Noel

On Kingsbridge I designed a 3" difference in height between upper level and lower levels. That gives 70mm clearance under the upper baseboard which is 9mm ply. Everything fits except two steam tank locos with particularly tall chimneys. Bare in mind the height of your choosen track bed. We have a 3% transition incline from lower level to upper level which is rarely used, typical coach rakes are 4 to 6 and no problems. The only problem I had was with 42ft container flats which required a pair of 071s to get them up the incline. Max no of wagons the pair of 071s could get up the hill was six 42fts. No problems with other wagons (ferts, tara, cement, etc), all free flowing axles. Its your layout so go with what ever separation level you like. Personally I prefer minimal height differences but sufficient for off the shelf support wall kits (ie arches, etc), bridges, etc.

Some more tweaking to Gort goods shed, sliding doors added via hanging runners. Ready to be "bloody blown off" by the arrival of the A class in the coming months (aka italian job M cain)

@RobertRocheLooks fab. Count me in for certain. I'd take two if its wide enough. Assume they could be assembled in slightly different formations (ie opposing steps, etc). What is the distance between each side of the bridge (ie inner most supports).

The Irish Grid is ever improving. Target is 80% renewables by 2030? Ireland has the best wind map in Europe and combined with pumped storage and battery sinks the future looks bright. A bit different from the days when steam locos on shed were belching fumes from millions of tons of burnt coal. We are fortunate that we can risk going for more wind that other nations due to our small size and the celtic interconnector which will enable us to import French nuclear generated electricity on days the wind does not blow. We should have boundless energy in the future to power electric mainline trains. True but having done a few rail tours, going on another diesel one in cravens doesn't really blow my skirt up. It's just not steam and coaches not old enough, Cravens were fairly modern coaches with cheap basic formica interiors compared to the laminates and breedin's of yesteryear.

And thank merciful hour the RPSI will never in decades to come feel the need to preserve a toy 22k yoyo heap, nor even a luas. Yes the future is electric, all electric and good for our planet. In decades to come we will revise how green we thought rail transport was when the belching emissions of 071s and 22ks are fully realised, and the deadly NoX that platform passengers have been unknowingly breathing in for decades. Having switch to driving electric some years ago, I was pleasantly surprised that they were not at all like egg box milk floats and are rather nippy indeed. The electrification or partial electrification of our small rail network seems inevitable, possibly with a mix of overhead gantry and battery for non-gantry sections, but it will be expensive, since the end of steam the trees and vegetation growing along the track side has got out of control and will need to be removed bare again like it was in steam days (due fire risks). Cork-Dublin seems the obvious candidate for first electrification. Freight transport has left rail and may never return unless there are financial savings or HGVs become too dirty for future road transport.

Gulp, but it’s stored hidden away in boxes out of sight, just collected and not run on the layout, like the boogie container stock collected but unseen and unused. I don’t run yellow belly stock on the layout, but may some day should sunglasses become available. Actually I was wondering about kitbashing up the old style laminate weed train using the modern one for donor parts as I have some really nice 20ft flat wagons. Yellow PW sh#&, down with that sort of thing, twill it make you go blind Fadder? What’s the official line of the church now? Should we all devote more time to aminates now? It’s just with the farm and all I don’t have much time to devote to the toy trains.

Fear not, No, No never, never, never! Fear not the mk3s may well be auctioned off on eBay in the future. I even find mk2s a bit modern despite travelling on them quite a bit in the late 1970s. I had not heard of Britmodeller. Just googled it.

Yes thanks. The super train livery is sort of growing on me and more accepting of 1970s and 1980s weathering. Tippex from a prototypical branding perspective is obviously brighter, smarter and more attractive visually. ST was rather dull on prototypes, but cleverly ST locos matched up ok with B&T coaching stock, due the golden brown bands at similar heights.

A model virus hits our layout. Modern era mk3 infestation as some recent resprays went for a test drive. The black'n'tan CIE era stock may send me to the 'bogie of eternal stench' as punishment for allowing such modern era stock on our rails. Donors were a mix of Hornby and Lima.

Recent Lima mk3 respray donors had the hideously large tension lock couplings removed and replaced with Kadee draft gear box whisker couplings (no 141 size). Kadee height gauge is essential even for NEM fitted stock One of the Donors was missing most of its buffer beam to reconstituted that and fitted replacement sprung buffers. Got four bogies converted this afternoon. Lima el'cleapo pizza cutter wheels but they run ok on my track work.

A master craftsman at work

Yes, the hotbox was the thing that struck me when I got a tour back in 1984. The engineer told me they could almost identify the train and its speed from the read out. Fab bit of film footage. I was always thought at school that Ireland had no heavy industry nor industrial manufacturing capability, inchicore and before it broad stone says otherwise. Many a steam loco was built in Ireland with steel parts forged and fabricated right here (there), not to mention all the wagons and coaches built at inchicore. It was a little city in its own right.

I once tried to catch a train for Puerto Mogan to Claremorris but the only arrival that day was a yellow submarine! Nice Volvo Trucks too.

Phew!

