Noel

Hmmm - But not up to todays high standard of RTR. Like others I have some of them and while I'm delighted to have two models that resemble CIE metrovics, they are basic and most definitely not fine scale. They are poor runners on cheap chassis from yesteryears toy market, and lack standard RTR features such as running lights, hand rails, decent window glazing, NEM pockets, all wheel pickup, four axle drive, speaker chambers, DCC ready, body detail, etc. By far the most numerous and populist diesels to grace Irelands railways were the ninety six metrovic A and C class that ran much of the network for a generation. Numerically the MVs dwarfed the GMs for about 20 years. Once the MM 121 is on the market, the MVs will be the last gaping hole in the Irish model market. I'm delighted I will be able to run three or four MM 121s next year, but whenever it happens if ever, I would be in the market for about six to eight quality RTR MVs.

Lets just be satisfied and wait for the 121s. Doesn't matter where they are made as long as the quality is as good as the 141/181 and 071s. Hope they have a builtin speaker.

Please no more 201s Lets look forward to the 121 and then only after they arrive start dreaming about a quality A class RTR.

Best wishes and congrats Richie and Ilona.

Good advice

I've done a few but it can be a real pain getting the chassis to run freely after reassembly because the alignment is very tight on some of them. Having done a few I've decided no more. It's too much hassle to get the chassis mechanically running smoothly afterwards. The spacers and lugs factory installed do not like to be disturbed and can be awkward to get back in perfect alignment. A converted chassis needs to be running in again for at least one or two hours. Some split chassis are easier to do as one does not need to split them to isolate the motor terminals (i.e. the motor does not pickup from inside the chassis sides). http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/3573-Noel-s-DCC-Conversion-Bench/page3

I suspect either way roads were going to happen here and in the UK. On another note, it could have been interesting to know if a small number of the branch routes that were closed due to being grossly unprofitable in the late 50s and 60s might have become economically justifiable in recent decades as our economy developed (i.e. profitable, socially justified, or macro economically justifiable for Ireland Inc). I'm thinking of routes like Foynes, and seasonal tourist routes especially in Cork, Kerry, west, Tramore, Kilrush, etc. Some of these areas are hopping with tourists for the summer. 1 and 2 coach railcars might have been viable on low traffic seasonal branches. We'll never know, those branch lines are gone forever.

On my last layout over 25 years ago the track was glued straight onto ply base board with some mdf sections, with ballast sprinkled onto it using strainers when glue was wet. The ballast looked fabulous but the sound was annoyingly horrendous. The baseboard was like a guitar body amplifying the sound. I know newer MDFs are much better, but I would recommend some form of sound insulation between the track and any form of wooden or composite wooden baseboard. I will post some experiments with ballast combined with the foam underlay in the coming weeks. Open structure baseboards do not conduct noise as badly as large flat baseboard sections, and in USA some modellers use white foam to build up structure laying track on it which helps reduce noise.

Two excellently formulated and presented videos. Clear, concise, informative and well narrated. Dave you could have a sideline career in broadcasting. Best of luck with the channel and looking forward to future releases.

Thought freight only ran at night on main intercity routes after pax services finished.

Hi Joe. I used Peco foam ballast underlay about 20 years ago which originally was intended as a semi-temporary measure. This gave me time to easily make adjustments to the track layout in the early years before gluing down with ballast on cork. So far I have not yet replaced it and it did not perish or deteriorate. Peco have rolls of foam ballast underlay and underlay for points and cross overs. It has proved excellent for sound reduction (i.e. no noise transmitted to ply base boards). I do intend to either replace it someday when I get around to doing scenic work, or perhaps ballast up to the edges of it with a sprinkling over the top of it. On an old layout I had glued and ballasted all the track down but it was a nightmare to adjust destroying any track pulled back up, so I vowed not to repeat until I was confident the track work would be permanent. Few photos of what it looks like pre-scenics. I hope to try some samples of ballast material that runs up to the edge and in-between the foam underlay.

Yes indeed, but the land needed for urban heavy rail is long gone and now too costly to acquire unlike UK, France and Germany who put such rail density down over 100 years ago BEFORE the urban sprawl. They don't even have the 'vision' to make a 100 year investment and build dart underground to Heuston and join the two most important dots!!! And certainly not the money to make Bray to Malahide four track hence no reasonable east coast speed rail link into city for most as ICRs would be blocked behind darts. . . . anyway what's all this side track got to do with model choo-choo trains

Dublin has a very small population for a capital city in the developed world!!! (e.g. less than half that of Manchester or Birmingham), but for a small city it takes up a large geographical area due to the low building density and low buildings (i.e. more like a pancake).

Very true. A big problem though was that we seemed to miss out on the industrial revolution and lacked the industries that expanded other european populations facilitating rapid urbanisation. However it looks like this island will have a population of about 9m in the not too distant future thanks to population growth and migration of labour.

I'm not sure. Our small island with a tiny population, predominantly agricultural back then, few large urban centres, very little heavy industry, unlike our european neighbours who had many large urban populations for 100s of years to connect. Also there is a difference between economies that have achieved relatively recent income wealth, as opposed to those also who have had capital wealth for hundreds of years (e.g. France, Germany, UK, Sweden, etc), and have therefore been able to invest in infrastructure to support their large populations. Ireland may be listed in international economic league tables as a comparatively wealthy country in terms of quality of life and household income, but compared to long developed economies is still a relatively poor country in terms of capital wealth (public and private). Our population has been and remains very small. (now if that is a good or a bad thing is a separate question and has nothing to do with a model rail forum).

Thanks JB. Did the 4 and 6 wheelers once have silver and later green (flying snail) livery?

Thanks for posting that. Really enjoyed it.

Did CIE or any of its pre-depressors have heating or break vans similar to this LMS one?

Neither do I - but it just looks a totally amazing beast. Enjoy You can just imaging a big consist of them hauling a freight train that's nearly a mile long through the rockies.

Nice pics. I especially like this one which contrasts the interesting shape and character of 071 compared to the rather boring shoe box 201. Ironic the old towing the new.

Looks an amazing beast of a loco. Their snout nosed cabs just like their road trucks ooze character.

This happened on the network in 1974. Don't know if this was posted here before, but it is very nostalgic. Loose coupled goods wagons, pickup freight and shunting.

And this one - oh Yummie! A class beauty in her element A superb photo collection

I tend to agree. 201s have proved not to be the most popular GM models anyway, and 201 hauled pax rolling stock seems too long for most layouts.

121 pair nois2nose hauling ballast wagons. MM+IRM bring on winter 2016/2017 http://jandjcottrell.zenfolio.com/p903912662/h3f1ecb0c#h3f1ecb0c