Noel

Great scenes. Well done.

Yum - Is that white chocolate Cadburys or Nestle? (in jest) Seriously though the progression from early scratch built GMs to MIR, to polished 3D like below and now quality MM injection moulded plastic has been staggering. We are spoilt for fine scale models nowadays. Will watch this space late next year.

Looks like content loaded by a spam engine into a hacked account!

http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/303-Mk3-Driving-Trailer

Most of the MIR 121s I've seen in the flesh looked like they have been dipped in an orange chocolate fountain. No doubt great in their day, but not exactly fine scale.

Classic. Thanks Dave, glad to hear it. Will hold off then until President Clinton is back in the white house.

Thanks. That's an option to consider. MM 141 seem less expensive than SW1500 eBay prices. I presume MM bogies are 00 gauge but the Athern is HO so would it look a little undersize? Ps. If this Shapeways 121 is any good and sells well it could kill off any chance of a future MM/Bachmann offering.

If they marginally cheated on scale length so it would fit straight over an MM 141 chassis I would be tempted to buy one. €190 for a completed 121 model would be worth it if the detail is any good (ie while waiting in case MM ever do one). I see they offer a polished version (ie no 3D grain). I'd have no problem discarding the body from an MM 141 chassis, but I couldn't be bothered shortening a chassis (cut'n'shut). On screen it looks far superior to past MIR resin bodies. I have not yet seen a decent detailed model of a 121 at any of the shows.

Despite most retailers being out of stock, in my experience new or mint MM 141/181s are still relatively easy to get hold of with prices varying between €80-130. Probably the best Irish model chassis ever produced. And who knows, perhaps in years to come there may be limited reruns anyway.

Thanks. I think I'll wait for quality should MM or Bachmann release a 121 model over the next few years. Enough of wishful thinking . . . summer activity beckons for now.

Is the difference in length (i.e. buffer to buffer) due to different body length sitting over the same chassis, OR actual shorter distance between the outermost two axels?

Hi Stevie. I wasn't impressed with the finish quality of any 3D printed models I've seen so far. The obvious chassis would be an existing MM 141/181. I'm happy to wait some years for high quality injection moulded plastic if it ever comes to pass. Nothing including 3D, resin nor metal beats it for detail nor quality. Noel

Could be a wide angle lens effect but they look slightly over scale beside the fab looking 2700

Unfortunately intercity railways and freight in small geographical countries with small populations are now "sunset" businesses.

Yes provide useful infrastructure but not waste. The channel tunnel project between UK and France went bust owing gazzilions that will never be recouped even with the state aid both countries gave, and a rail tunnel between Ireland and GB would cost many many multiples more due to the distance and geology, yet with a tiny population and tiny freight tonnage compared to larger EU countries. Sorry but a tunnel makes absolutely no economic sense due to the size of our economy and the small size of our population.

Looks superb. Thats a really top class job.

Been on it many times over the past decades. It's a cute little railway.

LOL - A tunnel connecting the two islands has never been more than a daft pipe dream. Now if we had a population of 40m then the numbers might be a bit further from la-la land.

Thanks. That was precisely what I was considering. Nice to know it works. It's summer time so the choo-choo trains are getting a break until autumn.

Our new motorways killed rail transport. The main reason we had one of the highest track densities per capita around 1900 is we had very few roads. Back then the rail network was predominately freight - agri freight.

No refection on your excellent building skills, but did the plastic body moulding arrive just ever so slightly warped? The one I have was but I guess it should bend back parallel square if I heat it a little bit before assembly.

Darwin explains this sort of thing very well

Hi Kevin. Have you been trying the lights on DC or DCC? Suggest checking the switches under the loco (i.e. for DC light settings), and if DCC, try a decoder reset. Just in case it's a decoder programming issue. I inadvertently messed up a few CVs on one of my MM locos and the lights appeared to have failed, but it was just the decoder settings for lights. One of the lights had a strange flashing sequence. After a CV8=8 reset all was well again. Might be a red herring, but just in case it's not a wiring, pcb nor lamp fault. Noel PS: After CV8=8 reset bare in mind the locos address reverts back to the factory default of 3 just in case you think the loco is dead because it no longer responds to its former address.

Thanks IT. Great stuff.

Thanks for taking the time to make that clip and post it. Very interesting. I noticed the horn at the beginning of the 142 segment sounded different to the horn at the end of the 165 segment. If you got a chance sometime to post a clip with the braking sound on stopping and the flange squeal. If you are programming the LokSound yourself, are you able to extract the other channels from the MM recordings on ESUs web site (e.g. whistle, station announcement, brakes, etc).