Noel

A little more progress today. A CV-19 free afternoon at the bench working on 6 CIE Vans + 4 CIE 5 plank open wagons of the flying snail era. These will be hauled by CIE era black'n'tan white stripe locos such as 141, or A class, or perhaps even a 121. Two axle goods trains are my favourite because of the operational shunting variety and interesting ops. Never a uniform rake, one or two wagons dropped off or picked up at passing stations. Dapol donors. Rail match acrylic paints. Hopefully with spare time on my hands these will be finished at the weekend.

Hi George. Yes I sense your frustration. But as Fr Ted famous once said about the chinatown district of craggy island, sure "They're a great bunch of lads". Yea the rot started when Bachmann Branchline's Chinese manufactured stuff first hit the market 30 years ago and knocked inferior UK built Hornby for six on quality and reliability, hence the margate toy factory closed and their production moved also to china. They've come a long way from their 1960s 'lucky bag' contents reputation. Wither CV-19 was an accident of nature or a result of a an accident 40 years ago in cold war era chemical warfare research lab we will never know. All we can do is deal with what's in front of us now, but with the help of determined community spirit and effort combined with modern medical technology we should be able to protect as many of our elderly seniors and medically vulnerable as possible. The developing world is not as well resourced as we are in this part of the global sphere with health services and access to medical science. But I remain optimistic that together as a community of neighbours we can limit this thing. Saw a great video yesterday from a GP basically saying we cannot avoid it, but for most there is little to worry about, and there are simple practical measures we can all take to protect our older loved ones, or loved ones with medical vulnerabilities (eg recent chemotherapy patients, CF patients, etc). I am heading now to the workbench to use my airbrush to clear my head (not literally). A few hours cutting and painting should put my head in a happier place, then its a walk with the dogs down a local wood. But if I come across any chinese panda bears I'll be sure to shoot them on sight. (in jest) Cheers and keep safe.

Be positive, with community co-operation and good will we as a country can greatly limit the worst effects of this thing and celebrate future St Patrick's days with our grand parents and our elderly parents.

Until we stop these high speed broadband transmitters of CV-19 little it seems is going to change. Ultimately a travel ban like China will have to be declared at some stage. Inside an aircraft with its aircon running you may as well be on an accelerated petri dish. At least put all pax returning to Ireland on 14 day self isolation as a first step. We have to protect our seniors and medically vulnerable, we can all do our bit to slow this down to a level so that our health services can cope with the weekly volume once this thing ramps up. Most have nothing to fear but we have a duty of care to protect our seniors.

In the great scheme of things given the circumstances a delay is not important for consumers, but please bear in mind the financial cash flow issues the CV-19 crises could potentially pose for all manufactures using Chinese sub-contractors for their production. Patience is a virtue. If all the promised new locos don't appear until 2021 its not the end of the world, but for any medically vulnerable folk who contract CV-19 it could be the end of their world. Thanks for the heads up Dave ( @WRENNEIRE).

Didn't realise a container full of A class and 121 models could weigh as much. Lima crap was much lighter. Red faces all round I'd guess at that depot.

Yea its gas the way our childhood memories shape our nostalgia views of railways past. The first time I had been on a train in NI was about 1998 on the enterprise which broke down in Portadown on the Drumcree weekend festival, having travelled from Londonderry to Great Victoria before changing to the enterprise for the run up to Dublin. That scenic coastal rail journey is etched in my memory. A niece is studying in Coleraine, and another is living in Portstewart. Beautiful scenery up there. Can you believe it I've never actually seen a Hunslet except in you tube videos. What era did it run in?

Its amazing how fast OCR and even handwriting recognition technology replaced the need for manual sorting. EIR codes came 20-30 years too late to be of any relevance from a sorting point of view. OCR is faster anyway. EIR codes good for couriers especially in rural areas.

Not a bad price for a sound equipped loco. NI stock was not part of my nostalgia memory growing up.

Fab photo. Brand new 121 in delivery livery hauling a pristine rake of new laminates in flying snail green livery. I remember going to Galway in a set like that out of Westland row.

Best layout exhibition on the island, but a prudent decision to postpone in light of circumstances prevailing and public health needs.

CIE 5 plank wagons in progress. Dapol Donors cheap as chips. These wagons finished with wheels, couplings and transfers will cost me only €8-9 each. The dapol chassis runs sweet and free. Not sure what loads I'll put in them. They were used to carry all manner of general merchandise by CIE in both flying snail era and the broke wheel 1960s era. No 1960s CIE freight (goods) train existed without some of these along with corrugated open wagons and H-Vans. They had thousands of them in their hey day.

Been a while, confined to barracks so may get some mini-projects done. 6 CIE Vans started. Dapol donors primed. A little fiddling with the chassis needed. But hopefully will have 6 more vans to add to the existing 1960s rakes of pick up goods wagons. Not sure if I will do them CIE grey or CIE brown or a mix (3 of each). These could go nicely with my 3D corrugated open wagons behind black'n'tan 141s.

And kept them nice and quiet inside no doubt (ie no noisy kids running around nor hen destination pax)

Keep safe

Yea there will always be the odd extreme in a market place, amazed there are that many folks bidding on it. So much less expensive to buy a MM super train version from marks and add the white lining as transfers and respray the roof black, or even commission somebody to do it. Fools and their money, etc, but its their own business.

True enough.

Superb job. Really tastefully done. Love the detail of the weathering (eg base of stanchions) and that it is not over cooked. Class job

Yes

Holy Moly I've ten of those Lima heaps. Didn't realise each one was worth more than a Murphy Model 121 or an IRM A class. 45 years ago I thought they were the bees knees and the cats whiskers but €200 is nuts for what are basically door stops or paper weights.

Hi George, not really, I don’t do exhibitions, so more for home use, but may lend it to club colleagues if they’d like to operate it at exhibitions. Anyway I don’t have a beard so not qualified to exhibit

Cheers George. Most of my station track is on gentle bends, very little straight track except in the main terminus. The 20yo bachmann wagons I have used so far haven't been a problem shooting forwards perhaps because the older axles were not as free nor finely balanced as more modern stock. The IRM ballasts and bubbles shunt very well. Naturally the new 42ft container flats do not have this problem due to their weight and modern era stock doesn't get shunted anyway (ie fixed rake formations). Shunting seems very much a 2 axle wagon past time with stock from 1930s to about 1974 after which the railways as we knew them became rather boring (ie uniform fixed rake passenger and goods formations). I'm building a new shunting layout that is lineear 10ft long by 2ft and exclusively for shunting using kadee's

C-Rail already do, it must be one of their best sellers (ie the Bell 20ft). IRMs recent 42ft flat wagons come with 40ft Bell's produced by C-Rail. (unless I've misunderstood something). Single 20ft Bell midships upon 42ft container flat (3D FUD) A pair of weather Bell's - ding dong!

Shunting 1960s style using kadee couplings. Posted before a year or two ago, but here goes again for any newbies to kadee's or shunting. These couplings would make short linear shunting layouts very enjoyable to operate. I've often spent a few hours just operating this corner of the layout. Bachmann BR converted to CIE with Kadee's added Just a little dusting of dirt, CIE broken wheel logos and new couplings and ready to shunt close coupled

Well I found where Dave's tools were left Hopefully they will have an onsite cafe for visitors in the future. Really impressed with the whole setup including the building restoration, landscaping, etc, but the memorabilia and the way the collection is documented and shown off is credit to the organisers, designers and curators.