Broithe

I did buy an Irish 00 scale Irish phone box and a couple of green pillar boxes ( actually from a now-defunct shop in Shropshire ), but I can't find a supplier online at the moment.

OMG, the phone box.....!

@murrayec on here does produce the odd Dart model - and very good ones - but I wonder if the timescale could be an issue for this year? He'll be along shortly, I'm sure.

400kV air blast - a total monster - I wouldn't stand that close to it myself... That's the breaker in the centre, with the three vertical cylinders on each half of each phase. There was a rule that there would be nobody in the substation if there was lightning within a hundred miles - luckily, there were only two sites with them - Norwich and Indian Queens in Cornwall. The central vertical chambers on the top were known as the 'silencer', but we still couldn't test them in the factory, within an enclosure with two-foot thick sleeper walls with a core of sand (for explosion dissipation) after 6pm - they could be heard some miles away... We blew one up in Manchester on test and sprayed the Kelloggs factory next door - damaged quite a few cars... We never had one come to bits in service, but the risk was always there.

At the same time, we made a particularly violent circuit breaker, which had its contacts supported by two half-drum castings, which were supposed to be made from LM6. We had a foundry on site, but it was under pressure and so we had some castings made in Belgium. These castings started failing regularly and we had to do something about it, so we had cores taken from failed castings and from known original castings that had not failed (yet) to see if there was any difference - there was - unfortunately, all the failed castings were the 'correct' LM6, and some of the intact ones were, but most of the intact ones were of some completely different alloy altogether - after some research, it was decided that the most likely candidate was an obscure alloy known as DTD 5008 B (I think), mostly used for the cylinder casings of radial aircraft engines, or some such exotic thing. Neither supplier would admit that they had used it and further supplies were actually quite difficult to obtain, but we eventually managed to replace all the castings with the new 'wrong' ones and, as far as I know, no further failures (from that cause) occurred.

I remember a chap at 'work' making a full set of garden furniture from some scrap light alloy angle, of unknown origin, that he rescued from the skip. He put a lot of work into it and it really did look the part - this was in the late 70's when stylish imported stuff had yet to arrive and the old-fashioned deck chair was still a common item. After a few months outside in the damp summer weather, the whole lot just fell to pieces...

Modeller's broaches, of this type, have a very fine taper, covering a full range of (small) hole sizes. They enable a very precise diameter to be achieved and the pentagonal cutting edges leave a very nice surface finish. As @murrayec says, it's best to work from both sides where possible, for the best result.

As a mere punter, I find that poor layout lighting has a more detrimental effect than might be imagined. I recently saw a layout that had lights at the back, on stalks and facing forwards, half in the eyes of the audience. The 'pelmet' arrangement described above is often a successful approach, I find - avoiding glare from both perspectives. Variable colour LEDs are available now , which might be useful in various conditions. Some halls, particularly the larger ones, it seems, can have very poor general lighting, relying on whatever is being exhibited to light itself, and just providing enough general illumination for people to get about safely.

I have seen people timing modern trains using the mileposts, but counting the first post as 1, then posts 2 & 3 would go past, eventually post 4 would appear and they take that to be a mile, when it is only three-quarters of a mile, really. I have succeeded in explaining it a couple of times, but failed on others...

Activity up north.

An interesting scene.

Possibly. It might be necessary to pay special attention to coupling arrangements.

I'm currently formulating a scenario for a railway-themed dating show. I'm confident it would be a winner. Something like Bind Date meets the Great Model Railway Challenge.

Not the best chat-up line....

I'm not a great lover of the 'frozen in time' walking poses in layout figures, much preferring the seated or standing types, but one of the layouts at the Haywood Permanent Way exhibition yesterday had several of these https://viessmann-modell.com/en/product-range/gauge-h0/emotion-animated-world/?p=5 They're not cheap, by any means, but they did 'liven up' the scene. There were chaps wielding chainsaws, scythes and even having a punch-up. Blacksmiths, welders and a bloke with a pick-axe - and even one shovelling sand into a mixer. The flock of chickens rooting around was very realistic. An example - It should be noted that, being a bit 'continental', not all of the available animated figures may be fully suitable for a family orientated layout...

Well, the biennial show nearly passed me by this year, but I was reminded just in time and got there through the floods, after two failed approaches... This was definitely the highlight for me. All that was missing was the smell... Everything else was good enough, though.

I do hope that you are able to retain the squeak.

Indeed, I was just mulling over the arrangement above, where the Land Rover may be hauling the carriage, but presumably without controlling the carriage's brakes.

This drawing suggests the track would be 4' 3½", so the outer sides of the tyres would be on the centre of the rail-tops at 2½" off-centre from each wheel. And the wheels in the picture do look a bit 'fatter' than standard. So, using the road-wheels for traction looks plausible?

Not Irish, but this picture just turned up in my interminable Pinterest suggestions. No details with it anywhere that I can find it used. The flanged wheels would appear not to be driven, I presume they still relied on the road wheels for propulsion - and braking...

I'm sure I recall it from a Playtex advert in the 60s.

At least you didn't have to cut it up on site - https://www.mainlinediesels.net/index.php?nav=1000619&lang=en&id=5428&action=shownews#.Xa7l9OhKjmE

Railfreight will always be an awkward proposition in a country with few inland population centres, and very small ones at that. It's not like the UK with Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, etc, all virtually dependent on overland transport. If you're going to need to truck stuff for the last twenty miles anyway, then you might as well truck it for the whole hundred and not be loading/unloading it twice...

Staff discount..?

You might use this - https://www.kingkit.co.uk/ - to get a guide price.