And now for something completely different . . .

[Noel]

. . . or not.

 

Back in the days when painting British models orange and black was supposed to make them look Irish . . . life before MM

 

Hornby CIE loco - really a BR Hymek that looked like nothing on Irish rails and Mk2b Hornby coaches

Lima BR Mk1s in B&T Livery behind pretending to be some sort of CIE coach.

 

Lima CIE loco - a BR class 33 pretending to be an A class - at least a small improvement over the hideous hymek

 

35 years ago I thought these were the ok, but boy have we come along way thanks to Murphy Models who raised the bar to heights we could have only dreamt of way back then. Augmented by a range of small scale RTR and kit vendors, Irish railway modelling has never had it so good. Happy Days.

 

From those toys to this in 35 years - And I dared to moan about the colour of the blue seats - shame on me!

[irishthump]

God I can remember drooling over those Lima sets when I saw them in a local shop.......

[richrua]

My return to railway modelling might have been brief if it had not been for the murphys. Dunno how many times I said that... But my re sprays look just like those Hornby my 2s .... Doh !!!!

[Noel]

My return to railway modelling might have been brief if it had not been for the murphys. Dunno how many times I said that... But my re sprays look just like those Hornby my 2s .... Doh !!!!

 

But for an unplanned visit to the Fry model railway in 2008 with my son after 15 years of absence from the hobby, I might never have seen the MM 182 in the shop which I bought on the spot, and like you it triggered my return to the hobby. I could not believe the quality of the finish and was staggered by the super smooth running quality. I'd never seen such a precision chassis run so well.

 

PS: I brush repainted the Hornby Hymek when I was about 16 because I couldn't stand the orange plastic colour and painted the under frame of it and the coaches rust brown as well as over painting the fisher price window frames black instead of the awful chrome colour they were painted out of the box. A bit of a botch job looking back on it, but these old hornby toys should now make suitable donors for me to learn respraying and weathering techniques.

[josefstadt]

... and Mk2b Hornby coaches ...

 

A couple of white stripes and the intercity branding and they would make fair representations of the ex-British Rail air-braked stock aquired in the early 1990s. Of course, you would need a 46xx type GSV to go with them.

[Noel]

A couple of white stripes and the intercity branding and they would make fair representations of the ex-British Rail air-braked stock aquired in the early 1990s. Of course, you would need a 46xx type GSV to go with them.

 

Yes I though of that, but I may probably use them for weathering practice before I attempt weathering my MM Mk2d coaches, and then repaint the Hornby coaches RPSI green. Personally I don't like the bright orange roof livery so happy to use them as donors.