Irishrailwayman

A few shots of rolling stock (and kayakers)...

I have set up Llangollen in N over the Christmas holidays and have taken a few photies of upgrades and rolling stock... A general view of Llangollen's (mediaeval) bridge with modern traffic, the River Dee, heritage railway (note Castel Dinas Bran in backdrop overlooking the town... A BR Class 20 diesel has charge of some cattle wagons on a mixed goods train. Note the unusual footbridge cantilevered out over the River Dee... Garth Hall No 5955 4-6-0 rests in the bay platform while GWR chocolate and cream MK1 coaches form the back of an excursion set. General view of Llangollen with River Dee, bridge and railway. An engineer's train provides the needs of the PW gang at the facing siding. Note the use of a mirror to get four kayakers for the price of two (and make the River Dee flow towards the sea)! Other kayakers have a hard time dealing with a rapidly flowing River Dee. Three storey redbrick victorian villas were modelled by modifying Metcalfe card kits. A BR green Class 25 has charge of an excursion train at the Church Road bridge end of the station. Note again the use of a mirror to provide interesting depth of field at this end of the layout. View from Church Road bridge over Llangollen station. Workshop sidings above the restored line at the Church Road bridge. Modern traffic on Llangollen bridge contrasts with the heritage rolling stock on the restored railway.

The 121 is fairly unique and the chassis details differ even from the 141/181 I believe. The Athearn chassis are also HO but this does not affect performance or looks in OO too much. I have 5 of these and the DCC ready, lights and running qualities are excellent although the fuel tank/bogies are ok they don't completely match the 121 prototype. Even if correctly spaced bogies can be found, they will probably foul the ladders at both ends of the body. One other option might be to get Black Beetle motors/wheel sets and power the model in that way attaching 121 bogie sides. Again, all modelling is a blend of affordability, time/patience available, what level of "correctness" is acceptable etc...

At the end of the day, there are no easy answers prior to a good rtr 121 becoming available. We were in the same boat trying different HO chassis when we had only the MIR 201, 071, 141, 181 body kits available....

I have used the new Athearn SW1500 chassis which is DCC ready and has two bulbs forward and back which give directional lighting and fit neatly into the double headlamps of the 121 body...

Probably a bit of all those but I like the 3-D art explanation also. Personally, when I see an interesting railway scene in real life (Irish, Llangollen etc) I feel an creative urge to replicate this on a model particularly where kits/rtr items can be bashed/pressed into service. There is a fair bit of problem solving needed also to achieve an effect that satisfies the creative in all of us....

See previous pictures of my SSM kit-built model of a green B101 on Ballybeg: http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/109-Ballybeg/page5

I have (hopefully) managed to attach below some photos of the model and the prototype which got lost for technical reasons:

Nice job on the station. I am doing an extension on my own Carlow Bachmann model for Ballybeg also.

Guys, I had been posting pictures from Photobucket but this seems to be by way of weblink that can get disrupted. Any thoughts on how pictures can be attached to postings as copies of photos on a laptop. Non-techie :-(

Noel, I have incorporated the clackety-clack on a number of Loksound soundchips 141/071 etc. The sound clip is available at the ESU website.

The lights are directional and involve 3 mm white LEDs wired to the soundchip: Blue wire to each positive via a 1K resistor; White wire to negative of forward LED and Yellow wire to negative of reverse LED. There is some unintended light spill into the cabin but this nicely highlights the driver figure added at both ends!

Full marks to George at Wonderful Weathering for the weathering job on 230. With Eamonn's excellent photography, it almost looks real!

The WMRC show is always worth a look (I would say that wouldn't I)http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/4874-Wexford-Model-Railway-Club-Exhibition

Irish Freight Models have an offering: http://www.irishfreightmodels.com/index.php/shop.html#!/Irish-Rail-Curtain-Side-Cement-Van/p/14618136/category=3449801

Wexford Model Railway Club are pleased to announce the programme for its 2015 Annual Festival Exhibition to be held at CBS Hall, Thomas Street, Wexford Town: Sunday October 25th and Monday October 26th, 12 noon to 5pm each day. Admission Adults €4, Child €2, Family of Four €8. List of stands: 1. Sean Ryan model sales 2. Joeseph's Bridge OO Irish themed layout WMRC 3. Rathmichael OO Irish themed layout WMRC 4. Bridge Street OO UK Outline Compact layout G Lloyd 5. Bushville HO US Outline layout (in development) WMRC 6. Seamus Graham model railway sales 7. Benwaddington OO Thomas themed layout D Fallon 8. Wayneton Vale N gauge UK Outline W Thomas 9. East London MRC O gauge exhibits 10. Silverton 11. Michael Morris model card kits sales 12. Dioramas 13. Shunters Yard new Compact layout in OO GWR outline G Byrne 14. Railway video & rest area A Raffle and Second-hand stall will also feature. All welcome (the new section of the M11 should ease the journey for those travelling from Dublin).

Great job on those buses Eamonn!

Is there a list of exhibitors?

Nice shots Eamonn.

Well said. The State should always look out for the common good performing some services itself while overseeing that the private does least harm (which it signally failed to do with the banks). Business will always look to profit which may disadvantage people e.g. workers...

Great job with weathering and backscene!

Under "Contact" Mr Soundguy quotes an e-mail address and a UK telephone number. His name is Keith Pearson and a real nice bloke to deal with.

Mr Soundguy (see: http://www.mrsoundguy.co.uk) does the best 201 soundproject on Zimo soundchips. The best speakers are the Bass Reflex from DCCsupplies.com (check if Zimo model needs 4 or 8 oHm resistance speaker). Hopefully the Lego model will have plenty of room to accommodate these. Mr Soundguy also does O gauge soundchips if you are building a very large model.

The Irish sound recordings are copyright to Mr SoundGuy (not DCC Supplies or MSB). He now works exclusively with Zimo chips not ESU Loksound. Sound is expensive but only one of each class/livery need have sound as only one or at most two loco's sound can be heard at one time. Unfortunately, the basic soundchips have not come down in price over the years. Mr SoundGuy sells primarily through his own website now and can be contacted directly with queries/orders.

The Alphagraphix reference is CC72A or CC472B. The livery is grey "GN" No 609 "To carry 20 tons" with Guinness Dublin emblazoned on both sides! I got mine from Michael Morris at one of the Wexford exhibitions (€6). I haven't assembled mine but you would need a bogie chassis to make it operational.