Noel

Holy Sacred cow, they all lookssublime, locos of the decade, the B&T versions in particular nearly made me fall off my chair. Like the Tippex IR broken points logo version too even if outside my era.

Congrats to PM and MM for producing a stunning model, and thank you Murphy Models and your business for the Superb Irish rolling stock you have produced over the years. Without PM many of us may not still be in this hobby, this web site may never have come into existence and perhaps IRM may never have come into being. MM was the catalysts that started it all off, and proved that high quality Irish RTR scale models were possible to produce and that modellers of the Irish scene wanted to buy. A great legacy, from a great business. Worth the long wait in every sense. These 121s are surely MMs moment of crowning glory. Thank you, especially for persevering with it through challenges. Looking forward to running these 121s in consist with MM 141 locos. FAB-U-LOUS. PS: Thanks to RPSI and IR for restoring the real 134 and look forward to a trip behind her.

PS: Must be the sept issue?

Great to hear. Well done Kieran, Kirley's former prolific posting and modelling exploits were a loss to this forum. His legendary ability to kit bash his own NI stock that was not available RTR or in Kit form was inspirational. Miss his videos and layout photos. His scenic landscaping is something we could all learn from, and a gentleman as well. He still posts occasionally on the FB group and freely on the Irish RMweb group. Haven't bought a paper mag for about 10 years, but in this case I'll make an exception. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/102356-kirley-junction/ Recent video

Agree 100%. Love details like the hoses connected to the bubbles, and the FL6 HGV. The spoils looks great with loads and being visually toned down. Its train town supreme at Tara.

Thanks for the info. Looks like I've the 1984 version with the daft unmaskable and unremovable windows. That one is going to be a total pig to respray.

More donors arrived from eBay in the queue for respray. A Lima restaurant, plus a Hornby 'shortie' which strangely enough actually has 8 windows, but has the pizza cutter wheels that won't run on code 75 track, and obviously doesn't have buffers, but I've enough of those in spares box so will fit. Will wait for another pair to arrive then will do them as a batch and should end up with a mixed rake of CIE/IE/IR mk3s by the end of the summer. Enough to mix'n'match for a knock special behind an 071. Will just be respraying, no modifications, modern era is not really my bag, once they past the duck test I'll be content to rush them past proper Black'n'Tan era trains. The Hornby shorties have nicer clear windows too. Don't like the tinted windows on the later versions, a waste of time putting passengers and lighting inside as you cannot see them.

Yummie. These are my favourite livery for the Bubbles and nicely overlap my era. Exquisite and atmospheric wagons. They will be quite at home passing through Gort, as will loose coupled vans and open wagons. Postman recently delivered.

That's pure gold, and great information. Thanks for posting. That fabulous photo should be in rails to the west part deux

Confession time. Three airbrushes clogged on me this week. These are inexpensive €25 airbrushes. I’m fairily fastidious about cleaning after every spraying session, but I was defeated after deep cleans, even soaked parts in IPA for hours followed by 15 mins of ultrasonic bath which normally does the job. But guess what, they were spotless, the problem was a leak on the compressor air line Water trap, not the airbrushes. At midnight last night I discovered my faux pas. I blame it on bad kharma, me contaminating my own hands with modern era mk3 stock, lucky I didn’t end up in the bogie of eternal stench. ,

Youtube can be a good resource for scraping some sounds depending on the isolation and quality

Hi Dave, Unfortunately not that simple, MM don't have any for 141,181. Also the 071 and 201 from both MrSoundGuy and WheelTappers are much better to drive than MM0044 and MM0055. I've ordered a number of MM121 decoders for the imminent 121s and just hoping they have some of the advanced prototypical driving features like coasting, braking, throttle hold, etc, that I've got used to with WheelTappers and MrSoundGuy. It's nice to drive them like the real thing, stopping a train by merely reducing throttle without needing to brake is just so scalextric!

Hmmm, not sure if this is answering your question. Blank 21pin LokSound V5 decoders are €95 from German retailers like ModleBahnShop-lippe and Keiskemper and it will work with all the MM locos, but there's a massive amount of work and training to make your own projects. For 15 locos that's a saving of only €100 after you buy the LokProgrammer, seems easier to buy 15 decoders from either somewhere like WheelTappersDCCsounds or MrSoundGuy. Both of those have excellent driving characteristics too, such as prototypical acceleration, coasting, prototypical braking, manual nothing, light engine mode, heavy train mode with lots of trashing starting off, automatic kadee magnetic uncoupling sequences. Full Throttle features of LokSound V5 or 'RealDrive' features of Zimo. The current MM supplied 071 and 201 projects lack any of these new driving features. Personally I really enjoy the challenge of trying to correctly judge prototypical stopping distances of a heavy train so that it stops at the correct position on a platform solely using brakes. It's so like the real thing. I sometmes pass the virtual distant signal set to danger 2miles from a station, pull off the power to notch zero, coast, applying brakes gradually slowing the train, often the model doing a few laps of the layout (ie for scale braking distance). Its pure magic.

