Noel

Hi Fran. Any news on the bubble delivery timescale? Thanks. Noel

Hi JB. Thanks for that. Difficult to ascertain colour from the old pic below, but seems a shade of brown including chassis. This one has had panels over the former planking. Think the pic is one of yours, and a great resource to have. Noel Originally posted by Glenderg and think the pic was one of yours Jonathan. http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/5448-10-Ton-GSWR-Ballast-Brake-Plough-Van

Hi Vlak. MM advised me by email "I hope to have samples of 121 by year end. It will be produced in all 5 liveries". Been saving my modelling budget for these. Noel

Pure craftsmanship. She looks stunning Eoin. Respect. Ps: one minor constructive criticism, you can clearly see an iPhone sticking out of the engineers jacket pocket. Kidding

Sounds good . . . But

Ah now that's an entirely different matter You cannot attach an image to a PM, you can only insert a link to a URL.

Cheers Paul. Another pic this time with the brown 'toad' van beside the ballasts. CIE roundal, remove the white, and a few mods would go a long way to duck test level, and playing trains. Noel

Hi Paul Should be fine on iPad. I'm inserting image below on an iPad. When you click the insert image icon, choose 'from computer' tab, then click 'choose file', then choose the source such as the iPad photo library, dropbox, iCloud Drive, etc, chose the photo, then 'upload files' which will store the image on the forums server as an attachment, and then paste the BB code with the '[ATTACH]' tags into your post like this example. Noel This is different to linking an image stored on an external web server using the '' BB tags with a URL you supply.

Recent posts on plough vans got me thinking. As many may already know, I'm a fan of the 60/70s era and dislike all things yellow. Now I really like my rake of IRM ballasts, even if I pretend they are gypsum wagons hauling mineral freight rather than doing PW work. Hence I have no desire to have a pair of yellow plough vans . . . but there were older plough vans in much more acceptable brown or bauxite livery like the GSWR plough below, and they looked prettier. So I have decided to convert a pair of my GWR 'toad' brake vans to ex-GSWR ploughs and match them up with my rake of IRM ballasts even if not strictly prototypical, at least there won't be any yellow. They will need some modifications, add small windows, remove the full length steps, replace with steps under door, add vertical stanchion at door to roof, a plough, and respray in GSWR brown/bauxite. They will be a bit long but should pass the duck test. The alternative is to just respray a pair of BR shark vans brown, but I do like the look of GWR toads resemblance to the GSWR van. Two in bauxite would do the trick and then one day I could pretend they are hauling ballasts and another day gypsum. Will update this thread as they progress along with a few other kits and bodge jobs in the pipeline like a GSV and a luggage van.

I was using a Humbrol 49 Matt Acrylic Varnish rattle can to seal some wagons I had painted and applied transfers to. I used a portable spray booth with an extractor fan directed towards an open window but not ducted out the window. I suspect the fan was the culprit as it probably recirculated some of the varnish into the room despite the dense fan filter. The 141 was about 8 feet behind me in the same room, and the two cravens that were also affected on one side but not as badly. I suspect this might not have happened had I used the airbrush and perhaps also left the fan off. Lesson learned. Since then I always spray varnish in a shed or outdoors if its dry and warm.

Thanks for that excellent info JB. Really appreciated. Order placed.

Some early morning traffic out west at the junction. Note the opaque cab windows on B141. This was caused by spraying rattle can varnish on wagons in the same room last spring. The B141 was about 8 feet behind me at the time well away from the spray area.

It does seem to correlate nicely with the feedback Fran posted from IRMs recent pool. Mk3's in IR/IE orange tippex (white lined) livery look like they might fly off the shelves. Tippex seems a clear favourite.

Results are below. It was a brief and simple survey so don't take it too seriously. It was just for fun. Pie Chart Bar Chart - Original question sort order Percentages - Original question sort order

Hi Paul. Interesting, but is that not just a bus running on a dedicated bus lane? Specifically a bendy bus, which have been around for a while. Noel

Thanks to all those who responded to the simple one page survey. Depending on response traffic will close it tonight and publish the results tomorrow. Some interesting patterns so far.

Fair comment on the dapol chassis. I guess for the same design and tooling up effort other wagons might sell in significantly greater volume (e.g. beats, ferts, flats, etc), hence more economic and less risky to produce. I'm very pleased with the rake of superb IRM ballast wagons, (please forgive the sacrilege) but I pretend they are 'gypsum' wagons (i.e. mineral wagons) as I have no interest in PW stuff, hence don't need yellow plough vans.

Ah JB don't wind me up I don't do 'yellow things' on our layout. Railways were for the transport of passengers and freight. Yellow things were an ugly and obscure aberration necessary only to facilitate running of proper trains.

So what era/company did the grey livery run in? I understand from ooworks that neither black nor grey livery versions are lined.

Yes agree its a difficult one re ploughs. Tooling up for selling just two wagons per client of a very specialist item may not make economic sense, especially when there are brass kits available and people who take on commissions to build them for those like myself who don't do brass kits. I don't do modern yellow stock, so I'd be commissioning somebody to build older brown ploughs anyway. But that list above posted by Fran is superb. It looks like IRM have the next few years exciting production just about penciled in. Looking forward to hearing about each new project as they are announced over the coming years.

Eoin, looking at that your Dart model has continuously evolved into a truly superb offering. Respect. Noel

Thanks Fran. That is excellent news. Happy to wait until the end of time for RTR double beat wagons. Exciting times ahead.

Hence the wonderful book inspired me to put something as utterly modern as a Bell containers on the layout

Thanks John and Jonathan. I was just curious because practically every photo I saw in 'rails through the west' which depicted a mix of 2 axle goods wagons and containers had the containers at the end of the formation. The explanation makes perfect sense.

Here's a question for JB, or indeed anybody else who might know the answer. In most of the photographs of mixed goods train formations typical of the late 1960s and early 70s, where there the formation consisted of loose coupled vans, open corrugated wagons and a small number of 20ft contains on 2 axle wagons, the containers were always at the end of the train in front of the brake van. Often one or two Bell containers at the back of the train. Why was this? Why were container wagons placed at the end of mixed goods train formations followed immediately by the brake van? I can't tell from the photos if the other wagons were in all cases unfitted loose coupled (un-braked) stock, or fitted stock. I've heard one suggestion that it was because pick up freight formations dropped wagons off at stations along a route from the front of the train, but no authoritative reasons. The container wagons must have had vacuum brakes fitted, but not connected or blocked off?