DJ Dangerous

1 hour ago, Garfield said:

The list above is a bit random as it leaves out some of our IR livery locos but includes some running numbers which will wear older liveries.

The IR liveries are: 

017 - stopped 29.09.93
036 - stopped 19.12.94
048 - stopped 24.05.94
054 - stopped 28.07.93

Supertrain/IR hybrid:

007 - stopped 14.10.90
056 - stopped 29.10.92

So all four IR models chosen by IRM ran very late indeed!

Excellent choices!

11 minutes ago, Warbonnet said:

God, that's months away! Nothing planned to be honest! 

Is that because everything sells too quickly nowadays?

42 minutes ago, murphaph said:

Can anyone advise which of the C Rail containers would carry the correct livery for a mid 90s layout? I'm guessing not all of the available containers would have actually been seen on Irish rails.

 

If you send a PM to Arran, he'll reply with a list of what's appropriate for any era.

Do IRM have any Black Friday surprises lined up for us this year?

What's the flight number for today's lunchtime special???

7 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

What would be best would be maybe three or four models over a period, which along with the existing Cravens would allow MOST variants; with an accurate train being possible with one each of them, plus one Craven - in other words, the haphazard mix that was not just normal, but almost without exception.

Two varieties of laminate in silver, 1955 green*, and black'n'tan. That's 6 variants of two models.

One variety of PR in 1955 green*, black'n'tan, and black'n'tan with the mid-waist white line as added to no more than the last half-dozen or so of them in traffic about 1989 / 90, until the very last two were withdrawn in 1994. (One is No. 1944, now at Downpatrick). Comment was made about silver: the overwhelming majority entered service in the 1955 green* - in fact, it seems they were the first coaching stock to get this livery - and silver bogies. However, while I have yet to see any firm evidence of it, there is a possibility that at least the first few were silver - if so, they didn't stay that way long.

If we discount the silver, we've three variants, one model.

It is important to remember that when the "A" class were green, all coaches were too, apart from the odd old silver one. When the B121s were introduced in 1961, ALL carriages were green.

The black'n'tan carriage livery appeared on a small few vehicles in 1962, but they were few and far between. It seems that over the winter of 1962/3, a concerted effort was made to start painting things black'n'tan, but by 1965, most photos show that barely two thirds of the coaching stock had the new livery - trains of 50 / 50 green / BnT, or even majority green, could still be seen. Thus, when an "A" or a "C" is carrying the all-black livery, with or without a yellow patch, or the FIRST black and tan variant, green carriages are obligatory. 

The last carriages in green appear to have been repainted about 1967/8, at much the same time as the last grey 121 was repainted too, and just before the re-engined "A" class "transplants" appeared.

Thus, once we are running A34R instead of A34, everything is black'n'tan, but before that, and with grey 121s, something green is needed for accuracy.

4 hours ago, Buz said:

Locomotives are pretty useless without a train to go with them just ask me I will tell you.

I have two Irish locomotives without complete trains and little to none chance of getting them .

A problem I see as getting a lot worse before it gets any better if it ever does.

So, if a manufacturer were to release two Laminate models, each of those in three different liveries, would it satisfy both the modellers desires for coaching stock from the 1950's through to the 1990's, and more importantly, would the manufacturer be able to run a large enough batch of each to keep the product affordable?

2 hours ago, Noel said:

The NEM pockets are neither at the correct internationally agreed height nor horizontal distance as per NEM specifications, but you are correct it only affects people who replace the couplings with Kadee couplings or perhaps hunt couplings. Kadee’s are populare with modellers for four five reasons: a) look visually less obtrusive than TLCs (tension lock couplings), b) they are much more reliable for automatic coupling and in particular automatic uncoupling (ie for shunting and marshalling stock),  c) they are more reliable for pushing stock (ie reversing around bends, reversing over complicated point work), d) allow much closer couplings instead of the non-scale 4ft seen on many model trains using TLCs, especially with coaching stock that suffer slack and large gaps between coaches., and e) you can vertically pick up and remove any rolling stock item from a train formation with ease (ie instead of the tangled mess of TLCs).
 

