iarnrod

Cawoods coal trial lasted for about a month, with maybe 6 trains in total. These ran in July 1989. The coal was shipped to Warrenpoint from Ellesmere Port. From Warrenpoint, the coal was taken by road to Dundalk Barrack St. Taken by rail from Barrack St. to Arklow. Train size was anything from 14-27 wagons. Mostly hauled by A Class locos, but the 27 wagon train was hauled by 2 x 141's. Have only ever seen one photo of this working in an IRRS journal. Cawoods coal was carried in 20' containers, as modelled by Accurascale and hauled on 22' CIE wagons; not fert wagons. I think that there might have been more than one trial with briquettes over the years. There was one for a period in 1990 from the Bord na Mona Littleton Works in Co. Tipperary to North Wall. Gouldings had a siding in Waterford in the 1990's, as pretty sure the factory was located there by then. Possibly also another Gouldings siding/factory in the Sligo area back in the 1990's. Gouldings actually still exist today with factories at Askeaton, New Ross, Cork and Ardee.

I think the only thing externally was the stencilling, but possibly modifications were made to the underframe and the bogie springs uprated. If you look closely at the photo of the fert wagon loaded with the briquettes, you will notice that the briquettes seem to be loaded into some kind of a cage that fits inside the compartments of the fert wagon.

The fert pallets with the IFI decals added certainly looks the part.

RPSI steam train to Enniscorthy and Rosslare on 31st July. https://www.steamtrainsireland.com/whats-on/64/rockin-food-festival At least one steam train trip planned for August, but details not finalised yet.

Less than 24 hours up on the Irish IRM site and almost 50% sold. That must be an IRM record surely!

https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/6868-irm-fert-wagon/?do=findComment&comment=121156

@WarbonnetI realise that it's very early days for this run, but I have two queries re. the decoration plates shown for the different packs. 1. All the wagons have red handbrake wheels, but IIRC, pretty sure that no fertiliser wagons ever had red handbrake wheels; certainly not on the earlier wagons from the CIE era anyway. I assume that a similar format is being followed here to the previous run as in each pack shows the evolution of these wagons from CIE up to IR/IE era's livery wise. 2. Similar to the above, all the examination dates on each pack seem to show dates from the 1970's. Packs G and H would seem to reflect IR/IE era's with the 48 tonnes stencilling, so should surely carry later examination dates.

With only 400 fertiliser wagon packs in this run, got ne thinking how many of each wagon pack were actually produced in the first run? The IRM lads said at the start of the year that one P42 wagon would get a re-run in 2022, so I guess the fert wagons are it.

Normally 10 wagons with an A Class. 201 Class have been known to pull 12 wagons.

There are options to pay a deposit now and the balance when the wagons arrive or pay in monthly installments. Will most likely be another few years before IRM do another run of these wagons, so would be a shame to miss out on them. Also agree that it is amazing to see IRM listening to customer feedback, especially from modellers who missed out on these wagons first time around. Not only that, but they are now cheaper and with improved bogies. What more could anyone ask for!

Pack E and F would be suitable for the earlier CIE era as the 48 tonnes stencilling only applies to IR/IE era. Sorted and now ordered. Thanks.

Partial.ly option not showing up on these wagons. @Warbonnet

Small......far away!

Modelu have finally scanned Fran and the rest of the IRM lads .

There has been strong hints of further coaching stock from the IRM lads, so my money is on the Park Royals. With the NIR Mk.2's announced, I suspect further IR versions to be announced at some point, and also a natural progression there would be the 80 Class as one of the powered items. Also a mention from them at some point in the past of one of the Project 42 wagons having a re-run. Hard to know which one, but if the Ammonia wagons are on the cards, natural option would be fertiliser wagons for a re-run. I suspect keg containers and other accessory packs will be re-run as all except the fert packs have long sold out. The forklift pack would surely count as another of the 16 releases, so I reckon that IRM are only around 2 releases behind schedule as of now. Anyway, we can speculate all day, but still 6 months and around 10 announcements still to come in 2022. Bank balance breathes a sigh of relief for now.

There was/is supposed to be 16 new IRM announcements this year, if I remember correctly. One of the IRM lads mentioned that figure at the start of the year. Also, 2 out of that 16 are supposed to be powered models, which by IRM's own definition, is something with a motor in it. I'm guessing Covid and the continuing effect on factories in China, along with logistics issues, are probably delaying things along the way. I'd also imagine that IRM are holding off on one or more of the bigger releases until the model show in October, but still a fair few announcements to come.

Have a new unopened resin Dublin Bus AN68 on Route 14 that I am looking to swap. Preferences for swap : 1. IRM fertiliser wagons. 2. IRM IR livery A Class. Model is still in the plastic wrapper, so any swap will need to be mint, preferably unused and free from defects. Model cost €185 to purchase and there was only 50 made of each route out of a total of 200 models. 4 route options produced. PM if interested to discuss further.

Not a double header. Loco change during the tour, so will be hauled by 2 different 071's.

€5 each. Collection preferred from Dublin city centre or Wicklow by prior arrangement. I can post by Parcel Motel. I can also post with An Post, but from previous experience, posting books with An Post is very expensive. Postage will be at cost for either option. Payment by Paypal.

Bachmann only made the 141/181's for MM. Any MM product released after them were made by whatever factory or factories MM uses. I think it was IRM decided to stock MM products on their website, and not the other way around. I'm sure one of the IRM lads might give a better explanation, but in a small niche market like the model Irish railway scene, it makes perfect sense for the two main manufacturers to work together and help each other out. IRM and Accurascale are one of the same, and I would presume use the same factory or factories to produce their products. Again, one of the IRM lads might explain better, but I can't see them revealing what factory they use as I would presume that there are certain commercial sensitivities surrounding that information. I don't think IRM are assisting MM with their planned releases as MM has always been independent in this regard.

Chris Dyer still has a supply of new MM 201's, including the NIR ones, for far less than what some of the ones on ebay are making. Up to recently, he still has or had 208, 209, 220, 210, 203 in stock.

There are a couple of photo type books that cover the IR era, and it would be very worthwhile having these as a source of reference for that period. Irish Traction by Colm O'Callaghan. Iarnrod Eireann 25 years of Progress. From CIE to IR. Rails Through Tipperary. Irish Railway Rambler. There are also the IRRS journals, some of which have photo features on freight from that era. Flickr is another good source of reference, with literally thousands of photos from the IR era. There are also numerous clips on YouTube which show workings from back then. No shortage of reference material for the IR era, and part of the fun of planning a layout is researching trains from the period that you intend to model. Luckily, the IR era is very well served with reference material, both printed and online.

Michael Baker.

Don't forget the 16 new release announcements from IRM for 2022 might have an impact on how fast the remaining A Class sell. Speaking of which, surely the first announcement must be imminent from IRM.

962 was withdrawn in 1906 and broken up at Inchicore in 1908, so can't be that coach if the photo is from 1960. 562 possibly.