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Following the successful assembly of the brake vans I finally plucked up the courage at attempt the SSM level crossing, a kit I have had for the last 8 years. A fiddly kit to assemble but painting was probably more difficult, at least to me but then again I am much more comfortable with Scultamold ballast and carving foam. Overall well worth the effort though, the kit really captures the look of CIE level crossing gates.The crossing keepers cottage is meant to be a temporary place holder adapted from a Scalescenes lock keepers cottage, its been there at least 5 years! Hopefully it will get replaced by a better model soon.

Any idea when the red livery dissapead?

Nice footage here of the Ardee branch in 1975 showing bulk grain wagons. At 1:57 a grey one can be seen still sporting the Ranks lettering.

https://www.micromark.com/O-scale-decals-with-raised-3D-rivets-and-other-surface-details Micro Mark supply raised rivet decals in O and HO scale. Their site is well worth checking out, they stock an incredible range of of modelling supplies and tools.

Nice job David. I'm sure glad Leslie has done a splendid kit in OO scale. Before his model came out I spent some time trying to figure out how a rake of them could be produced without too much effort!

A few more, the second showing the new goods bank without wagons blocking the view. The first shows an extension to the siding serving the gantry crane and tar depot. The field which was in this area was too small to look convincing, at least to my eye and the gantry was too close to the main line.

Anyone who has attempted to lay out a station platform with a bay on a curve will appreciate my relief on getting the job done. Much cutting and adjusting was done to make a template from craft paper for the platform surface to get the clearances right before it was cut from a sheet of 1mm back card. This was then supported on a base made from blue Styrofoam insulation sheet brought up to the height of Peco platform edging using more card. The wall behind the passenger side of the platform is a mock up to evaluate appearance, I may go with a fence here. The surface is not yet glued in place to facilitate blending in the platform edging on the goods side with the goods store which will be faced with the same embossed styrene brick sheet.

Over the years I have been looking closely at pictures of CIE goods wagons in an attempt to capture the atmosphere of loose coupled trains of the seventies and have come to the conclusion that between detail and livery differences seldom were any two were alike.

Will the 121 have a power pack capacitor like the forthcoming MIR A class?

The recently (almost) completed footbridge at Glen More has spurned on progress on the stalled rebuild of the station. The bank for the yet to be built goods store is well underway and room has been found for an end loading dock, a perfect destination for Leslie's flat wagons.

Thanks Fran. I was hoping I could get by with what I have on hand until funds are available for sound chips.

I should have been more specific with my question, was thinking Digitrax as I have some on hand.

Great news, a pair have been ordered. One question, are there other (non sound) decoder options for the model?

I liked the last shot so much I did a remake with a C class with a yellow warning panel.

Its Autumn 1971 on the South Waterford Line. A newly re-engined A class leading a short pickup goods train passes loaded beet wagons at Keilys cross.

Get a grip on yourself Noel. Start work on those Bulleid opens and order a bunch of H vans from Leslie before it's too late. There may not be a cure for yellow infiltration.

This is the paint I used Stephen. I don't remember where I got it, possibly an auto parts store but it was chosen because it matched the gray trim on the Bachmann Irish station building. The colour is described as Machinery Gray on the can. At some stage the bridge will get weathered with an overall wash of very diluted black and drybrushed with white.

The Hornby footbridge at Glen More finally got lowered to an acceptable height and got repainted. It needs a little weathering.

Lovely kit but outside my era. Hope Leslie does a CIE 20 ton model.

What started yesterday as a minor buffer repair on one of my palvans turned into a rebuild and repaint of two of them. The wagons were some of the first Irish rolling stock constructed about 10 years ago to evaluate the practicality of building an Irish layout. Does anyone know if the roofs of the prototypes were painted black?

A few more.

The signal box is a Ratio kit with the stone steps replaced with shortened ones which came from the Dapol box which it replaced. The goods shed is scratch built from foam board covered with Plastistruct embossed stone sheet. I still have to get around to finishing the roof. The station building is a Dapol kit. None of the buildings are accurate models of any prototype but capture the atmosphere of a small station in the South East in the seventies. A prototypical paint scheme goes a long way to achieve this.

Yes, that brake van looks great. Wish mine came out that well.

Cork Waterford goods crosses beet empty at Grange.