Noel

Agree. We did our first RPSI rail tour last October and quite enjoyed it, but personally diesel locos were not an attraction. One of the entertaining aspects of the rail tour was watching the 'paparazzi' in action whizzing up and down platforms and foot bridges chasing loco movements. Hopefully if there is a long steam tour next spring or summer we might give that a try.

Would love to do a trip like that but only if it was hauled by a steam loco.

Ok summer break over, back to my toy train workbench. Last bit of work on the TPO kit was done in May so time to finished it off. Started with glazing and adding pseudo bars behind the windows rather than paint them onto the clear plastic glazing as I did with the CIE bogie brake parcel van. Used evergreen half round strips painted grey with the round bit facing out and glued to the back of the glazing to give a depth effect. They are obviously over scale thickness but they create the visual effect I was looking for. Only a few more bits to do . . .

Thanks JB. Oh no pressure then. Hopefully it will be an enjoyable learning experience using new materials and techniques acquired along the journey.

The idea of a Gort station layout has been inspired by the iconic photos of Gort in Jonathan Beaumont and Barry Carse's wonderful book 'Rails Through The West'. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rails-Through-West-Limerick-Illustrated/dp/1780730063/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1538517346&sr=8-1&keywords=rails+through+the+west Planning for Gort layout has been proceeding with many iterations of the track layout tried and measured for rolling stock fit and shunting operations possible. Era will be 1960 to 1974 which covers Black'n'Tan era but the odd bit of early flying snail green sneaking in. The layout initially will be a shunting layout, with the option of adding 'roundie' loop and 3 lane fiddle yard at the back in the future in case I ever exhibit. With that in mind I have made one small change to the 1960s track plan and that is to place a point and short head shunt at the Athenry end of the station in place of the catch point that was on the original. This would facilitate independent shunting operations from 'roundie' running on the main line by another operator. For now this will be it on two boards, the main station 5ft x 18in and 4ft x 18in (right of red line below) Version 9 of track plan. Photos below reproduced here with permission Gort early 1970s with pick up goods traffic. A hint of the beginning of containerisation is evidenced by the 20ft Bell container mixed in with the 2 axle wagons just south of the water tower. A supertrain livery Sulzer 101 class waits with empty beet train heading back towards Athenry while B130 arrives from Athenry with goods train. Gort This is a beginning . . . Easter is supposed to be the end?

Stunning track work, ballasting and track bed weathering. Static grass also top notch and beautifully blended.

MM0141A is the preserved RPSI B141, of which you appear to have two. The preserved B141 does not have tablet catchers. MM0141, the original Black’n’tan livery B141 did have tablet catchers. I don’t know of any source for tablet catchers on their own. Suggest PM @WRENNEIRE of this parish who may be able to swap one of your MM0141A for an MM0141 or source spare parts.

Hope its one of these ships Apparently the Azipods are connected to the hull via NEM pockets!

Hi Fran. I noticed the ‘AS’ cemflo pre-productive sample you posted on RMweb. Looking very nice. I noticed the NEM pockets seem to be the plug in type which appears to give some degree of horizontal articulation for the coupling. Are you planning to do the same with new IRM releases such as the Tara’s? http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/134770-cemflo-by-accurascale/?p=3317113

Are the BGH (Belmond grand hibernian) mk3 train sets only hauled by loco (i.e. requiring run arounds), or capable of push/pull? Just curious as I hadn't noticed if the end coach was a pseudo DVT or just an observation coach.

The Bachmann bogie brake parcel is a relatively straight forward for conversion to a CIE bogie parcel look-a-like after adjusting windows and a few other bits IFM Bulleid HLV passes the 2ft rule admirably straight out of the box (not, well straight out of the bubble wrap).

Glad you managed to get a 1963 livery B141 complete withtablet catchers.

If my memory is correct this one was part of the 'Slainte Express' train set. The BR blue one came as part of a container train set complete with an operating container crane.

Or they could rent it for MMA, the fence looks perfect to protect spectators and keep combatants inside.

