Noel

Seriously impressive work and results. The signal box looks stunning.

Happy Birthday Fran

Bubbles the Movie (directed from the cab). . . . the sequel to "Christmas Bubbles". Thank you team IRM.

That's fabulous. Love the sound mix too. What era did they run?

Yes the increasing culture of tasking precious SAR assets to respond to minor land and maritime incidents is becoming ridiculous. It costs the tax payer approx €25k each time an S92 is deployed to some nit wit walker who has sprained an angle in the mountains or broken a wrist, instead of letting the mountain rescue who are already on scene carry them down to an ambulance a stretcher like they've done for decades. A broken wrist or sprained angle is not life threatening, so no need for a helo. Sure serious stuff like head injury, cardiac, hypothermia, etc, sure send the thunderbirds.

Brilliant JB, loved it.

Shock horror status yellow alert - according to RTE "Some areas may see 2cm of snow". Wheel barrows may have difficulty manoeuvring and it could be especially difficult for tractors. Only CE marked wellington boots should be worn in such harsh conditions. Air rescue helicopters on standby in case anybody breaks a finger nail in the savage artic snow conditions expected to hit the back end of the island later. https://www.rte.ie/news/2017/1228/929884-snow-warning/

Please this is a family forum Could you not have used a 'rest room'

I don't know JB, but they've just "taken the roads in for the night" here!

Gee - I never realised it was winter, that Ireland is 54 degrees north and we've never had a bit of snow before. RTE headline "Status Yellow warning as snow forecast for Thursday". Wow a massive possible 3cm of snow! Scandinavians looking at the link below must be laughing their snow boots off. https://www.rte.ie/news/2017/1227/929828-snow-warning/ As usual media hyping it up and worrying folk unnecessarily. By contrast met.ie have a factual forecast without any exaggeration nor hype.

Yes one loco at a time, if you completely disconnect the DCC controller beforehand. Obviously because all of the track will probably be live you will only be able to have one DC enabled loco on the layout, and control one loco at a time. If you have any DCC chipped locos on the layout at the same time they should not move, unless you had enabled DC/Analog mode in CV29 (i.e. you won't have to remove them from the layout).

Playtime - couldn't resist driving a long cement train this morning. Can't wait to get the rest out of their boxes for an even longer rake, but will need a pair of 141s or an 071 to manage that tonnage.

Just a thought Tony, if you put a few small filets across the corners of the baseboard perpendicular joins you may find it easier to fit 00 gauge curves you might be happy with. The filets won't have any impact on the free space inside.

Video - Christmas Greetings

Some more Orange Cement Wagons weathered. I just love this livery and these wagons. IRM have surpassed all expectations. Before and after contrast A few more tweaks to do on Tuesday. The light wasn't great so I'll take some in natural daylight in the next few days.

Started weathering some IRM orange cement wagons. Few more bits to try, then some tidying up and wheels to paint. Christmas came early with these wagons and I just couldn't resist having a try.

Hi Jonathan Lower quadrant from Dapol are motorised and lit. https://www.dapol.co.uk/shop/model-accessories/motorised-signals/4l-001-001-was-oosign1-oo-gauge-motorised-amp-lit-semaphore-signal-gwr-home-480 https://www.dapol.co.uk/shop/model-accessories/motorised-signals/oosign2-oo-gauge-motorised-amp-lit-semaphore-signal-gwr-distant-951 Alternatively there are the Peco Ratio Kits also lower quadrant which could be adapted to either mechanically operated via push rods under base board (aka like RC model aircraft control surfaces using tube push rods), or motorised using €2 servos and a DCC controller board. Think baseboard Dave sells some electronics that aids this sort of thing. Such servos and push rods may also be adaptable to SSM round signals. "Bless me father for I have popped a rivet" and have had hidden preferences for the look of un-prototypical lower quadrant, square post and lattice signals from the UK in old pre-BR days. https://www.modelrailwaysdirect.co.uk/Ratio-460-GWR-Home/ The Ration kits like the one below manually operate via the lever and wire on the base of the post, but the mechanism is delicate so would probably be safer to operate by way of servo that would limit reduce the mechanical loads. Many of the commercially available circuit boards for controlling signals have amazing features like "bounce" to emulate the signal being dropped from danger, or when pulled to danger a little bounce as it levels off in the horizontal, and travel limiters so you can tune the servo movement and speed so match the mechanical linkages. Hope this helps Noel More here showing 'kit bashing' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJbnObp5i48

Thanks Jonathan. Somebody on here explained the reason for the white roofs last year and I vaguely remember it may have been to reflect heat, but I could be wrong. Photo of a BELL refrigerated container below, but it badly needs some weathering to get rid of the 'fisher price' toy look.

Wishing all on here a very special, relaxing, and joyful Christmas.

Finished the 20ft Bell container wagons. Coat of frame dirt for the wheels. Then a bit of light weathering for the wagons and springs. They look better dulled down with a bit of light frame dust Drilled the bases of the C-Rail Bell containers with four holes and tested each containers mounting holes aligned with every wagon. A fun and very simple kit to put together. Happy the way they turned out. Will post a video of the full rake in traffic at some stage. The Bell's themselves are now due a visit to the paint shop for a very light dusting to get rid of the clean 'toy' look.

An esteemed member of this forum asked me why I wanted a "kettle" when I informed him I was planning to run a GSWR steam loco?

Holy moly thats 900 tons of dried cement, the year is €1875 when 45 wagons from 15 packs made history as one of the longest wagon formations in CIE history. Well done Dave. Enjoy. PS: What sort of camera were you using? Some autofocus when switched into video mode and don't refocus unless prompted to, hence the background image at the start of the vid remains in focus while the stock closer to the camera is blurred, especially after all that superb detail IRM added!!! More light in the room might also help increase the DOF making precise focus less vital.

Or perhaps one of the earliest British built diesel locomotives

Wonderful photos John. There is something special about a garden railway, especially in a country where the climate suits. The railway looks fabulous.

I used to absolutely hate applying waterslide transfers/decals. Fiddle/faddle, shakey hands, impossible eyesight, folded transfers, argggh. But through trial and error these past few months I'm just beginning to learn to cope with them. Despite what they say about using products like 'decalfix' to assist on matt surfaces, transfers are so much easier to apply and blend the edges on gloss finish and later matt varnish over them to seal. Finally finished the chassis numbers on the 20ft skeletal container wagons. Just a light weathering with RailMatch acrylics tomorrow and they will be ready to run under Bell containers.