Noel

Enjoy. Lovely looking models. Just wondering why the head lamp boxes are silver rather than the usual white for that livery.

Some CV's used to control consisting. Some DCC systems have user friendly consist setup menus that handle the primary advanced consist CVs. Suggest Check the value of CV21 in each loco once a consist has been created to see if FN1 (sound) has been masked off. CV21 determines which functions each decoder should respond to. I'm not familiar with Gaugemaster Prodigy Advance effect on CV19 and/or CV21. It looks like the decoders many be blocked from responding to Function 1 Advanced Consisting CVs CV 21 & 22 = 0 in all locos CV21:bits 0-7 controls F1-F8 passthrough or not CV22(lights)+F9-F12 (bit 0=fwd, 1=rev, 2-5 for F9-F12) CV23=accelaration adjust (+127 to -127) (CV50 bit to activate CV23+24 on some systems) CV24=decelaration adjust C19>0 means in a consist CV19=0 not in a consist CV19:bits 0-6 = consist address CV19:bit 7=direction (ie in case one of the locos is going in the wrong direction) FYI clip below 11m15s in, demo of sound working in both my 121s with LokSound decoders setup with an advanced consist on NCE. I did not have to set or adjust any CVs, the consist menu look after all of that and hid the complexities. PS: Below clip Creating and advanced consist on NCE sound working on both decoders

Don't forget OO Works Irish J15 and their Irish 4-4-0 a few years ago. Cracking steam locos.

I found a few photos during conversion to DCC The little PCB with the choke and capacity needs to be removed A micro decoder might just fit inside the loco where this PCB used to be, but a standard sized Lenz or ESU decoder needs to go in the tender where there is enough space.

Hear hear. Ditto. Spread it around. I've had excellent 'service' from Hatton's over many years, they have been much more than box shifters and the savings on big ticket items can be considerable (eg large amounts of track, locos, coach rakes, etc). Their postage to Ireland is excellent value compared to all the other UK retailers and costs half what one Irish Model shop charges. They also have an excellent website with useful features, vast variety of stock, easy to navigate and use. Postage is important when buying small items, say one needs a few wheels, a bag of fish plates, one pack of super glue, etc, being asked to pay more than €5 postage within Ireland makes it expensive unless one can wait to combine orders. They are all just businesses, employ people and service a demand. I do enjoy my bi-annual pilgrimage to Marks out in Greenogue, easy to get to, easy parking, good shelf displays so easy to find those bits and bobs for building and scenics. IRM have proven highly successful with their direct internet sales model, which benefits customers by cutting out the middle man, who in the past may or may not have added value anyway, selling direct enables higher quality models for lower prices to consumers. Win-Win. The attraction of model shops is local accessibility by road and on foot, and visual display of merchandise. The internet nullifies those and often has more detailed image display, but many consumers like the tactile feel of handling, visualising and inspecting merchandise inside an atmospheric model shop. There is nothing immoral about shopping around for a good deal, but it is nice to support your local sheriff as long as they are offering value, or the price difference is small.

Yes not the island of hot pokers and bare feet in Donegal. Lower Lough Erne in Fermanagh is also a beautiful mystical lough, worth a week on a charter cruiser.

Hi Jonathan, they are not DCC ready (ie they have no DCC socket), so need to have a wired decoder installed in them. I've just converted one of mine, and about to do the second one. I located a Lenz Silver+ decoder in the tender and ran the 4 wires through a hole in the tender into the loco through a hole under the foot plate. Red and Black wire pair to the two track pickups, and the orange and grey wire pair to he motor. There was no space in the loco body for the decoder so it had to go in the tender. It required a little fettling and I replace the articulated tender/loco coupling with a wire hoop and hook. Posted a few days ago of 379 first test run with DCC decoder installed. Decoder fits in tender.

Lough Derg straddles Co Tipperary, Co Galway and Co Clare

No 390 hauls a local suburban working up the express loop, as passengers wait on Platform 3 for the 14:40 Dublin-Cork. No 379 transfer passing on fast loop. I believe this may have been factory weathered, not done by me. She's DCC now.

