Noel

Where is this station? http://steverabone.com/RailwayPhotographs/irelan126.jpg I'm assuming its in Northern Ireland.

Thanks Popeye. Encouragement from a skilled maestro such as yourself is humbling. The cutting and filling was scary but took it slow. CIE Brake Parcel van made it debut on the layout this evening. Its play time.

"Travail Incroyable" Translated = Incredible Work

Thanks Jonathan. ''Twas your advice last year that gave me the idea of doing a brake parcel. Cheers Paul. The main thing was it was enjoyable.

CIE Brake Parcel Van finished at last. Converted from a Bachmann LMS parcel van. Lightly weathered using a mix of weathering powders and airbrush. I've enjoyed doodling with this little project. I'm reasonably happy the way the light weathering turned out. Woodvale Junction station pilot about to shunt CIE brake parcel van onto rake of laminate coaches. Bachmann donor before and after conversion

Thanks good info, yes I'm aware of that. Gave the brush a good bath with soapy water afterwards and then ran water through it for a good while.

Quad track from Bray to Howth Junction and t'would be no problem except for finance. Then commuters from Louth, Wicklow, Wexford could get quickly into Dublin city centre instead of tail gating Darts congestion. A train journey that is slower than a car seems rather like a broken pencil - pointless.

Yehaw! Veda 186 airbrush is back in operation and working perfectly again! You never stop learning. Thanks to Richie, Irishtump and Eoin for your advice. A combination of all eventually worked. I was flummoxed and about to give up but then thought I'd nothing to loose so had one last try. I striped everything of the body and gave it on its own another ultrasonic bath, but this time for a long 6 minutes. Then I soaked it for two hours in surgical spirits. Put it back together again and this time I could tell immediately that there was more air pressure and when tested with water a lovely fine mist come out of it. So next was to try it with real paint which worked a dream. I very lightly weathered two CIE craven coaches. Mainly under frames, bogies, coach ends and a little on the roof. Thank you guys! There's always something new to learn.

They are working on solutions (see IT piece below). Hopefully one day it will all gel together. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/longer-luas-trams-withdrawn-due-to-fault-in-system-1.3429510 Far in the future I would love to be able get to Heuston from Bray by rail in 30 minutes, change platform and be in Cork by rail two hours later. That would be 10 minutes quicker than I can do it by road at the moment point2point.

Well done Tony. You've cast off and you are now underway making way. (forgive the nautical analogy). Best of luck with the ongoing development and most importantly of all, I hope it proves an enjoyable journey for you.

Amazerballs - The story telling is fantastic. Pure genius, pure class, visual entertainment extraordinaire.

Light weathering completed and transfers added. Now matt varnish, glue prepared glazing in, and put it on the weathered chassis.

Thanks Richie. Its been through the ultrasonic bath which can shift even time! I think I've kybashed it myself by removing the nozzle too many times recently. Up to a month ago I never removed the nozzle from either airbrush and never had a problem. I think this is the problem combined with my hands. Its my own fault, I should have stuck to my previous cleaning regime as it always worked. I recently changed my pattern after watching a few YouTubes on cleaning which suggested removing the needle out through the front of the airbrush instead of rear ward so that you wouldn't pull paint back up into inside of the brush, but this obviously requires the nozzle to be unscrewed. Clearly the threads and O rings didn't like this man handling by me. With hindsight it wasn't necessary to disassemble as much as I was doing for deep cleans.

That's sounds like good advice. The Veda doesn't owe me a whole lot after a whole years use costing me about €35. It served its purpose as a great starter air brush while I learned before committing to a long term product. Iwata, Badger or H&S will be researched. Presume the neo is dual action, but does it had a trigger limiter?

The plot thickens. I was cleaning my Veda 134 earlier and when I put the 0.3mm nozzle back its sheared in half even though I was hand tightening it. I managed to twist the broken half threaded section and get it out of the air brush. Replaced the entire needle set with a 0.2mm set (i.e. needle, nozzle and nozzle cap) and at least the 134 is now working again but the 186 remains a mystery. Braking one air brush is unfortunate, two in 24hrs seems careless! I've loved using these two Veda air brushes over the past 12 months and never had trouble before, but I suspect all my problems stem from a recent change in cleaning pattern. I never removed the nozzles before when cleaning and used to withdraw the needle rear wards out of the air brush for cleaning. Recently I started removing the needle forwards out of the air brush so that any paint on the needle would not be pulled into the innards as per my previous method which never caused a problem anyway. The way I removed the needle forwards was first to pull it back into the airbrush by about 7mm (so its not under any load in next step), then remove the nozzle cover, unscrew the nozzle using the micro spanner supplied with the brush, and then pull the dirty needle forwards out of the gun. I'm beginning to suspect that the more frequent unscrewing of the nozzle due to its soft material has created air gaps, but I could be wrong. It was difficult to know how much to tighten it when screwing back on. I beginning to wonder if its time to invest in a higher quality air brush, OR fix what I am doing wrong?

