jhb171achill

I did a double take there as one of them looked like one of my dad’s! On comparing, his is of the same class of loco and a similar angle! My dad’s NCC photos were taken between (from memory) 1944 and 1947.

I'm sure Boris could tell us that leaving the EU will give the UK enough to buy 62 new buses every day for every bus route from Lands End to John O'Groats!

That's the beast for me, then!

Wow! This will be one to watch!

One could look real, the other far away................ (I'll just get me coat......)

You almost think it WAS painted brown!! Yellow is a very impractical colour for railways......

Likewise, I don’t see it as much of interest.

Wow! ......"proper" cranes from the days before just about everything maintenance-wise was sheep-dipped in garish yellow! If they're for sale.....?

It must contain nuts!

You need to speak sharply to your car and discipline it.

Sorry to hear that, Andy. RIP. It was good to meet you at Cultra, and I thought Castlederg was easily the best layout on show that day.

Me too, Tony! I only decided to go on the spur of the moment late the night before! And I had to be gone by 12!

Interesting shot! Charles has made a masterpiece of research into this little known subject.

The Castlederg one was truly a work of genius. So incredibly realistic, despite the smallish scale. For this type of layout, Andy has very much set the standard. I hadn't met him before either, so that was a privilege in itself. Great to see you and family again too, Patrick.

Superb!

Great to meet so many of our small community at Cultra this morning. I had to meet my cousins in the afternoon (non-negotiable family event!), so I left Dublin at 8 a.m., drove to Cultra (hardly any traffic!), and spent the best part of two hours there. The drive back, punctuated by a 20 minute catnap in a layby and coffee in Applegreen, had me home by 3. Great venue, except that the 12ins - 1ft exhibits are far too close together; photography is quite impossible. Equally, all the things in glass cases like the GSWR dining car model, or Drew Donaldson's locomotives, are also impossible to photography because of the glare on the glass. You can't even see them properly. The model of the 500 class (was that one of Montgomery's?) is hidden in a corner, impossible to view properly. The curved pathway makes a journey to the loo into a major expeditionary voyage. But the layouts were great! And some of the static models were truly outstanding. Looking forward to the next one!

These models tend to be challenging. They require a great deal of maintenance and can be unpredictable. Running is often pretty smooth, but can also be off and on, rough and breakdowns are inevitable. It is always advisable to keep them well oiled.

There's always plastic surgery, Jason......! A new chassis and couplings could be fitted, and the whole thing clad in a new livery. Donald, for example, has accurate IE tan, though I'd be worried about where the Tippex stripes are.

Didn’t ye know that, Brassnut? He also presided over the closure of many, many other lines including the entire West Cork, the Tramore line, and the remaining narrow gauge.

Anyone got one they’d like to sell? Looking for original 1963 livery only. Weathered or unweathered. DCC ideal, but either will do.

Which livery?

I have just ordered three of these beasts, following a visit to IRM Towers (and their Esteemed Teapot), during this afternoon’s monsoon. The lengths we go to. So I braved my way home through monsoon, tsunamis, floods, plagues of locusts and typhoons in Rathfarnham.

CIE.

Probably the single most important missing link for the 1950-85 (35 years!!) period missing now is the AEC railcar. This is the only thing which spanned the steam era, the green’n’grey era, the black’n’tan era, and in the form of push-pulls the Supertrain era. By the mid 1950s they monopolised many CIE main line services, if not most in some areas. They even made it to West Cork, Tramore, Omagh, Enniskillen and Newcastle. They ran on the Dublin to Belfast, Dublin to Cork lines, the entire MGWR, and Sligo to Limerick to Tralee and Waterford. An AEC is as essential to a (main line) GNR setting as steam engines are. It is EVERY bit as essential to the CIE scene as green six-wheelers, “H” vans and J15s. It is as irreplaceable to this entire period as a DART is to a model railway of Connolly Station in 2018, or a 141 and 071 and Mk 2s to ANY 1980s layout. Any ex-GN area UTA or NIR based layout of 1958-74 period needs them too. For such s long period in railway history, comparatively few liveries are needed. 1. GNR dark blue & cream 2. CIE green - darker with simplified lining 3. CIE later green 4. CIE black’n’tan 5. UTA green with wasp stripes 6. GNR livery with UTA markings ** 7. UTA lighter blue & cream - narrow cream band ** 8. UTA lighter blue & cream - broader cream band 9. NIR maroon and light grey. 10. Black-ended black’n’tan for pushpull cars in CIE livery. (** Versions 6, 7, & 8 were both extremely short lived and in all three cases only applied to a few examples, not (and nothing like) the whole fleet.)

Probably IRM have offered to print “MasterCard FINAL DEMAND” on your package. With a choice of liveries, you also have a choice of messsges. Other variations are: CAUTION - Live Spiders Marks & Spencers Charge Card Bill Bank Statement (Bank Debt Recovery Unit) .......yer woman will NEVER open them!