Delivery of new loco Preparing to lift off the flat wagon

Interesting how they did it.

I had a similar experience, the 121 model box was put inside a larger packaging box with only a sheet of brown paper wrapped around it but no bubble wrap nor padding, so the model box could move freely and bang about inside the larger box, and all the hand and grab rails had fallen off probably due to shock during shipping. Fortunately it was easy to get them all back on using a tweezers unlike the 141s which were pigs to get walkway handrails off and/or on. Bubble wrap should have been used to prevent the model box from movement and to protect the whole thing from shock (eg parcel getting dropped or chucked into a landing space).

As we are in the realm of fantasy island, yes C class, Sulzers 101, 113 and while they are at it a few 800's with working smoke generators and a subwhoofer in the tender would be nice also. CIE laminates and Park Royals, the 1970 1st edition of Victor comic 25th D day anniversary edition too would be nice.

I quite understand @WRENNEIRE's sentiments, having said that the tooling already exists for Bachmann to do an unrefreshed run of the 141/181s in only the most popular liveries which I guess may have been the IR and IE, and I've no doubt they would sell out due to the pent up demand and all the new entrants to the hobby and Irish Outline scene in the past decade who missed out of the first production run. Those Bachmann 141/181 models still stand up very well today. A refresh would probably make them financially non-viable (eg decoder hatch, builtin speaker, independent head light control, improved glazing, etc). Put a 141 beside a recent 121 and they stand up well. The upcoming A classes are likely to "blow the bloody doors off" and may absorb spend capacity, not to mention the Deltic and Class 37.

Like the sealed barrels of Guinness discovered on board Guinness barge 45M after she was raised from the bottom of Lough Derg in 300ft of water having sunk in a storm 29 years earlier in 1946?

Ah that explains my confusion looking at one of the photos of the LC at one end of the station, I could not place it in the room, nor see the window. Sounds very interesting.

Agree, two 121s once run in with the same decoder settings should more or less match up which has been my experience with 121s and consisting 141 pairs. Same chassis/motor and same decoder makes a huge difference. Also found TLCs a PITA if speeds slightly mismatched compare to knuckle couplings as when one loco is pushing the other the TLCs tend to slip and one rides over the other leading to a derailment on the next bend or paintwork. Clip below of three different steam locos (DCC converted wired decoders) with different decoders pulling and pushing a little but they could run together without derailing or much wheel slip.

Ok but as I said 'curious' how some DCC systems can aid speed matching. Interesting piece below, perhaps more relevant to US consisting as they ofter have more than two locos, often 3 or 4 whereas in the part of the world just a pair as with the 121s. Back to steam days up to 3 stream locos banked heavy trains up the hill out of Cork until the 800s. https://dccwiki.com/MU_consisting/Speed_Matching

Lub gears and barings perhaps, suggest asking seller if they’ll take it back if lube fails or you are uncomfortable disassembling it enough to lube it. Send seller the video.

Curious how the Z21 can handle matching speed curves in consists

FYI, There is about 4 of these Bachmann Irish rail intercity mk2a's due to sell on eBay in the next few hours. It's not me selling, I already have a rake, but remember some folks were lamenting their lack of availability. Expensive but at the moment bids aren't completely insane. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Murphy-Models-IE-Intercity-Mark-2A-TSO-Open-Second-Coach/193760517684

PS2: The little boy Aidan was indeed brilliant.

Spotted ballasts, and weed spray tanks RLHS (rear LHS). Spoil FLHS, plough CLF, cement bubble RCRHS, another spot CR (centre rear), not sure if that is the top of an orange and black A class pre-production sample RLHS too, or two spoils on a 42ft. Another plough FRHS. Image a little blurry so cannot pick out any containers in that maze of colour. Well done, did IRM get a mention? I didn't watch the programme. IRM models excellent finesse look a little out of place with the toys trains, but the yellow models complement the pallet of colours on the table. What a coup to get on. Hope you got a mention. PS: Thanks for the link

Looks like something you'd expect to see on craggy island