GSR 800

Looking at some other photos, almost certainly Galway. Telegraph poles line up, platform looks the same and a small building with a pitched roof, possibly an office of some kind is there also.

dare I ask, diesel power, steam power or no power?

Very interesting stuff John. Any more info on the proposed O'Connoll St station? I'd imagine it'd be very cramped indeed! The idea of a US union style station served the major companies was where Amiens Central came from, though I wasn't sure of exact placement, though I figured it was central enough, being only a walk down Talbot street from O'Connell street. The design is somewhat influenced by minories in terms of track design.

A wee update: Amiens gets a revamp Amiens has been on hiatus for a good year. Wasn't happy with the limitations I was left with, especially regarding the yard which was left rather cramped and minimal. My solution was to invert or 'mirror' Amiens to the other side of the board, which I think makes it a bit more unique, but importantly opens up space for carraige sidings and the engine shed area. I also used it as an opportunity to rework the station throat. Just a few pics for now! Station throat. All platforms can be accessed, and can access the headshunt closest the shed. Through lines TBA. 134 waits for A15 to depart with a commuter to shunt empty coaching stock to the sidings. Passengers crossing the footbridge are glad for the lack of rain.

Looks excellent. White stuff is scaling from the water aye

Sure a fella looted a santa statue there yesterday in dublin. He's either a few days late or a year early...

diecast footplates have been around for a while iirc, they just fell out of fashion when the mazac rot became a serious issue across a lot of locomotives. (IIRC Hornby was plagued with motor mounts with mazac rot) It's a shame, I wonder if that put a bit of a damper on the high quality model Hornby and others started to go for in the early 2000s starting with the Merchant Navy class, one of which I own and holds up very well. Perhaps those who were not infants at the time can put a light on that one. I think a mogul in a decade or so would be a good RTR model for IRM, and one they can do at the same time as an N/U class release for accurascale. It's something thats been entirely omitted from the British market since the bachmann model. Perhaps it could be the one they are planning to announce, who knows, maybe the extensive lobbying from some got the turf burner into production! Jokes aside, I would lean on the steam locomotive they come out with first being a 'uniquely' irish type ie without a direct british prototype, as 1. Its been done with the Jinties and Moguls, and 2. I don't think they'd go for a 'repaint' of a british prototype as their first Irish model (No need to list out the mods the Ks got, ya know what I mean). I hope that with the inevitable move into RTR Irish steam at some point in time, there will be continued support and diversification for kit suppliers and manufacturers to produce the loco types that dont lend themselves as well to RTR production. Otherwise we risk losing a great deal in the process. Mayner of this parish has produced excellent (and quite nice to assemble) loco kits in the 650s and the Achill Bogies, SSM is a staple in irish loco kits and we have an increasing number of high quality 3d printers such as Killian and Ken, along with many others.

body was plastic (iirc, some parts may have been diecast), footplate was diecast. Had one where the footplate completely disintegrated from mazac rot.

Very nice conversion, suitably filthy! The bachmann models have their place in modelling history, but they are starting to show their age. The body itself holds up quite well (when it doesn't suffer from mazac rot) but the chassis is pretty subpar and not suited for any modification (one can see Noel's difficulties in chipping them). The coupler is an interesting one, it was a failed attempt at something I've seen work 20 years later in N scale.

Probably more to standardise with the rest of the fleet, the moguls weren't that old. Whatever about the handwheels in place of the darts, the MGWR was an early adopter for some of its locos, the GNR seemed to standardise on it in the 20s and 30s and CIE began in earnest from inception. It gives Irish locos a nice 'look' in my opinion.

Theres a H van riddled with shot on my uncles farm. There's also a wooden van by the river with 'FOR PRESERVATION' scrawled on a board on it. It's so dilapidated it'll be for the fishes soon... I should probably take a few pictures before that happens.

Could expand it to suppliers for motors, wheels, hornblocks, gearboxes, castings etc? Can be a bit of a maze for those looking to get into kit and scratchbuilding.

Jellicoe gets credit where its due, and that is bottling the HSF, Jutland, comms, etc. He kept the German fleet bottled up, denying the Germans access to the sea which is all that matters. At Jutland he performed some of the best coordination ever seen in battle, managing to cross the German T in a perfect firing arc. The problem with his run off to Swilly is the loss of a battleship or two is one thing, possibly allowing the Germans to win the race to the sea is quite another, he opened the bottle he had corked, he was just lucky the HSF didnt notice. And he lost a battleship because he moved to Swilly. My biggest critique is his steadfast opposition to convoys, which were the most effective means of countering the uboats. Eyeing the HSF from across the sea seemed to give him tunnel vision, Britain was in pretty dire straits supply wise when the US joined, as Admiral Sims found to his horror.. To keep this somewhat on topic, and on brand for myself, I always thought had Ireland joined the war the 800s would've gotten some proper mileage in and with better coal. the GNRI V class were beat by the end of the war! Another thing, I've always wondered what the performance of the oil burners during and after the war wars like.

