Noel

Shocked and just feel a sense of deep sadness. Such awful plain and suffering for hundreds of innocent families whose lives have been changed utterly.

Is HLV = Heating & Luggage Van? Presume it ran with Dynamo lit stock if no generator.

Pity - the Hornby's are not the greatest runners, not bad, but not good either. Is there a Bachmann chassis that fits as they are mostly all wheel drive, all wheel pickup with flywheels and centre drive chassis?

Thanks. Were the tanks always fitted to these vans? I vaguely remember seeing photos of models some with, some without the tanks.

Great. I'm exempt so <1kg

Old thread but a question to quench my curiosity. What function did the bockety looking boxes under the buffer beams have? Were they some sort of weight or storage tank? These vans had a nice curved side profile.

Not a lead roof is it?

PS: Looks like there had been two different buildings up against that gable at some stage. The shape of the gable scar on your 2nd photo is a different size and shape building to the one in the 3rd fotograf.

Sorry can't help you Dave, but thanks for the super photo of mixed goods traffic from my favourite era when rail freight was near its peak.

Now that is what I call a genuine quality build and a proper model. The precision and resolution of the model is quite simply in a league of its own. Hats of to the builder, and best wishes to the new owner. It looks so pleasing to the eye. Would love to see a video of it running some day.

Excellent - very interesting. Was the recording from inside a coach, outside via window, or line side of a passing train? Three very different sounds.

I suspect the maze of parallel telegraph wires rising up and down and the poles whipping past added to the drowsy hypnotic effect if looking out the window at cows, etc.

Does anybody miss or remember the old "clackety clack" wheel/rail joint sounds travelling on mainline passenger trains before welded rails were introduced back in the late 70s? It had a sort of hypnotic effect making one a bit drowsy after a while on longer train trips. It's a pity DCC sound chips don't have a spare channel for it matching the loco speed to the frequency of 'clacks'

Now your cooking! B&T loose coupled mixed freight - yum. I remember a few pax trains in my child hood that had a few freight wagons tagged on at the back, and trains that used to split halfway, and you had to be sure to be sitting in the correct end of the train for your destination. RS is right, its whatever era one grew up with or saw the most of that lures us back.

Thanks. Sounds more than good enough.

Thanks for posting. That sounds really great. What are the breaks like and the flange squeal? Irishtump has done something similar. Did you use the LokProgrammer to add the EMD567 prime driver to the 071 project available on the ESU website? What speaker did you use? Was it a standard 40x20mm speaker installed in the MM speaker cradle or did you remove the cradle to install a larger speaker casing?

Not too sure about "often to a very high standard". Some of it may have been an admirable accomplishment but often pretty coarse looking. I tend to agree. I'm one of those. It was the superb MM RTR products that attracted me back into the hobby after a long break. There is no right nor wrong, just different opinions, different tastes, and different expectations. All equally valid. If I can explain. I intend to keep buying from sources such as SF and IFM because I personally have found them to be of a reasonable standard and look well "enough" for me behind MM locos. They are without doubt way better than anything I could ever build from a kit. IMHO, it seems unrealistic to compare the cost of coaches from of a production run of 8000 units, with the cost from small volume producers, and certainly unrealistic to expect the same level of detail. If MM were producing Park Royals and Laminates in volume I would expect a notch up in detail, but just a notch. MM are not infallible either, IMHO the colour of the mk2d stock has been way off the prototype. The 2ft rule doesn't help when colour is way off, but it does help if windows are not flush glazed or door handles are absent. In the end of the day its about choice and these small producers of RTR stock make models available that enough folk want to run on their layouts. Enough folk have voted with their feet and 'wallets' It's ironic that this discussion is actually a symptom of the variety and choice of Irish RTR stock now available - but a dream only 20 years ago. How our expectations have risen? Lets blame MM for raising the bar so high. PS: Apologies Warbonnet, posts crossed as I was typing and took a few phone calls.

She looks fabulous. What is the construction?

Life too seems busier than yesteryear with more pressure on time, folks working longer hours, commutes, demands of life, family, etc. It doesn't seem that long ago folks knew how to change a plug, put egg white in a leaky radiator to get a car home, use ladies nylons if a fan belt broke, or clean the contacts on a distributor cap if it got wet! Times move on, ladies don't wear nylons anymore, cars have electronic ignitions , cars only need light servicing every 30k, most folks never have to lift the bonnet of a car from the day they buy it to the day they sell it except to put windscreen washer in it. I guess its the same with model railways. Loss of time, loss of desire to kit build = loss of experience and skills, hence greater demand for RTR especially as there is now plenty of RTR available unlike 20 years ago. Also materials have moved on. Another hobby of mine was RC aero modelling. I usually scratch built from plans, or the occasional kit, and then ARTFs and RTFs started dominating the scene 15 years ago, now hardly anybody builds anything, its now more of a 'fit out' operation - way of the modern world. Also there was a huge shift away from traditional materials such as balsa, spruce, and lite-ply, to modern materials such as fibreglass, carbon fibre composites, synthetic coverings and resin paints.

Spotted this last summer - not on a railway but only few 100 meters away from old Fenit railway.

Very enjoyable. 187 and the rolling stock looked the part. Love that layout.

I watched a documentary some time ago about the history of model railways and it suggested that interest in the hobby started to fall off in the UK after the introduction of the HST 125 and everything looked the "same" and train movements became rather boring. It also credited "Thomas the Tank engine" on TV and later merchandising as the antidote which fostered renewed interest in the hobby from a new generation. The passage of time will reveal all.

I know what you mean, I do remember the wheels seeming quite large on Irish Coaches. But then do we go full circle and use 21mm track?

OK some higher res photos as requested in better light snapped with a camera. IFM Laminate Left to Right on platform: MM Craven, IFM Laminate, IFM Park Royal, SF GSV

Beam me up scotty! ICRs, DMUs, Dart, Luas = Roller skate buses on rails - I prefer real trains hauled by an engine! On a serious note though ICRs and DMUs don't seem to capture the imagination of todays youngsters so where does that leave the hobby in 30 years time? On the other hand there remains the "Thomas" effect, and the fact that men in the UK in their 40s are modelling steam trains that they never travelled on nor say except for movies and TV dramas.