Broithe

Some years ago, I was catching a train at midnight and there was a chap there who had clearly been at it since way back in the days of steam. He had notebooks, cameras, etc, and a clear idea of what was about to pass through the six-platform station, positioning himself exactly in the best place for each one. On one occasion, he went right down to one end of the platform I was waiting on and a ballast train trundled through at about 5mph a few minutes later. He walked slowly along side it, talking into what I presumed to be a mobile phone, but as he passed me it became clear that it was a dictaphone and he was dictating the wagon numbers into it, in order to write them down properly later on....

Women will often profess to be unaware of the attractions of model railways, until it's explained to them that it's essentially the same thing as doll's houses....

Looking at it again, I wonder if that's actually a Chinese high-speed train?

Electrofrog look and function better, but are a little more work to install, initially.

Henry Grosman is in Long Island, New York, but the picture with the buildings in looks like an ICE in Germany, perhaps.

You're not safe anywhere.... I must go down to the sea again, To the lonely sea and the sky, I left my vest and pants there. I wonder if they're dry?

Well, since you ask.... http://www.henrygrosman.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=75:dazzle-trains&catid=39:graphics&Itemid=56

A most welcome return.

The Germans, in WW1, also covered at least three aircraft with transparent Cellon cellulose sheeting, instead of the standard doped linen. The idea being to make them less visible - but the shiny surface didn't help, nor did the tendency to degrade in sunlight and to go brittle in the cold at altitude, so this early attempt at stealth aircraft was abandoned. Here's a Cellon-covered Fokker E1.

Other things were tried too, Hans Kirschstein even painted his Fokkers with stripes that were slightly off-line, the idea was to induce an opponent to aim slightly to one side when attempting a deflection shot.

Some of them fade a little in direct sunlight, but that's often not a bad thing. Otherwise, barring accidents, they seem to last for ever.

The idea was that it was difficult to be sure if you had got the images overlapping exactly in the rangefinder, so shells could be fired at the wrong range, falling short or long. In WW2, ships often had false bows and sterns painted on for the same reason, one quick way of gauging the distance was to see how 'wide' the ship looked in the rangefinder, by making the ship look shorter, a quick guess made it appear further away than it really was, and the shells would pass harmlessly over to a point further away. They even painted bow waves on. The false bow wave also made aiming a torpedo more difficult as the ship looked like it was sailing faster.

If you go for a slope of around 1/40 max, then sweep it with about a foot of hardboard, you should have no problem.

The first three do turn up here and there (and eBay, etc) now and then. The last two should still be in stock in the Irish dealers, at least. Search for Scenecraft Irish and stuff might appear.

Judge for yourself..

Bachmann have produced five buildings, I think. Station. Engine shed. Signal cabin. and two 'specials'.. Carlow Station. The Auld House pub.

Power requirement is mostly the number of locos that you'll be running - track length won't bother it too much.

I wonder would Ballybrophy survive the loss of the branch? It's fairly busy these days, compared to ten years ago - often have to park on the road, anyway....

Pop along this afternoon, you'll be made most welcome, I'm sure. I have warned her that people on here are now aware of today's event and that she might like to keep an eye out for any new attendees, possibly wearing anoraks and carrying notebooks...

If anybody is about in Limerick this afternoon.

Just out of town, but still a great video.

Right, I couldn't let this go, so I've pursued it and have received this explanation. I also received four more pictures.

And, with hardboard, it's fairly easy to curve the corners, which results in a much nicer impression of reality - no 'corners in the sky'..

A friend of mine is a bus nut and I got roped into getting this thing going again and getting it from Dover to Stafford (without a blue light). Might be of some interest - https://plus.google.com/photos/105618325540295927305/albums/5311855810537159425?banner=pwa - he doesn't have it now, though, I'm not sure where it went.