jhb171achill

KMCE, I take my hat off to you. Scratchbuilt GSR locos, the van, and now GSWR carriages. It's things like this which open up new areas (eras!) of the whole hobby. Not to mention the outstanding quality of workmanship and output! Superb stuff, and keep 'em coming.

Looks great so far!

What's the little GSWR-looking six wheel brake third in some of the pics? SSM kit?

Absolutely excellent stuff! I posted here at some stage that Precision Paints do the accurate dark grey. However, I realised tonight by reading an entirely unrelated email I had sent that I should have said Phoenix Paints...... possibly Roderick of 00 Works may have some too.

I couldn’t say for certain about battery boxes, Eoin, to be honest. The advice above, however, would appear to me to make perfect sense.

Anything Murphyish I have is real quality - I'm sure we won't have to worry on that score. With an A imminent, a C would be next and also without doubt we need RTR AEC cars and 80 class. These were the two "must-have" railcars for any layout wanting accuracy.

Excellent photos, josef. The upholstery at that stage was a very dark charcoal grey, rather than the somewhat garish bright blue seen in some coach models.

Wow! Superb job, and yes, had it been green, no gennies. Only in BnT.

Fair enough - good explanation, thanks! I had forgotten about the Fishguard company. I suppose the IE freight manager has little else to do these days - there’s very little else he can run down and close!

A beauty, David - well done. I would leave the roof as in real life it would be much more filthy on a beast like that. I think it looks very realistic. I got a water-damaged edition a few years ago when it came out, for next to nothing. False economy; the cover keeps falling off due to the water damage! Very irritating! Yes, a superb piece of work - though how a reference work of this stature was published with no index is beyond me!

Greetings all Never mind the problems with things being impounded after Brexit - the impounding mechanisms of the Dept.of Domestic Financial Matters, at jhb171 Towers, can impound like no other. But the day has come, and the Authorities have handed over two very nice little grey beasties from 00 Works, and a green "C", so now I can at last ogle them. Here we see the lot. When I got a model of 800 "Maedb" a few years ago, I was busy with narrow gauge 009, so I never intended to have an operational Irish 00 layout. Thus, 800's exploits would be confined to a test track, a layout owned by a friend in Clondalkin, and a glass case. I thought that a good contrast might be to display it in a little diorama or something, with as a contrast beside it, an absolutely filthy, tired looking old reliable J15 workhorse. No. 134, shown here, is the result. Both it and Maedb were SSM kits, and the level of detail and accuracy in both is a great credit to Des of Studio Scale Models. It was put together for me by Dave, who finished it as I wanted it - so grubby looking you'd feel you needed to wash your hands after touching it; indeed, the actual level of muck on it was copied from a photo of the real thing in its last days working. It's perhaps a shade too black, though really dirty CIE locos could look almost black if left neglected. As a contrast, I have the two very nice 00 Works models. Lined up together, all three really look the business. The sight of the dirty one with the clean ones recalls a story that Senior told me of seeing some sort of works shunter in the 1930s hauling a newly painted loco out of the paint shop at Inchicore - the contrast was exactly as above. On the 00 ones, which I was happy to open today, I am very satisfied with them to look at - in terms of performance, they'll get a run in a day or two on my friend's line. I will report on their running then, but anecdotal evidence suggests it will be good. The little matter of the tender springs is easy to fix, and the wheels need a good coat of grey and then grime. I don't intend to weather them as much as 134 (sighs of relief from Roderick!) but they will need to look quite grubby, as the layout will be set in the 1955-65 period. The "C" was another nice little item I picked up a while back - it will match the black one I have within the same period. Both, of course, are Silverfox. This pair of "C"s have acquitted themselves very well operationally, being good at slow speed and of a solid heavy weight. Hopefully the attached photos will give an idea of the external appearance of both the SSM and 00 ones. Naturally, the plant pot behind them is in entirely the wrong livery....... So, all round, a good Christmas!

I'm correcting myself here - I meant the N.E.T. bogie tankers, not the red and silver Asahis - they didn't have bogies, obviously! Duhhh....

It’s one thing telling tourists that we don’t have rain here, but “liquid sunshine”. But that snow can’t be explained away as easily!

Many thanks gents. What I had in mind (though it'll have to take back seat to "Dugort Harbour" is a "small steps first" thing - probably consisting of a G class or a C, plus a few trucks, shunting inside something like Polloxfens Mills at Ballysodare, or something like the T & C roadside tramway. Maybe a fictitious halt along it with one siding. The festive season, meantime, will be spent on the chocolate and Guinness diet.

What does anyone think is the best type of sleeper, and where can they be had?

Yes, indeed - lets hope that the authorities crack down really hard on them. Others should not be encouraged!

I think they’ve arrested two local people.

What was the purpose that these drone flyers, however deludedly, hoped to achieve?

Agreed! Happy Christmas to all here!

Don't IE still own Rosslare port? You'd think that ports like Rosslare, Waterford AND Cork would now be looking towards France with "land bridge" traffic in sight, which currently goes through Britain. And, naive that I am, I would have thought that it would have made sense for the government to be right in there trying to bolster these ports - AND rail freight.

That's exactly what they're doing, John. Unfortunately, the design of the building is such that the full potential won't be easy to achieve, but it is what it is, and those involved may just get on with doing the best they can! I've given them some historical context. Hope they make good use of it!

That's the problem, DART8118. His models are 0 gauge. There is only room for a 00 gauge layout! Having said that, all of the larger scale models you may have seen at Malahide Castle in the past weren't Fry's either. His models are old, and while there is some talk of a demonstration track for occasional outings for a few of them, their primary home will be glass cases. Hence my comment. It's important for publicity materials to make this clear, rather than mislead the public into thinking that they'll see 300 models made by Cyril Fry all whirling round what Malahide claimed, GROSSLY inaccurately, to be "the biggest layout in the world". A new consultant has been appointed to lead the railway side of it. Having met him, he appears to be more railway-savvy than his predecessor, whose expertise by her own admission lay elsewhere. I've sent him a "time-line" of important events in Irish railway history. He is discussing the best of Fry's photos with the owner of the collection, who I put him in touch with. The idea is to display them, though having seen the entire collection, I can say that Fry's photographic skills didn't come anywhere near matching his modelling skills. Moreover, he used cheap film, so that many of his images have deteriorated way beyond use, and others are barely restorable.

Ah! Ok.....

Nice loco body - in the pic it looks neat. Is this the way it came out of the printer or has it been tidied up?

What was the purpose that these drone flyers, however deludedly, hoped to achieve?