Noel

As WRENNEIRE says it is fairly straight forward especially on the 201 class which has an opening in the body for the decoder. The 071 and 201 class already have speakers fitted so you just need to plug the decoder in. The 141/181s do not come with a speaker, so will need one installed in the supplied plastic speaker cradle and two wires then soldered onto the 141/181 electric circuit board. The 071 class requires the removal of four screws from under the body just above the bogies, but it is easy to get a screw driver through the bogie undersides, then the central body sections pulls off. The 141/181 seem a little trickier until you figure out how to get the central body section to come off. It is a snap fitting with four plastic lugs that protrude through the side of the two walkways. I use two wooden ice cream sticks to pick the side of the body panel over the lugs and then prise the body section slightly upward, repeating the same at the other end. It feels very stiff and like it will never come off, but force is not needed, instead a simple technique to prise the lugs inwards and then it will move. One of the cab ends comes off freely, but the other should remain fixed to the central body section. One the 071 and 141/181 once the body has been removed its easy to install the decoders by just removing the existing blanking plate and then press the 21 pin decoder on the right way up. There is one pin missing and one hole missing so folks don't attempt to fit the decoder chip upside down or wrong way around. Once installed any decoder will have a default address of 3 which you can subsequently change usually to match the numbers painted on the loco itself for ease of use. If you are thinking of 141/181s look at these links. But this is not needed for 071 or 201s: http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/3534-How-to-get-body-shell-off-a-MM-141-181-In-reality/page2 http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/content.php/362-Installing-sound-in-a-141

+1

Eh - just use "Preview" to proof read before submitting a post. I've same problem with tablets predictive text and more my own lexdisia, but I usually re-read and correct any mistakes within an hour or two, never days later. Anwyay msot floks can raed speliling msitkaes and sitll undrestnad waht yuo maen.

Is that a significant problem? It's fairly standard practice on most BBs that edit cababability is limited after a period of time has passed. (Eg correct mistake or typo an hour or two after posting). If folks have new content its better to add a new post to a thread rather than add content to an existing post.

Yummie

It looks so much better running in the direction. The curves look like the wind blowing the mane of a wild beast, or a cheetah, conveying power and speed. I know it doesn't match up that way around with the DD coaches, but does it not look more impressive running in that direction?

Looks really nice. GWR is my favourite of the big four. Where did you get the lovely back scenes?

I like both also. My only gripe is the shape of the face end of the DD DVT looks like it was made by a child out of cardboard, ugly is insufficient to describe the duplo-brick look, but otherwise the DDs and Mk4s are fine looking coaches. I like the new enterprise livery but the forward end looks a little plain and could do with some small colour element added to the overall grey. IMHO its the front end that should look the most striking and eye catching from a marketing perspective as it enters a station passing folk looking on. The 22000s aren't bad lookers either despite my total lack of interest in model ICRs and DMUs, but as a passenger they look well on the outside.

There we go

Interesting. Would the reason for the pre-heat days in advance be because the coaches might have been in storage and more to do with drying any damp out of the interiors rather than just heat? I can't imagine the coaches needing more than a few hours just to warm up the inside air temperature. Well I remember flying on 747-100 a few times many moons ago, with a dead 5th engine bolted onto a special wing mount inboard of the no 2 for transport purposes. I guess it made sense to haul coaches on the back of scheduled services in order to reposition them.

Yes that was rather obvious

No, they didn't run like that in the IR/IE era. The nose of the 121 was always facing the other loco in the consist. They stayed coupled as pairs and ran around trains in pairs.

That's why I plan to buy three. One pair nose2nose and one to consist with a 141/181. There were only 15 x 121s, but 49 baby GMs so I'd eventually like to keep the ratio looking similarly proportionate on the layout. (3 x 121s : 10 x babies). But I might break that rule to have a single delivery grey 121 in a display case.

This doesn't seem close To this profile The front of the DVT looks like a cardboard box a child brought home as a prop from a school play

That was a fast response. But boy those enterprise DVTs make ugly ducklings look pretty - a real 1970s look about it shape wise. Some NIR stock is not famed for its aesthetic beauty. The IE Mk4 DVTs are like graceful swans by comparison. (pic from BBC web site)

There's a 121 shades of orange standing on the wall . . . Back on thread, any idea if the NEM sockets on the new 121s might be on the body or the bogies?

Interesting photo of a mk2 with half tippex coupled to a mk3. The different shades of orange on the coaches is very clear in that pic.

Those things look like something from 1930s Peter Cushing horror movie. The sort of trains Frankenstein travelled on, or freight deliverys to the Dalek factory. Yes that's what I thought. Strange though at that time running nose first was such an issue given most of the drivers would have been used to the restricted visibility of steam locos. But I can see though that any new drivers trained in A or C class, or Sulzers would have felt very uncomfortable driving the 121s nose first. Same thing happened on British rail with the class 20s and they were run in nose to nose pairs also.

Thought some of the steam trains were double headed for the steep incline out of Cork, and even tripled for the incline on heavy trains. Wasn't there was a siding or loop north of Cork past the incline for the additional locos to hold once uncoupled while their train passed on to Dublin.

CIE/Irish Rail No 461 Steam Loco official relaunch by President Mary Robinson Pearse Street 1991 Interesting old clip with brass bands, etc

Looking forward to these next year from MM 2 of these (no hand rail along sides) And one of these for static display

Spotted this "Irish Rail Ballast Hopper Train, 10 wagons & 2 plough vans" on eBay for €350. http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Irish-Rail-Ballast-Hopper-Train-10-wagons-2-plough-vans-Murphy-Models-etc-/262233741941?hash=item3d0e595a75:g:hioAAOSwwPhWkmUt

Shhh! That is just my last hurrah - from now on its RTR all the way with four MM 121s next winter.

Hi JM. Fair enough. Each on to their own. Personally I don't have the time to build anymore nor the inclination when RTR is far better than anything I could build. But that's just me, I've got to the stage in life where I just want to operate really nice looking choo-choos in an authentic manner. My building will be limited to layout elements. I buy my veggies in Tesco's too rather than grow them in the back garden!

Wow that's insanely clever