Noel

In fairness the Wexford exhibition which is a much smaller event managed to have tea/coffee and excellent home made sandwiches on site. Folks at these events need somewhere to sit down and take a break, have a snack and chat to pals. This facilitates folks staying on site for longer visits, exposure to exhibits and trade stands. Nuff said before I get flamed, but it is easy to outsource to an independent mobile van operator who will make their own profit over the three days without any cost to the show organisers nor any need for staffing. Running for cover now.

Thanks Dave. Have they considered letting one of the mobile catering van operators park in the car park near the entrance? No staffing needed, nor cost to MRSI as the vendor makes their profit from sales. Then if there was one class room left free inside with a few seats, tables, and rubbish bins folks could eat in there. It might keep folk on site for longer. Just an idea. Noel http://www.circuitcatering.ie/circuitcatering/Main/catering-units-new.htm http://www.thechipvan.ie

Dave, do you know if there will be catering for the public at the MRSI show this year?

Brilliant, I love it.

Sorry but not sure if it is good news. Seems more an embarrassing form of barbarism that is not really a sport.

Ah, I never even noticed the difference in the lights/LED arrangements until your post, and I've had both variations on the layout! 086 seems to be the correct shade of original supertrain livery. Ok I get it, 252 unit might sell. But 5000 x A class units would probably sell like hot cakes, and even more bullied corrugated beat wagons.

Given how simple it would be to renumber one of the existing supertrain livery models MM0086 or MM0088 to 071, would there be enough demand? After the 121 the next vast gaping hole in quality RTR Irish railway modelling is the A class and early beat wagons. Both the most numerous items ever to run on Irish rails, both absent as high quality RTR models. Hope MM or IRM consider them one day.

Yea, but look at the massive cost. That cab was more expensive than most mid to top end entire DCC systems!!! The cost of 'Mobile Control II' cab was the reason I choose NCE and JMRI with iPhone for wireless touch cabs, over ESU. Also didn't like their 'playstation' twin controller more suited to train set layouts.

Stumbled upon this old US video of Irish trains. Ok there are some let say 'continuity' errors, but some nice scenes from about 25 years ago. It may have been posted here before but I haven't seen it.

Agree, I have used JMRI with smartphone cabs, but like you a find touch screen for throttle control pretty useless as there is no tactile feedback. Great for named sound function keys, but touch is poor as a power regulator. I suppose it is a way of having a wireless cab for free. Agree also about the 'train set' style twin cab base station systems, thats why I didn't buy ESU.

+1 Brought me back to the early 60s on 121 hauled trains to Galway - sounds pure magic nostalgia

Some nice pics as ever. Love the video of the BGH creeping through the station. "Fermanagh" looked spotless. Looks like they had a test service team, chefs and some test pax on board as well. Seeing the Mk3's brings back memories of how comfy Mk3s were on long routes compared to the 22k tram buses with their back ache hard seats. Not sure what benefit and interior style refresh will achieve, it won't make the seats any more comfortable, won't reduce the engine noise nor improve ride comfort. Still better I suppose than a 2600 ride from Limerick to Ballybrophy!

Interesting. The ergonomic styling reminds me of the Sinclair Spectrum from the 80s. Aside from the appearance technically it looks a well spec'd system. The industry is crying out for a new wireless or IP based digital control standard to replace current NMRA DCC specs which was great in its day but technically decades behind current electronics technology. DCC protocols are too slow for real time instant decoder programming and jurassically cumbersome for users. This is 2016 after all, the concept of a CV seems as daft as a smartphone user needing to know hex register addresses to put phone numbers in their phone. Things have changed in micro electronics since the 1980s. The USA market seems very conservative and content with such dated and expensive technology. It should be possible to reprogram all the settings including sound files in a decoder in a second anywhere on the track using either a wireless protocol or IP network over the track. Try writing 500 CVs to a DCC decoder and it could take 10 minutes! ESU have made great inroads to the user interface, but behind the colour LCD panel lurks a dated, slow and very expensive NMRA DCC protocol. RailCom if it became a widely supplied standard would be an improvement, but it two is based on 1999 technology. A lot has happened and changed since then - iPods, digital cameras, smart phones, tablets, SSD, VOIP, broadband TV, etc, but not model train control systems which lurk in the dark ages. I use NCE solely because of the ergonomics of the dog bone cabs which personally suit our layout, but I have to say they have never bothered to release software updates to improve the user interface of the cabs. An improvement in their day, but in the ditch compared to smart phone or even smart watch user interface simplicity and quality. Apologies for the drift.

Excellent

Wow, Caboose Hobbies seem like the B&H Photo of model rail retail in USA. Seems a shame they are closing rather than selling the business on if the the reason is retirement. Their dated web site is pretty awful. http://www.caboosehobbies.com

That makes perfect sense. Thanks for the interesting info.

Perhaps, but this bit didn't look pristine. As you say it could be the light or reflection. And yes the photos are superb. If the coaches had gone through the wash in Heuston there could have been some dust or streaking as they dried.

Thanks for posting. Slightly surprised how quickly the coaches got dirty and the new paint job seemed dull after only a few weeks exposure to the weather. It thought they would look sparking and shiny like the delivery photos for at least a few months.

Thank you for the time to make and post that video Kirley. Beautiful looking model, but unfortunately its poor running doesn't wet my appetite. I'd be curious to see how the chassis runs slowly at a scale speed of 5mph over peco point work or if it can.

Hi Old Blarney, when I saw the photo of the chassis on Kirley's post and the lack of things like a fly wheel I wondered if this was going to be another case of a fine scale model that looks great but not capable of running well and certainly not scale smoothness. However I decided not to post a query about the chassis as I didn't want to appear negative about a new product. Unfortunately your feedback confirms my suspicions. IMHO higher priced fine scale models need to run as well as they look and especially smooth slow running and scale acceleration and deceleration without any porpoising or jerking. No point in a model looking authentic if it runs like a childs toy. However I'm glad you have managed to improve the running with the weight. 4-4-0 chassis really need to be all wheel pickup rather than one side on chassis and one on tender. Does the front bogie have pick ups or just the two driving wheels?

Model turbines are quite popular in my old RC model club, as is electric power. Not so much petrol now, and glo-fuel is almost a thing of the past.

Thanks for the nice shots. I can't believe they are leaving the livery that plain without any lining, even some understated thin lining. Its crying out for a little more delicate sophistication.

Stunning last photo of the 3 GMs at Amiens Street shed

What a total disaster and mess up. No working layout means no kids, no families, no footfall, no revenue, and probably failure and eventual closure. What a shame the generous 1.5m donation will be wasted and not used as intended by the visionary donor. Surely the current custodians of this historic layout can find another tourism interest or commercial operator anywhere in Ireland to put this layout back on display. Models in glass display cases won't cut it. Shame on the local authority.

Seriously Impressive. Congrats guys. The tension lock swan neck solution seems like the best compromise. Looking forward to planned delivery in 11 weeks. Ps. Any pre-production pics of the load?