Noel

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.

Hi Gerry, Thanks, but no graffiti on my model choo-choos would not be my sort of thing at all at all. Impressed with yours though. Have they been to Limerick? Noel

I still have a Hornby-Dublo 2-rail Bulleid "Branstable" but post nationalisation BR livery

Phew, have you the five F-1s? PS: Btw, are you planning Crossley 2-stroke or EMD 645E DCC sound on board for the A class?

Oh no, I'm a learner - I don't know how to weather rockets!!! And where in the world does one get the correct DCC sound chip for one?

Yip, good PR and it worked because we are posting about it here in a model train forum Mind you using large rockets sort of goes against his 'green' credentials.

Agree, I used white weathering powder on the first batch of ivories and may add some to the later batches, especially the black chassis.

Very very nice.

One word - "Fab-U-lous"

A scary tale of weathering IRM cement wagons. I have enjoyed learning and trying different ways of weathering IRM's lovely cement wagons. Scary I can tell you especially yesterday (Batch 3 and 5) which I painted Mr Surfacer 500 on the tops of the bubbles to create a sort of caked cement texture. This is the journey so far starting with batch one the night after the SDMRC show. Batch 1 - Ivory - Light weathering Batch 2 - Ivory - Moderate weathering Batch 3 - Ivory - Moderate weathering plus caked texture on tops of bubbles Batch 4 - Orange - Moderate weathering Batch 5 - Orange - Moderate weathering plus caked texture on tops of bubbles Yesterdays stages: 1. Start pristine 2. Apply Mr Surfacer 500 grunge on tops of bubbles stippled using short bristle brush. 3. What have I done to these lovely wagons? 4. Phew - scary but worth the risk 5. Some tidying up left to do but I am relieved and happy with Batches 3 and 5 I can tell you my heart was in my mouth after I applied the grey texture material to the tops of these and thought I had destroyed them.

The recovery of the two boosters was the most impressive aspect of that launch. Yes sending humans to Mars to get 'data' seems daft when a small device can achieve the same. No magnetic field = not habitable by humans. Space is rather large so Mars is effectively local. Traveling around inside our own solar system is like island hopping on Lough Erne, not going very far, tipping our toes into the sea at the beach, hardly like Columbus crossing an ocean to get to the new world. Hawkins is right though, our solar system is vulnerable, has a natural life span and will cease, so if this species of homo sapiens is to survive beyond that we need to establish viable human colonies on habitable 'goldilocks' planets that exist around other suitable stars, but we are nowhere remotely near the technology to travel such vast distances. A more realistic option is to send genetic material of many earth species on millions of probes into deep space in the hope one day in many millions of years having survived radiation they by chance strike a suitable planet and evolve over millions of years into new life forms, just "not life as we know it Jim". Piggybacking a ride on a comet is perhaps one way of sending genetic material out of the solar system. Travel between galaxies is another level of impossible mathematical distance for life to hop even at the speed of light. In the short term the moon offers more viable options than Mars for acting as a sort of stage II launch facility for various exploratory and data gathering missions but not until new technology has been invented. In the mean time there are bigger and more pressing problems to solve here and now on our fragile blue planet.

Thanks Paul. The 3D bodies are from Shapeways and the chassis are Dapol unpainted RTR 10ft chassis. The finished wagons cost me about €28 each. https://www.shapeways.com/product/EAL5WYPZR/oo-scale-irish-bulleid-open?optionId=530223&li=marketplace https://www.dapol.co.uk/shop/oo-gauge/wagons-OO-Gauge/unpainted-wagons-OO-gauge/a001-oo-gauge-unpainted-5-plank-wagon-10-chassis-213

Weathered 6 more cement wagons today. Added some texture to the tops using 'Mr Surfacer 500'. Then weathered over it. I've a little more to do to the grey chassis on the orange wagons. Orange wagons with some texture on top. Ivory wagons with some grunge on top. Orange livery cement wagons moderately weathered Ivory livery cement wagons moderately weathered

Nearly finished. PS: JB the chassis are not black

Oh yummie. Great scenes as ever.

While waiting for some bits for the locos did a little work on the 3D beat wagons. They are not 100% by any means but they will look much better than BR mineral wagons on my mixed CIE good train formations. Quick and easy to assemble with no resin fettling needed. 3D beat bodies mounted on €7 Dapol RTR chassis Some bits to add then weathering, etc. Also damming evidence since I was sentenced to "rot in the the bogie of eternal stench" by cutting up 141s for two C class chassis.

It was very much the in thing 20-30 years ago, and I used it when I originally built our layout, but always with the long term intention of re-ballasting once the track plan was locked down. Foam underlay allowed me the ability to tweak the track work in the early years (i.e. very easy to move or relay sections). It's not until you start operating a layout and particularly shunting stock you realise if a track work tweak is needed or not. Some folk use foam underlay and ballast around it and a few speckles over it. Believe it or not this section below is actually Peco foam underlay with woodland scenics ballast added to make it blend in. If I was starting to again I would either lay cork or dense 3mm foam as a flat base under the track and then wet/pva mix ballast the track. Using a glue such as copydex to fix the cork or 3mm foam to the baseboard minimises the noise transfer. Peco foam underlay main advantage is its almost total elimination of noise transfer to the baseboard but at the cost of looks unless you ballast up to it like below.

It has taken 3 months to get to this point, I am in no hurry! Don't worry Tony even if it may have been just a little more than 3 months It is your layout and your project so your time scale. Jeepers I've been over 20 years at our layout (admittedly with a few very long breaks). But the odd photo occasionally is always nicer than just a textual word or two. Keep the faith, it will be worth it once you've got some trains running.

Hi Eoin. The €50 guy is charging €9 postage from UK, but the €82 guy is free postage from Italy. Sample below. They are obviously not the same quality but might do for model storage on layout room wall rather than the living room. Worth a punt perhaps. Noel https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SHOWCASE-DISPLAY-MODEL-MAKING-GLASS-CABINET-WOOD-WITH-DOOR-GLASS-5-SHELVES/183031362816?hash=item2a9d84f500:m:m7uIWBy3xgy4SD6KykmeIJw