jhb171achill

Absolutely stunning!

And gorged myself on choc... Despite being under orders from the Quack not to touch the stuff......!

"Mince Pie" trains operate at Downpatrick on 28th December (rather than 1st January as in recent years). Main line diesel haulage will feature this year, with either (or BOTH) A39 and 146 on all passenger trains. Departures from Downpatrick are at 1400, 1445, 1530, 1615 and 1700. Departures from Inch Abbey are at 1420, 1505, 1550, 1635 and 1720. Vintage passenger stock as normal.

I got thermal socks.......... Tis me age.....................

Me nose is stuck into The North Kerry Line....

Careful now..... UP with this sort of thing! :-)

I got one of the 800 brass kits. My own skills would never begin to. Do justice to such a superb kit - have you seen it? It's truly amazing. What I am doing is getting it professionally made up. Des has a contact for anyone interested. Once I have that, all pristine and shiny, I'll need a truly filthy grey J15 to go alongside it; another SSM kit!

This has opened an excellently well seasoned can of worms!

Ahhhh... The BCDR trust....... Hmm!

That looks amazing, scots mac! Excellent and convincing conversion!

Happy Christmas and New Year to all on IRM.

I should add that I would never want to divert sales from SSM or the like! :-)

Just looking at the amazing variety of Irish RTR stuff available in recent years, and the tremendous work done by Murphy Models, SSM and others. We can recreate a typical scene just about anywhere on this island from the 1960s onwards, and quite a lot prior to that. I wonder - just throwing it out there - would there be, in the longer term, a commercial market for some RTR stuff in the late steam era? This is getting more popular, judging by posts on IRM. To be commercially viable, it would obviously have to be something very common in the day. If I might suggest priorities based on that, and on wide route availability, there seem to me some obvious contenders: Locos: J15, 400 class, to join the successful Woolwich. UTA Jeep, GNR "S" class, Bandon tank? Railcars: Without doubt, an AEC set in UTA, GNR and CIE liveries. Maybe a BUT? If a DART model is viable, maybe, just maybe a GNR artic set as used on the Warrenpoint and Howth lines? And an MPD car. Coaches: The pre-black and tan scene is crying out for a proper model of a GSWR wooden bogie and a Midland 6 wheeler! And a 6 wheel brake of either provenance. A GNR K15 - brown, blue and cream, UTA green, CIE green, NIR maroon and grey as railcar intermediate, and black'n'tan would all be appropriate for this. A standard NCC third of one of the types at Whitehead? Wagons: Surely, a "H" van! A CIE brake van or earlier GSWR one, well travelled at the time? Just a few thoughts. Time to get the mulled wine going....

And Nelson, your black one is perfect too - really looks the business.

Boskonay, that is truly stunning! Love the shaded NCC lettering - was that hand done or transfers?

The LMS lettering is slightly too large for the prototype; if replacing with NCC in the same style, I'd make it a bit smaller. As well as that, don't forget the distinctive cast cab side number plates rather than painted numbers. These would have red backgrounds, not maroon.

A pleasure, sir!

Absolutely superb attention to detail!!

"Reprinted"......word recognition! I meant "repainted"!!!

It's quite a while since I was in Cultra, Scots Mac. If the number plates on 800 are now black, it is most certainly wrong - they must have been reprinted as the last time I was there, they were the correct blue. If they're now black it would not, unfortunately, be the first time Cultra had got livery details fundamentally wrong. I can confirm from eye witnesses and photos that none of the locos ever had black backgrounds to either the number or name plates. Hope this helps.

Scots mac, all grey locos had grey chimneys and smoke boxes, you're quite right - and this included all woolwiches. However, there benign exception to every rule, there were no more than maybe half a dozen locos painted right at the end of steam in the early 60s, with grey body colour and black smoke box and chimney. By that stage a small number of locos were all over black too.

Regarding a book on the 800 class, Minister, I agree it would make fascinating reading. I suspect,though, with only three of them, the number of people who knew them intimately was relatively small, and indeed the great tragedy is that they never got a chance to properly stretch their legs following the advent of diesels and prior to that the fuel crisis. If anyone ever fancies taking on such a project, I would be delighted to provide any assistance I could....

Just a small correction, folks... The background to the number plates was never black. Blue on all three initially, but later red on 801 and 802 - same as the nameplates. However, unfortunately all three were poorly cared for cosmetically in the 1950s, so blue might have looked a lot dirtier....

Presumably you want to model 1980s / 1990s, Sean? If so, a few Cravens and a BR van wouldn't go amiss, or a rake of cement bubbles, beet wagons, or container flats.

I got mine too, from Clifton Flewitt in the IRRS last week....