There’s a thread here about kadee conversions: 

 

I didn't realise that Kadee's were so NASA like as to have international standards etc. I was thinking more of their compatibility with current Cravens and locos, rather than with stock that they'd never be coupled to. As MP mentioned, would two wrongs make a right? Don't worry, I have OCD so I understand the obsession with uniformity, but I'm thinking of this from a practical or manufacturing point of view. A new coach is probably more likely to be coupled to a Cravens than to a class 37.

Slightly off topic, on my own thread, so I guess I should punish myself for this, but why do the Cravens models have a much nicer paint finish than the ST Mk2D's?

Is it that the Cravens were painted whereas the Mk2D's were moulded but not painted?

If so, would the aforementioned two laminate models be better painted three different liveries or moulded from three different colour plastics?

Were the interiors similar in colour for the three different exterior liveries?

1 minute ago, murphaph said:

Yep but two wrongs don't make a right lol!

For TLCs the difference is probably irrelevant though. It kicks in when you start using the likes of Kadees where the knuckles can slip by each other if not at the same height.

That's fighting talk! Two wrongs always make a right!

8 minutes ago, DiveController said:

Well if you look at the alternative to rtr for the 1955-1963/5 period, there are some nice brass etched overlays by JM designs and simple resin kits/rtr from other manufacturers like IFM.

There is a lot of work to do that you could channel elsewhere in modeling and the price point for small resin coaches by IFM is still relatively high for a complete model to a moderate standard. 

It sometimes takes me weeks to find time to even unbox an RTR item, so kits wouldn't interest me at all. Maybe in thirty years time when I've already given up on life.

3 minutes ago, murphaph said:

The Park Royals would make a fair bit of sense. They had long careers, like the Cravens and even serve in preservation so you can have a modern RPSI train pulling a couple of them in the rake. I would certainly take 2 rakes of PRs if they were ever released in RTR.

I would second Noel's comment about the NEM pocket height. If you look at the Kadee FAQ it says to the question "Why don't you make offset NEM couplers?"-"NEM pockets should already be at the correct height. Offset couplers look wrong so we don't make them". Hard to argue with them though the reality, especially in the UK (rarely with continental stock) is that NEM pocket heights can be hit and miss so I wish Kadee would sully themselves and just make the damn offset couplers lol.

Wouldn't that mean that the couplers on the new batch of Cravens would be at the wrong height relative to the current Cravens? As in, mixing the new batch with the old batch in the same rake would be difficult?

So the first ten years of the A have no compatible RTR coaching stock, even with a run of Cravens.

Quite a dilemma for a manufacturer, on which to produce.

1 minute ago, Noel said:

If there was ever a future re-run of the cravens it would be nice to have the NEM pockets on the bogies corrected. It's a disaster zone requiring bodging surgery which is not really acceptable on a €45 model, instead of just plugging in alternate couplings such as hunt or kadee's at the correct height and distance. Not having NEM pockets at the correct position can be very annoying for customers. 

What's wrong with the height of them? My Cravens and locos couple together grand, with the OEM TLC's.

I'd rather see some blue and cream ones and some blue ones added to the mix.

Just now, DiveController said:

Well strangely some cravens on the Bay are going for way more than that at the moment, dodgy NEM pockets or not 

€160 a pop plus postage!

13 minutes ago, spudfan said:

017 date stopped 29 09 93  

027                          09 06 92

A46                         21 04 79

A23                         30 10 91

A30                         09 02 93

048                          24 05 94     

007                          14 10 90

A42                          09 10 92

056                          29 10 92

                                

 

So 048 is a winner!

So would Cravens be an easier coaching model for a manufacturer to produce, to fill the coaching stock void that exists for the A's and 121's, since there were so few varieties and they covered a long period?

8 minutes ago, gm171 kk said:

IRM has 017, 036, 048 and 054 planned for IR liveries. Does anyone know if any of these made it to 94/95 in real life? 

