Noel

So sorry to hear this sad news. Sympathy and prayer for his loved ones. A gentleman who transformed and infused the Irish model railway scene with new energy that triggered a renaissance in the hobby here. He is the reason I got back into the hobby 16 years ago after my jaw dropped upon seeing 183 on sale at Malahide castle. We owe this gentle, courageous and innovative business man a great debt of gratitude. His legacy will live on for generations as his sublime GM model locos continue to haul stock around Irish Layouts. May he be filled with peace and joy in his next life of purposeful activity. Thank you dear sir.

Thanks folks for your kind wishes and sympathetic comments. Fortunately a few months ago some rolling stock had been boxed up and stored in plastic crates so avoided water and smoke damage. So not all was lost and the Gort layout was stored off-site so it's ok along with its exhibition rolling stock. I had 20 years fun running trains on Kingsbridge. Railway modelling will have to take a back seat for a year or so while we rebuild our home. We had extraordinary help from neighbours, friends and family. The sun is shining today for the first time after 36 days of continuous rain. Glad to be alive and unharmed, and more than anything that my loves ones are unharmed including our pets. Thanks guys. Take care.

Thanks Guys. Paramedics were fantastic, they got our little pet dog's heart restarted and got him breathing again. 4 days in an oxygen tent and he was well again TG. Fortunanetly I only needed hospital treatment for two days (smoke inhalation). So grateful that all whom I love were unharmed. Thanks Stephen

It's been a while since I posted here. Sad to report Kingsbridge layout is no more. Unfortunately our home was destroyed by a catastrophic house fire recently, but thank God all humans and animals were saved and safe. Stuff can be replaced but humans and pets cannot. Fortunately we managed to salvage some of the rolling stock that was stored elsewhere and our Gort model railway layout which was not in the house at the time is safe in storage. At this stage with my limited mobility I cannot comprehend building those complex base boards again as I did when I was fit and well 30 years ago. Only one of the six main boards was stored in a separate shed. So once our home is rebuilt the focus may probably be on the expansion of Gort to including Tuam as a fiddle yard and/or even Ennis. Its all been a quite traumatic but we've been learning to breath once again and take life one inch at a time. So relived and grateful no loved ones were harmed. Time to pause and rebuild, once inch at a time. Take care.

Stunning work Derek, I’ve been away for a while just catching up with content here. Love the sublime cattle dock.

Only spotted this now. Good news, as I’ve amassed a large collection 2 axle stock over the past 7 years (resprays, kit bashes, PW kits, dapol resprays, Bachmann resprays, recent irm fitted wagons), my order may not be for 40 wagons as it might have been 7 years ago. But I’ll have to have some of these as they like the open bulleid were the main rollin stock on Ireland’s railways for over half a century, and helped distribute produce and fuel to every shop in Ireland at one time. Interesting the formations possible with mixed stock fitted and unfitted, brake van operation, etc.

It’s s pity the Youghal line was not restored to service and instead sacrificed to another useless greenway instead of a busy commuter rail extension to Cork city, OR it could have been a preserved heritage railway line out to Youghal for weekend excursion close to a large population centre (ie Cork). The only other candidate I can think of is if they close the Ballybrophy to Nenagh line the RPA could hand it over under license to a heritage railway operator, then the line at least could be accessed by main line rail instead of driving a long way up to NI. Wonderful and all as they are, Downpatrick and Whitegate are just far away and too awkward to access for most rail enthusiasts down south. Personally narrow guage doesn’t float my boat like the UK standard guage preserved railway lines do. I guess in Ireland we just don’t have the tradition or population density to support such. So for now model form does the trick.

Looks like it's sorted https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2025/0512/1512326-us-china-trade/

Where will it all end Ted? Fortunately, my collection days are just about over, I’ve enough stock now to see me through future projects and to EOL.. Not happy at potential costs for our grand children developing an interest in the hobby. They’ll get my stuff anyway, but I’d prefer they start small and learn the joy making stuff themselves.

[quote=glenderg]There was no issue with coupling height, it was all done to NEM standards, and if not, this rake would have ruined itself when the video was taken on the 16th November 2017, some 8 years ago..[/quote] Hi Richie. Respectfully there was an error with the coupling height on the ballast wagons and the cement bubbles (inc ploughs that shared a common chassis). IRM even had a fix page on their web site back then with a solution. It wasn’t about running problems, it was about NEM compliance and incompatibility with Kadee couplings. It wasn’t a problem if one used the supplied gull wing mini tension lock couplings but was incorrect for Kadee’s as the NEM pocket height was incorrect. All other IRM stock since then had had perfect NEM pockets in terms of height from the rail top. I got around the problem by gluing kadee no 18s to the underside of the NEM pockets to get the correct height for kadee coupling height guage and kadee uncoupling magnets. It was a right royal PITA having to do it to two rakes of ballasts and two rakes of cement bubbles. This might have been a hangover of the unfortunate DJ input to IRMs first product which were the ballasts. Murphy Models had a similar fault with their craven coaching stock when the NEM pockets were also at the wrong height and needed fettling to use with popular kadee couplings. First world problem, but given the re-runs it might have been an opportunity to correct the tooling as that chassis is shared by carious IRM wagons (ballasts, cement, plough vans, magnesite’s, gypsum, etc). Photo below illustrated the problem. The manual fix. A pity the couplings could not be use correctly when plugged into the NEM pockets

Sounds a great move, and should prove popular. Is there any new tooling to correct the NEM pocket height error in the original run?

Jeepers Dave. That advert from The Hobby Horse in Rathfarnham shopping centre took me back. Fabulous Shop. Sold Hornby, Peco and Wrenn. Had multiple display layouts in the store and one above shelf height that was always running.

Does you know how does it treat plastics?

Not sure DCC will help clockwork Thomas