the grey'n'green and the black'n'tan eras. Conversion of all the lot is daunting, and 21mm will preclude any possible visits by stock from a friend's layout! I like Mayner's idea of eye level too - that is indeed something which had occurred to me. Do ye know what. Once I've walked the dog I'll go into town this afternoon and browse in the land of Mark's Models in Hawkins St.

I made up a couple of their goods vans many years ago for a long defunct narrow gauge layout, and I didn't find them too difficult, I have to say.

Remind me again, the difference between codes 75 & 100....

I will indeed be in touch with Baseboard Dave shortly. In fact I'll email him tonight and get it over with!

Folks I'm delving here into something which is outside my knowledge or comfort zone, and I'd be interested in anyone's opinion or experience. I am going to put together a small shunting-type layout (I know I'm not the only one here planning such things!) and once complete, while at any one time it won't accommodate a great amount of rolling stock, it's my intention to have a collection of locos and rolling stock spanning the 1930s - 1970s period, through GSR and CIE times. This will mean a lot of stock over a time, with one operating session being GSR steam era, and others being well into the "Supertrain" era. Clearly, 21mm gauge track looks WAY better than 00 and in an ideal world I would see this as the only show in town. I have a SSM J15 which would require doubtless very awkward surgery to convert its gauge, and a MM 141; that's all so far. I'm wondering is it all worth it, as with an eventual collection of wagons, locos and carriages, every single thing will have to be converted. Then there's the track, which I presume would all have to be handmade - again, not something I have any experience in whatever, and not something I would think I'd make a very good job of. So the question is, how does one find out what the easiest (or, should I say, least difficult) method is to (a) convert loco gauges, for example, and (b) laying track? If it all ends up a huge lot of hassle, or very expensive, it'll be 00.

That is just stunning. Superb finish too.

A thought, Tony - you had mentioned doing an "end-to-end" layout - possibly you might be able to put in a lift-up flap bit across the doorway to make a continuous run? N gauge will be just right for that shed.

I think the wheels would be too large, and the wheelbase too long? I'm unaware of the existence of drawings. I must ask around in the IRRS.... maybe the DCDR has them (though I never saw any....)

Outstanding work!!!! Looks superb. ....presumably there'll be a number also on the rear of the cab?

In terms of the O & K locos at Downpatrick, I've never come across anything even remotely close. You're looking at a scratchbuild, I would think, and the wheels would be a challenge - they're very small.

The BR livery vanished in its entirety before entering traffic - the entire coach was painted in the standard CIE livery with black roofs from the outset. Nothing orange and black ever ran with grey roofs. Dirt, of course, can throw up many shades of many things.....!

Absolutely correct, Colin. In the 1960s, among the youthful pioneering RPSI preservationist members (to whom, it must not be forgotten, we owe the very existence of these things no matter what colour theyre painted!), legions of stories arose relating to GNR blue. When initially painted blue by the early RPSI, the sdahe was way, way too light, and the excuse given was that at Dundalk, "they'd just go to the local shop and get whatever blue paint they had" -or- "sure no two of them were ever the same shade of blue". The stories were as crass as they were ninsense; the one you quote above was indeed another! I personally knew the late Marcus Bailie-Gage, who was closely involved as Dundalk Works Manager with the paint laboratory, and the company like all other companies went to great lengths to mix their own paint to exact formulae. Such suggestions above would have certainly given poor Marcus the Heebie-Jeebies with multiple complications..... he would have spat out his jam sandwiches which he had for lunch...... In reality, a fledgling preservation movement was finding out the hard way that what's on a model won't work in real life, and vice versa - witness, for example, the current shade of green on 461 which I think I'm right in saying was copied from a model - it isn't accurate at all. The shade on 800 in Cultra is actual CIE paint. Blue, also, is a nororiously hard colour to replicate on models. A model is viewed in different lighting conditions to a "real thing". I know i don't have to comment to the very experienced modellers here on the pitfalls of getting "real paint" for a model. Sometimes it works, but it can't be guaranteed. A more "watered down" version is often better on a model, especially with wagons; whoever saw a shiny varnish-like sheen on a good wagon? To veer back towards the subject of the thread, I suppose a lost kit presents an opportunity to make a good looking new model from scratch and paint it properly! Tartan for GNR locos, black and pink for CIE steam, purple and day-glo blue for Mk 3 coaches, and (Pat, turn away;) NCC maroon for bubbles...........................................................................

