Noel

Hope so, I'm in need of some extra door stops, ran out of Lima 201 peat briquettes.

Or a 22k rollar skate yoyo

You've discovered the cunning plan then? Seriously in terms of passenger stock: CIE Black'n'Tan A ran with Laminates, Bredins, Park Royals & Cravens single stripe, and ST mk2d's for a brief period before all A classes got the ST livery CIE ST A class ran primarily with ST Mk2d, but could also have hauled all of the above and even early IR Tippex Mk2d for a while before the locos got their IE Tippex stripes IR Tippex A class mainly hauled Mk2d in IR Tippex with orange roofs, Cravens, and Park Royals as laminates where phased out. Yes it might be useful for new comers to have access to livery and formation compatibility charts. I think one of the UK retailers like Rails or Hattons did something like this in the UK for BR stock.

It seems a bit like one of those hollywood Frankenstein horror movies of the 1940s, when a crowd of village people are outside the gates of the castle speculating what the flashing lights up in the castle mean. We can enjoy pondering the future but bare in mind the 141/181s were actually a bachmann product produced for MM, so no idea where the IP or tooling ownership resides which could be a complicating factor in deciding the viability of re-runs or refreshes. The 141/181s were and still are truly superb locos not least because they are still to this day probably the best and smoothest running model locos. The only improvements needed are perhaps an easy access hatch to fit a decoder, supplied with a decent built in speaker (ie not the tiny sugar cube in the 121), and with independent control of the head lamps (ie decoupled from the running lights). The staff collectors on the 141/181s were actually more scale like in detail than the 121. Only one of these changes would require a partial retooling (ie centre body section), but not an iota what such might cost. I still think if they were rereleased exactly as they were in 2008 they'd still sell out faster than a torch for a party of priests lost in the caves of Clonrickert. Now back to the castle gates, what's going on up there?

We are already blessed with a bountiful supply of top class Irish model locos. I do agree the BachmannMM 141/181s would probably fly off the shelves faster than Fr Jack chasing a bottle of brandy in his turbo charged wheelchair including double flywheel, all wheel drive, keepalive and ANDAS (automatic nun detection and avoidance system). The imminent arrival of A class should put enough Irish model mojo in the market for decades to come. If I was a betting man I’d put a tote bet each way on future 141/181s, 071s and even C classes eventually coming to market from some manufacturers. The well is only so deep. Patience will yield reward.

Great find for your collection of railway memorabilia.

Some more happenings. Split the two main baseboards for the first time in nearly a year. Disc cut the tracks and sawed the sleepers and ballast, scalpel had already cut the two layers of 3mm closed cell dense foam, so it was a matter of pulling the two boards carefully part and then reconnecting to ensure 100% alignment. The brass baseboard alignment dowels help. Light between the two 5ft boards The join will be disguised with a tiny amount of sacrificial ballast material and perhaps walkway planks. Relived to see that the glued track and ballast is firm enough for good alignment. No need for copper strips for brass screws at rail ends, etc. Some more scenes Provincial wagons Bulleid general open wagon being loaded by dock crane Goods yard on mart day. Neighbouring builders merchants will be expecting a delivery of a few wagons on the afternoon pick up goods train from Limerick so the cattle wagons will have to be gone before that on the passing Limerick-Galways mixed goods train.

Yes for a moment I wondered if it might be carrick-on-suir or carrick-on-shannon, both still active railway stations today.

Looks good, Just a suggestion in case you needed some more space, if you had a pair of curved points crossover just coming out of the bend on RHS trains could cross over early and access the bay platform. Also a head shunt off to the right of the container sidings up as far as 'major road' might allow a loco position more wagons under a container crane unless you are using a stacker crane.