Brilliant question...

If anybody could give a withdrawl date or stopped date for the upcoming models of the A's (and 121's), that would be wonderful!

1 hour ago, Wexford70 said:

You need to be logged in I believe 

I'm logged in, and can click like for most posts, just not for BosKonay's.

Ha!

But they did about ten years ago, because I saw people like his posts way back then... That's a long time on the naughty seat.

A class twin-stripe / Tippex livery question.

On looking through various photos online, it would appear that all three variations, the Super Train twin-stripe, the IR twin-stripe and the IR twin-stripe with day-glo panels, were running in the early nineties.

Is this accurate?

Did each of these liveries run on a batch basis or a by-loco basis?

Were there a lot more variants of the 1950's-built stock than there were variants of the Cravens?

So the 1950's stock ran for about thirty years?

And the Cravens thirty to forty years?

13 hours ago, BosKonay said:

A complete update and delivery slot confirmation is coming for the A class project. As is complete details of the sound project. once the A’s are in stock the website will show the stock levels like all other products. 

Thank you for the info!

Why can't I click the like button on your posts?

Is there any chance, without being too pushy, of an announcement like we've received for the buses, the spoils etc, advising when each of the A's reaches a certain stock threshold?

3 minutes ago, murphaph said:

It is hard to get 00 scale typically (cheap) Irish cars from the 80s and 90s. Cars in Ireland back then were invariably crappier than in the UK.

A lot more Opel Kadetts and Fiat Ritmos than Rover 2000s or Ford Granadas. The typical van was a Hi-Ace or Lite-Ace, rather than a Transit, know what I mean? In fact a lot more jap cars full stop than the UK. This is reflected in the lack of these things in the Oxford range. Perhaps some day IRM can fill the void. 

I know you can get some of the stuff in h0 with the steering wheel on the wrong side but it's not the same.

"Real-X" do 1/72 Jap vehicles.

Not exactly correct for 1/76 trains but close enough to not stick out.

With the Irish model railway market so small, it seems to be a feast or famine, either too much coaching stock sitting on shelves and no locos available to haul it, or lots of locos available and no passenger stock for them to haul.

I recently cleared out most of Chris Dyer's Cravens, with the arrival of the A's and 121's impending.

So, a question:

What coaching stock would have been compatible with the largest number of both forthcoming models, ie what would have run the longest?

I'm assuming that it was the Cravens? They ran from something like 1965 until 2006? So would go pretty well with a lot of the version of both locos.

If so, is it likely that we will see somebody release more Cravens models over the next six or twelve months, to give these lovely locos something to haul?

Just now, mphoey said:

available at most big shows as well covid has sort of made it hard to locate

Aw. We don't really do model shows down here, specially anything to do with trains... As we don't have any trains, no railway heritage, nothing... Except for that wierd  one over in Gran Canaria in the seventies.

22 hours ago, mphoey said:

remember that the other 3 olympians can also be got for those who may not be on the irish model buses pages the wedding airlink and ghost buses are also on sale just contact adrian lemon who is on this group

One has to be on FB to track these ones down?

5 minutes ago, WRENNEIRE said:

Do you know something we dont Murph?

If that's not true, or even highly probable, life has just lost all meaning.

Just now, Warbonnet said:

Ah, at the time of writing it isnt, but we might have a cancellation or two. Will know more when we get the stock in next week, so keep an eye out for developments! 

Cheers!

Fran

That should keep some folk happy!

6 minutes ago, Warbonnet said:

Hi everyone,

We got word today that the first 3 121s; B121, B135 and the RPSI special edition B134 are landing in Dublin next week. They will then be taken into stock and pre-orders will be dispatched from Monday week.

We still have some stock of these three locos allocated to us, so get them before they go! https://irishrailwaymodels.com/collections/murphy-models-class-121-locomotive

Cheers!

Fran

B121 is still available?

1 hour ago, Warbonnet said:

...we would advise hopping on them...

Ha!!!

Was the Olympian also painted in City Swift livery, and a City Imp style livery?