Noel

Looks like six of them in Ivory, but could that be as early as 1964. Thought the early bubbles were grey? Notice a rake of brake vans at the end of that formation with about 6 of them including an exGSWR one. Great clip. Was the 121 on the turn table powering the turntable itself using the connected hose line? Couldn't see any men pushing the usual turntable lever lever?

Your layout is a wonderful testament to that absorbing era. We were born in a similar era that was magical, diverse, and interesting. Travelling on a train in that period was an assault on the senses as well as a visual feast. Intricate sidings and track work even at small stations, active goods sheds, always shunting going on somewhere, amazing rakes of stock in sidings, no passenger train had uniform rakes, nor goods trains before the ugly word 'freight' was invented. There was an interesting overlap between the loose coupled pick up, drop off goods trains and the beginning of containerisation with CIE's 1974 modernisation programme that saw modern era 42ft bogie stock. I remember travelling on trains that had a mix of green coaches, silver vans, and black and tan, laminates, park royals, before those modern Cravens with their plastic interiors and modern curved ends arrived. Watching goods trains being marshalled in Galway marshalling yard was a memory still etched in my brain, aside from the visual, the clanking, banging, buffering and banter between shunting men and drivers, the noise of marshalling conveyed activity, goods being transported, loaded and unloaded, passenger trains stopping in stations, people getting in and out followed by coach door slams progressively down the train, followed by a guards whistle and a green flag wave, the horn and EMD notching up like a jet engine as the train slowly started to move off, followed by the resonant rail clank as each axle crossed a rail joint. Compare that to the dull hum of todays plastic toy DMU yo-yo ICRs with nothing to see out of the window except overgrown greenery where once were busy marshalling yards, sidings and head shunts, goods sheds bricked up with dilapidated guttering falling victim to weather ingress, mould and uncontrolled vegetation on the roofs slowly ebbing away our disappearing built railway heritage. Hey ho, progress I suppose, but boy travelling on trains nowadays your more likely to see something of interest on netflix on an iPad than out the wind even passing through a large station complex.

Welcome to the world of function mapping. LokProgrammer is not actually needed for this, it can be done with complex series of CV settings, JMRI may make this slightly less tedious, but there is a very steep learning curve and a lot of time needed to experiment with all of this function mapping of lights. I gave up years ago, it was just too much hassle. Good luck though sounds like a challenge you might like.

A 101 Sulzer loco would be nice to see from one of the manufacturers. Personally the Black'n'Tan original 141 with the tablet catchers is the best model loco ever produced, probably until the imminent 121. Certainly the best chassis and smoothest runner.

Got the lights fixed in the spray booth. This thing is very hand when damp or cold weather forces one to paint indoors, sends smells and vapours out the window through the fan hose, so spraying inside the house becomes safe and possible. When airbrushing at the workbench my Covid-19 Darth Spray gear comes in handy

IRM seem to have invaded north wall. Fabulous scenes as ever, like the loads in the shed and all the action, I can hear the sound of a busy yard in my head. The rake of 9 bachmann IR mk2a coaches looks spectacular in the background.

Tend to agree that IR livery and the B&T do it for me. IR 127 was the first 121 I ordered.

In retrospect if using Hornby only the newer longies with 8 windows are suitable for respray, because both the old and new form of the Hornby shorties have stupid window glazing which cannot have individual windows remove leaving only the option of masking each window individually. They don't have raised edges. A total PITA, I've two useless shortie donors that'll be going back on ebay in BR blue livery.

First run of the new airbrush today. Silky smooth and build to be cleaned and maintained, robust pull apart nozzle assembly, no dam threaded nozzle, the whole thing is a joy to clean compared to the inexpensive faithful £20 airbrush I've used this past 3 years. x Masked up and managed to get the black (Tamiya) on the ends, and RPSI grey on the roof. 15 minutes later removed the tape, will leave for 24hrs to allow it to dry and cure before gloss varnish tomorrow for RPSI decals. Still keen to get my trusty Veda back working again if nothing else as a backup. Two more GSVs nearing the end of the workbench line, I seem to be collecting GSVs, EGVs and Brake vans. Mk3 EGV kit bash still to come. Its too hot this weather for all the cutting and filing needed for it.

Whiling away a few hours this afternoon doodling with back log items. Fitted kadee couplings while at it and keen sprung corridors connectors for close fit. Just some cutting, sawing, sanding and fettling to get snug fits and smooth running with other stock. Lots of test fitting and alignment adjustment of bogies, connectors and couplings. Airfix for grown ups Keen system sprung corridor connectors prepped before priming with GSV feul tank, and kadee 147 draft gearbox whisker couplings replacing ugly hornby TLC which was cut off. These bogies are resin kits so a PITA to superglue. Bogies tested for alignment with Kadee coupling height gauge. Alignment test on track for Keen systems close coupled corridor connectors and kadee couplings test. Prior to glazing, varnishing and final decoration of the van. Alignment test with modified dutch GSV already receive some weathering coupled to Bachmann/MM mk2a. The mk2a needs weathering to get rid of the fisher price toy shiny plastic look. But I do like the shade of orange on these Bachmann coaches as its the closest to correct shade of pristine orange. Two more rakes of early mk2's now have GSVs to run with them. Varnishing, Decals, Glazing and handrails left to finish both GSVs. Back to mk3s now.