I doubt Berehaven would have been the best spot for a British squadron to be posted due to the deep republicanism in the area. Geographically a squadron of sloops, frigates and destroyers operating from there would have been effective in covering the western approaches. Lough Swilly and Cobh perhaps, but Jellicoe had left the North Sea wide open in the first few months of WW1 running off to Lough Swilly with the entire Grand Fleet while Scapa underwent anti submarine defence improvements. Would have given the High Seas Fleet a good operating window to drive up the channel and blow the pre dreadnought heavy channel fleet out of the water. (Coincidentally the man famous for advocating for utilisation of geographic chokepoints such as between Scotland and Norway and the Channel, A.T Mahan, died in a very similar time period...perhaps Jellicoe's gaff pushed him over the edge...)

Grey and ivory

Theres a lot of railing against social media generally, but I steer well clear of facebook. Nothing to do with any particular groups, just the platform as a whole. Facebook is infamous for poor moderation practices, allowing extremist and conspiracy content to run rampant and selling off data en masse (the Irish regulator has fined them close to a billion over the last 2 years). Although also brought about by the natural 'innovate or decline cycle' of any company, Zuckerberg was pissed enough at Apple allowing users to turn off third party cookies (and killing their profits as a result) that he wants to own the software and hardware for 'internet 3.0' aka the disastrous moneysink known as the metaverse. There's also significant controversy over their 'free basics' internet in developing countries.

Good to know the measuring stick on plastic injection...just have to find a 300 grand handy now. I would've thought a cattle engine brass kit could be a good way to go. What I've noticed from my perusal in American O, HO and N scale is the rtr brass imports, mainly from south korea and japan are hot money. Modern American (injection moulded) rtr having all the bells and whistles, literally, with sound, steam etc...even in dc and n scale. Probably adding another 100 or so in the models price as a result. The brass built locos nonetheless are those sought after, though I must wonder the uh...multiplier effect bachmann has had on that trend, so poor is their reputation in the US that it may have turned many modellers off injection moulded rtr. I suppose RTR brass here seems a mainly foreign concept.

Ah, I'm not on facebook.

site?

Eoin, I saw the small turntables, should've been clearer when I meant a regular TT rather than the mini ones!

Could be very interesting to model indeed. Doesn't even look like theres a proper turntable, I suppose there wasn't a huge need with the majority being tank engines? One may have been installed post OS map, idk either way. If modelling the 60s and 70s, the canal being jam packed full of rubbish seems to be prototypical

I think Irish steam affords itself well to a continuation of kitbuilding and the likes. So many classes of locomotive and rolling stock that an RTR producer couldn't justify producing en masse. The loss of British suppliers is however a significant issue, and would be very difficult to justify replicating for the small Irish market. Locos most likely to 'stick the landing' for RTR would be IMO (in no particular order) J15s 800s J26s B4s Q class S class V class Vs class T class 4-4-2 tank Jeeps NCC Moguls I'm sure I've overlooked a few. 400s could be thrown in there, the issue being of course the dozens upon dozens of variations through their career. May as well throw in the 500s in the same batch if the 400s get done. Outside of possibly their 4-4-0s, I wouldn't be too certain about anything MGWR other than the cattle engines. idk how well the BCDR would do, the Baltics are nice but its a bit niche? SLNCR could see a few prototypes in a decade or so, they've got the charm anyway.. The GNR lends itself very well to RTR, as does the NCC. GSR is a lot more varied though the mainline (800s, 400s and Moguls) aren't too bad either. Main issues I'd see are the variations for the 400s (maybe limit it to CIE days where you've two 'main types' of 400) and the Moguls already having (albeit a severly dated by now) representation in RTR. 500s, idk. In terms of tin vans, solution would probably be to include them in certain larger packs of coaches to ensure they get sold. I'd buy a few tin vans anyway, quite sorry I missed out on yours! They are great for making a short train seem longer, something the six wheelers will add to. Looking to Britain, the famous prototypes get reruns again, and again, and again while locos such as the V4s have yet to have a single RTR model! Only now are many of the older types (pre grouping) being looked at, indicating an increasing interests in even earlier eras. (Though arguably in Britain the bell curve of interest has always begun earlier, with the grouping rather than in Ireland, where it seems firmly starting late 50s-early 60s and peaking 70s-90s)

1950s-1960s is my era and seems to be for many modellers in the younger age group. I started with british steam from hornby. Always liked steam more than diesel, and when I was given the lend of A Second Glance there was no looking back! RPSI tours certainly helped to cement that, having seen 186 and 4 at a young age. I suppose it helps that the modern era is dominated by the 22000s (though I'll almost certainly buy a set) which is far less interesting compared to the 50s and 60s which has such a rich variety of steam and diesel power along with a massive range of rolling stock to consider. I'm partial to the early diesels and enjoy the reliable running of the Murphys and the IRM 141s, 121s and A's but steam remains king, and once IRM is producing rtr steam the bank account will look worse than your man sam bankman fried who lost his entire net worth in a weekend when his ponzi scheme collapsed. Irish locomotive models are a better investment than crypto Sam....

Something about moving over to a new server or something? A significant amount of images were lost in the process which is very unfortunate.

on another forum I'm on, in order to generate upkeep money members can donate if they wish. No ads as a result. Keep in mind said forum has around 80k members, though obviously a great deal fewer active users, but nonetheless twice that of RMweb. I don't find RMweb a terrible hassle on the laptop, dont look at it elsewhere, but I do think it could have been done better. Don't really understand the point of complaining about it here though.