Noel

Two good presidents!!!

Valentines day is for unmarried courting couples (i.e. that excludes married couples). Wedding Anniversaries are for married people. Commerce and marketing hype tries to brainwash us poor male railway modellers into believing that it is both.

Some modellers use cutters like Silhouette CAMEO 3 for cutting thin plastic card and laminate for thicker components https://www.silhouetteamerica.com/shop/machines/cameo

Yes superb etches. BGH not my sort of thing either but these could tempt me. I'd have to modify the livery though with some fine gold or grey horizontal lining below the windows. IMHO In real life the BGH livery seems rather plain. Ps. Des any update on your BCK GSV etched sides (i.e. 3173).

Just my sequence, not necessarily the correct or ideal: Temporarily Lay the track dry using drawing pins (avoid points over board joints or cross members for later point motors) Test run trains to ensure smooth operation, no derailments, clearances between longer rolling stock items on parralell track at bends. (I.e. Avoid corners of passing coaches touch each other). Simulate prototypical operations (i.e. Shunting, run around, building formations, etc) Adjust track if required from steps 2 & 3 Accurately mark finalised track position on base board. Accurately mark holes for point motors Remove track Cut, lay and glue down track bed or yard sheet (i.e. 3mm cork or 3mm dense cell black foam), copydex a better glue than PVA because it doesn't go hard therefore does not transmit rail noise through track bed to base board Drill point motor holes under where point tie bars will be. Option - do messy scenic work now before track relaid, such as forming shapes using plaster/foam, roads, etc. Relay and pin track to track bed Wire primary track power Before ballasting perform test run of all track Ballast track with suitable ballast material using wet PVA method Weather track and ballast (air brush by far the quickest and easiest way to do thus) Clean rail tops Test run variety of stock again Finish track wiring Point motor wiring. Do non messy scenic work, scatters, static grass, buildings, trees, walls, foliage, fences, etc

Saw this great idea over on Railway Modellers Ireland FaceBook site "Don't forget tomorrow Saturday 10 Feb is our hands on Airbrush Demo and try day in the Greenogue Shop. We will have special prices on the day, complimentary tea and coffee 10am to 6pm" I'm hoping to pop over about 11:00, might bump into a few forumites.

Uncannily realistic. The work of one of the masters. Enjoy

+1

Very true PS: I still have the screen grab of a certain PM from 2015 advising me about RTR A class options

Great idea Fran, et al. Will be attending. To add to @iarnrod excellent speculations, my own dream list would be: Single beat wagon (I know, I know I've just made a rake of 3D ones but IRM spec would be hyper-wow) Double beat wagon H-Van CAF Mk4 DVT (really out of my era but its gorgeous and would look great behind an MM 222 or 229) Side Curtain cement wagon Bogie Fertiliser wagon B101 Sulzer B113 Sulzer (Dalek) 2 axle Guinness wagon with keg loads E class shunter The seat may need reupholstering after the mannequin got a fright

Top class. Very elegant buildings both.

Thanks George. Yes hope to finish that up tomorrow. Thanks for your advice BTW.

Hi Gerry Not for the C class but yes for the Sulzer. There was careful consideration and research about using these two MM chassis as donors, and the decision was not taken lightly or without considering alternates. In case anybody thinks I'm being wasteful, I waited patiently over the past two years to acquire both of these donors at very low cost, both costing less than alternate Bachmann BR donor chassis on eBay. I ruled out using Hornby railroad style chassis as often recommended with SF kits because they do not run anywhere near as precisely as Bachmann/MM centre drive chassis, and also ruled out spud drives like Tenshodo with 15:1 gear ratio because of their running quality. Hollywood Iron foundry was another option but are more expensive than these donors, they don't even have PCBs, and not DCC ready. C class: Ironically the MM 141 is the ideal chassis for a C class in terms of length, bogie wheel spacing, lights, speaker space, easy of replacing bogie sides, NEM pocket heights to clear buffer beams, etc, and requires minimal work to fit the SF C class resin body, just cut a few mm of the both ends of the chassis using a mini drill disc cutter. You end up with a top class centre drive double flywheel runner AWD, AWP, lights, etc. Sulzer: The 071 bogie axle spacings are a perfect match for the SF B101 Sulzer, but the chassis requires to be shortened by way of two cut and joins each side of the centre drive motor, including shortening both carden shafts. The reason for two cuts is so the shafts are still long enough to allow both bogies pivot freely when the shortened chassis is reassembled. The MM chassis has all the lighting on the PCB as well as the snap fit bogie covers that are easy to change sides while retain the NEM pockets. Other considerations were that I am already familiar with these Bachman/MM style chassis, they are 21pin DCC and sound ready, both with speaker cradles, both with lighting PCBs, and most importantly of all both run as smoothly and reliable as a Swiss clock.

