Sean

its a shame those kits are gone there are a good few i would like to buy up now that im back in the hobby

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Just curious as to why? I've seen several members post that, but I'm not sure that it would be ideal from a sales point of view - possibly be akin to another run of the A's, which wouldn't make sense immediately.

Totally agree with this sentiment, I dont really care for the motive power which came from the UK and was not going to buy an A at all only for the fact that it kept getting such good reviews, fomo got the better of me and i was able to finally justify one due to them having such a widespread use on the network. I like them now thanks to having such a fine model on the shelf.

I do however get the feeling that in such a small market that is centered around such a niche interest that there may well be some form of unwritten gentlemens agreement between PM and IRM which effectively states that the 2 firms will not develop competing products, ruling out any IRM made GM's for as long as PM stays in business, as such a small market would probabaly not sustain the same product from both manufacturers despite strong demand for those models and 071 has been a staple of the PM catalogue for many years now.

So to that effect it will be upto paddy when we get to see new GM's hit the shelves...  Considering that a 201 rerun is in the works, i think it's going to be more of a when than an if. as everyone seems to want 071 now that shes gone.

Im less confident we will see more baby GM since the tooling is gone and needs redoing from scratch, but you never know..............

unacceptable! I will not rest until every single running number ever of 071 is available in toothpaste IR livery complete with  the lighting features we have come to love , accuratrash sound, and rolling bearing boxes, then just as i have purchased 5 of each it will be time to open preorders for the same range of baby GM's

let me dream 

1 hour ago, murphaph said:

I'm already looking forward to the rerun of the A's in a few years. I'll buy the same liveries again in the new running numbers. They are that nice a model.

hopefully there will be enough interest for another run of GM's before then

Anybody else excited to see the last of these selling out?

dying to see what IRM have planned next.(as if there wasnt enough coming already)

I'd buy that only im poor again 

On 26/2/2022 at 5:50 PM, Ironroad said:

When I see these, I'm suspicious of their provenance.

well maybe whoever is ripping them off could churn out some fake 071's to appease all of our lusting for one 

the hill itself is nothing special, i just got the basic structure built out of polystyrene bits and built up a layer of powdered filler,badly painted green with random poster paints, then painted again with an extremelly thick layer of pva for the scatter application.

Brown scatter does not seem to be available to buy, and at this stage most people seem to use sieved garden dirt, Instead ive been using sieved coconut coir which to me seems like a much easier option to work with as it does not disintegrate when it gets wet, less mess and just wipes away from the backscene when wet without leaving any skidmarks! Coco bricks are available as bedding for reptiles in most pet stores and as a soil mix in garden centres. it is a sustainable alternative to peat and compost made from coconut shells. 

it also wicks up moisture, including pva glue, so its easy to apply in thick coats , covering up any craters left behind in the filler build up stage.

After the initial application onto the wet layer of glue we applied earlier I spray over the top layer with watered down pva so that the adhesive wicks through the entire application of coco and it all sticks nicely together, the mess on the backscene then just wipes away without any fuss and you can pat down the coco edges with your fingers quite easily.

looks a bit dark and messy but that will only be temporary.

after a couple of days its drying out to a nice earthy colouration(like coconuts!) ready for scattering, fences, cows and lichen. I dont do static grass just yet. have used this exact same procedure to great effect on my n layout so im confident ill have a nice little corner here when im done..... most of the coco feels solid now but some areas still feel a little loose, so another dusting with pva water and hoovering away the excess when dry should be all i need to do to have a nice little hillside in just a few evenings of an hour here and there.  

otherwise not much has happened i have been lazy about relaying the track, as im still thinking about making the jump to peco electrofrogs all around so no trains have ran. I'll be making a push to finish off the hill as the cows etc are on the way and i have scatter and lichen here to finish stuff off. need to get the finger out and wire for DCC. 

a carpenter friend has been comissioned to build a simple turntable mechanism based on a h0 design from youtube, chances are it will remain hand cranked, although with my new foray into the digital world im going to fully motorise the points using cheap servo motors so you never know i might come up with some sort of motor solution in due course.

Російська армія, іди на хуй

Very little has happened for about a week now as i have been away on london and in awe at how cool the underground system is.

I ended up making a big earth mound in order to try and sort of 3d the background a little instead of it being totally flat image, this approach has some limitations given the compact nature of the baseboard. it should be okay, and the base of the hill is going to tightly integrate into the beginning of the platform  to tie it all together.

I was experimenting with using a curved bit of sky to take out the last of the corner feeling alright but as of yet havent done so.

its going to have a field with cows ontop to add a little bit of interest and distraction from the railway. next step will be to scatter it and preparing for said scening as a field. i have bought fences and stone walls in order to have variety to experiement.

have held off on ballast wagons for a while now due to not being able to get these so I was delighted to see a small restocking of them on the site,  along with some of the other classics that must of gotten lost down the back of the warehouse sofa for the last while  ,  was a little dissapointed to see the IR version sold out with only the IE remaining, but whatever a minor detail i ordered it anyway. was only delighted to see the IR version turn up today anyway. so a happy mistake :D.

