Noel

Yes it sounds bad alright and that's a potential commuter belt, but not at such jurassic speeds. Those railcars are designed for short quick journeys, hence the discomfort of the seats. I spent over 3hrs on a 22k coming back from Kerry last autumn and the seats were truly awful for a long trip. Just for the seats alone I would never do a long trip again on a 22k and that was on CWR!!! Ditto - Only trains allowed on our layout, and trains have loco engines, not sterile ugly plastic buses on rails

What part of greater Germany do you live in?

You frame some really superb compositions. That is a really classy image.

+1 It's not bad compared to costs of other folks passions such as: Photography - decent SLR camera + lens setup > €5k plus extras! Golf - clubs, membership, trips, gear, green fees, etc Car restoration, Rallying - bottomless pit Rugby supporter including season tickets and trips abroad for away matches, same for soccer. Sailing - don't start! Horse racing - too many zeros Cycling, carbon fibre hi-tech bikes, gear, gear, gear Skiing - trips, ski passes, accommodation, skis and bindings every few years, boots Flying fixed wing, flying heli's makes collecting every MM loco ever made look inexpensive!!! Surfing - gear, gear, gear, trips, trips, trips As BK said its often the simplest mini projects that take so much enjoyable time that can be so rewarding.

Really enjoyed that. What a find. The double movement at LJ to allow pax board the rear of the train was unorthodox!

Price seemed excessive for old Lima junk. Jeepers I have two of these in great nick but didn't think they were worth more than a few bob for static display purposes.

Hear hear.

Yes that's a good comparison point on the clip and the difference is stark. The 201 Orange is closer to the mm mk2d models in IE/IR tippex and ST liveries which IMHO are too orange (ie too much yellow, not enough red). The coaches have less yellow and more red. The black roofed models don't look as stark as the orange roofed ones. In fairness one cannot be accurate from videos and photos due to different lighting and white balance tones. Also orange roofed models tend to suffer from modellers birds eye viewing syndrome compared to side on view we are used to on the prototypes. IMHO a bit of gentle weathering is an easy fix to help tone down the 'bright orange' colour especially the orange roofed mk2ds. About to try this myself soon.

Oh how we chatter like the little people in the land of Darby O'Gill about new things of the world we don't fully understand. in jest, but seriously this exciting decision to extend a well established product from their international portfolio to Ireland is bound to be successful. It's not a new idea nor a new product, but a well proven formula with an established marketing machine on three continents. I'm sure the operator is well used to all the logistical aspects of running such a top class service targeted at a very discerning client base. It's not like they haven't done it before nor figured out all the issues running and stabling such a specialist train.

At 38sec you can see the 201 has a different shade of orange (i.e. much more yellow) than the coaches.

I think these are too heavy for parts of the itinerary route. Will have to be 071/111 class.

Can't wait to see this develop. The more I look at that track diagram the more interesting the operational possibilities seem. I know JM is a 'stickler' for correct signalling and prototypical ops. Five different railway lines converging on one station - awesome place to model.

No prob here and I'm using ROI IP address. However I am logged into youtube. Try logging into youtube and then click the link above.

JM, do you remember 2011 there on the mooring for the tall ships? Happy memories and glad it wasn't the Black Water.

Sounds like there could be an issue with the loco alright.

Very nice. Your livery respray is much closer to the real super train coaches I remember. The side by side by photo shows just how hideous the 'dayglow orange' really is out of the box. Nice job on the respray, looks great.

OK, so none of the lights worked on your grey 071 with a similar decoder? The first MM sound decoder I bought was DOA (dead on arrival), no drive, no lights, no sound, but the dealer replaced it no problem and it ran fine. FYI, I use Lenz (10321) 4 function decoders on my non-sound 071s because I don't care for the cab lights and they are good value at €25 in Germany for a top brand decoder.

At €18,000 for a six night trip with a couple sharing, thats about €1500 per person per day. I wish them success in such niche market. A grand suite on a luxury cruise ship might cost about 65% less for twelve nights.

Here you go: http://www.belmond.com/grand-hibernian-train See the tweet works - we are talking about it exactly as intended by marketing

The Rathcoole premises may also be an option if its easier for you to get to by road. Might be worth a phone call if it was, to check they can look it there as well as Hawkins street.

WOW - what a stunning track diagram for what was once a major freight and passenger hub. The possibilities for layout operations and traffic mix are endless. I dare not make any suggestions to such an amazing plan, but have you considered moving and using curved points instead of the straight points at grid box 4 & 5 (SE end but LHS when viewing diagram). This would enable you to add one foot to the platforms by moving the point work into the bends at the SE end of the layout.

Doesn't sound great especially if you could smell the decoder overheating. Unfortunately I suspect the decoder is fried. You need to establish why. Is there a short in the loco PCB, or was it a fault on the decoder, or however unlikely a problem with the DCC controller. If possible I'd bring the loco and decoder to the dealer who supplied both, and get them to diagnose the cause. Avoids the risk of damage to other components when iteratively swapping out elements when attempting to trace the fault. Ps: I have also test ran 071 locos with a Bachman 4 function decoder but I can't remember if it ran the running lights F0 or not. I don't think it would run the spot light as it is on F4 which those decoders don't have.

The 'new publication' thread caused me to find this: Michael Palin's railway trip through Ireland in 1993. Hard to believe so much has changed in only 22 years!

I suspect its similar to the 'Bradshaws' book used on BBC's 'Great Railway Journeys in Ireland' and 'Great British Railway Journeys'

Because our layout started out as DC, it is now wired to run as DCC or DC. There are isolation sections and blocks which are switch on and off as appropriate in DC mode, however in DCC mode all sections are left switched on (i.e. live rails everywhere). I use a few master switches to switch between DCC master controller out put, or the outputs of DC controllers. I find this useful for testing, maintaining and running in locos in pure DC mode (i.e. no decoder installed). In DCC mode all I have to do is ensure there are no analogue DC locos on live sections of track (i.e. switch block sections off). No problem the other way around as I configure my loco decoders so that they do not respond to Analogue/DC (i.e. CV29 bit 2 = 0 off). This setup allows me to occasionally run some old locos that will never be converted to DCC.