Sean

SO WHEN ARE THE NEW DUTCH VANS COMING OUT?!?!

Mmmmmm. Workable on second radius but not flawless with the 181 fixed nem pocket. 181 good with wagons tho edit: 181 now showing buffer lock with wagons so coupling not 100% compatible without spacing it out a little bit, not gonna mess around with it too much for now as i also have other locos that should work better here. Sean

ive got a 6 wheeled van........

they are not snapping together until they are within about a sleeper of each other too meaning they are more than suitable for shunting around the flats as well.. Ive got enough to outfit 2 locos, 8 flats and the 2 taras, Looks like i might have enough space to fit in another tara or 2 onto the cassette also so im sure im gonna get another box in a time

todays loot. slightly out of era, but for the price i will make an exception, particularly once you also add in the IRM rewards points to bring the price down even more For ages ive been interested in the hunt couplings but between one thing and another i never got around to them, which is actually a good thing as these magnetic dellners have since been released. as the loco will operating from one cassette to another it will require frequent uncoupling for the run around and traditionally this part has always pissed me off, im hoping the use of these will greatly increase the fun factor by eliminating the fumble around to get the tension locks to release at either end. it should also cut down on how often my clumsy hands tend to damage small details here and there as im uncoupling stuff. Im very surprised as i did not expect this kind of close coupling. at the same time i have been gliding the wagons though second radius s bends and settrack points without any kind of issues that i would usually experience with that type of trackwork they also look very inconspicuous and would even more so if one were to paint them black... now to straighten up that buffer lol. Death to tension locks! now i gotta pick which two locos will get the same treatment for operation on this layout

finishing up tonight, bridge completed and paved, "dock road" from google maps also added into the foreground. few more bits and pieces to arrive tomorrow and a nice change in the type of work being undertaken.

are the southern ones gonna be arriving at the same time?

who decides which emoji gets to be a happy emoji and which one gets you sad emoji points?

A reliably working traverser was paramount and whilst what i have ended up with is quite primative I am rolling flats back and forward over the transition and from line to line without a hiccup, this is literally a wooden frame with a piece of wood sliding accross it, track must be aligned manually but thats not actually much of an issue here. in time i may build a nicer looking unit with proper rollers but so far this is working a lot better than anticipated for an initial prototype. I have also erected a shelf over the other side to act as the alexandra road cassette, im actually considering making this into a longer shelf in the room that its in to give me somewhere to show off my models when not being ran but the cassette size is fixed to being the same size as the traverser over the other side ( and the whole piece of over 8 feet long now, eek) had enough palisade fencing left over from the westport build to line the entire perimeter of the backscenes, nice but i need more here and am on the lookout for suitable urban backscenes. that will suit this particular theme well. disused siding is growing, still more to do here and one thing that particularly caught my eye on multiple layouts at the wexford show was the use of mirrors on side backscenes being used in order to give the illusion that the yard keeps going on and on, I think that effect could be used particularly well in this locale and could even be enhanced further by the addition of the half wagon illusion. Another thing im working on is the road overbridge and I am attempting to do a full scratch build here using supplies obtained yesterday as there did not seem to be any sort of off the shelf bridge which would have suitably fit the space, its not being based on the real bridge or anything i just need to make myself a functional bridge to cover the space that doesnt look one million miles out of place. I think its going well! one last thing picked up yesterday were these 3v LED floodlamps. currently unsure if i will wire these up as its a daylight layout with a strong overhead light although i do imagine i will given the time! Really enjoying this one and the pace of work, couple more deliveries due for this week and atmosphere is building nicely!

no, dellners lol.

serious question btw. im expecting my first set tomorrow morning.

but will they come with dellners?

what kinda EGV ran with these or was there none since they are numbered TL?

this is going to hurt my railcar fund....

Trainspotting from Alexandra rd this evening.

every foot in real life translates into 4mm in oo scale, dont be afraid to extrapolate your ideas down to fit into your available space, the art of compromise can take time to master and not everything has to be exactly as it is in real life.

i mean wrong colour to be from belmond why are they yellow in the first place?

Any chance its a belmond bogie? wrong colour for that

Messing around with the half wagon concept when I should be engineering the traverser.....

Very much a spontaneous build that went from reading an Ian Holmes idea that really inspired the build to planning in railmodeller and cutting timber all in the space of a few hours....... I guess insomnia can be a good thing some times North Wall from above, still to be completed are a traverser exit left and a cassette exit right. the lighting sucks on my other layouts, to the point of annoyance unless I am in the train room at really specific times of the day with good sunlight, so for this I wanted to play around with the "staging" idea that is quite common with micros and have hung a bright LED at the top of the piece. not too obvious straight away but there is a 5/3/3 inglenook incorporated into the track plan. and a run around! exit left to traverser. This will be disguised by a road bridge overlooking the yard and is a regular vantage point for trainspotters on the prototype. exit to Alexdandra road(cassette) The idea here is that I want to model the spur with the tanker as disused in order to obscure the view of anything coming and going from the tramway. I want to have a mess around with cutting a tanker in half and mating it onto the backscene to give the idea that this is a longer siding of parked up wagons.

to answer my own question; DHL is the only option offered to ireland from hattons now

Apparently these issues are solved now, anyone tried yet?

why isnt this post about a dutch VAN?

as would be expected after a few weeks of neglect trains were not running well around the loop and derailments were common, as theres an n gauge layout blocking my view this was making me very paranoid of a catastrophic derailment into the window sill! so out came the n layout and today was spent reworking all of the background trackwork and getting it permenantly pinned down so trains are running beautifully now. Fingers crossed. the first radius siding has been given an exit route back into the loop so now i have a very nicely sized passing siding allowing me to keep 2 trains in service on the loop as i see fit. (Automation anyone?) VID_20230412011151.mp4 Enevitable this was gonna happen after talking fondly about it the aesthethic isnt 100% there for me for this despite them being awfully similar, and besides i really cannot justify the financial turmoil of starting to build up yet another rake.... LOL, on the other hand im HIGHLY tempted to grab a few of the last ballasts to pad this rake out fully VID_20230412011029.mp4 hmmmmmmmmmm

Still pondering it but ive a feeling we may see an RTR one sooner rather than later.