Thanks for heads up

Doing the ballasting was time consuming and tedious. Used one of these gizmos for the first time, it seems better designed for code 100 track with deeper sleepers than code 75 as it dispenses a little too fast. After dispensing ballast on straight sections the usual spoon tapping on rails to bounce ballast off the tops of sleepers into the gaps, but not entirely successful so . . . . . . this vacuum cleaner was useful to remove excess ballast and it was surprising how precise it could be. Ladies attire from a bygone era used to trap the ballast in the slieve of the vacuum cleaner so it could be salvaged and reused and not wasted Held at the right angle and distance it could remove just the right amount of surplus. Balsa strips wrapped in grease proof paper was used where platform edges would be to limit spread of ballast. As its a station area ballast shoulders would not exist so material was added between the rails using the usual 50/50% water/PVA mix with a few drops of fairy liquid to eliminate surface tension. Eye dropper seemed the easiest tool to dispense the PVA mix on the pre-wetted ballast. Ballasting steps Dispense and spread ballast, use paint brush to tweak and adjust Use spoon to tap rails which caused surplus ballast on sleepers to bounce off into gaps between sleepers Use vacuum cleaner and ladies stocking to trim and remove excess ballast mattress so sleeper tops and edges not covered Pre-Spray ballasted track with mist water spray to wet the ballast material (plus few drops of fairy liquid). This helps the PVA solution to quickly seep into ballast and spread evenly through the ballast and to surface track bed foam using capillary action. Be careful to use a gentle fine mist spray and avoid blowing the ballast material is it could be moved by too much pressure. Leave to fully dry for 72hrs Tidy up the few sleepers with ballast glued on top by removing Remove track pins as Ballast has effectively glued the track to the track bed (ie in my case 3mm closed cell dense foam). Weather the ballast using airbrush and rail match sleeper grime acyricly paint (or rail match spray rattle can). Airbrush sleeper grime onto the edges of the rails (ie to simulate weathering and rust). Weathered rust does not look bright red/orange, in reality it looks dull brown. Wipe paint off top of rails while still wet, will make cleaning later much easier (ie using a rubber later). The PVA mix spreads really easily and well once the ballast has been made wet by fine most spray bottle (ie water plus a few drops of fairly liquid, or IPA). It looks a mess now, but leave it along and to not be tempted to touch it, when dry the PVA will have vanished with no shine nor milky colour. Doing sleepers was really time consuming because one wanted to ensure the point could still move freely without ballast material clogging the blades or accidentally gluing the mechanism. Most of the point can be ballasted quickly but as one gets near the tie bar one needs to be very careful with the eye dropper positioning so no glue get near the point blades nor tie bar. The next day gaps between the rails were ballasted using a spoon to dispense and 1/2" brush to spread out evenly. Now leave for 72hrs before removing track pins.

Agree personally for me trains are for playing with and to be run, not in a display case or in a precious box up in the attic. But I do understand there is a market for pure collectors and as Patrick pointed out its just co-incidence that it overlaps with this hobby due to the products involved. Also see DB's point about rareness and part of the history of Irish models, etc.

Deliciously refined. Class

Cheers, it has to be weathered in a bit yet. It was quite time consuming doing the points while avoiding gluing the mechanism. But figured out a technique eventually.

Some more pics Drone shot

Slowly getting there. Hard landscaping and structures done, so ready now for soft landscaping Looking north in Athenry direction. Afternoon 14:30 Limerick to Claremorris left standing on the platform while the loco is used to shunt the yard. Looking south towards Ennis/Limerick, the loco shunts cattle wagons ready for the soon to arrive 15:30 Tuam to Limerick goods train to collect the cattle wagons. Then the loco will recouple with the branch passenger train and work to Athenry, Tuam, Claremorris.

Hi Paul Yes they were truly awful models, but pre-MM they seemed the bee's-knees cause they were vaguely Irish in colour if nothing else. Hideous models but of emotional and nostalgic value to me. I repainted this when I was about 12 because the bright orange plastic looked hideous in the extreme and not like the shade of orange on A classes or GMs back then. This was he first model I weathered if you can call it that, just painted the bogies and under frame with gunk to get rid of the shiney Hornby black chassis. The Shade of orange on these Lima class 33s was much closer to CIE albeit they were a far fetch from looking like an A class. Again in 1974 these hailing lima BR mk1 in B&T livery provided hours of enjoyment Pic about 1974 using an Uncles polaroid camera. The Lima kit past the 10ft rule as CIE trains back then.

Yes their stuff was unpleasant to say the least. Recently noticed 'some' collectors are paying big bucks for some of that sub-standard stuff. Fisher price comes to mind.

