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Ironroad

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Everything posted by Ironroad

  1. Wow, and there are only 1,597 members. Suggests a lot of head scratching as to who this guy is.
  2. Better call ghost busters, I can see images in both of those windows !!!!
  3. Why the negative preconception? You might be pleasantly surprised. You can even indulge in kit bashing.
  4. Could be worse, time was, it was cigarettes that occupied hands. A kindred spirit, nice to know I'm not alone
  5. They have plenty of practice, this is becoming routine, and needs to be addressed.
  6. That's a little unfair. Accountants are not engineers and if involved in the costing process can only take the information provided to them by engineers at face value. Sometimes in the course of competitive tendering it is engineers on the sales side that take an overly optimistic view on quantities etc. The situation described by John would indicate to me that, yes, as should be the case the accountants were raising the alarm when actual costs were exceeding the estimates. I've seen this happen. Hopefully there were no other issues and the contingency factor, (that should be a part of every building/engineering proposal) provided sufficient cover, albeit of poor consolation.
  7. By pure chance when paging through some old magazines today, I noticed this model got a mention as a pending release in Railway Modeller, Feb 1980. Not a lot of information other than the set included two all metal wagons, and a 5m oval track (diecast) at a price of £55. The track gauge was 32mm, the approximate scale of the freelance stock is 16mm to 1ft.
  8. Hi Jonathan, while the railways were primarily built with private capital, there can be little doubt that given the political environment, the government had a strategic interest ( beyond an economic one) in a network that connected all the major centres. So when the provision of private funding faltered they stepped in with aid (and even coercion) to ensure that network was completed. This was totally at odds with the economic philosophy (laissez faire) of the time which contributed to the famine being a much greater disaster than it might have been. Peel opposed the concepts proposed by the Irish Railway Commission which included government involvement in the chosen routes and in funding but then remarkably within a few years did a u-turn, and provided aid to the D&D and was pro-active in the choice of route to the south. Was he perhaps alarmed by O'Connell's monster meetings and the rise of the Young Ireland movement? (he had good reason to be). Is the siting of the terminus of the GSWR at Kingsbridge (Heuston) beside the former Royal Barracks (Collins) and adjacent to Richmond Barracks (distant from the city centre) a co-incidence? And is the route chosen by Peel whereby the railway line served the Barracks in Templemore another co- incidence? I'll leave this subject with the opening section of the report by John Mcneill to the Provisional Committee Of the GSWR on the proposed line from Dublin to Cashel, which I think speaks volumes. Gentlemen, in compliance with your directions I have now the honour to lay before you the result of my Survey of a Line of Railway from Dublin to Cashel, founded on the principle suggested by your deputation, after their interview with Sir Robert Peel in relation to this subject. One can only speculate what was discussed in that smoke filled room, but there can be no denying UNDUE INFLUENCE
  9. I agree that the direction this thread has taken probably warrants a new thread, the moderators may want to consider this at least from the point JHB raised the subject of Howlers. Anyway in response to Jonathan's points about railways in the 19th century being entirely capitalistic and funded by private investors I think a little review of this is in order. Undertakings, as enormous and as radical as the building of railways could not and cannot be taken out of context with political considerations and economic factors at play. It is true the railways were born in the era of Laissez Faire economics but it wasn't long before the merits of this philosophy as regards railways came into question. Concern with monopolistic practices gave rise to regulations introduced in the 1844 Railway Act. The Irish Railways Commission (IRC) 1836-39 came up with some very radical recommendations for that time which were not adopted, but may have had some effect on later thinking. In any event financial markets can be fickle and no less so in the 1830's & 1840's and this caused great uncertainty and long postponement and abandonment of many schemes. So much so that between 1831 & 1852 the government provided approx £12.5 million (nearly 2 billion in today's money) in support of railway projects in Ireland. There were three agencies involved in this financial aid, The Treasury, The Board of Works and The Public Works Loan Commissioners. Examples: Thirty percent of the capital required by the Dublin to Kingstown Railway was provided by means of a government loan. In 1842, despite his opposition to the proposals of the IRC proposals, the PM Robert Peel provided aid of £150,000 to the Dublin & Drogheda Railway. To quote the Chairman of the D&D, Hamilton when addressing the board:- "by the prompt proceedings and language of Sir Robert Peel on this occasion, the long disputed question of railways in Ireland is at length settled and on the best principle-government assistance may henceforth be expected in aid of private enterprise for the prosecution of honest and bona fide undertakings-a new era is thus opened" In 1843 in pursuance of his so called "Justice for Ireland " policy, Peel refused financial aid for the proposed Dublin - Kilkenny line in preference to and in line with the IRC proposals, a more westerly route to Cashel in the hope of providing employment in "troubled" Co Tipperary. In 1844 government funds accounted for 25% of the capital invested in Irish railways. In 1849 a government loan was also effectively forced on the MGWR. Originally the MGWR rejected the offer of a loan ( @5%) to help finance an extension from Athlone to Galway but recanted when the government threatened to instead lend the money to the GSWR to build from Portarlington to Galway. So I'm under no illusion that there was significant political interference and influence exercised in the construction of railways in Ireland. The location of stations at distance from the centre of many towns may have been due to economic constraints but it also conveniently fits with a government concern of the time
  10. Hi Jonathan, may I make an observation on this. The building of railways required government approval and unlike the rest of the UK of which Ireland was a part, it is quite noticeable that many railway stations are located outside (at distance from the centre) of the towns they serve. One theory is that the British government was responsible for this as they viewed the railways as a quick means of deploying military resources in the event of unrest and deploying troops to the centre of a town controlled by insurgents would not be sensible.
