Noel

Hi Paudie. I have to start blasting this winter too. It's over 40years since I last did it. An issue to consider is sound insulation. Having a layer of a material such as cork or dense insulating foam under the track will reduce 'base board' noise which can be irritating. I don't know how felt would work. As ever try a few feet of spare track on a bit of off cut base board to see how IT works out.

Yes a real toy gimmick once upon a time many many years ago. I have two of them somewhere in the attic, one in LMS livery, the other in BR Blue and Grey. Never seen one in CIE Livery before though.

Will have to await the outcome of police investigation to establish if this was just darwinian criminal thugs, or a well planned terrorist attack. If the latter the implications are extremely worrying for rail transport.

Stunning performance that delivered the victory. Every player from 1 to 23, the squad and JS deserve due credit.

Thanks IRM Thanks Dave. I'm after folks preferred choice based on their usage experience. So are these the ones you prefer to use?

Superb model lima33. Ps. Spotted the Monthy python and dinosaurs montage in the back ground

Great find. Enjoyed watching that. Very nostalgic. Different h&s back then.

Hi Folks Just wondering what forum members preferred choice of decoders is for MM locos? (for non sound use) 21 pin - Lenz, Bachmann, Zimo, LokPilot, other brands??? And which models of decoder. Thanks Noel

Yes it does look good. Nice layout too. I'm hoping the 141 sound turns out as well. Not sure about the 071 doing 200mph scale speed at times.

Looks great. Do you do your own weathering?

That is just so amazing. It looks alive. I love it. Something to aspire to.

Sure. Will post a video next week when I get some time to fit the decoder and speaker to one of my 141s. I've heard his 071 chips and they sound good at move off, acceleration, deceleration, coasting and breaking. If the new 141 sound programme does what it claims on the tin, I will be a happy bunny, but can't judge till I've heard it with my own ears. I'm taking a punt on this.

Yes Keith confirmed the same to me earlier. I hope to test one of the new sound chips for 141 locos next week.

This new product sounds like a welcome and positive development. Its a small niche market but anything that brings HNW tourists here seems a good thing for Ireland inc. The 'sleeper' element is interesting as we don't have long routes so presume it will be parked up somewhere over night. Where will be interesting. Some remote loop in the country side, or in a city location with good security. Cruise ships do the reverse by cruising at night and stopping in some port by day to allow the PAX off to visit places. But as they operate already on short Scottish routes I'm sure this has a proven solution. Good luck to them. A weeks cruise on the inland Shannon princess is circa €3k with top class catering on board. Sounds like the train product is a step up. Mind you a whole weeks cruise on a small 5 star ocean cruise ship is about half the cost of the mooted train fares. But then there is also clearly a market for 'star clippers'. Hope its a success.

Really enjoyed that video and your new layout. Looks really well and should be very interesting to operate. Love the long trains and scale speed.

Interesting. Beauty or not is in the eye of the beholder. When I travelled on early mk3s way back then, I thought the scheme was rather dull and dreary. The later 'tippex' at least gave an ugly colour scheme a visual lift. Thankfully the Mk4s have a nice livery and that awful orange is gone. I'd love to know what the thinking or reasoning behind the switch from the 50s olive green livery to the early 60s black and tan was. Green was the theme colour back then in ROI (e.g. post boxes, phone boxes, buses, trains, etc). Basically they just painted the roofs orange and removed the upper white strip when the Mk2s arrived. Must have been a maintenance headache trying to keep day glow orange roofs clean. Somebody once told me that they changed the buses from green livery so that folks could more easily see them coming from distance in the green country side. Myth or true I have no idea. On the subject of restaurant cars, the catering on the Mk2s and Mk3s was pretty OK compared to the absolute limited rubbish now available on the current Cork Mk4 trains. There was a time the business traveller could travel to Cork and back for a days work, having a decent breakfast on the way down, and an evening meal on the return, instead of a greasy microwaved bap. I understand the enterprise still has decent catering facilities. No wonder the business traveller has abandoned intercity trains.

Nice pic. Nostalgic looking back at that old CIE livery - it was a grim colour scheme.

Hear hear. Great stuff.

In the late 60s Triang had a range of military train rolling stock, including all manner of flats with tanks and artillery pieces, covered in netting camouflage, engineering loads, etc. I remember drooling as a child looking at it in the display case of WJ Owens in Bray. There were about 5 years where toy manufacturers produced a lot of military toys during the 25th anniversary of WW2. A great era when stuff like Mecanno, airfix, Lego, toy trains, scalextric, wooden blocks, chemistry sets, books and footballs were what entertained youngsters, rather than hours transfixed by dancing LCD screens. When one had to physically interact with a toy world instead of watch it. Wonder how creative the next generation of engineers will be given most never built anything during their formative years growing up! Brunnel must have had a great wooden block set as a toddler to envision his mind.

Woops - Sorry no offence whatsoever was intended. It was a genuine question. I have indeed been away from the hobby for many years, but before my break I had never been a member of any clubs, so would not have been aware of any names nor what areas they were based in. I had been to a few exhibitions decades ago but just a walk in member of the public. Please let's just chill. Noel Ps. I really enjoyed the show and the venue, even if space was a little tight at times (ie I visited twice)

I should be able to post a pic at the end of this week once I have collected it.

Thank you very much for posting that. It sounds really great and the second video confirms the rapid change in sound to match throttle speed inputs. So just to confirm I have understood a few points: The loco in the two videos is LokSound v4.0 with a modified 071 sound file supplied by Olivia's models (i.e. pre-burned with the modified file) Olivia models changed the prime mover sound for an EMD 567 from another file they had The spooling up and down sounds were automatically matched to throttle settings (i.e. not manually notched on 2nd video) The breaking sound was automatic Have I got that right? And the BMS Zimo chip does not spool up quickly with early throttle inputs. One of the things I like about the MM LokSound 071 decoder is that the sound spools up almost before the loco moves like the real thing and automatically notches up during early accelerations (i.e. rapidly matches speed changes). From what you are all saying the BMS Zimo chip does not do this which seems a major omission. PS: Forgive, but did real world 181s sound much different to 141s?

Thanks guys.

Hi Kevin. Some Bachmann/Hornby steam Loco models including lights, keep-alive and smoke box lights. Noel

Thanks that link explains it. One question, I assume you removed the supplied speaker cradle that is pre fitted in the MM 141/181? And replaced the plastic moulding with the modified speaker.