Noel

That station building has real character and the warm brick colours make a pleasant change from typical GSWR grey limestone buildings. Nice platform detail too.

Wow what an Aladdin's cave of MM locos!!! PS: OP's photo of 080 in the workshop is a superb composition

Your welcome. Btw, my typo mistake, The Lenz Silver+ are 5 function decoders hence they can operate one of the cab lights but not both. I really like their 'motor' drive characteristics and BEMF options which seem to suit MM centre drive chassis well. The €35 MM supplied ESU 6-fn LokPilot is a good chip too, but €10 more per loco. 141/181s only need 4 functions for the lights. Manual here (German, English, French) http://www.digital-plus.de/pdf/GOLD_SILVER_plus_manual.pdf

Hi Noel Thanks. Yes I've standardised on Lenz Silver+ 21pin (10321-01) for MM141/181/071/201 models that do not require sound. I sourced them in Germany for €25 from Kieskemper and amazon.de which is a better price than UK due currency hop and poor UK prices. Germany is the best place to source Lenz or ESU products at competitive euro prices. The 10321-01 silver+ are 4 function decoders so operate the directional running lights and head lamp on MM locos, but won't operate both cab lights in 071/201 locos. Personally I don't use cab lights on my 071s anyway. F1 turns the directional running lights on and F2 turns the headlamp on. I really like the Lenz ultra smooth drive at low speed and usually change CV3 and CV4 to 15 for gentle acceleration and deceleration. One minor quirk with the default out-of-the box CV settings that I haven't had time to change is that the lights initially only switch on once the loco gets a throttle input, but after that the lights stay as commanded even when loco stops or remains stopped. Cheers Noel PS: On sound I like both LokSound and Zimo, but for 141s I just love driving the newer Zimo sound project from Keith Pearson (MrSoundGuy). And one or two sound locos is enough for me, otherwise the sound is a confusing din! I also turn sound decoders volume right down to between 20-30%.

OK Boss - will try harder next time Slightly 'crisper' focus below despite poor light! Newly commissioned 7078 with Lenz €25 decoder 7078 shutdown for the night Used a camera this time! I just love 'playing' with model trains

Judging by the high quality of work around the window frames, I presume many of the original body panels and much of the super structure has been replaced over the decades during various major overhauls?

This layout is simply in another league. A land of imaginary realism - its alive. One fees like one has walked down that track in a dream, or a distant memory. Pure class.

Thanks. I almost guessed the right era. The 103's were seriously powerful locos.

That's a great looking collection. I'm not familiar with continental trains, what sort of era did the prototypes operate? One almost expects to see Roger Moore as 'The Saint' on board in a tux.

The superb photo on the 071 loco-080 thread thread inspired me to unbox and chip 7078 today and pop it on the layout. The layout has been a bit neglected during the summer break, but hopefully now tooled up with foam, plaster and static grass tools will make some progress this winter. 7078 unboxed today from Mark's earlier summer sale 7078 pulling a rake of mineral wagons Notice how different the white balance effects the colour of the yellow panel in the two photos!!!

Careful now Moderators won't like that sort of tone

I tried to register with RU forum but their registration page is down due to a missing 'captcha' graphic. Does anybody know if that forum is active?

It's great to see these 38yo locos being overhauled and put to good use. It is refreshing to see state capital assets sweated properly and exploited to the full of their operational lifespan. 080 looks very well.

Superb modelling.

Really enjoyed that.

Excellent scene

Ditto Agree. Use it regularly for UK suppliers including Amazon, but watch out for Amazon splitting orders into multiple deliveries (x €4 each drop via PM) GSR800, the coach is currently listed at €20 plus €14 for postage, but that may be a mistake on the listing as that seems to be the cost of shipping from Portlaoise to UK.

RS, yes it was listed earlier yesterday for GBP £20 hence conversion to about EU €29, but now its listed for EU €20. SeanW, is this ebay item one of your listings? As a donor for a respray it seems an ok price at €20 but the postage seems too high (i.e. 20+14=34).

Thanks for posting. That colour looks a lot better than the poor plastic factory colour they came out of the box. Would love to see some photos of the sides when you have finished the respray, especially the where the black meets the golden brown along the windows. This was one area that let some of the ST coaches down.

Your layout and scenic work is fabulous Patrick. I love the look of it with and without the stone walls. Personally the stones walls looked the biz as they reminded me of the western line outside Galway, but I understand your reasons for removing them. However it has inspired me to plan such walls on our layout when I get around to some rural scenic sections. Your foliage looks superb.

Heuston intercity routes will remain an island as long as they are not directly connected by fast heavy rail to the other lines and routes, especially the Dart. Both commuter and intercity traffic would grow. You can't get on a train north, south or east city and connect to trains to our other cities Cork, Limerick, Galway or Waterford. Its a joke - no wonder its easier to take the motorway and go by car.

A short sighted lack of vision. Business and Leisure travellers will not be too interested in a slow Luas link to Airport that stops off every few mins for "local" needs. The existing AirPort express bus will be much faster and hence the capital spend on Luas only of benefit to local communities but not air travellers, nor Ireland Inc. A great pity the big picture for Ireland Inc has not been grasped.

Will do Leslie. I don't know Michael, but will indeed pray for him, a sense of peace as he prepares for the operation, for his family who must be worrying, and for the medical staff who are caring for him, that each one of them will be diligent, precise and use their talents and skills to the best of their ability, also that Michael is fit for the procedure and free from pre and post op infection, and for success in treating his condition.

Hi Paul. Sorry the Hornby hymek horror show didn't appeal to me at the time, but within a year or so back then in the 70s I was over the moon with the Lima Mk1s in black and tan and the Lima class 33 which was a quality mould with a good paint job that at least very vaguely resembled a CIE A class. The Lima felt like the bees knees then alright. But I accept 'beauty was in the eye of the 70s beholder', etc. Cheers. Noel

Hornby's horrible hymek doesn't get uglier than this piece of plastic junk, not to mention the plastic day-glo orange mk2s PS: Might try hack modify some of the 70s Lima mk1 rake behind into something vaguely resembling mk1 GSVs