Noel

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.

Hi Tony. FYI locos merely listed at 175 on fleebay does not mean they are necessarily selling for that price. I bought most of mine on fleebay for between £85 and £105. Is your loco 141 or 141A (ie the preserved one without the tablet catchers)? 141A retailed in Marks for about €135 new a few years ago. These are quite rare nowadays so a nice opportunity for somebody to get a ubiquitous 141 especially in their best looking prototypical livery - Black'n'Tan'. Cheers. Noel

Imagine its 2040. East meets west as Preserved 182 in Supertrain livery is double heading with preserved B&T Livery B165 hauling an RPSI heritage rake of CAF mk4 coaches. Time travel is possible on my layout, my rules! E=MC**4. RPSI decided not to bother preserving any 22k class as they might not be able to sell any tickets for rail tours. Time Travel back to 1974 182+B165 double head the early morning mail train 182 waits with a local train in the up line passing loop. The attraction of ST livery is it overlapped and co-existed with B&T era liveries for quite some years.

Ballybeg looks fab as ever. Love Gerry's layout, that bus scene under the bridge is fabulous. Reminiscent of Youghal.

Waterford West sounds inviting

Cheers. A most enjoyable Saturday afternoon. It’s tiring though cause it takes time, can’t be rushed, and I’ve had to learn patience. as well as 182 managed to lightky weather 229 also Addimg the detailing kits to 182 and 229 nearly too as much time as the painting, eyes and fingers brain dead by the time I’d finished.

182 returns to traffic this evening after travelling forward 20 years in a time machine. The MM detailing kit greatly improves the look of the loco

It was easier to do the job with the body shell off. Step one was applying the weathering powder in solution using a paint brush. Then wait to partially dry and start to wipe off and rework using damp cotton buds (many cotton buds). This takes time and patience, its easy to miss a spot. It can't be rushed. Getting the body shell off a baby GM can be fun. Prior to weathering 182 today I had to get the body shell off. A common requirement for fitting decoders. Few pics here of process to get body shell off. Two wooden ice cream sticks are a help to apply enough pinching force to the body centre section over the mounting lugs to release them. See pics. Its easy when you know how, otherwise one could be fooled into thinking brute force or dynamite is needed to get the body shell off. If you pinch the correct spots it easily comes away just enough to get a thin screw driver under it to leverage it up and away from the walkway.

This looks like it will end well and look fabulous. Great and inventive work.

Here's hoping! I have an insurance policy in case not as soon as we all hope.

182 weathered today. I was more than a little apprehensive as this was the first ever MM loco that I bought (at the Fry Museum in Malahide castle about 14 years ago, and I was worried about making a complete dogs dinner out of the lovely loco that was responsible for bringing me back into the hobby. 182 has a special place in my modelling consciousness despite my dislike of the prototypical super train livery. I normally only very lightly weather locos with just a light dusting, just enough to take the pristine look off them, but this time I went for broke using a mix of powders and airbrush. Felt very scary but I'm moderately pleased with the result. Also added the MM Detailing kit to one cab end which greatly helps the look of the loco head on despite the lack of a coupling for run arounds. Before and after. It almost seemed a shame to touch 182 especially as she was my first MM loco, but I like the way she turned out. Aged and used but not a scrape line candidate. I took the bogies off to avoid overspray on the wheels and pickups. They are snap fit and just pop off. I did 182 lighter than 088 last week, far less airbrush after the weathering powders. Took the bogies off to weather them independently saves paint getting on wheels and pickups. The MM 181 buffer beam detail kit was worth adding but, fiddley flip my eyes and fingers were frazzeled after fitting these tiny pieces using magnifying glasses and small tweezers. Must glue that cab down firmly on the sole bar to get rid of the gap. This really is great fun, and I had a few glitches on the way, airbrush clogging and pulsing, but quickly resolved on the fly. There is nothing as stimulating as learning new stuff. The advantage of water based powders and acrylic airbrush paint is its relatively easy to fix boo-boos. Quite impressed with the MM detailing kit especially the screw link coupling and coupling hook.

Great idea for remote model layout driving as a web service. I've only done it from down stairs using an iPad for cab eye view using a goPro and WIFI cab throttle on old iPhone. (opps thread drift - will stop now)

Welcome @Ribérac. I still consider myself a relative newbie here. But the guys on here are a friendly bunch, and "a great bunch of lads", much like the Chinese on Fr Ted's Craggy Island.

