jhb171achill

Incidentally, how does that layout design software work? Would a techno-philistine like me be able to use it?

Is there even enough room up there (top left) to hold a loco and one wagon at a time to push into the siding for the fuel unloading area?

In their original all grey livery, they were more often seen as just part of a general goods train, marshalled along with open wagons (corrugated by that stage, mostly) and "H" and a few other vans. By orange days, this was still the case, but now running ion block trains. By the time the ivory and black appeared, and the later "non-livery" of pure caked layers of cement (!) they were running in blocks.

Hopefully I can go......

That is a stunning concept. Very best of luck with it!

That's a beautiful model. Good to see the lettering done as accurately as possible on that scale; many a good model, well painted, has its overall appearance spoiled by lettering / numerals in the wrong font, or (often) way too big.

Very few got yellow buffer beams - it was a short lived experiment. Regarding the dark green on "A"'s, my own sources indicate that only the one had it - certainly a dozen would be very unlikely. I noticed at the toy fair in Stillorgan some C and A classes somewhere for sale in dark green, and a G - the G also having a grey roof. These are also inaccurate - just for the record! :-)

The reality is that it's low on the financial priority list and has been for decades. Thus, IE are only paying lip service to any sort of service provision. The line is run to suit crewing rosters, not the public. The existing public service on not only the Nenagh branch, but also Limerick - Waterford (and through Galway to Waterford) is useless to the travelling public. Either they lift the never ending speed limits and have proper line speeds and a decent service, or they should put it out of its misery.

Jhb171senior recalled an experiment with about a third of a kilometre of concrete sleepered track on the INW about 1954... somewhere near Inniskeen, I think.

The slagging starts: unless you're from Britain, an "MPD" is a type of UTA railcar, not a locomotive shed..,

Among the earliest concrete sleepers were in the 1950s on the GNR main line. A rural area in the west of Ireland is unlikely to have had concrete in sidings until very recently. As said by others, points were wooden, even among a sea of concrete track, until the last few years. The timber points are accurate for your timescale.

I have one, also 141 - see "for sale" section for details / price.

Amazing - excellent stuff as always

DAMN!!!! I'll be in the Flying Boat Museum on 26th launching "Rails Through North Kerry"!

£110 or €130, untouched and in original unmarked box etc. One off offer........ can deliver in Dublin area or Belfast / Lisburn area meet. I also have 165. Same story as above. I was thinking of keeping one, but if anyone wants to buy both, I'll accept £200 / €240. I wouldn't be prepared to go lower as this is what I paid for them and I've never used either. Ping me accordingly if interested! Thank you.

Curious...... What was the "thing"?

Many thanks, Garfield! A pint is overdue anyway....pm me?

That is ghastly - the sort of thing you'd expect in a Dickensian novel. Lucky more didn't die.

I'm finally getting round to putting together a long-planned Austrian-based 009 layout. All of the locos are ordinary 2-rail with traditional controller. The live frog wiring issue is bad enough for an oul wan like me to figure out - but - can anyone tell me is there a better control system for older-type models, some at least with little or no room to add DCC stuff? What's the best "traditional" type of controller available these days?

We read in the papers recently that IE are pitching for a lot more money "or lines might close". The wage claims we have (1) will use money up. Brexit (2) and Trump (3) will do no economic favours for Ireland. (1: I state this as practicality, not a cue for political discussion. 2: I state this in the wake of the certainty of more difficult exporting by Irish exporters to the UK, not a cue for political discussion, and 3: again, not a cue, but the reality that a lot of the American firms employing thousands of well paid people in Ireland will come under pressure to ship out.) So, where will any money come from to fund our railways, and will the same amount as previously necessary be available? If not, what gives?

Got ya! Excellent comparison. I made a G out of cardboard in my teens - I gave it away eventually. It wasn't anything like as good as any scratch built one I've seen, as I had no plans to work off and only poor photos of a couple I saw in Inchicore. I misread your post, thinking the 601 was a kit of some sort.

Those look absolutely fantastic - top drawer stuff. An excellent looking layout.

The G617 is a lovely little job. It might be worth checking if the roof profile of the g601 is correct - from the photos it looks a little flat? Its front grille is a bit small too.

What sort of inane rubbish is going to be thrown at us next? "Due to movement of the train, all customers are requested to leave the train before departure". When will some supreme court decide enough is enough!! "Customers are advised that some train stations may contain platforms. Please stay clear of all platforms in case you fall off" "Customers are requested not to eat their tickets, as they may contain traces of nuts" - i.e. the half-wits who make careers out of finding ways to (a) be stupid, (b) invent ever more ridiculous rules, purporting to be the all-encompassing dictatorial H & S stuff, and © be offended.

She was in dreadful order - just patched up with sellotape and UHU glue....