Yip when you blow a sound project onto a decoder you wipe the entirety of the previous project out. I saw a youtube demo some years ago where a bloke recorded individual sounds from an existing model loco, remixed and added a few custom sounds, made a new project and blew it back. Some of my baby GMs have a custom rail clank noise that I recorded from the internet. There are loads of resources out there if you've the time to dig for them, and the inclination to put it all together. Suppose its like the same attraction some have for kit building something unique rather than buying a standard RTR model. Some Custom sound functions I plan to develop are cascading coach door slamming, and the braking sound of an entire train especially the coaches rather than just the loco. Especially that unique craven screech the moves down the train rapidly as each coach comes to a halt when a train pulls up into a station. Wheeltappers have done some lovely custom functions for me including cascading coupling snatch as a goods train starts off, and the reverse cascading buffer clash as a goods train stops and each wagon progressively buffers up against the adjacent wagon starting at the front and working its wayl down the train to the last wagon. Speed dependance rail clank is another target. Very much for long winters evenings when MacBook pro gets bored, and the airbrush is clogged again! Messing around with sound projects is a sort of digital equivalent of kit building. Some like to roll their own, others just want to press go and start. Each on to their own. Have fun and always make backups.

The sound file projects for MM 071 and MM 201 were feely available from the ESU web site. If one had a LokProgrammer one could download these projects to blank LokSound V4 decoders which are no longer available. Don't know if ESU re-ported the V4 projects to V5 format. @irishthump of this parish has made done so and has successfully made his own baby GM projects from other ESU free sound downloads. Four options for sound decoder projects for MM 071 and MM 210 loco models Murphy Models supplied decoders LokSound V4 MM0044, MM0055 (071 & 201) respectfully, good sound but limited driving features (ie no braking nor coasting) WheelTappers (Neil) ESU LokSound excellent sound + excellent prototypical driving features (ie braking, coasting, throttle hold, manual notching, etc) MrSoundGuy (Kieth Pearson) Zimo excellent sound + excellent prototypical driving features (ie braking, coasting, throttle hold, manual notching, etc) Make your own with LokProgrammer - But very steep learning curve and time consuming only saving €30 per decoder (buy blank decoders direct from Germany) Just based on personal experience the ESU produced decoder sound projects for Murphy Models were the weakest in terms of prototypical driving feathers. I'd recommend options 2 or 3 equally. I've used no 2 for most of my baby GMs and no 3 for some. Happy with both. Option 4 is hard work, but fun if you've got the time and inclination. https://www.marksmodels.com/?pid=16734 http://www.wheeltappersdccsounds.co.uk/styled/index.html http://www.mrsoundguy.co.uk https://www.modellbahnshop-lippe.com/Digital/Decoder+with+sound/ESU-58449/gb/modell_311386.html

Heart in mouth time, before the big reveal when masking tape is removed to find out if it all worked ok. As Fr Maguire might say "Careful now" Which is it to be CIE Supertrain, or IR/IE Tippex livery - one more step will reveal Ted to Dougal "Even more Careful now" Phew! Just a spray of varnish and decals, then the window masking comes off Not perfect but passes the duck test.

I've seen the results of a pals resin 3D printer, much higher resolution that Shapeways. But agree low cost 3D is a long way off IMP for detail and smoothness.

Yes in another time and another life

Indeed.

B134 will go nicely with B135 which is the original delivery format loco without the walkway rails and the older lights, but with the original staff catcher. Well done RPSI, Murphy Models and IRM. Happy to support, ordered.

Yes that's a lovely deep shade of yellow carrying the sleepers. Not too hard on the eyes. Not really my era, but yet again they look another set of superb models.

Thank you very much

Now Leslie an AEC set is practically steam age, a thing of beauty, as were the But's, so some leniency from the devils with hot pokers that inhabit the bogie of eternal stench may be in order. But a CAF certainly risks eternal doom, yet the only express route to certain eternal damnation with jammed air brushes in the bogie of eternal stench is a Rotem 22k yo-yo tram. The ultimate fisher price toy, possibly even clock work, that no self respecting modeller would ever be seen with on their layout, as boring to operate as drying paint, yet economic because no points needed, no couplings needed, just an oval of track around a cot, to keep a sleepless baby mesmerised as it goes around and around endlessly at a scale speed of 200mph until the wound up rubber band runs out. A 58yo RPSI B135 is not really modern era, despite the lack of a boiler, a silver A class also a model of beauty and nostalgia gold. Fear not a DMU vaccine seems imminent, even for 26xx class rickety biscuit tins. A luas could be more toxic than sarin gas! Sin on the left, redemption on the right

Let the cutting, sawing and filing begin

Hi Paul. Horses for courses, different materials work for different folk. I used 9mm marine ply on Kingdbridge when I built the boards 27 years ago. Heavy and not suitable for a portable layout. Built upon 2"x1" formers with 1"x3" on the edges for rigidity. More recently I've used the WMRC box construction sections method with 6mm ply for the top. See below: Laser cut to size by a company in Dublin, very quick to build using a heat gun, smaller pieces easy to assemble, and reinforced joint by fibreglass webbing underneath using PVA instead of resin. Each board is 2ft x 5ft so fits in a car and lightweight so can be turned on their side for wiring, etc. I'm unable to crawl around under baseboards anymore. Very stable and will not warp or sag in time. Sealed with paint for stability from moisture. Takes track pins well. I used 3mm closed cell foam to cover the entire board with a second layer under the track for ballast. This offers good sound insulation as ballast PVA will never come into contact with the ply baseboard creating a sound bridge. Have fun. https://www.efoam.co.uk/closed-cell-polyethylene-foam.php#sheet1 I tried MDF 30 years ago but found it unstable long term and it was a complete PITA as it would not take track pins. Not as good with damp cold air as plywood from a stability point of view.