No prob. There has been much discussion on the sad closure of the O guage layout at Malahide Castle and then the proposal to build a new layout 00 guage layout beside a new museum to house the original Fry collection at the old Malahide casino premises provided by Fingal local authority, and a substantial bequest from a farmer towards the project. It will be back just very different from the amazing 'toy town' style O gauge layout we all loved so much. It was the malahide castle Fry museum that helped get me back in the hobby when I first saw a Bachmann/Murphy model loco, no 182 which I was the first proper piece of Irish rolling stock I ever owned. Fond memories. Also in the 1980s we had a customer site out that way near Kinsealy that I regularly used to visit, but often to kill time before or after a meeting I'd drop down to the castle and watch the display entertain me. It was vast and impressive. There is no doubt the size of O gauge models in motion have an effect on the senses that 00 gauge fails to achieve. Its a pity but I'm sure the new layout will have a unique charm and visual impact all of its own. The B&I/SeaLink ferry leaving port on the old layout is etched in my memory forever and the vast hall the layout was in with the operators walkways up over the layout boards akin to the walkways at a north sea oil platform!

Like the look of the class 92 and the mk5 coach sets but will almost certainly delay ordering until they are in stock, ready for delivery. Could be perfect donors for IR Intercity CAF livery resprays, especially the mk5 DVT.

Recently there has been a flood of Murphy Model 141/181s on eBay over the past few weeks but all selling for approx €200ea. Is this a market distortion, or are people actually paying this sort of insane money for model locos (ie toys for grown ups)? Few examples linked below. They can readily be bought at swop meets in places like Bray and Stillorgan for much more sensible prices. They may be the finest models ever produced of an Irish diesel locomotives, but these things don't even come with speakers, nor independently operating head lamps, nor cab driver figure. Not to mention the lack of working windscreen wipers. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Murphy-Models-Bachmann-Irish-Class-181-CIE-Black-Loco-MM0181-OO-Gauge/143127865264?epid=907307345&hash=item215315e7b0:g:gFEAAOSw0IBcZHra:rk:2:pf:0&shqty=1&isGTR=1#shId https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Murphy-Models-Bachmann-Irish-Class-181-CIE-Orange-Black-Loco-MM0182-OO-Gauge/143127848281?hash=item215315a559:g:WfcAAOSwA~5cYfNx:rk:4:pf:0 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Murphy-Models-Bachmann-Irish-Class-181-IE-Orange-Loco-MM0181-OO-Gauge/143127860772?hash=item215315d624:g:EhsAAOSwt5dcYfXH:rk:5:pf:0

What a photo scene. Stunningly evocative. I think we may have cycled through that tunnel last year as its now a superb greenway with a preservation railway a few miles outside Waterford (ie. SVR).

Wow that’s a great result for scratch built brass. How did you do the super looking rivets?

Converted some IR Intercity Hornby Mk4 Coaches to Kadee couplings by cutting the ugly tension lock couplings off the bogies and replacing with NEM pockets housing a mix of Kadee no 17 and no 18 NEM couplings. Test run forwards and backwards proved successful. Next is to cannibalise and respray donor BR donor DVT into IR intercity livery to go with these coaches and 222. Head hung in shame at the modernity of such a train infesting the layout. . . . but I quite like it. The kadee's also get the coaches coupled much closer together than the ugly Hornby Tension lock couplings. Height gauge essential for correct coupling and especially trip pin height over rails. The odd bogie I had to use the kadee trip pin pliers to change the radius of the pin so it would sit at the correct height above the uncoupling magnets. The coaches sit closer together than they did with the large plastic moulded in Hornby TLCs. I'll have to get an immunity certificate from the ancient society of CIE B&T brethren for infesting the layout with such incompatible modernity or I could be sentenced to 'rot forever in the bogie of eternal stench' for operating post 1974 model stock! :) PS: This was a much easier conversion job on the bogies than last weeks surgery.

Cement Pallet train waits on the up line inner loop up line at Woodvale junction while the early morning mail train over takes it on the express outer loop. Mixed pickup goods trains waits on P2 outer down line loop while B165 overtakes it running light engine on route to Claremorris to join B188 assisting with a returning 14 coach knock special pilgrims train. B141 station pilot in background waits to move Taras into sidings clearing the road to the shed for the goods train can drop off a pair of vans. An hour later 088 arrives on the up inner loop hauling a local service passing the Cement Pallet train which is still waiting for a pathway to Heuston yard. 088's buffer beam with the MM detail bits looks a lot better. I've never fitted these bits before to an MM loco, just valances to a few baby GMs.

To finish up 088 I added the MM detailing pack to one cab end. Some nice bits it has too, as well as the valence to hide the NEM coupling pocket, it has a proper coupling hook with a screw link coupling and all the hoses which are impossible to fit even with the tiniest of tweezers. The detailing pack really does lift the appearance of one cab end but run arounds will no longer possible as coupling only at one and of the loco, but worth it for a few scale like specimens. I really like the three link screw coupling MM provide.