Noel

Yes on reflection I wish I had used resin instead of PVA but when I saw how 'Little Siddintons' large O gauge baseboards had survived so much movement, erection and disassembly, in and out of transit vans I suspect the PVA/Tape mix will suffice. Gort only has two 5x2ft boards so should avoid being subjected to too much wear and tear and will fit in the back of my car. On Kingsbridge the ply is glued and screwed to the structural frame for added strength and I can walk on the boards it is so strong and stable. Yes PVA doesn't take that long to dry when laminating so while I've had some success with the hot glue gun i'm not a passionate evangelist for it, there are other methods that work just as well and don't take that much extra time. An advantage of smaller base boards is being able to work on them upside down, or on their sides, whereas on Kingsbridge I have to crawl around under the boards to do wiring and stuff.

Stunning Gerry. Love the brick work, blended colour tones, track ballasting, the patches of grass growth, and especially the storage tanks.

Yes I can attest to that but wow keep your fingers away from the blasted glue for a few mins after application - wear gloves. I got a nasty burn putting these together. Which only took about 15 minutes per board. Hot glue gun is great though. All my other boards from years ago were glued and screwed (PVA). Then glass fibre/PVA Tape the joints and seal with paint for moisture stability easy of adding scenery later, etc

Next up when I'm strong enough to tackle it. Convert this £17 eBay DT into something vaguely resembling a CAF Mk4 DVT with the 'duck face' to work between these Tony Mirolo resprays below and 222. The razor saw, scalpel and files will be busy. But I like working with plastic. Getting the 'duck face' and 'humpback whale' look will be challenging. The re-painting will be the less awkward pit.

Yes indeed an expensive year ahead for modellers with both the IRM/AS A class and MM 121 locos arriving in 2019 (not to mention the Deltic). All drinking from the same limited well. But what a wonderful complaint to have. We've never had it so good with high quality Irish scale models. Happy days having the nice problem of balancing 121s with A's. I guess I will choose more A's than 121s as 121 weren't as populous hauling trains as the other GM locos and especially the A's which dominated the 60s and 70s until the 071s took over much of their duties. Right up my era.

After decades of film SLR, when I changed, The best camera I ever had in terms of opportunity to capture images was one of those what purists call 'nasty' mirrorless compact bridge super zoom cameras - A fuji, but I got some of the best shots ever, because it was light, portable and available. One lens from wide to long no changing lens, no lost shots. As a typical male gadget geek in a moment of weakness I went back to DSLR some years ago with a stupid bag full of paperweight lenses, and flash guns, tripod, etc, but to be honest its a waste of space, for the last few years the best pics I've got especially cruising (ie sea scapes) has been my smartphone. All it lacks is telephoto lens, and the shots are instantly editable, correctable in-phone and instantly shareable or uploadable. Nowadays I only bring the peat briquette of an inexpensive Nikon DSLR model and long lens when I know I will need longs shots and leave an inexpensive 18-200 lens on it most of the time instead of an 200mm F2.8. But I often see a shot in my head and think 'ughhh' before picking up the paper weight and instead just grab the iPhone and never loose the memory, and for me pics are just to capture memories and trigger the mind into recalling more memories about what happened on that day or the event. DLSRs are systems designed to appeal to guys yearning for collecting bags of lego bits and accessories and the marketing works. You end up with a bag of lenses but end up using only one 99% of the time. Personally I think the future for consumer cameras is mirrorless with a decent super zoom lens and good low light capability (ie a modern compact bridge camera). Its a bonus if you can find one that takes AA rechargeable batteries as you never have to worry about charging it, if you get stuck just throw a few duracell AAs in the camera bag and you'll never be caught out. Some are better at video than others. This is a great site for camera reviews and tech info https://www.dpreview.com PS The Nikon D3500 is a grand little camera if you put an 18-200mm lens on it. or if you want to spend more A D5600, or the ultimate pro-summer DSLR a D7500 but it will cost. The Nikon Coolpix P1000 seems a great mirrorless compact bridge. Canons are great too but I'm not upto date on their ranges. Health warning some canikon users can get very emotional and almost religious about their cameras depending on what they own (ie its gotta be Canon or its gotta be Nikon, rubbish that's just the result of successful marketing and irrational customer loyalty. Dare to shop around and try other brands. Sony, Fuji, and Panasonic have some super gear. Keeps it simple and avoid buying a bag of bits that will end up dust collecting on top of a wardrobe within a few years.

