Noel

John as others have suggested avoid Hornby DCC controllers. There was another thread on here only last week highlighting the limitations of a Hornby controller that could not even be used to reset a decoder to default values. Check out starter DCC systems such as: Roco MultMaus, NCE PowerCab, Bachmann Dynamis, and Bachmann EZ Command The next level up is Lenz, Zimo, GuageMaster, ESU and NCE ProCab Recommend you invest some time checking out the ergonomics of the various systems cabs, button and control layouts, etc, throttle sliders v rotary knobs v buttons, etc. Its a good idea to download the manual for each system and have a good read. It will give you a good idea which system will suit you.

Absolutely beautiful piece of model engineering. Superb.

Yes fond memories of it and glad I got my family to see it before it closed. Despite the lack of detail on some of the layout models, it didn't matter because the whole thing just looked spectacular, worked, entertained and as Tony said had genuine 'Irish' looking trains and Irish scenes. I thought the layout was very clever in terms of its story telling. Cyril Fry's models on static display were superb. I didn't realise at the time that the layout models had not been built by him, but a talented group of modellers. It was there I first saw a murphy model baby GM loco in the shop and was blown away having been out of the hobby for about 18 years. I bought it on the spot and was amazed to own a model of a real Irish diesel loco. Glad to hear the museum will reopen in the next few years.

Thanks. I hadn't realised the 121s had push/pull gear fitted before they were used with modified mk3 sets.

Did any other loco such as 141s ever push converted AEC sets?

+1 and very easy to use and programme

Nice pic

Wow it was the background on John's photo that caught my attention - the essence of goods wagons on Irelands railways, now I'd buy three rakes of those RTR corrugated wagons to run on our layout and fill every siding.

Interesting photo. Is that a portable ESB inspection crew car in the background suspended from HT cables or some sort of mini industrial cable car? Given there are two cars suspended it looks like the latter but where and for what purpose? (Forgive the drift but it's a curious photo)

Thanks. So presume it is pumped in and out under pressure and therefore tanks don't need washing out between loads?

Hmmm, one needs a very very large layout to operate realistic formations of modern long coaching stock such as mk4s or mk3s and the very long 201s with large radius curves to boot and very long station platforms. If I had the skills I'd love to build shortened mk4 look a like coaches that were about 60ft scale length (instead of 74/77ft) in the green grey livery as they'd look the part but fit well on typical sized model sized layouts.

How were cement bubbles used? Might sound silly, obviously they transported some form of cement but what type and how. Did they transport dry cement dust or a wet mix? If the latter was it time sensitive to deliver and was there a significant washing process needed to keep the wagons serviceable after each load was dispensed. If the former how were they loaded and unloaded (i.e. air blown, gravity, auger, etc)?

It sounds like its just the decoders motor CV settings are askew. Setting CV8=8 should sort it all out. As your hornby controller can't write to CV8, suggest bringing the decoder to the retailer who may be able to do it in store for you with their DCC system (i.e. assuming they have a test rig in store and 1m of test track). I've often accidentally messed up decoder settings myself and got all manner of strange loco behaviours, but was always able to reset the decoder to normal default values using CV8=8 reset.

Yes it is PS: The word 'supertrain' is considered a profanity down our way :)

If anybody is near Shankill in the next few days there is a spectacular Christmas tree festival exhibition open to the public in a local church. https://www.facebook.com/crinkenchurch

I was going to take three but Richie's photo of a B&T 141 hauling a rake of them with a guard van makes more of them look quite appealing for that era despite my lack of memory. Were bubbles used on most routes, or were they concentrated on the likes of the Waterford and Cork lines?

Sound sensible - but what about these? (Moderator note: image removed) I appreciate IRM's injection moulded plastic products will yield far detail and superior finish than 3D printing or resin bodies.

Oh nice - are you part of the IRM marketing team. That's not fair using a B&T loco :)

That's my idea of a goods train. So I could buy one or two and sandwich them between other loose coupled wagons and the essential brake van behind a black and tan 141 or C class B&T livery.

Quite possibly I must have just missed seeing them or didn't know what they were. Pre 72 most my rail travel was Amiens Street to Galway and back, so perhaps they were not frequent travellers on that route, or I just didn't notice. What is etched vividly in my mind is passing loops and sidings full of corrugated open wagons and vans when B&T A/C class and 141s dominated hauling freight traffic (ie pre super train era), where virtually all fright formations were nicely punctuated with a brake van at the end. I appreciate that's just down to age/era/nostalgia psychology. Hence I've more B&T 141s than any 'orange' ones ready to haul 60 to 75 era stock. In the absence of anything better for now, personally I'm happy to continue to use British RTR outline models for vans as they pass the 'duck test' (ie 2ft rule). Really looking forward though to the ballast wagons as they straddle my era. The big gaping hole in the hobby remains quality RTR A/C class locos. You never know though - once I get to hold a quality RTR bubble in my hands they will probably grow on me. Good luck with them, I'm sure they will prove very popular.

Just me, but cement bubbles aren't part of my nostalgia memory from back in the CIE black'n'tan days, so probably not as excited as most about a model. Now un-braked loose coupled corrugated open CIE wagons and CIE vans would flick a nostalgia switch. But I think the bubble models will prove popular.

Ah yes you are right I got the ZX81 and the Spectrum mixed up.

If you are on Yosemite there is no urgency to move to El Capitan as the big feature jump was Yosemite, but coming from Mavericks there were some new bits worth getting. The need to keep up to date is not part of the past Apple culture. The ZX81 - that was considered the height of modernity and luxury back then compared to the stuff we started on - colour, and remember the screen flickered every time you pressed a key. But it was the 1st affordable 'micro' computer of that era dominated by Commodore Pet, Apple II, and Tandy TRS80. Then the Act Sirius one with MS-DOS changed everything 12months before IBM launched the PC which was technically inferior at every spec level to the Sirius One. The rest is history, but the likes of Altos, Fortune and CT were fun along the way. The world nearly spun off its axis when the daisy wheel printer was replaced by NLQ matrix and Laser printers (i.e. the word laser from si-fi movies instilling a sense of ultra modernity and star wars, flash gordon, etc). Memories . . .

Light dusting of factory weathering would at least allow individuals to use them straight out of the box, or enhance the weathering further if they wish, but not attractive to put on tracks shiney clean straight out of the box. They just would not look right as JB suggested. One of the attractions of RTR is to use straight out of the box.

I guess they know railway modellers prefer trains to buses on rails Hence the market for Irish RCs is probably too small to make a profit. Anyway the doors are seriously in the wrong place for an Irish 2700. MM have raised the bar so high, mere re paints don't cut it anymore.