DJ Dangerous

Couldn't resist running some of @Arran's containers, that arrived in the post today. Still haven't gotten around to lubing up, hence the squeak. Maybe this weekend.

Looks very much like @Irish Rail's Fingal County layout.

Outstanding, @Broithe!!! Any more photos of it? So your grade was 1 in 24? That gives me hope for some of my dreams were dashed by the 1 in 50 rule.

Any old excuse to hint at Tin Vans!

B134 is now a 2021 loco, JHB, just looks like an old-timey one.

It would probably be more financially viable to piggyback off another production run. Existing tooling or not, running a few hundred of each of three coaches would probably mean the set would retail at about €400! I'm sure the RPSI are considering all options, and if we're lucky enough to get some IR livery Mk2D's, maybe piggybacking off that for a run of 303 and 304 would make more sense. Time will tell, I'm sure!

Chatting with @murphaph about this very thing recently. Maximum grade is supposed to be around 1 in 50, ie a 10cm increase over 5m. Two things that Murph pointed out were that the MM locos don't have traction tyres, so it won't take much of a gradient to slow or stop them, and that pushing trains up is even worse if they have standard tension-lock couplers, which ride up on top of one another. Maybe post a rough plan of what you want with a few measurements, and somebody will have an idea. Dave, the builder of the new Fry Model Railway is on here, but I forget his username. I'm sure somebody will remember.

Warming up two freshly unboxed 121's. One needs a new vacuum hose and a little surgery on the hand-rail!

Wow, awesome photos, thank you! Soooooo... When are IRM launching the 47' flats???

With thanks to @Arran for the containers!!!

Thanks, Noel! So when my grey 078 arrives in a week or two, she can haul 42' flats with a mix 9'6" high cubes and 8'6" boxes, and that will be a relatively accurate representation of today? Or the 9'6" highcubes only go on 47' flats and not 42' flats?

Why are they out of service, and since when? Are the 9'6" highcubes now going on the standard 47' flats, or by road? Are all of the 42' flats retired or repurposed, or are any still on container trains?

Are the pocket wagons retired? I never see them on YouTube videos any more.

It has been a crazy few months, but I hope to get them run again over the next week or two. A proper session with a bit more variety and a few more 121's unboxed.

First chance to run any trains in about four months, now!

They were the black and white years, not the golden years.

Sounds like we have a deal!

Deadly. When you get your vaccine passport, you can fly a few thousand km down here to weather a few hundred wagons, coaches and locos... No cash payment, only sunshine.

The lids look excellent!

How about a 29000 in black with red lining?

Laminates were retired in the mid eighties, I think? So they're ten years short of the golden years of Irish Railways in the mid nineties! I'm sure that there was a wonderful thread in 2015 or 2016 on the pros and cons of the IFM laminates, which made the most interesting reading for a lurker, and encouraged me to avoid signing up to the forum for several years. Either way, RTR Laminates are already out there, so it's time for Mk4's, then Mk3's and then Park Royals!

Aw. That sounds a little illogical to me. Why drive two vehicles somewhere (a loco and a road tanker) when you could do it with just one vehicle, the loco, by hitching an oil wagon onto the back of a train?

What carries the oil between the three nowadays?

Yeah, we're starved for RTR passenger stock at the moment. Park Royals cover the whole life of the A Class, from the fifties until the nineties, so would be great for many folk. I'm pleasantly surprised at the demand for the trains of today! The most modern era is the one that fascinates me the most, but I don't see many here on the forum talk about it.

Cue @jhb171achill to confirm or debunk that!