IR ballast pack A is now on the way from marks along with some more scenics to keep things progressing, the next couple of evenings should focus on getting a good thick layer of scatter onto the newly built earth mound.

yep sat here and watched them all sell out....... decided on ballast ploughs though, since not having them was putting me off starting a rake. was either that or cement bubbles and i dont really want to add a cement plant to my layout. the lights will be fun to play with

this restocking event has me filled with indecisiveness, everythings gonna be gone by the time my mind is made up!

a few things that i had relinquished as "its gone never to be bought again" are now all in my face at once  the the wallet is currently holding moths......

Will investigate during the week as I have to borrow a Windows laptop each time I wanna mess around. I reckon I'll be putting a better computer together from the scrap pile this week. Have a sound card with 8 outputs too so that should be interesting.

Is the sharing of esu files/flashing to multiple decoders to be frowned upon?

Or is it upto the manufacturer to protect them? I see they can be locked to only work on a certain decoder.

My justification is that whilst the coaches fit my era they did not exist in this guise until 20 years later so I can be a bit "loose" about my choice of loco. 

It can be my own little tribute to the cset locos at Downpatrick pulling flying snail coaches 

Came on to post that listing.. it really takes the p*ss

Someone's still getting ripped off....

Whilst in reality I am flying though things in my head I'm slowly getting there

The old pva trick worked as I was able to spray paint down the concrete with cheap nasty deals primer without melting the surface of the layout

Yea got my set secured as well, first time ever making a pre order of any kind

Shamelessly, im gonna pull them with one of these things! 

44 minutes ago, Adrian said:

@raymurph I was in the exact same boat a few months ago - looking to build up a fleet and nothing in production. Best bet is keep an eye open on this forum, get in touch with the contacts above and watch eBay  

I would definitely grab a couple of 121s from Marks before they are gone too - I’d even ring up and buy them as opposed to depending on a visit. At least then you’ll have something to play with  Also they had some 071 sound decoders last week so perhaps grab one of those even before you find a loco, as they sell out quickly too

Lastly Roads & Rails in the UK do quality sound decoders for 121s (two different engine types) as well as the 141/181 - I’ve bought a few and would recommend them

Best of luck, these locos do come available from time to time so patience is needed, bear in mind though you will likely need between €200-€400 per loco though, so start saving!

Are the sound decoders limited runs or are they in constant production? since after all the actual decoder itself is going to be in constant production.

these look great!

last few announcments have been a little "meh" for me but only because the models didnt fit into the greater scheme of what i have been trying to do on my layout....

that being said these more than make up for that! and reassures me a bit of more liverys coming down the pipeline.

hoping i can get a pre order in before they are all gone, on that note,  maybe the  unpaid pre order option could be resinstated on the condition that pre orders must pay a deposit? i would happily go for this and put down 25% if it meant the item was secured for a later date. (will email for a payment plan later)

also noticing how this is called "set 1" when are ye announcing set 2?

That boards looks absolutely PERFECT for the job and you know its gonna be tiny when you see that micro usb connector. took apart the lynx pack and its essentially one of those although the pcb is a bit too big for a loco, its a good starting point for mounting into a building etc.

that board is actually capable of 2x3 watt so i bet they could be tied together into a 6 watt package for mono setups like we have in our locos.

not sure about FT just yet,  I dont think its enabled by default  but at the same time i really dont know what i should be listening for, i was trying to use isolation switch and reverser centre functions and they were not responding as expected, however they are disabled by default in the files anyway.  nextgen does send throttle info and the default enabled functions just fine except now the loco responds to functions both on the decoder and in nextgen so its a little bit of a mess until i get in and map them out to different f numbers.

I assume it should work but i dont really know how it should be behaving with it turned on so cant really say until i investigate further.

wasnt too fond of that corner and ive already got a fairly busy scene for buildings so i just spontaneously put this mound together tonight, will model a little field edge on the top of it and it should look decent.

a rare appearance from an out of era spoil, totally acceptable whilst we are still under construction as how else would we build the model without modern day stock  

kinda mad to think this "corner" of the layout will be complete as soon as i get some ballast down and all the white surfaces covered. its my first "all irish" layout and definitely the most prototypical ive built so far. 

Im now most looking forward to 

still trying to decide between beet doubles and pallet cement as my last source of industry  

i have some ambitious plans going forward in terms of adding sound and lights, so maybe its good that im geting all the model work done now and I did always anticipate this to be a quick project.

ya your right, seems to be mention of an amp board too in the comments, 

another possibility would be a small  battery powered bluetooth box, have an old lynx one here that im gonna pull apart for a look tonight , only downside is you would need to get at the charging port easily, so im thinking 141 would be a good contender since the cab comes off so easily.

looks like bachmann have an implementation of it in their app too.

How old are the reach stackers used in this video? have been hesitant to buy some lately as they seem a bit too modern for my era.

Interesting.

In theory once theres enough current then somthing like this could be dropped in and wired to the existing speakers set up as a set of headphones within windows

https://gleanntronics.ie/en/products/bluetooth-audio-receiver-module-5v-for-diy-wireless-speaker-3099.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiAjc2QBhDgARIsAMc3SqT0NNcSf37RttamCCVKjc7j_NFhYLLoBSNlkVpMJw41PaBzEhZpgMMaArf_EALw_wcB

Does anybody know what voltage the aux pins on a 21 pin decoder are outputting at or if 5v is present anywhere on the decoder or loco pcb?