To make "Harvey", a bit of alteration to the rear bunker would be necessary. Incidentally, she never ran in the (yet again!) fictitious preservation livery she has always carried at Whitehead. I remember her arriving - she was in the LPHC's livery of a very dark green and with utterly different lining. This may, fortunately, still be seen on LPHC No. 1 in Cultra. I really do wish that preservationists here would apply the same meticulousness to the accuracy of paint jobs as they do in Britain. There is no excuse - it's as easy to paint something red as blue. Time and time again we see models, superbly and painstakingly made, and the modeller is effectively misled by preserved inaccurate paint schemes. Probably the most garish example is the zebra-striped "Ivan", the colourful GNR brake van! Yellow flying snails, black wagon chassis.... I know, I know, many don't mind, but others are content with wrong bogies or buffers, while this would cause others again to reach for the smelling salts, the better to stave off attacks of the Screaming Fits, Convoluted Conniptions, and Multiple Allergies.......

The carriages were British, thus built to their lower, narrower loading gauge. The whole idea behind the white lines was to have it at an exact height from rail level, so that the disparate types of carriages, initially all green, would look more uniform if this was painted across everything at the same height. Due to a lower roof on BR vans, thus a lower cantrail gutter, the bottom of the white line would stay the same as on other stock, so wouldn't be as thick, as the lower roof got in the way! Perusal of pictures will show this, plus the absolute uniformity on other stock. The original experimental black'n'tan from its earliest sample outing in 1962, had slightly thicker white lines, but these didn't make it to production.

Those vans would have made a great place to put a layout inside, ttc.............................

Hi George I've one pack of track - I suspect about half a dozen lengths. They're somewhere in the attic! The points - two short-radius plastic frog, and another couple longer radius electro. The electro ones are new, the others used but serviceable. Some of the stock - in fact most of it - isn't in boxes so I can't be sure of catalogue numbers. I'll photo them for you and try to post them here, or probably better I email you. PM me your email address and i'll try to get that done in the next few days.

I have a 009 coach kit, not made up (and it's on my "for sale" list from the other day, I think). I bought it about that sort of timescale too, maybe not quite as old but thereabouts.....

Yes, those are plain black roofs, shiny from either rain or carriage washing plants. The black ends of CIE coaches ought always to be weathered at least a bit, bogies likewise, to achieve realism. While all painted black, they didn't look that way for long. It's a bit like a rake of pristine four wheeled wagons - they just don't look right if pristine!

jhb Senior was involved with this. The "supervision" was a looser term than on the DNGR, and in reality many BCDR loco matters were equally "supervised" by the NCC's famous Harold Houston, a good frien of my father's. One might wonder how Bangor ended up with so many GNR signals. look no further than Senior; he was GSR-trained, but latterly GNR through-and-through! He left the UTA in 1964 as it became a run-down, politically motivated bus company. He also took direct charge of PW matters on the BCDR, but only after the UTA had taken it over and turned it into nothing but the Bangor line.

I remember seeing a "tin van" on the Limerick - Ballina. The thing was in such a state that you'd have been forgiven for thinking it had a BROWN line above window level, not white....and the glass in the windows was the same colour, as were the ends and chassis! It had a bit of a "limp" too; looked like it was on its last legs. Incidentally, if anyone knows where a 2nd handy Mayner tin van might be had, I'm interested.........