patrick

I'm envious of your passenger stock Noel, It's something that falls way short on my layout.

Yes, I'm referring to the as delivered version of 141, not the preserved version which as Noel says does not have tablet catchers.

Some if not all the141's arrived and went into service without the CIE broken wheel logo. The Murphy Models 141 is the only black and tan baby GM without it and may be the most appropriate version for a 1963- 64 era layout.

The Grand River Railway is what was the North end of the former B&O Lake branch from Youngstown to Fairport Harbor Ohio. The line was abandoned north of Warren by CSX In the early eighties except for a two and a half mile section between Painsville and Grand River which was taken over by Conrail who ran the line until 2002. The line lay dormant until it was reopened in 2015 by a new shortline the Grand River Railway. At present the line serves just one customer, a large salt mine at Grand River. Power is all leased four axel GM's, a GP-10 and a GP40-2 which is paired with a slug manufactured from a GP-35. Both are former B&O units. Although the line is only ten miles from my home its weekday operations make it difficult for me to railfan. Today however I got lucky catching a train of fifteen loaded hoppers from the mine at Grand River and the interchange with CSX in Painsville.

My previous layout had a duck under which was navigated by scooting under it on an old office chair.

There has not been a lot of progress on the layout in the last few weeks as circumstances have changed in our household. Maureen and I have become foster parents to two girls, an 18 month old and her 5 year old sister. We have known the girls through friends of ours since they were born and when circumstances dictated that they needed to be in foster care and no suitable home was found we volunteered. What has been completed is the installation of the DCC system. This involved removing the control panels and wiring from the twin cab control system previously in place and the installation of a bus wire. A second hand held wireless controller has also been aquired. At this stage only four locomotives have been chipped, all with Digitrax decoders, none as yet with sound. The photo shows the base unit installed at the entrance of Waterford fiddle yard. The track with 045 on it is the programming track. Five universal throttle holders aquired from Micro Mark were installed, throughout the layout, one each at Grange, Glen More, Keilys Cross an at each fiddle yard. I am very pleased with the system and can't overstate the convenience of wireless throttles on a walk around layout. No further work has been done on Glen More but it has been decided to move the tar depot and crane from the front of the layout to back as the orignally plan had been. The crane tended to get knocked over too frequently while operating and I was nervous about rolling stock so close to the edge of the layout. The beet loading bank will be reinstated on the siding towards the front and will provide protection for rolling stock parked there.

I just cant let this go John but I think you should loose that 3 way point. Being so rare on Irish railways it seems out of place at least to me and the it looks like you have plenty of space for an alternative arrangement.

Backdating the idea to the ninteys or earlier could allow oil trains from Whiddy Island and beet in season.

Glen More's new signal cabin which is adapted from a Dapol kit. I was inspired by signal cabins at Dungarvin, Tralee and Ballygeary and is intended as a place holder until something better comes along.

I needed a break from wiring so I finally got around to building a more appropriate signal cabin for Grange. Its a Ratio kit with new steps from a Dapol signal box kit.

The reason I am a late comer to dcc is not any aversion to it but a matter of circumstance. When the layout was started a about six years ago I was recovering from a bad accident which had me unable to work for over a year. Although finance was tight an abundance of code 100 track (which had never been balllasted) and two walkaround dc controllers were recovered from the previous US themed layout layout and I already had a small collection of Irish rolling stock. I did have an abundance of time though which accounts for the rapid progress on the layout early on. The layout was wired for twin cab control using the two walk around throttles. The SPDT switches and even much of the wire was reclaimed from the previous layout. This system worked fine for the operating scheme of the layout and would probably have remained in place for a few more years had not one of the throttles failed and to my surprise a cheap used replacement was not easy to find. At this point it didn't take much to talk myself into converting to dcc. My requirements for the system were walkaround control of no more than four sound equipped locomotives. The planned operating scheme of the layout ideally will call for four operators. Two train drivers just run trains following signals and some verbal instructions from operators at Glen More and Grange each of which will operate the respective signal cabins an adjacent fiddle yards. With four operators in the layout area wireless throttles were deemed desireable. All of this is of course in the future, much needs to be done, not least rounding up four operators! We are however making progress.

I got a great deal on this Prodigy wireless DCC system which arrived in the mail today. Decoders are due tomorrow. Sound is defiantly in the future but for now priority goes to chipping locos.

That would be great! I will order a Peco switch and check it out as soon as converting the layout to DCC is completed. Thanks.

Thanks Steve. All of those solutions are more work than I am willing to put into it at this time. I think I will settle for push buttons for the signals and maybe Peco levers for the points.

All four tracks have now been laid in Waterford fiddle yard. Each track will hold twelve 20 foot wagons and a locomotive. Previously there were five tracks, three held eleven 20 foot wagons and a locomotive, the other two were even shorter. The yard tracks have enough finger room between them to make "fiddling" rolling stock on and off the lsyout easy. A long narrow shelf above the yard is planned to store surplus rolling stock. Before wiring started on the rebuilt section of Glen More my hand heald DC throttle died. The unit gave me over twenty years of service and will not be replaced, it's finally time to convert to DCC.

I am considering using Peco switches to control the points on my layout but would also like to use them to operate Dapol semaphore signals so I can have a signal cabin lever frame effect. Does anyone know if this can be done? Thanks.

They are sesame seeds. The seeds themselves are rather flat but they look fine in piles at normal viewing distances. They are also cheap!

The main line platform at Glenmore has been narrowed to ease a nasty s curve on the siding behind it and to make more room for a goods shed. Meanwhile 045 shunts beet wagons. 045 is a favourite of mine as I travelled on it on the last Tralee Listowel goods train.

We are expecting a lot of visitors over for a house party this weekend so I did some work to enable through trains be run for display. Three of the four planned tracks in the Waterford fiddle yard were temporally laid. The fourth will be put in when I source a curved point. A few other changes have also been made. The point for the siding for the crane and bitumen depot has been moved closer to the passenger platform and the siding itself has been moved about a quarter inch in towards the baseboard edge. Previously all four parallel tracks in this area were equidistant. The result looks looks far more,natural, at least to my eye. The beet loading bank was also shortened by about four inches. A few details were thrown in and we can now run trains again!

OK this is it. Now it's time to start wiring.

John Mayner's comment about moving the bitume to a spot where tank wagons need not be moved during shunting movements led to it being relocated to the end of the siding. A short section of track between the hard standing and the bitumen depot will be embedded in gravel to allow road acess and should make a nice scene.

You did send them Leslie, they arrived separately after the vans were built and put into service. The decals will be applied to the flat wagons too at some point. They were rushed into service as soon as the paint had dried!

The crane will remain free standing so it can be removed if need be. It will simply topple over if accidently hit, it is quite sturdy. The beet loading bank should be less conspicuous once the scenery has been worked in around it.