Noel

Cheers Gerry, I was just rooting through my off cuts box looking for pieces that could be cut up for the cattle pens and a small crane for the main loading dock platform. Looks like the walls will have to be a triple layer laminate of plastic sheed to get the correct thickness with round balsa capping.

Beautiful job Gerry. Love the subtle weathering too. Can't beat two axle wagons of that era. The very essence of model trains as I was introduced to them.

Yes your are quite correct the NEM pocket on the MM 121 is oversized (ie not NEM compliant), so couplings droop. I sorted that by cutting a small thin strip of plastic card to act as a filler shim which I dry fitted under the shank of kadee no 19 which then leave the coupling at the correct height (ie as per the kadee height gauge), so the trip pin did not foul points cross blades. The NEM pocket is at the correct height, just oversized vertically, an easy fix, took a few mins. But handle that loco with extreme care, there are so many delicate parts on it they can easily come off when handling it for stuff like this.

As per NMRA standards for DCC an address of 130 is a LONG address, so when programming the loco address be sure to specify that 130 is a 'long' address, otherwise you won't be able to control the loco. Most DCC system programming menus ask if a new address is short or long. If your DCC system programming menus don't handle this there is a convoluted manual way of doing this by manually assigning values to NMRA specified CV values, but that sort of manual set up went out with the arc. Suggest check the manual section for 'rail master' dealing with assigning loco addresses, or setting up a new loco. In the mean time if stuck simply reset the decoder to factor default by writing 8 to CV8 (ie CV8=8). This will reset your decoder and it will have the default address of 3 again (ie until you figure out how to specify 130 as a long loop address in programming mode)

Some progress on platforms before painting and weathering

Done, but voted for the AS Hopper. Opps

Platforms under construction. Gort's platforms had edging stone, but no over hang nor recess, just a right angle vertical side to platforms from rough stone. This will be the goods yard platform, loading dock and cattle dock. Cattle pen to be constructed shortly. Platform structure starts with Peco platform edging kits, plastic card sheets bought from graphic design art suppliers, and faced with greenstuffworld smooth stone embossed card as well as being packed out to the edge of the platform. IMHO Peco platform edge kits are the easiest and most accurate way to make model platforms at correct height and without meandering edges.

Problem is western democracies have us hassling legislators about potholes outside our homes, and jobs for little jimmy, bus services to our village, etc, so they can only see one electoral cycle at a time (ie <5 years). There's no time left for vision or sense, or the big national picture, just the parish pub, and react to the latest popular demands or start looking for a new source of income. Reps with sense, vision and planning usually don't get reelected if they don't look after the ridiculous local trivia.

PS: Seems bonkers there still isn't a high speed non-stop rail link between the airport and the city centre (ie like the heathrow express). But sure local politicians will want a stop every few hundred meters for their constituents shopping expeditions that will push the travelling public and business travellers onto faster private transport (ie as folk currently avoid the slow tube from heathrow to London stopping in every suburb because it takes an hour and is crowded).

Thanks for the info. Perhaps post CV-19 our economy might benefit if it decentralises more from the east coast and greater Dublin area more to the regions were rail for commuters and the shift to home based working helps regional towns like Galway, Limerick, Nenagh, Waterford, Carlow, Sligo, KIllkenny, Athlone, Foynes, Carrick-on-Shannon, Tullamore, Portlaoise, Maynooth, Middleton, Ennis, Mullingar, Navan, etc. Some of the old rail lines could prove invaluable in the future. I'm still flabbergasted that Youghal was not reconnected to Cork city as most of the engineering was still in tact and RPA still owned the track bed. Yet another greenway! How many do we need? Are Westport and Dungarvan not enough for cycle tourism. Next we might see pressure on other low traffic lines such as Rosslare-Waterford, Ballybrophy-Nenagh, Limerick-Foynes, Limerick-Waterford to be released as greenways. Once that happens they will never come back and future generations of people who have to commute by road to city work places will be surprised at the short sighted decision making of today based on short term economics. With national infrastructure the long game is needed with 100 year plans not 5-10 years.

@Rob just a suggestion, what about converting the coupling only on the ends of the mk3 rake to a smaller TLC and leave the intermediate couplings as they are? ie cut off the huge lima TLC and fettle in a NEM pocket in its place to take a NEM small TLC. Then MM locos could couple up to the rake of mk3s. The only problem I found with the smaller TLCs due to their size and limited vertical rubbing surface, is that reversing stock either for marshalling purposes or running can be problematic with couplings slipping up over each other causing derailments when reversing. As you know I went kadees at some cost and some surgery required, but this was more to get reliable running especially when reversing or pushing, rather than automatic uncoupling. Visually the smaller TLCs don't like as offensive as the 1980s sized Hornby and Lima TLCs, but the older massive TLCs did reverse and push much better.

I don't know how this panned out in the end or if the recondition rails from Ballina line ever made it back to Tuam. But interesting viewing

Yes agree with most of that. Best of luck with the commute.

Extract from a short running session today. Classic CIE Black'n'Tan era goods train from the glory days of CIE and Ireland's railways. Most of these wagons cost me £3.50 each many years ago. Some more recent kit bashes cost a little more. Mainly Bachmann and some Dapol.

What environmental waste indeed. Did they use a haz chem courier?

Yes it sounds positive. The one thing that was notable about the drive to increase commuter traffic for Cork city was no mention of Youghal. Youghal has both the opportunity for daily commuter traffic into cork as well as seasonal tourist traffic. RPA still own the track bed between middleton and Youghal and IMHO should not ceed it to another greenway. Short term thinking to placate local hospitality businesses and publicans rather than looking at the wider picture. Post covid with the successful shift to home working for many professions one can't help but wonder about future demand for commuter transport including Luas and Dart.

Most impressive Eoin Kingdom Brunnell

Few more pics. Got the guttering and down pipes done. Used a ratio guttering kit. Now just need a fews sacks of produce and a few wooden barrels outside. No pallets in this era, no fork lift trucks. This was before modern era, bogies and containers. All manually loaded produce in the CIE golden era. The ratio guttering accessory kit was handy, saved me forming realistic gutters from heated plastic strips. A bit of fiddling here to figuratively ensure water would flow downhill from the overhang into the main roof down pipe. Will have to put drain traps on the ground below these. Overall pleased to have a unique scale model of a real building as it was back around 1970. The basic structure of this building still exists but its all boarded up now.

PS: Great advertisement for the hobby, Murphy Model locos and IRM wagons.

Well deserved, your layout looked absolutely fabulous, Loved the attention to detail, the micro scenes in gardens and park areas, all the figures, street furnature, work men in the yards, the buildings, it all blended so well. Noticed nice details such as the lamp on the gable of the loco shed, leaves on the road, man up a ladder, all of these things really brought it to life. Very authentic. Liked the cameo role for some GWR at the beginning.

Superb results on the lining. The transfers worked really well.

Looked fabulous. Great attention to detail.

Lovely flowing track work free of kinks at joints. Don't worry about the Shannon Region, Ardnacrusha can handle any shorts! Just drop the barriers at Parteen Weir.

Gort goods shed nearly finished, skylight windows in, gutters, doors, just downpipes left and some gentle weathering done today. Will have to have another look at it tomorrow in natural daylight before adjusting. But its getting near the end. Water tower got a little aging done

Loose coupled Pickup goods traffic