I use decalfix usually applying transfers on gloss surface but not always. Wait 24-36hr for transfers to dry, then seal by finishing the model in humbrol matt varnish.

Recent GM 201 class number 201 arrived on the layout today for running trials. Yes I know I am a bit of a hypocrite as I have bemoaned this horrible livery on the prototype that's never really 'blown my skirt up'. But no 201 was the class leader and in a moment of weakness I succumbed to have one orange example, albeit will be confined to a display case rather than run on the layout because its out of my era. How did somebody in the marketing department ever think this livery was compatible with the mk2 and mk3 tippex coach liveries was always a mystery to me. Nonetheless it is a fine model and I'm glad to have one. Will be put in the queue for weathering this winter. B165 and 190 dangerously close. Close enough to wonder how a 201 fit into a Tardis and travel back from 1995 to 1973. May have to inoculate B165 and 190 against catching any nasty modern era infections from 201. (In jest, well a little) I confess I do like the current two tone green and grey livery on the 201 prototypes that haul the Dublin-Cork Mk4 sets. Hence an MM0222 is parked in a siding with a rake of orange mk2d's behind it. Two is enough though! I'll be roasted in the 'bogie of eternal stench' for allowing such modernity contaminate the layout. The plastic little people on the layout are quite put out.

Just checked models. As Patrick said neither of Murphy Model's two B141 variants had CIE roundels (i.e. MM0141 1960s original with staff catchers on cab sides, and MM0141A RPSI restored version without staff catchers on cab sides). The other MM Black'n'Tan B165, B181 and B188 all had CIE roundels and staff catchers.

No prob. I thought I'd grabbed my photo of B141 Yes, Dave Bracken @WRENNEIRE of this parish may be able to supply you with a Black'n'Tan liveried B141 or B165.

Hi Tony Few links below for you to browse through . I pretty much followed @Glenderg‘s and others good advice and went for a Veda airbrush and a TC88 compressor. Acrylic paints (Vallejo, Railmatch and Tamiya). I appreciated their advice and it worked out for me. I think BartSharp have since commissioned their own Veda lookalike airbrush range. Loads of great YouTube videos on how to learn an airbrush with models. I was fortunate to see a great demo by Richie some years ago. The first thing I risked airbrushing was ballasted track for weathering purposes. http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/468-what-air-brush/ http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/3599-good-air-brush-kit-to-buy/ http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/1305-what-paint-for-what-airbrush-thread/ A few old pics below of gear. Have a good read of the links above

IRM Ballasts underwent some enjoyable Kadee shunting and uncoupling trails today. And it was a success. Short video clip below. Because occasionally I like to run, shunt and marshal these lovely wagons with other Kadee fitted stock, I have glued Kadee No 18 NEM couplings to the underside of the NEM pockets rather than into the NEM pockets. This gives a more correct height for activating uncoupling using the Kadee trip pin over uncoupling magnets. PS: Mods, for completeness in a few days time I'll also post this clip to my Kadee conversion thread.

Good advice above. For work minimisation I weathered track, ballast and rail sides using airbrush with railmatch acrylic sleeper grime colour. Light dusting over track and ballast in three passes, then one pass each side of each rail with narrow nozzle to dull the rail sides. Then wipe paint off the top of rails while still wet using a tiny patch of cloth wrapped around index finger.

Looks and sounds fabulous. Like watching scenes from a John Ford western movie.

Something like this B&T B188 would have looked right at home visiting Omagh in 1963 with pax or goods.

I was wondering the same. MM have 5 baby GMs in early 1960s Black'n'Tan livery (basically black loco with white band as per box cover), namely MM 141, 141A, 165, 181 and 188, all others are one of the orange livery variants. But easy for you to swap Tony.

Hi Brendan. Very neat again. Interesting you went for draft gearbox Kadee's instead of NEM Kadee's (e.g. No 18). I've been thinking of doing similar, but interested in the reasons you went for draft gearboxs? Noel