Transplant donors being prepared for the ritual sacrifice. This risks me being expelled from 'rotting in the bogie of eternal stench' such is the imminent destruction of such sacred cows, however cheaply bought into slavery from eBay.

Range anxiety don't think the BEV would make it that far on a single charge.

Doh - that's nowhere near any of the canals! I told you guys before you can't trust Chinese rockets.

Dave, the only way you'll ever get me inside a rocket is to head over to IRM towers quickly to collect a brace of Black'n'tan livery A classes with working windscreen wipers, and perhaps even one of those modern era Super train livery ones.

Hi Paul. Thanks. It was @Georgeconna who told me about it. I have some of his fab weathered MIR bubbles on which he had used it to create texture on the top sides. I decided to make some sort of attempt to replicate his superb bubble weathering which seems one of the 'go to' standards. There are other ways of achieving this but I decided to try it George's way. There are multiple versions of Mr Surfacer, it is basically a sand-able model filler in different thicknesses 500 being the thickest and 1200 being the thinest almost enough for air-brush use. Plastic modellers use it to fill imperfections not unlike modelling the putty I used on the recent GSV plastic cut'n'shut. I can see a raft of other uses for it to great areas of debris on station platforms, base of buildings, road side texture, etc. It eats into plastic so use sparingly or in multiple coats on delicate or thin plastic surfaces. Noel https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SF-285-Mr-Hobby-Mr-Surfacer-500-40ml/263197021597?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 PS: I used AddressPal to get it posted to Ireland

Fair comment Eoin. 'To infinity and beyond' is a while down the road yet.

Ah brilliant and both together in one set. Fab

Was apprehensive when I got to this stage and wondered had I destroyed the wagons. Luckily the next steps went ok.

He sure is, with a fast 85 degree learning curve. Great ability to adapt and learn practical ways around engineering challenges.

Sound interesting. Any photos?

I grant you there have been some incremental progress steps, but nothing remotely as big as that period from 1957 to 1969 after which the cold war space race funding dried up. All the significant recent 'human' stuff has been in orbit which is effectively still Earth based. A relative analogy might be we went down to the beach in 1969, stuck our toe in the water, and managed to stand on a stepping stone in the water as we looked across the Atlantic ocean wondering if one day we could cross it to a new habitable world. The last time we made 'first contact' was in 1492 when Columbus crossed the Atlantic to discover a habitable new world with 'alien' human civilisations We haven't yet understood, discovered nor yet invented the technology required for the next big step which is travelling a distance of more than one light year, wither that involves actually moving mass through what we understand as space or by other means we do not yet comprehend! Getting a probe inside another planetary star system won't happen in our life time, and by the time its data is transmitted back it won't even be in the life time of those who built in. Like 1492, since 1969 (or even Einstein) we have technologically plateaued for now. The 1977 launched Voyager with its Commodore 64 computing power will pass close to a star in 40,000 years time.

Yip and the central stage ran out of 'propellant' and crashed into the sea at 300mph missing its landing on the barge (range anxiety huh). A bit like BEVs, a lot of promises but not quite there yet. But boy the synchronised landing of the two outer stages was mega impressive, the most impressive 'space' thing I've seen since Armstrong stepped of the LM onto the surface of the moon in 1969. Not much has happened since then in terms of space technology. We've gone backwards, space shuttle gone, supersonic concord gone, HSS ferry gone, SR-71 gone, harcourt street line closed, mk3s replaced by yoyo roller-skate luas'y things.