Yes I remember SMRC well. Bought my first kits from that wonderful Aladdin's cave of modelling treasure. It was like the Tardis, bigger on the inside than it looked outside. The owner was a gentleman.

Hi Richie. Thanks, Yes to both. I have not tried it yet with actual paint since the deep clean, just hand tested the air pressure. My 186 has been flawless up to know and I love it. It has always released slightly less air than other brushes but that was always enough. I normal have the tank at 20-25 psi and the pressure nut fully open. Thanks for the suggestions. Will try paint later. Noel First step of weathering done. Some wet powders to accentuate doors, hinges, run off water, etc. Water mix with decalfix allows rewetting if need to correct anything. Next step will be a dusting of frame dirt and roof dirt with air brush. Keen systems suspended corridor connectors added.

Thanks Eoin. I gave the 186 a deep clean last night including an ultrasonic bath, replaced seals, nozzle, needle (all 0.3mm), etc, but the air pressure is still significantly less than the other brush (134). Will check there are compressor cable leaks even though that makes no sense as the 134 is working perfectly. I am suspicions of the little air flow valve which is an additional feature of the 186 air brush that the 134 doesn't have. Have dismantled and inspected it and replaced the O ring, all looked spotless and the ultrasonic bath should have released any unseen paint debris. Even with the lower pressure will give it another try with paint later, just in case the 134 has different tolerances.

Air brush mystery continues. Restricted air flow on my Veda 186 compared to the 134 which I had to use tonight. I’ve replaced the needle, nozzle and nozzle cover but do difference in air flow. I am now guessing there may be a constriction occurring in the trigger mechanism (i.e. inside where the hose connects to the air brush). Some dried paint must have worked its way down there. Will try ultrasonic cleaner tomorrow.

Time to do the glazing. As the windows are now larger using a replacement strip of clear plastic with painted grey window bars. There was a lot of masking before spraying halfords grey plastic primer which I hope will grip the flexible clear plastic sheeting better than other paints. Previous and replacement glazing strips after painting the window bars on Today I also painted and fettled the fittings for the replacement suspended corridors connectors, painted the chassis and bogies. Just a few more bits to do and she will be finished and then its weathering.

Speechless

Interesting. Around 1983 a pal of mine was then an engineer with CIE and he kindly gave me a tour of the Connolly control room for both the Dart and mainline rail, including the relay room for the Dart and the CCTV room for the dart crossings. Then he took me for a cab ride on a passing Dart explaining with the driver all the then state of the art gubbins they had. I remember being mightily impressed at the time. He explained to me that each coach weighed itself which was used amongst other inputs to calculate maximum speeds and braking distances required. The driver demonstrated the set refusing to exceed the speed limit for a particular section of track that was on based on weight, incline, temperature, track curve, and factors like leaves and ice, etc. The level of automation and fail safes for 1983 was impressive. Less impressive were the rolls of paper spewing out of the machine counting axles and measuring axle box temperature on the main line rail. It looked like the output from a seismometer.

I agree, just wish some of it was underground.

Wow what a fantastic photo scene. A proper train with an engine up front pulling carriages and properly punctuated by a brake van. Some time in the late 70s my late father threw me a copy of the business plan for the Dart and the only comment I remember him utter was half its market hinterland was occupied by fish rather than commuters, but I remember him being for it despite that. He was keen on exploring the viability of reopening the Harcourt street line.

Ok, flame throwers down, let me clarify where I was coming from. I encounter the Luas both driving a car and on board. I like it for the routes that suit me, but in the city sections it is so slow compared to the London underground (yes I know Dublin is tiny by comparison). Sure I get it would obviously have been too expensive to put the whole thing under ground, but at least the city centre sections could have been placed under the surface or raised. The traffic flow maths doesn't seem to stack up running them on the surface of the city centre (i.e. recent traffic interaction problems). In relation to boring and granite issues I'd be interested in Richie's view of the revised underground Metro plans. Bare in mind also over the next 15 years predominant personal road vehicles may probably be dominated by EVs reducing both air and noise pollution. Not sure if or when HGVs may ever become electric. So my gripe was the operation of the Luas in the city centre sections. With Metro the planers have seen fit to go underground in the city.