They are. MIR still sell them on their eBay site https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Anhydrous-Ammonia-Tanker-Wagon-Kit/113461453496?hash=item1a6ad462b8:g:Es4AAOSwAQVcGAN5 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Anhydrous-Ammonia-Tanker-Wagon-Kit/113461453496?hash=item1a6ad462b8:g:Es4AAOSwAQVcGAN5

Wow fabulous live scenes. You can just imagine all the industrial noises, clanking, banging, flange squeal, horns, station announcements and the back ground murmur of LPPs chattering on the platforms, a group of nuns in full habit floating gracefully down the platform as if they were on castor wheels, a late student running down the platform in a total flap pushing their full size bicycle, as a guard blows his whistle, prefacing the build up of air in the door closing system and brake system, the loco horn toots, will she make it, will she manage to get the bike on to a standard open coach that has no bike racks, folks on the footbridge cheering her on with encouragement, the kindly guard delays waving the green flag at the driver 200m away, she leaps on, drags the bike on, clunking and banging it as she get clogged in the corridor with American tourists and their King Kong sized luggage. Grid lock, but the door closes, the train ever so quietly start to inch forward as the loco engines 200m away notch up on the launch pad, echoing tumultuously off the station roof as, relief on the students face, she has 3hours to find a seat and plan her route back to Heuston from Claremorris to get the cork train she though she was on. The bike was smiling though on route to the Atlantic greenways. Seriously Noel, those layout scenes are alive with busy plausible activity. Top class. best IE/IR layout that never ceases to entertain.

Super scenes captured. Nothing worse in the known universe than being put off a comfy train to get onto a slow bus.

Fascinating combination one great find. Post the GNR steam era, NIR did ugly rolling stock better than any other company on these islands. I might try a few cement bubbles behind a 2600 class AEC railcar on the layout for fun.

Hi Paul. All is well now thank you. Scary but no pain no gain as they say. Take care. Noel

As ever Dave thank you for your kind words. Gloxing Boves at Bray Be happy it’s a lovely day.

Had a very pleasant surprise just now as this kind card from fellow WMRC members arrived delivered by the hand of a good friend and fellow member Dave. Thank you guys. All good here after successful procedure. Should be back on my feet track laying soon.thank you Wexford MRC friends. Looking forward to Easter exhibition. A little birdie told me there are FORTY exhibition layouts booked to attend the Easter exhibition. Noel

I normally do but not in this case. I would have to remove the glazing first of mask it very effectively (ie air sealed not just spray blocked) otherwise the glazing could go opaque. So far I've found acrylics fairly stable once cured and reasonably handling proof. It does bring up a separate point though and this is painting or weathering onto plastic instead of onto a painted surface. Weathering powders in particular attach much better to a paint surface than just shiny plastic, and the finest mist of airbrush spray takes to paint much better than plastic. It has been suggested to me that a coat of matt varnish onto raw plastic models may assist when weathering (ie a thin coat of matt varnish provides a better base for paint or powders to key to). Myth or true I know not, but I'll try it out sometime (eg MM Mk2 orange coach roofs).

Eeek! Wow - Underneath those cement bubble wagons really does look like the underside detail of the IRM wagons. Knew one day that superb hidden detail would see the bright light of day eventually. Wonder what caused what happened? The track ahead looks well buckled suggesting heavy braking of a heavyily laden train immediately prior to the derailment. Will Tara Junction be the first layout to model this scene? Ps they definitely look 21mm gauge

A brace of Murphy GMs aged and weathered. To conclude this particular weathering workbench a few pics taken of 088 and 182 in afternoon sunlight. Personally I've found I prefer painting and working on models in natural daylight compared to artificial light - perhaps that's ageing eyesight, but its just easier to see shapes, shadows and depth of colour. I am fortunate to have vellux window right over the workbench area. I really enjoyed working on these two and learned a lot. 182 is my personal favourite because she is less heavily guncked! (or is that because she was my first ever MM) The MM Detailing kits added to one cab end of both of these models. Once again thank you MM for these beauties especially the Baby GMs which are so ubiqutous and diminutive yet convey a sense of motive power.

Indeed. I thought some of the prices paid for some items that were in poor condition was astonishing. Many staff tokens went for close to €300 which seems crazy but clearly there is a market for this stuff. One can’t help wondering how much of it ends up being dust collectors on tops of wardrobes never seeing the light of day, or worse ending up in skips with 10 years. A lot of junk at silly prices. I’d have liked one or two staffs but not for €300 each.

Interesting scenes. Especially liked the craven set in the far background moving on the elevated track section. Some of the tippex baby GMs were not that dirty.

Cute but a bit tame this is better And the classic original train station flash mob

Iconic layout. Love it. I feel at home in the west of Ireland.

Indeed Railway tracks raison d'être always seemed primarily to carry passenger trains and goods trains, Yellow PW stuff on rails never blew my skirt up, no more than motorway services vehicles cutting daisies, or a hotel janitors cupboard! Background stuff essential I'm sure to keep the trains running, but unseen by the general public most of the time. As a child you dreamt of colourful passenger express trains screaming over a viaduct, or a mile long goods train struggling to get up an incline, some yellow bag of bits chugging and vibrating just doesn't do anything for the imagination nor senses. Thanks Robert. That makes sense. So they do the weed spraying and safety stuff like track quality and alignment monitoring, etc. Are they also a contractor for track laying and stuff like ballast cleaning, etc?

Please what does 'Sperry' mean or stand for?

FYI, All MM locos are DCC ready with a 21pin decoder socket on the main PCB, and MM0141 also has a speaker cradle ready to install a standard 20x40mm unhoused speaker. I'm no Cork man by the way, my family originated in Kerry.

MM0141A (preserved) doesn't have them

If there are no tablet catchers actually on the cab sides then she is 141A (ie the loco Murphy Models bought and donated to RPSI) and the model depicts the preserved 141.