  11. Talking of speech synthesisers, reminds me of the one that was used on the underground trains at Atlanta Airport, announcing the terminals. And since it sounded like HAL that's what locals called it. We miss HAL the trip is not the same anymore.
  12. Maybe this will help https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/iran-on-track-with-help-of-irish-rail/26542633.html
  13. Wasn't it a Dutch Van Absolutely, while perhaps not to the same standard those Mk2As are essential to completing a prototypical rake.
  14. HI John, I cannot disagree with anything you have to say as regards incentives to developers and indeed their inclination to increase prices in line with incentives to the buyers. I've been a victim of that. I have often wondered why such schemes are perpetuated and do believe they are the manifestation of corruption no one wants to admit exists. That said I will defend mortgage interest relief as justifiable and that is one thing the developers don't get their mitts on, but it is sad that this is not what it once was in Ireland. Believe it or not the US tax code provides for full mortgage interest relief and for tax relief on contributions to pension plans. But they catch you with with income tax on the resulting pension, There is a scheme whereby no tax relief is taken on the pension contributions and accordingly the draw downs at pension age are not subject to income tax. You may have been in the fortunate position that the absence of these reliefs was a quid pro quo but that is not the situation for everyone wherever they are. In truth such incentives make a lot of sense. Interesting that the powers that be in NZ would think it unbecoming to offer tax incentives for foreign investment in financial services, when in reality the world stage is not a level playing field. I do not think that incentives have damaged Ireland's reputation, one iota. Quite the opposite in fact as I know Americans think it is a good place to do business and regard the Irish as pragmatic. It is only the great and mighty, that have hardly been dented by this, that complain, while at the same time in many cases hiding behind suspect practices in their own tax codes.( France??) In my time in the US I have met people from Enterprise Scotland and the IDA and know that the former would give their right arm to be able to compete with their IDA counterparts. Now maybe if Scotland was independent that would be a different matter. As for local authorities, I've said it before, they were rendered impotent in the 1980's with the abolition of rates and Dail Eireann is now more akin to a big county council than a national-government. We seem to have strayed a long way from West Clare. And anyone who isn't a Man U supporter
  15. For what it's worth I ordered a 121 loco from them for shipment to the US and they deducted the VAT automatically. Overall my impression is that they are very professional and on a par with Hattons. I wouldn't be worried.
  16. Just a thought. Hattons have an incredible database of everything they stocked over the past 50/60 years or so that is quite useful to anyone researching models. Will that just go the way of the Dodo?
  17. John, I'm a bit surprised by these statements. You seem to be implying that people in Ireland only respond to handouts. Back in the day why would any foreign company consider investing in Ireland (a small island economy) when right next door they had an available ready made big market and economies of scale. The policy of providing incentives was justified and has been successful. As for mortgage interest tax relief, I don't think this is as generous as it once was, but this was a form of wealth redistribution and it helped people who otherwise had no chance of home ownership, and home ownership is one of the best forms of wealth building. As has been mentioned, many people do get involved voluntarily in many areas. The tidy towns initiative changed the face of the country, and we punch above our weight in sports due to the dedication of many volunteers. Maybe the interest just doesn't exist for railways, but it seems to me that the Royal Canal might well have long since been filled in had it not been to the work of dedicated volunteers who mucked in to restore it.
  18. Remember when we had soft metal toothpaste tubes? We used to open and flatten the tubes and cut them into thin strips into which we made small indentations to represent bolt heads and used them to represent metal strapping on the bodies of wagons the sides of which were constructed from strips of card. I was reminded of this recently when it occurred to me that the soft metal seals on wine bottles could be similarly used. We also used sellotape cut into very narrow strips to represent window muntin bars
  19. I would certainly expect that but in due course. I would have thought Irish Mk11D's may be a bit down the line, considering the MM releases have probably put a dent in short to mid term demand (regardless as to them being an upgrade).
  20. But IRM are not producing MK11D's ???
  21. No he didn't and maybe taking a hit, https://www.ebay.com/itm/126296664917?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11021.m43.l3160&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=b2696a00ff4541f49139a5316511df16&bu=43100402880&ut=RU&osub=-1~1&crd=20240124013200&segname=11021
  22. The clue to the running numbers is in the catalogue number, Paddy uses running numbers prefixed with MM as his catalogue numbers.
  23. From the |Murphy Models website, (obviously the shipping date has changed in the meantime) Class 141 Locomotives The Class 141/181 loco manufacturing process is complete, the locos are assembled, painted, packed, are due to ship before Chinese New Year (early Feb). DCC and DCC sound chips will be available at the same time. The main PCBs and light PCBs have been reengineered to accommodate the new factory installed speaker and facilitate the shunting light configuration of one white and one red light simultaneously. Arrival date is likely the beginning of Aprils.
  24. That's helpful, because if the ship is the COSCO NEBULA, there have been sightings. It left Xiamen on Dec 8. was seen in Yantian Dec 9-10, Singapore Dec 14, Felixstowe Jan 14-16, Zeebrugge Jan 17-18 and is currently en-route to Gdansk arriving tomorrow. So not so slow. But I would presume the container we are interested in has already been transferred to another ship or truck in either Felixstowe or Zeebrugge. So I'm guessing we don't have too much longer to wait. Forgive me for asking.
  25. Any sightings of that slow boat from China??
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