Broithe

Port Laoise.

Kilkenny?

The local architecture is still interesting. I did wonder if the turkey in my roll had been machined by a baseboard manufacturer?

Plenty of other stuff to see, too.

Well, as reported elsewhere - Bantry was there, in the end. Definitely worth the trip to see the progress.

This is a week tomorrow - hopefully I won't be taken by surprise at the date on the morning this time, as I was last year...

If you are in anything at all like the vicinity, then you really should go and see this.

It seems to be working as I expect it is intended to for me, at least - as a public-spirited experiment, and in honour of my birthday today, I have just ordered a pair of IÉ plough vans. (Order 1875) All seemed to work as I would have expected it to. The confirmation email has just arrived, too.

I definitely took a vertical picture of the new (concrete) track from the footbridge, but I just can't seem to find it at the moment. Sorry. Could do with a run of the track-rubber along the top...

This should be reasonably accurately scaleable for the sleeper length. This is what came up when the main lines through the station were replaced with concrete sleepers a few years back.

The new wooden sleepers on the loop at Ballybrophy.

I was worried that it was John's elbow.

It's definitely an exhibition worth going to, there are a lot of aspects that are better than many others - spacing is one of them, I hardly ever had anybody 'in the way'. And I will polish my shoes before including them in any more pictures...

The creaking/squeaking of the turntable mechanism was most atmospheric - it must have taken ages to perfect!

I seem to have managed to miss out this picture... ...showing the very informative notes along the layout frontage and the neat trick of hiding the backscene joints by means of the church spire and a tree. (The post at the end is not hiding a joint in David's head.)

Where I'm relying on a rail gap for isolation, I've had a practice of putting a spot of tape or paint on a rail-end to stop them creeping together and making unwanted contact. We had quite a bit of seasonal gap variation when we had a forty foot straight run under a polycarbonate car-port roof. I've always suspected that shrinkage of wooden base materials from humidity reductions has a bigger effect than expansion of the metal rails through increased temperatures, and vice versa, although both move the gap dimensions in the same direction. It would be interesting to see what happens with layouts with foam-board substrates. My razor saw cuts about 0.25mm wide. My cutting discs are 0.6mm

There was one for those suffering from yellow fever.

There were lots of other excellent layouts to peruse, too.

The main point was to view Arigna. I was not disappointed. There was constant activity, most efficiently performed. The hand-of-God coupling/uncoupling was amongst the deftest that I have seen - often it takes as long as it would to crochet a hearthrug, it seems. Placing the layout in the draught of the entrance doors was an act of genius - the wafting of the washing was truly inspiring.

Thanks to my newly appointed social secretary, @Robert Shrives, I managed to attend this today - and see Arigna in the flesh. The Derby exhibition used to be an annual event for me, a little more 'continental' than most, but I find that interesting. I haven't been for two.three years now, due to not being so efficiently reminded in time. It is now at a most excellent new venue. The new venue is in the old roundhouse, right next to Derby station, for those that want to travel by rail and avoid the entertainment of Derby's road traffic system. It has excellent facilities for those with heavier than usual baseboards. The pits are visible through the glass floor. And it seems to be licensed for extra refreshment possibilities. s.

I'm so glad that you posted that! I would have missed out, otherwise. Well, worth going to see it in the flesh.

Variations of this style of uncalibrated height gauge can sometimes be found in 'junk' shops, boot sales, etc. You could replace the scriber with a plastic knitting needle from the sewing box, for situations where you want to avoid scratches.

It's all part of a "process" - the Wright aircraft couldn't take off under its own power, it needed the falling weight catapult. Where the 'start' is is often not definitive.