Noel

IMHO, the old Lima is not worth the bother as it is a poor runner. If a Heljan chassis could fit a Silver fox nicely that is the way to go. My pair of old Lima 33s already in CIE livery are such hideous runners, I'm not going to even bother converting them to DCC. Off to the attic collection for both of them along with the BR mk1s in CIE livery, except for two that I'm going to convert to GSVs.

Hear hear. I'm not a rivit counter myself.

Very nice indeed Geoff. Some fabulous scenes and a noticeable 'SAR' theme that looks great. All you need now is a simulated derailment with SAR services in attendance!

Just discovered, the earlier livery MM CIE cravens (i.e. single white strip) do not have the fluorescent blue seating. Very nice coaches and look just right with a black 141.

Well I don't follow soccer but that goal was insanely genius, so gets my vote. Good on her.

Seismic

Thanks. I was a little disappointed with the older bachmann 36-554 as they were supposed to be better than the newer 36-557 which some hornby controller users had mixed results with.

Hi Dave. I presume you mean the Hatton's ones. Do you know who's or which product they really are (i.e. rebadged)? I've now tried Lenz silver, Bachmann 36-557, Zimo MX644D and Bachmann 36-554 decoders in MM 141/181 locos. The cheaper Bachmann 36-554 does not seem to run these MM locos anywhere nears as well as the other three, and has a very strange power curve. The Lenz and Zimo seem by far the smoothest and quietest, especially at crawl. Its possible I'm not getting the best out of the cheaper Bachmann with its 'out of the box' settings. I've experimented with a few CVs but no significant change in behaviour. The Bachmann 36-557 is not bad at all though. Anybody else had success with various Bachmann decoders in MM141/181s?

HI CGA FYI, MM1515 and MM1504 Cravens in early CIE black'n'tan one white strip livery are recently back in stock with most retailers. The Model Shop Portlaoise and Mark's models both have plenty in stock. Noel PS: I think MM1149 (1st class CIE early livery) is also back in stock

That's excellent info John. Thanks for such an informative post.

See here: http://www.irishfreightmodels.com/index.php/2015-releases.html Looking forward to these

Well even with my lexdisia it reads a lot like "supertrain" Whatever they are enjoy. Happy Christmas & new year.

Interesting I have eight Lima CIE (ex BR mk1s) in black'n'tan livery, the models are circa 1978isn, but run OK on my peco 100 track. I was wondering about rewheeling to reduce shorts on the crossings.

Enjoy. The loco shed is looking great.

Hi Dave, thanks for posting. That's a nice blast from the past. Wrenn was fabulous gear and the top of the pile back then. The fact that the locos were metal and seriously heavy gave them amazing traction, and they felt and looked like real steam engines. One of my great modelling regrets as a child was selling a Hornby-Dublo 'Cardiff Castle' loco to one of my school teachers in an effort to fund the purchase of more track work. The larger tender locos had the original 'ring field' motors on a long shaft with very good gearing for their day. The motors were nearly 3 inches long. They could start at scale speeds and also crawl at low speed, wheres Triang and early Hornby locos started with a jolt at scale speeds of 25mph. I think it was 'Evening Star' that was Triang-Hornby's first foray into tender drive locos with their plastic ring field motors. I remember Triang track work was o'rrible and oversized compared to the finer scale Hornby-Dublo track. Cheers. Noel PS: Did lines brothers sell off Wrenn or Triang?

Unlike fashion, models can have a long shelf life as they tend to be current for a long time.

Hi Dave. Like you I'm not a fan of real 201s, but I do like that livery and we've travelled quite a bit behind green/silver 201s in mk4s since our RTA a few years ago, so had to get one and very glad I did. Looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting stuck into making a start on the scenery in the next few weeks. But for me the baby GMs double heading is what they did so well on passenger and freight work and look great on the scaled down confines of a layout. Noel

Wishing you all a very special and peaceful Christmas celebration. Noel

Foam hot wire cutters has arrived, a supply of foam insulation board and plaster cloth ready to start work on embankments and sections of landscaping over the Christmas break. GMs - detailing yet to be added after speakers installed. I have become a fan of operating GM pairs - consists Newest arrival 'Dargle River' Hopefully the background of this photo will look a little better in a few weeks time when its greened up a little.

Well I have to eat my words. Christmas came early as Mrs Clause bought me a lovely MM Grahams Resprays 222 "River Dargle" in Green and Grey livery. Living in Co Wicklow it had to be "Dargle River" in that livery, but had the "River Shannon" been in Green/Grey I would have jumped at that. Very pleased with Graham's weathering on this loco. I'm still not a big fan of the real 201 class, but as a model it is superb especially in this livery for my taste buds, despite the fact it doesn't suit my 60s/70s coaching and freight inventory. However due to the pic below I feel the poetic license will allow me to run it with Mk2d's and Cravens as RPSI specials. I had to buy one example and won't being buying anymore, but really pleased with this one. It is a very very long loco, so future fleet extensions at Kingsbridge will hopefully be 071 and especially 141/181s which are just the perfect size and mix for the 'loco hauled' era I have such fond memories of. I just love running a pair of 141/181 as consists, they look stunning underway. PS1: I know they are Mk3s but at least it orange and green mixed. PS2: I will have to learn how to weather and tone down the orange roofs on my few mk2d's PS3: I hope Brian doesn't mind me reposting his superb photo

.

Yes it is, for less than half that price you could buy a superb running newer version of the Murphy Model 201 with all wheel pickup and all wheel drive (e.g. €150-170), far superior to the poor Lima toy. http://www.themodelshop.ie/model-railways/irish-railways/irish-locomotives/murphy-models-class-201-diesel-8208-river-lagan-ie-enterprise-new.html

Enjoy. Wishing you success continuing this fine layouts development and much fun operating it.

In my humble experience Lima locomotives do not make good paper weights. That price seems totally daft. I wouldn't take one of those for free. Lima 201 v MM 201 = Lada v Audi

Rooting around the attic this evening I found this 1980s attempt at steam sound - budget sound, I mean really budget sound They were supplied with some Hornby train sets of the era. It sounds hideous, more suitable for a child playing with duple trains. But it got me thinking of how simple it would be to create a simple mobile phone app to play synchronised trains sounds on a few channels. I found one on app store called iTrain but it was very poor. I reckon a few tracks that could be played simultaneously. Passing train rail noise + wheel clack over joints Assorted Diesel Horns Assorted Steam Whistles Flange squeal Station background noises, people, announcements, etc Various Steam loco chuff chuff Assorted GM Diesels including manual notch up and down All this needed is about 30 looping sound files and an app to play them with touch gestures, or use camera on phone to detect passing models and auto play sounds!!!