Since joining this forum about 2014, I've found it very informative, educational and entertaining. Web based BBs seem on the wane for special interest groups or hobbies who seem to have moved a lot of content to Facebook, but facebook groups lack so many features that a forum like this has, such as threads, search, organisation and structure so that past content can be easily discovered and read. I would say this forum very much provided the impetus, inspiration and knowledge that got me back into the hobby in 2014 after nearly 20 years absence. Outside of special interest groups I don't really like facebook, it can be a time wasting quick sand with too much trivia at times. I have a policy of not using the 'friends' feature unless I actually know somebody and have met them in the real world so my apologies to anybody who has not got a response from a friends request, its not that I'm being a hermit or rude, or rejecting a connection, its just I don't really use facebook and only friend people I know and have met in person in the real world. Youtube has also been an inspirational tool for leaning stuff, research, and tutorials on how to do all manner of modelling stuff. The beauty of a forum like this is the organisation and retrievability of content in the future, especially for new members. Use the Irish section of RMweb a bit as well. It is wonderful learning from others and I especially enjoy reading the workbench and layout threads, and have learned much from same. The platform this forum is hosted on has been upgraded and tweaked to great advantage over the years.

Is it easy enough to open these up for the purposes of putting passengers in the seats?

Purely from limited personal memory there seems be pre-1974 and post-1974 in terms of models and rolling stock availability especially when it came to the way goods were handled and moved. Supertrain in 1972 (relivereied A class locos hauling smart new mk2d coaches) seemed a significant sea change in passenger transport as was 2007 with the switch to ICRs. I still remember the TV adverts.

That was actually one of the smartest liveries on the A class from a branding point of view. I matched the coaching stock so well. No point trying to split hairs on a hedge hog, but this looked pretty modern at the time. There's no right nor wrong, only ones own personal memories. We live in a strange world, many of the devices that seemed utterly far fetched and implausible on programs such as start trek now exist and we all use, yet technologically we've gone backwards in many ways, no more concord nor supersonic passenger flight, no more space shuttle, back to large fireworks slinging satellites into orbit, steam trains of the 1930s had shorter journey times on main lines express routes than today, almost gone is the HST, but TGV and ICE still fly the tech flag for rail, gone are the HSS fast ferries, gone are the days air travel was enjoyable before airports were turned into cattle crush's, gone is the 747, even the mighty A380 is at sunset stage. I find it curios that in Ireland we hold smelly ancient diesel locos in high regards as preservation heritage rather than main line express steam locos as in other countries. Mk2d are 50 years old but were part of what for me in my life time were considered 'modern era' as were BR mk2 Blue'n'corporate grey coaches hauled by class 37s and 47s. All ancient by todays standards but still modern diesel electric compared to steam era with its vast marshalling yards with literals thousands of loose coupled 2 axles wagons arranged in diverse formations full of variety. Rose tinted glasses perhaps, it was pretty grimy work environment for those who ran the railways back then.

Back in 1972 Super train looked really cool and modern due to the roof profile of the A class and matching curved roof profiles of the new mk2 stock. It looked all modern and sleek (as intended despite the fact the repainted locos were then 17 years old already). Clever marketing campaign and the sleek aerodynamic looking roof ends and A class curves looked from another era compared to what had gone before. 75mph seemed like a spaceship in an Ireland that was then still partial to peat, turf and bogs with only one TV station that didn't go on air until 5:30pm and finished about 11pm with the national anthem which everybody was expected to stand for. That disappearing dot in the TV screen when you turned it off and 405 line TV picture imploded. Only some relatives on the east coast could get foreign TV channels from Wales. Mart'n'Market topped the rankings and had the premium slots for advertisers in an Ireland were the Riordans was our east enders, complete with tea taboos & tractors, scandal after scandal but a preview of Miley rolling in the hay 20 years later with Fidelma in Glenroe. How far we've come as a nation, colour traffic lights now in every town and village, its about 40 years since I've seen the last set of black and white traffic lights. The A classes were of that era with their 1950s crossly engines before modernised to reliable EMD units. The original super train felt like the Irish Bullet train, little did we know how slow we were still going on jointed rail largely still controlled by manned signal boxes and semaphore signals. A strange overlap just before the 1974 freight modernisation programme was introduced that would do away with the massive goods yards and marshalling sidings full of two axle loose coupled wagons. The A class covered both eras and more later, its hard to believe the original dull grey machines also had the smart IR tippex orange livery in the early 1990s.

The Golden era is whatever one you remember it as being such. Modern for me was Orange when super train was launched and BR went with Blue/Grey mk2 stock oft referred to by uk press as modern era.