Noel

Ebay. The actual ones I got are not currently listed but they seem identical to these. They are designed for larger cables but by angling them so that the low voltage wires stay in the opposing jaws they work well. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20-40-60pcs-wire-storage-clips-buckle-securing-cable-clamp-data-line-finishing-/133527190403?var=&hash=item1f16d73b83 Wiring phase continues: Finished installing the last point motor last night but upon testing discovered there was a mystery short circuit somewhere. Mystery solved today without ripping up ballasted track. Obviously six months ago when I was modifying the peco electro frog points in the usual manner I forgot to remove the two short bridging wires on the point blades of this one point. I managed to sort it without lifting the already ballasted point by micro drilling at 45º angle through sleeper to cut the wires under the point. All good now. Was dreading lifting it. I had correctly bridged the stock rails to the outer ends of the blades. I had spent an hour examining a new point comparing using ammeter with the ballasted one. All I need to do now is solder up the connectors for the two base boards. Was not dreading the potential need to lift this one. It was the only point I forgot to snip the bridge wires. Rectified without removal via micro drill which cut the bridging wires under the point. Will fill and paint over the holes later. These are the link bridging wires I forgot to snip off this one point last year when preparing them for track laying. Now to hook up and NCE power cab and switch on. Tested track work using DC yesterday.

Ennis/Limerck board wiring is now complete and tested. Had one minor short to sort on one of the Cobalt connector blocks. Test ran loco on DC to check frogs polarity switching ok. Smooth as a button. While I was at it tested the under tack uncoupling magnet as now is the time to rectify any problems. Just in case. So far all good, now finishing the Athernry board wiring. The boards will be connected with 25pin D type computer connectors (ie the type used on RS232 serial printer cables 35 years ago). I'm bored now, what's happening next? With hindsight it was well worth painting the underside of the base boards even though it seem unnecessary at the time they were constructed, handy for self adhesive cable keeps and tempoary alignment of Cobalt point motors.

Fitted Cobalt Analog point motors today and wired up the integrated frog polarity switch. Made a portable test harness using a 9v battery and DPDT switch which was useful for testing alignment and throw of the point blades. Really impressed with the Cobalts ease of installation, a little noisy perhaps but at least no 'gun shot' solenoid switch noise. Nice to see blades move more slowly and prototypically. The pressure contacts on the Cobalt PCB makes wiring really easy and swapping frog polarity is really quick and easy to do. While these are Analog motors they will be switched digitally using an ADfx8 decoder module, so that cab controls can be used to switch points, but there will also be an AEU encoder wired to a lever frame set of switches plugged in to the Cab bus for physical switching of points. The lever frame will only need two wires connected to it so I will be able to move the lever frame around the layout rather than run a bundle of wiring to each switch. I hope to make a plug in signal box modules and use the same digital interface to control signals. Only two wires to each point motor for both power and switching Local frog polarity switch on point motor for electrofrog point All point motors powered by the ADfx8 decoder Only two wires to power and control the ADfx8 decoder from the DCC track bus Points can be switch by physical lever frame switches or digitally from DCC cab Virtual signal box containing the lever frame switches is portable as it only needs a single cable to connect it into the CAB bus of the DCC system, so it can be moved between the front and back of layout using just an RJ12/45 plug like a cab. The AEU encoder gets its power from the CAB bus. Lever switches short pair of wires to the local AEU board. Once the wiring has been 100% tested ready to start the scenic landscaping above the boards

The trick with eBbay seems to be to decide your max price, and make only one single bid 10 seconds before bidding closes. You win or lose, but no gazumping. Hi Paul That doesn't seem too a bad price. Box irrelevant to somebody like me who only runs stuff.

Layout stripped of structures for more wiring. On its side now for ease of access under the baseboards. Backscene acts as stabiliser while board are on their side. Lots to be done under here. Baseboard sits happily on its side using back scene for added stability. Made a test harness for fitting the Cobalt Analog point motors which run off a portable 9v battery during fitting and alignment testing. Removed the entering springs from the points.

Hear Hear. Brass master at work

Staggeringly beautiful. Photo realistic. Looking at those photo I can hear birds and the sound of bees pollination the vegetation of a summers morning. Drenched in atmosphere. Pure class and an inspiration.

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.