Noel

Would a compressed version of Gort circa 1970 work? It had a loop and small goods yard. JB has a great photo of it in his book 'rails through the west'

40

I'm dreaming I've died and gone to heaven I will never tire of looking at photos of your fabulous layout. The era is just so 1972-1974. Two axle pickup goods traffic heaven. Love it.

Film and Brass are both yesteryear technologies. I was one of the slowest to migrate from film to DSLR, but now my smartphone takes most of my pics and frankly they are usually as good as my daft lump iron DSLR except when I need a telephoto or ultra wide lens. Anyway, enjoyed the visual feast that was the movie even if it was vanilla Agatha Christie.

What are folks preferred methods of adding coach lighting and/or red tail lamps and lighting to a brake van? Below is a clip of a Train-Tech AL2 kit I picked up with a hefty discount. Going to try it on a brake van or a heating van. Very simple but will only suit models that can easily be opened every few years to replace the batteries. It has a motion sensor that turns the lights on as soon as rolling stock moves, and switched off again 4 mins after the last movement. The alternate seems pickups from wagon or bogie wheel axles using springs rather than prosper bronze strips, a bridge rectifier, resistor and a capacitor to avoid any flickering due to single axle pickup (suit DCC or DC). I'm not keen on the idea of batteries for coach lighting unless I can mount the battery under the coach for easy access rather than opening up.

These two look like DKs eBay listings: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CIE-1-72-00-Scale-Ballast-Hopper-Wagons-12-handbuilt-sprayed-Irish-Railway/173008359608?hash=item28481a10b8:g:EbYAAOSwvD5aIHri https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CIE-Irish-Railway-Cement-Bubbles-set-of-12-1-76-00-Scale-Hand-made-sprayed/173008416609?hash=item28481aef61:g:d84AAOSwonBaIIeG PS: I'd suggest adding the tag "Murphy Models" as that seems to be the de facto search phrase used by folks searching eBay for any Irish stuff.

Unfortunately I doubt the economic numbers would stack up for an injection moulded RTR model due to the small quantities. Interesting thread back here: The SF dutch van below isn't bad, I've two RTRs and one kit which is about to be sprayed RPSI green to run with Mk2a RPSI set. The mods to make the rebuilt version that ran with the mk2 coaches isn't huge (see DC kits pic below this one) DC kits version

Yes the photos certainly look 'orange' alright, could be white balance. I presume John is using the same precision paints CIE Golden Brown he uses on his other CIE B&T stock which look more tan like.

Hi Jonathan. I don't know. I just spotted them today on their web site. The short wheel base heating/luggage vans look like resin bodies rather than repaints. I'd like to examine them close up before buying. Noel

Holy moly - by accident just stumbled upon all these new coach releases on SF's web site. Mama mia B&T 1960s heaven CIE Open 3rd CIE Buffet car Bulleid Heating Van Modified Bulleid Heating Van Six Wheel Heating Van TPO Bulleid Hooded Luggage Van

Yes, I got an RTR version of the SF converted AEC 2600 push-pull trailer. Very happy with it. I push/pull it with an SF C class. It came lightly weathered at no extra cost. Video clip - Ignore the cravens in the set

Sorry It just looked like the big snow of Feb 1982 which I remember well. It started at 8:45pm on a Thursday night, by Friday evening most major national N routes were impassable. It practically shut the entire country down for a week. I seem to remember a BBC presenter on the 6 O'Clock news pointing to the easterly driven trough on a weather map over northern France joking "don't worry, this is not coming our way". Strong easterlies combined with temps below -15 caused massive snow drifts and most home heating oil froze, combined with power cuts it was the biggest freeze since 1962!!! Roundwood was cut off for three weeks and the army air corps used helos to deliver food to farm animals. Luckily nobody died. There as an amazing 'blitz' like spirit as families took in and welcomed strangers who had to abandon cars all over the countries roads. The N11 was blocked for 5 days.

Looks like Feb 1982

Really excellent looking again. It's funny I thought my favourite colour was the Irish Cement ivory livery. However since I originally ordered my IRM rake, in the intervening period I bought four of George's lovely MIR builds in Bray last year from DB, and discovered I really liked the orange livery. Hmmm - I could be very tempted to buy one or two packs of these to go with the ivory ones especially since seeing the pic of mixed liveries earlier in this tread. I never noticed before that ladders on the orange wagons are all the one colour without the white on the lower rungs. Well done again team IRM.

I'm very lucky to have four superb orange examples built, painted and weathered by @Georgeconna. They go very nicely with the new IRM ivory bubbles.

Seven Bachmann Irish M2A coaches sold on eBay two days ago

Hi Richie. Thanks for the kind offer of the glazing. I may take you up on that in the future for the second GSV conversion if it is a Lima. Yes I plan to do a few more bits including the water filler pipes. Noel A few more blemishes to touch up and she is almost ready for the spray shop. Waiting on some components from Radionics for lights and tail lamps. Going to attempt DIY lighting using bridge rectifier, capacitor and micro pot. Need to change the wheels so I can get electrical pickup from alternate axles rather than wheel edges. @Junctionmad has raised the bar somewhat with rivets on his fuel tank access hatch covers, so I'll have to attempt to keep up, especially as both these GSVs will make their first appearance on one of WMRC's layouts soon. Mine has sprung buffers - JM's are fixed castings All good fun!

Nice work indeed. I also have one of these kits, but I've delayed starting it until I can work out the most efficient way of widening the chassis to the same width as the van. I can't remember where but I've seen on the forum where the chassis was made wider to match the body. Made a big difference visually.

Agree 100%. Fond memories from 60s and 70s of loco hauled pax trains, active goods traffic with 2 axle wagons still in use in every little station between Dublin and the other main rail terminals. Intricate track work, loops, crossings and in use sidings in every small station. Hardly a container nor bogie wagon in sight. Best of all interesting traffic movements, loco runarounds, split pax trains, loads of shunting and drop off goods wagons. A golden era of railways. A far cry from today's boring yo-yo DMUs/ICRs and stations striped of track work. Some no longer even have loops. Still can't stop progress, things have to move on, but we still have the memories and as you rightly say, we now have the ability to recreate new memories.

Looks good. 11 wagons?

40 Cement Bubbles - just brilliant. PS: There were no tail lamps on the end wagon +1 and when fitting shorter couplings the gapping can be reduced

Well done guys. Another Irish enterprise raiding traditional markets with innovation and game changing specs.

Thanks for that Eoin and the effort to take the pics. Appreciated.

I saw this in the flesh yesterday and was mightily impressed. The roof detail was awesome. @Junctionmad's GSV