Noel

All I know is the Ballinamore bridge on the Shannon-Erne waterway is one of the lowest on the waterway and some boats only have 1" headroom clearance requiring it to be walked through by hands under the bridge roof rather than by power.

There is indeed a preservation movement at Dromod right beside the railway station. They also have about 1/2 mile of narrow gauge track. Very eclectic collection of vehicles and strange things collected in their yard. Everything from yellow submarines, to loco parts, to old trucks and buses and their narrow gauge rolling stock. They have the cab of a 121 loco. The guy who runs it is the spitting image of Norman Wisdom. Well worth a visit.

We will probably see an increase in the no of 'reported' cases here in Ireland over next few days due to the increased testing regime, but as so many as of yet untested folks may have this with mild symptoms, the new testing regime is now picking them up, it may paint a more pessimistic picture in terms of the trend than what is actually happening. Stay safe folks and take care. Lots of plastic card, paints and wiring to catch up on. Now may be an opportune time to weather that stock that's been on the long finger since the world was normal.

Looking good. Its great to see proper length trains. N gauge really lends itself to scale length trains. Class.

Dave, Yes both 170 donors but its more than painting, @Past-Avenue has corrected the door locations and his 22k have doors at the ends like IE's 22k, whereas Chris's are albeit excellent resprays but the doors are all wrong at commuter locations along the coach sides as per CL 170 but not the Rotem 22k class.

Love to see photos of your stock some day. Surprised at Dr G's Tara's the ones I unboxed were fine, free and easy.

Fantastic. Wonderful visual story telling from the real world of Tara Junction. You've a fantastic selection LLP workmen, looking very busy.

Interesting. My only issue with be the inability to shunt stock without the 'hand of God' being needed to uncouple. Presume in time they may bring out varying lengths to facilitate closer coupling. The secret to close coupling seems not so much how short a coupling is, but more that the NEM pocket they are plugged into is a kinematically swivelling pocket independent of the bogie or wagon body (eg like the IRM Tara wagons which can be practically buffered up in tension using kadee no 17s but don't buffer lock on bends due to the independent kinematic coupling pocket) Few pics below of kadee wagons closer coupled than with standard couplings Kadee no 18's really get ballasts and bubbles closer together. 20ft skeletal container flats Murphy Model Cravens have to be kit bashed as their NEM pockets are completely wrong height and length despite having kinematic swivel bars. MM mk2 coaches also incorrectly positioned NEM pockets because their height is wrong. Black roof coaches have Roco close couplers Orange roof coaches have alternating mix of no 19 and no 20 kadee's super glued under the NEM pockets. One of the advantages of the 'hunt' couplings is it doesn't matter about the NEM pockets being incorrect on rolling stock as they are not designed to uncouple automatically based on their height above the track. IRM ballasts, bubbles and plough vans need kadee no 18s superglued to underside of the NEM pockets for near perfect coupling height (ie rather than plugging into the NEM pockets). An easy fix and worth doing cause it allows stock to be mixed (eg: 42ft container flats, and cement bubbles in the same formation). More work is required with Murphy Model coaches, and even more with older non-NEM pocket stock where the old TLCs need to be cut away and draft gear box NEMs fitted under the wagon floor.

Hi David. If ever I ventured into O gauge with a short linear shunting layout (eg: Single 141 plus 6 x two axle wagons), I'd love to try 3 link couplings, they just look so dam good on loose coupled stock and seem the ultimate choice. Noel At this stage as I'm into operations and earlier era stock where shunting was par for the course unlike boring modern era uniform fixed rakes, I've converted most of my stock from tension lock to kadee and fortunately have enjoyed a degree of success, really enjoying shunting my two axle stock. I manage most of the time without a 'shuffle' more 1mm push back just to release the tension so the jaws open. Video clip below. The new hunt couplings are magnetic and I've seen similar on WMRC little siddington, but was not bowled over as they cannot uncouple except by the 'hand of god' and seem best suited for fixed rakes of uniform bogie stock. Operationally I found the older large tension locks used by Tri-Ang and Hornby in the 70s and 80s more reliable than the tiny TLCs that come standard on stock nowadays, useless for coupling and as bad for uncoupling and constant derailments when pushed around bends and any kind of speed. Too fiddly and too much misalignment. The older monster size TLCs while they looked hideous at least uncoupled and coupled reliably. Cheers. Noel

€450 for three mk3 coaches and a paper weight? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Lima-L149437-Irish-Class-201-Train-Pack-with-3-Coaches-CIE-Black-Orange/223930887671?hash=item3423522df7:g:atoAAOSwahheWV3f

Its too late to put it up on eBay the global shortage of bog roll has passed and South Dublin bimbos have ceased bulk buying it. Saw one with a trolly full of rolls, not bread rolls, the other sort of rolls. I do like a vegetable spring roll myself with sweat chill sauce, or better still a duck spring roll with S&S sauce. Keeping away from our local chinese for now. Ming the merciless had been one of our popular eateries.

Yes I saw loco that when I zoomed in using their app, but decided not to post a copy of the zoomed image due to their copyright. The coach behind looks fab but well away from home rails. Amazing six wheelers were still in use in 1933 on the DSER. Photo was right in front of the RIYC, another establishment lost in another century in a pleasant kind of way.

Flintstone? (After P Flynn's great grand father walked barefoot from Castlebar in 1916 to claim expenses for his participation)

Some fab photos from: Britain from above? 1933? Do they never learn. At least it was captioned 'Dun Laoghaire' and not Kingstown. Builder of layout Kingsbridge.

He could smuggle them out one loco each inside a roll of soft velvet in a 40ft container load of said rolls. Or send them by train Did you know 50% of the world's ventilators are made here in ROI? Hope its not like the potato famine and we don't export 100% of them. Keep safe, keep modelling. Expect to see many layouts progressing at a great rate of knots.

The best thing about this is the 'time' spent in another mental zone at the workbench, distracted and relaxed. Very therapeutic doodling with model bits. CIE goods wagon fleet soon to be expanded. Airbrush developed a cough spluttering paint, so had mid session cleaning.

No problem, You were writing a cheque at the time I think and I didn't want to distract you when you got to the zeros phase.

Holy sacred cow! You have some seriously good 0 gauge diesel loco scratch builders in MRSI. This is going to be something else altogether. I dream one day about having a 10ft x 2ft shunting layout with a 141 and a few of 2 axle CIE wagons.

Yes I was standing beside you when you collected same in Blackrock

Hear hear Yes indeed, and with our loved ones too. This is the time to take those hidden away kits out of the attic and get absorbed into them as a distraction. Gareth doesn't need kits he can make his own out of almost nothing.

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).