Noel

I thought B121 was finished but noticed earlier I'd forgotten the windscreen wipers, tablet catchers and horns. Doh! Every time you look at something like this you see more things you want to tweak but there is a time to call a halt, just be content and enjoy the end result. I hope this is finally finished at last. Time to play methinks.

I really hope so, but I’ll only believe it when I’ve actually got one paired up as a double header with B121 above, bonnet to bonnet hauling a rake of CIE era B&T coaches or IRM bubbles through Gort station layout reenacting scenes from ‘Rails through the West’.

B121 is now virtually complete. Glazing, Railings and buffer beam now done. She is a smooth runner being on a 3rd generation Athearn SW1500 chassis which is centre AWD and AWP. Just got the driver and cab interior left to do and then add a sound speaker. Thrilled to have a 121 to run on the layout on its own and in consist with B141. B121 ready for service The new fuel tank and bogies sides help hide the original Athearn chassis Left drivers window open as it was a hot day. Before - The donor chassis was an Athearn SW1500 3rd generation In the beginning - Shapeways 121 3D body shell before adjustment

In our home my family commonly refer to the layout as "Dad's train set", or "The Trains" Eye of the beholder and all that.

In the words of Fr Ted, Careful now, we could end up being confused by "These layouts are small, but the ones out there are far away"

eMail sent

I visually it looks somewhere between 20-25ft x 8ft but camera lens can play strange games and make things look bigger - or smaller! Its big but not massive by any means.

Cheers. No, fingers, tweezers and a needle nose pliers. Must investigate one of those after all the fiddle, faddle finger fustrratiion.

Finally got back to B121 project. Jeepers there is an awful lot of wire grab rails on these locos. Nearly done, just glazing, vacuum pipes and some supplementary weathering powders left. Bending all those wire grab rails with a basic needle nose pliers was fun. On delivery 121s did not have full length walkway rails, just shunters stands and grab rails on the body shell. The full length walkway rails were added some time during the Black'n'Tan livery era. I've gone for the earlier incarnation below with a little poetic license. Before painting the grab rails. Fiddle faddle my eyes and fingers are tired. The cab front steps were frustratingly mind bending to form. Nearly done.

Saw some similar scenes last weekend at the show in Raheny

Thanks to helpful advice from @Warbonnet and @Glenderg four years ago, I was fortunate to only buy one of those RTR, subsequently building (assembling) two C class kits on 141 donor chassis. I'm going to hang on to my few as they were an important part of Irish loco modelling history and were of their time. It will be nice to have one running on the layout for modelling nostalgia side by side with a fleet of IRM stunners designed by 'Sir Richard the Exact' and team IRM. It is a fantastic achievement by team IRM to get to a stage where they can realise such a major milestone and objective.

I vividly remember watching locos in that livery. Love the "tan" buffer beam.

That's a great 'coup'. Well done Dave. I wasn't sure if they were his baseboards, or somebody had copied his innovative design.

Having watched episodes 2 and 3 I tend to agree. First episode was the best. Mind you one of the team leaders seemed rather arrogant, not to mention bending the rules! Still fun to watch. At least the hobby is getting good exposure on a prime channel TV. PS: The baseboards they are all using look very familiar and I just wonder if they came from somewhere near this part of the world

Busy evening at the junction. Spent ages last evening shunting wagons between the up line main loop and yard sidings. Kadee’s and auto uncoupling have transformed the operational enjoyment of this hobby for me.

The catering looks impressive.

It’s fabulous. Enjoy.

Wow - Who built the O gauge baby GM? Does it run?

I popped into the show early on Saturday and quite enjoyed it. It was great to have the 'cafe' to get a snack and rest ones feet. It was rather a busy scrum at times moving around the corridors and it would have been nice to see some more layouts, otherwise another enjoyable show. The IRM announcement was perhaps the highlight of the show. I think they ran steam locos all with sound on Saturday and Monday with Sunday being diesel day The big steam locos and their operators had to return to Wexford for their open day on Sunday.

The B&T 121, 141, 181 baby GMs only had the small low orange band, so perhaps the 'dipped' (i.e. stepped) B&T livery on the A class was an attempt to mimic that for consistency. Basically those locos were black with white and orange trim suiting the positioning of the walkways.

Hope you still have your shovel handy I was just about to start a kit I have, but in light of Saturday's news I will try another C class or a Sulzer instead. PS: Yes the one above in the pic was RTR, hence the unorthodox visual pattern above the front cab windows. Two of these should complement the IRM A classes next year PS: Anybody spot the major glaring mistake? (aside from facial impact from a shovel)

The Great Model Railway Challenge on Ch5 or YouTube. New TV series covering layout building competition between 15 teams. Very entertaining and great publicity for the hobby. Episodes 1-3 now available on YouTube. The rest should be also on YouTube after its aired on Ch5.

Thanks Patrick. Yes, I fully understood from Fran's (@Warbonnet) post IRM would be 'bang on the money' and accurate to evidence of past liveries via photos, etc, and I now understand IRM's A23r will have the lower stepped band. Please forgive, perhaps I should have phrased my query more clearly. It seems there were two variations of height on the high (i.e. non-stepped) orange band applied at different times on all B&T A classes. My query was simply which of the two high band variations have IRM chosen for A15? Cheers Noel

Order placed. Will start building new loco shed.

Thanks Fran. There were two heights used for the higher band B&T livery. Restored A39r on the photo above had the higher high band (forgive the highs), whereas many high band A's had the slightly thinner high band set at the same height as the front cab band of A3r above without stepping down along the sides. You can see the difference in heights using the marker lights on cab front. I assume the IRM A39R will be like the restored loco, but will A15 be quite the same height as the untypical high band on A39r? A3r photo above shows the correct white flash above the cab windows.