Noel

Clever, innovative, effective master modelling

Cheers Leslie, Glad you like it. I'm hoping to start it tomorrow. No hurry with the post, I won't be going anywhere soon. A most enjoyable kit thanks.

Thanks guys. This was a first for me (ie double beet assembly and decorating same). Now to figure out suitable seed for a load. I'm glad I primed it grey rather than red oxide.

Started a provincial wagons double beet wagon kit. Five more to complete after this test build. Prepared the parts, removed flashing, a little cutting and filling and hey presto a kit is ready to assemble. This is a fairly straightforward build once you figure out what goes where and drill a small number of holes. Wheels fit really well and test run she was smooth and free. Nice bit of weight in the body due to the embedded lead in the resin chassis floor. Add some brake gubbins below the sole bar and off to the priming booth Halfords plastic grey rattle can primer used. Gave good coverage and I opted for grey rather than the traditional red for reasons that will become apparent at the end. I made a boo-boo at the weekend and fitted the internal cross braces too high, next morning when I saw, didn't like the position I'd put them, so out they came and refitted at a better height inside the wagon. These nicely push the upper body sides slightly apart to parallel and square. Decoration and weathering started this evening. Hopefully will finish her tomorrow or Wednesday. Before the postman arrives with 5 more.

Gorgeous. Those two brake vans are delicious in every way, build, decor, weathering, they reek of atmosphere.

I too thought it as real for a moment. the picture on the wall gave it away.

That is delicious. Reeks of atmosphere and times gone bye

I kadee'd mine. Less intrusive than the massive plastic Hornby hoop tension lock couplings.

A visual recap of recent Dapol kit bashing to CIE wagons Primed using Halfords plastic grey primer, then started airbrush their wagon colours Airbrushed grey and brown van colours Did some 5 plank open wagons while I was at it for flying snail era Roofs next, NEM pockets tweaked ready for kadee no 18 couplings. Small bit of fettling to ensure weights fitted back inside. Varnished and then decals applied. A few fails here that had to be redone as I took a short cut that I shouldn't with spot painting gloss varnish The first step in weathering. Powders in solution (50% water/50% Humbrol decalfix), brush on, wipe off. Chassis had already been sprayed with gunk. A tiniest bit of frame dirt over spray on wagons. Finish up with a bit of touching up rust spots Finally acrylic matt varnish and finished The cost of each wagon ended up being about €10 including couplings transfers and paint. I'm bored now, what's happening next? Ah some more cement pallet wagons perhaps, DCC conversions, and some resin stuff.

What a loss that line was and how busy it could be today with both summer holiday traffic to the busy west cork hot spots and for commuters into Cork city. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Really sharp class job Jason

Fabulous scenes

Cheers MM, The C class was a resin kit, the AEC 2600 DVT was RTR bought a few years ago from SF (Silverfox models) http://silverfoxmodels.co.uk/ir-ie-2600-class-railcar-pushpull-trailer-car/ SF RTR AEC ex2600 6107 class driving trailer sitting on the former loco release road between platforms 4 and 5 at Kingsbridge. The model passes the 'duck test'. AEC DVT 6107 sitting on platform 5 SF C class kit below. Reengined C class were later used to push-pull former AEC 2600 sets where the power unit had been converted to a driving trailer. These ran between Bray and Dublin until the Dart tool over.

AEC 2600 push pull set. Silverfox 2600 Driving trailer + Silverfox C class kit on a Bachmann bo-bo donor chassis. One of my abiding memories of AEC 2600 were the massive round buffers, standing at Bray station behind the closed railway gates waiting to depart for Westland Row.

Or could IRM perhaps be on the verge of announcing a 22k?

What a classic scene. Thanks for posting.

Fabulous photo of Cork Kent station.

I found receipts and invoices for BR outline stock I bought in the late 1980s and early 1990s, 4-6-0 tender locos were about £40 and coaches a staggering £15 with 2 axle wagons about £4-5. Feeling rather fortunate that I got my Craven inventory for €30-35ea. Less the model railway spending gene needs a vaccine. WMRC's incredible O gauge facilities very nearly lured me into O gauge, but I stood firm and averted my lust for 7mm GWR pannier tank and a couple of wagons to shunt.

Interesting John( @Mayner ). As far as I am aware MM produced 17 variants originally with 500ea so a total of 8500 baby GMs exist out there in homes or collections. One of the main retailers here once told me when the MM baby GMs were first launched at the height of the celtic tiger he had some punters come into his shop and buy 4 of each and every running number. That's over €8800 for toy trains. He had no view on what was behind their thinking or their motive. What's the point in having more rolling stock than can fit on your layout anyway. Less is more, layouts need what we call whitespace and plenty of unoccupied track. I'm as guilty as anybody but not 68 locos of the same class??? I confess I've ordered more than one IRM A class but not every running number. And 3 x 121s will probably be enough for the layout.

Agreed, still my favourites. Understand. I was perhaps very fortunate to return to the hobby a few years ago and managed to pick up four baby GMs from Chris Dyer for €118 and the rest from eBay when prices seemed fairer before the increases we've seen on eBay these days. The thing to remember is collect to enjoy and run, not stored out of sight till death, discovered in boxes by a family member, long after we've left the terminus. A friend of mine has a theory that as soon as the 121 and A class locos hit the streets a flood of 141/181s will hit the market by; either collectors offloading stuff they bought when they were launched in the futile hope of selling them for a big killing like a small no of the Lima 201s that fetched insane prices, or just model collectors who thought they'd go up in value and may now want to fund 121 and A class purchases. I'm not convinced of the theory there is a hidden cache of them buried out there in the market. Only time will tell. Perhaps someday they may get re-run, as the tooling and CAD already exist. Not sure how Bachmann figure in that possibility as it was produced under their brand and factory for Murphy Models. I hope still MM own the IP and tooling.

Was astonished to hear about this. Wow peat briquettes only €110 and Cravens €30. As DB says if something looks too good to be true it generally is. Sorry to hear this sort of thing goes on with some Chinese businesses. As to lawsuits in China, good luck with that, water and oil don't seem to mix too well. I hope IRM have their eye's dotted and tea's crossed with the subcontractors they hire. Hope this does not affect PM adversely and its just a once off. So Dave @WRENNEIRE legally speaking does that mean anybody who bought and paid for one of these models from Spain in the past few days is in a stickey position? Should the items be posted to MM and details passed on to GNECB? Raises a separate but curious question, who owns the IP of the original MM/Bachmann 141/181 models? Is it PM or Bachmann or the subcontractor that produced them for Bachmann? Nasty stuff, hope it gets started out. Wouldn't want to open one of my cement bubbles in future to discover a hidden fortune cookie inside it.

Kingsbridge Shed kind of 1965 (imagining Kingsbridge had its own shed instead of inchicore). CIE golden era Black'n'Tan heaven before uniform trains spoiled everything. Thank you Murphy Models for producing 5 B&T livery locos (141, 165, 181, 188 and 141A). Soon to be joined by MM 121's in black'n'tan and delivery grey/yellow livery. Some tippex time travellers in the background Black'n'Tan livery heaven

The poor unloved peat briquette 201s The Cravens were great value

Very nice. That whistle sounds a lot better than the dull LMS whistle on the 'Olivias trains' sound project on my Bachmann 2-6-4T.

What is this wagon spotted in the Dublin docklands area. Is it one of the former blue Tara mines wagons or a container of some sort. Or is it a wagon at all? Spotted on Google maps. Maps are fun for nosing around places like inchicore looking at old stock, abandoned locos, old locos, etc.