The only livery suitable for an ICR 22k yo-yo seems a brown paper bag to cover it, so nobody ever has to see it. From a model railway running point of view the most uninteresting and boring yoke to operate. Won't need points, no run arounds, no coupling necessary, back'n'forth mindlessly or roundie roundie like a hamster on a treadmill. Steam train sets still dominate the UK market despite most of the purchasers having never travelled on one, other than seeing them regularly on period TV & Film programmes. The Earl of Grantham might not have quite the same impact if arriving on a DMU sprinter at Downton Abbey as he would behind a 4-6-0 steam loco. Different horses for different courses I suppose, I get an unpleasant smell when I see a boring DMU or ICR yoyo. Now a re-run of MM grey 071s might be nice there was only 500 done originally of 7078 and 7071 (250 of each), now that most of the eighteen 43yo+ 071s in traffic today have that livery. CAF mk4 set might be nice with DVT, and MM might be able to rerun a small batch of green 201s, at least they are proper loco hauled real trains (ie engines pulling carriages). ICR toy only needs an oval of track and two batteries. JHB defender of the 3 link coupling and all good things 1950s green wash your mouth out. The upcoming IRM A's could really benefit from IRM mk3 coaches in super train and/or tipped IR/IE livery with IRM's level of hyper detailing, given how fab Acurascales BR Mk5 sets look with the DVT.

Was fitting some kadee couplings to old stock today and thought this chart might be useful for anybody else considering converting rolling stork to kadee's. I may have posted an older version in the past.

After seeking advice from a higher authority, this beauty arrived in the post. An investment but I'm sure it will prove worth it. While the inexpensive £20 airbrush has served me well over these past 3 years since I started airbrushing, this should make life easer and especially easier to maintain and keep paint flowing smoothly and predictably. Thanks to the higher authority for the welcome advice.

PS: With some unpainted plastic models a trick is to first spray with a coat of matt varnish (protecting windows with masking or they'll go milky), then apply weathering which takes to the matt varnish much better than directly onto plastic. The Matt varnish can also help get rid of the fisher price toy look of some models coloured only by their plastic.

To add, Chris Dyer occasionally sells resprays of IR/IE Mk4 intercity livery coaches (green'n'grey). They are not prototypical CAFs rather BR mk4 resprays. There are also some folks who take commissions respraying BR Mk3 coaches into Belmond Hiberian livery (ex CIE Mk3). Silverfox supply various GSVs in CIE and IR/IE livery (ie dutch and BR Mk1 BSK) for use with RPSI coaches. As stated all that seems available retail right now are a few MM Green/Grey livery 201 locos, plus IRM Taras, 42fts, the rest seems long sold out, so ebay is where most of the above is sought. Chris Dyer also sells resprays of Bachmann 172 DMUs in 22k ICR livery, but prototypical they don't look anything like the Rotem 22k units (ie doors totally wrong layout, front profile, etc). Chris also sells Bachmann resprays of 2600/2700 class DMUs. Eoin Murray of this parish builds and sells excellent Dart sets. Thank merciful hour nobody has ever attempted to produce a luas model. https://www.chrisdyerfairs.co.uk/direct-sales

Nothing a little bit of gentle weathering cannot fix. Worked Ok for other bright plastic models. 121s look great, the black’n’tan is the pick of the bunch, stunning.

@burnthebox PS: Paul pic below of the white zones sprayed after primer. The 1mm masking tape is then placed carefully where I want the white stripes. This masking gets over sprayed when I do the orange colour and again when I did the black window surrounds. You can just about make out the 1mm masking tape above and below the windows which has already been over sprayed with the orange.

Hi Paul, you are very kind, yes sprayed but via reverse masking. Pic below shows the masking coming off to reveal the white paint underneath. After priming the first paint on the body was two approximate fuzzy white zones along the body sides where the white stripes would eventually be. Then placed 1mm masking tape along each side above and below the windows where the white stripes should later appear, then sprayed the entire body CIE tan/orange, then masked above and below the window panels so that I could spray the black window surrounds. When all dry, removed the outer masking tape and finally the 1mm tape (see below) revealing the white paint that went on immediately after the primer. Those blasted tinted windows are very dark, this is in direct sunlight and you can barely see through the coach let alone the seated passengers. The IR/IE coach windows are just as dark. Bare in mind that's sunlight behind the coaches!

I don't know enough to be honest to give an informed opinion, I'd suggest folks like Richie, Anthony Smyth or Tony Mirolo best placed to advise. I can only relate what I used myself, ie later hornby 8 window donors and Lima. About to try a hornby shortie (ie 1988 version with 8 windows), glazing is actually the coach body side painted over leaving the windows clear, so nigh impossible to respray but the area around the windows are already black so it looks like I can mask that lot and just paint the orange and the white stripes.

Good point Paul. I don't know is the answer, the problem again is masking the inside of the windows to effect same. I've more eBay donors on the way with untinted clear windows. Holding them up to daylight you still cannot see through them, so doubt it, I vaguely remember a post by richie highlighting the problems with those windows, I also seem to remember seeing stunning custom replacement flush glazing richie had made up himself for mk3 donors of some variant @Richie.

IMHO they are the ultimate Irish loco in B&T, Tara Junction might be able to time travel a bit?

Pity the windows on the Hornby donors are so darkly tinted. No point putting lights or passengers in there.

Got some weathering started on the body after decals, chassis painted, will put it back to gather again tomorrow 2 done 6 more to do

Sad news indeed. Seems caused as a direct effect of climate change. What's really saddening is apparently the train stopped due to spotting an earlier obstruction in time to avoid incident and was travelling back up the line in the opposite direction over rails it had successfully run on when a fresh land slip and flooding cause the fatal derailment. Thoughts for the loved ones of those lost and inured.

Dave, what time is it please?