Yummie, they look fabulous especially in those surroundings. Must order some to go with my B&T stock. SF have raised their game. Now its possible along with SF & IFM & MM and soon IRM's A classes to model the 1950s, 60s and 70s properly. IMHO, the zenith era of Irish Railways, when men were men, trains were trains, and shunting was the norm before yoyos. As ever your layout looks excellent Patrick. Just oozes atmosphere provoking the mind to elicit memories of sounds, sights and smells of that halcyon era.

Excellent result

What brexit? Hattons delivered two small orders within 72hrs, duty and vat paid by them apparently! Postman didn't want to charge Irish VAT on top of the order. This was a new one on me (ie DDP=delivery duty paid), but it looks like post brexit Hattons and some other UK retailers remain in play for Irish customers. Also got a delivery from Rail-tec, again no problems, no vat to be paid this end. Haven't tried Peter's spares yet nor gaugemaster as it seems most uk retailers are out of stock of Kadee draft gear box couplings. Anyway the predictions of doom and gloom may be unfounded unless I was lucky, but all three deliveries were accompanied by customs declarations which presumably facilitated this. Oh yea the order was for some scenic materials for Gort.

Fabricated doors for the goods shed, now to make the sliding rails.

Loved seeing the original grey 121s hauling black and tan coaches with a grotty silver tin van for heating and the odd green flying snail coach in the formation.

Good to hear, but As K801 has already mentioned the promised 3 remaining RPSI blue and cream craven coaches to go with the original 3 can run behind B134 and existing MM 071s seems the obvious choice as no tooling needed unless a proper bar coach is included. Any fix available for the wobbling originals (Eg bogie shim springs as demonstrated by Paddy Murphy at the SDMRC show a few years ago)? RPSI B134 could also haul existing Bachmann RPSI green mk2a coaches.

Very interesting reading how micro mechanical issues are dealt with on these superb models. Fab running videos on a really atmospheric layout.

One of the latest batch of my mk3 resprays before weathering. This time I tried Lima donors. Next up will be some Hornby shorties. Now to get back to cutting, filling, sanding and filing an EGV for them. I like the see through glass in the Limas compared to the dark Hornby windows, but the Hornby flush glazing is better. Swings and roundabouts.

Whatever comes in the future will be a bonus. The Irish models glass seems 75% full at this stage.

Rear of building (car park side)

Ahem IMHO I thought 1960s early 1970s were the golden era before modern era uniform coaching stock and bogie freight removed all of the visual interest and operational diversity. Shunting loose coupled 2 axles wagons had a Rubik's come quality to it, and was a visual feast to watch it for real as well as an assault of the senses. Then in the naughties yo-yos removed the need for much of the track work, no more runarounds, marshalling, etc, instead a driver could just walk the length of the platform or train to change cab ends. The fisher price 22k sets seem as stirring to operate as marmite on a slice of brown toast. Well there is the choice of RTR laminates from IFM of which I have quite a few and very happy with them along with IFM Park Royal RTR and kits. For laminates there is also the option of JM design brass overlay kits for Dapol donor coaches. The IFM stuff was not inexpensive but more than passed the 'duck test' especially the park royals and look fab in a mixed rake with Cravens. One of the great things about the MM Cravens is it allowed one to mix and match a few of them with one or two IFM Park Royals or Laminates to make up the usual 1960s rake of coaches combined with a heating van of some kind unless it was summer. One can legitimately run an A class with a single craven and a tin van, or any variant of GSV for any branch working, or a pair of cravens and a heating van. I remember when the cravens were introduced they were considered the height of modernity and had soft curved lines at the ends as well as the massive width the Irish loading gauge allowed for. Gone were the flaky dynamo lighting that flickered and dimmed. Yes I suspect Mk3s might sell well, but most folk already seem to have a good stock of resprays, so perhaps Park Royals could be the big seller, given the A class due soon, and so many of the MM baby GM variants of the period. Personally I'd be happy with any Irish coaching stock pre-super train (eg PR, Lam, or AEC). The CIE 1974 modernisation programme wiped out the outdated but visually and operationally interesting goods wagon era with large yards and goods sheds in daily use at every station as manual handling was replaced by pallets, folk lift trucks, containerisation and uniform rakes. Nowadays there's hardly any freight left on rail, and innovative services like 'fastback' long gone, pre-dating copiers. On mainline trains you cannot even get cooked food anymore except the 1st and last cork trains of the day and some enterprise services. Back in the day you had a restaurant coach on most services to places like Wateford, Galway, Sligo, Kerry, now if your lucky is a trolly with shake'n'vac sandwiches, a tin of pop and a packet of crisps. Oh for fillet steak or full Irish on the Cork City Gold service. Progress will always happen. If I was a betting man and I'm not I'd put a half crown each way on mk3 or mk4s making it to RTR before too long as there are plenty of MM 071 and MM 201s they can run with. The long herald and much anticipated A classes may need some additional 60s and 70s coaching stock to haul as MM mk2d and MM Cravens are out of production and out of stock. Happy to sit back and wait to see what happens, I'm fortunate to have collected or kit bashed enough 1960s and 1970s coaching stock for my era, and even a rake of mk3 resprays, and a rake of mk4's to run with my sole 201 no 222. But no DVD yet, that is still on the cutting bench awaiting sculpting