Bumble_Bee

1 hour ago, Westcorkrailway said:

So your suggesting a picture of the prototype in a place and then showing a picture of the model

 

What i will say is that it would work if you showed pictured of lines that dont exist so people interested in there local history would then want one!

Also i recomend making a group of people wanting to use it. Give them the login details and let various people work off the same account...but of course such a operation would have to be kept very private!

Yes, as an example, a post could be like:

'here is a historic picture of a CIE A-class loco trundling about its duties in the 1950s, this line doesnt exist anymore, but you can make your own' then have a historic pic of an A-class and then a pic of a model. 

20 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

THREE wheelers?

Must be used to the French custom of only naming half the wheels  

Or else they are coaches made for running on 3 rail dublo track. 

Or maybe the Lartigue monorail, those are technically three wheeled right?  

30 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

Its an idea, however the numbers it would gather would be minimal compared to facebook for example

 

IRM themseves have 271 followers on instagram compared to 2.2k on facebook

 

West Cork Railway Colourised Has 746 followers on instagram compared to 2.8k on facebook

 

And despite the fact that instagram is run by facebook. There are huge differences between the two. One of the most annoying things about instagram for myself is that you cannot individually caption photos, one caption fits all!

Interesting! 

Certainly food for thought. 

Instagram's audience seems to prefer 'real life' topics rather than hobbies to be fair. 

For example i used to run a cosplay page and it was very difficult to gain a following compared to other things like my music account. 

Photography and history does do quite well though, so perhaps an idea would be to try an instagram account based on real irish rail history photos then link it back to the modelling another way. 

Absolutely @Westcorkrailway! 

I have a lot of LMS stuff as well so have preordered the Hattons LMS genesis 4 pack, they will be an absolutely perfect size for this. I have their Andrew Barclay Katie loco and they will look absolutely perfect together as a little heritage railway. 

Then I can imagine the upcoming A class and these orange 'modern' coaches being my version of main line rail tours

I have a few more old mk1s and mk2s that I might leave in their BR livery or convert to a made up heritage livery if I can design one. (Similar to how RPSI had the blue and cream coaches inspired by GNRi and the current green ones inspired by UTA) 

Current fleet of 'work in progress' passenger stock. 

As my layout is very small, it looks daft with more than a handful of carriages in a train (if i make a 9 rake 'realistic' length train, the loco is almost coupled to the rear coach haha) 

So these handful of orange thingies will serve me well for the time being. 

When I get closer to finishing I will be getting decals to complete the look 

31 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

 

The attitude of myself coming into modeling is to start with anything RTR and work from there. My first irish model was the silver fox C class. From there i put silver fox railcars on order as there the 2 big RTR west cork models (unfortunately none of IRM or MM offerings ran on the west cork except for the BnT 141s which only ran in albert quay and aren't readily abailble pre owned and the  A class.....which ran all but twice!) Rolling stock is usually converted dapol wagons with flying snails slapped on the side and given a lick of paint! While silver fox offer flying snail cars 75 pounds a pop is a bit expensive. I only see myself buying one for railcar use. There is an RTR brakevan on the way if course which i look at licking my lips and those 3 wheel coaches.....they look like a decent conversion. Locos that need some converting like my other young west cork modeller include a j26 out of a j72 and a beautiful GSWR no. 34 out of a LNYR 2-4-2. 3D modeling has already given is number 90, i hope more models come abailble this way as its wayyy more accesable then conversions and kits

 

From the kits are abailble from SSM. Like the MGMR j26 and of course the bandon tank. (Which i have but haven't touched and probably wont for years.....and i made the mistake of not buying thre gearbox or wheels ect!) However none if us have nowhere near what is required yet to do brass kits, i have only soldered wires together as of now!

 

Can I also suggest using instagram? My West Cork Railway Colourised page uses both platforms and while Facebook one is more popular, more young people tend to use instagram. A few have tried and failed....the only way it could work is if that instagram page happens to have a stream of pictures if other layouts to post consitantly! (All credited to there respected owners of course) as groups dont really work on instagram. it would have to be a page

Great idea to try instagram, today i will be planning out proper milestones and aims, i wouldn't want to try too much to quickly and overburden myself but i for sure would try instagram at a future time maybe after getting a team together to run the page also. 

10 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

When people love a particular engine engine so much. They will want an 0 gauge one as ita the bees knees in detail and size is cool! .....and then as they have an 0 gauge engine they just start buying rolling stock and a layout just because......why not they already have a loco and hey presto....and there you have it. My theory on how 0 gauge is starting to rise 

For sure! 

Now I just need someone to make an 0 gauge NCC W class

I find it interesting that O gauge has grown too, perhaps because the RTR options for that have grown significantly over the last number of years. 

Perhaps instead of having full layouts, people like to buy them to display since they are a lot larger. 

For example I was considering getting the upcoming UTA jinty from Dapol, purely for display because I barely have room for my 00 layout let alone even have a 'back and forth' 0 gauge layout haha.

Yeah the history of the whole 00/H0 thing is interesting. Personally i wished that we all agreed on one or the other so that I can run continental stock on my layout without it looking small, but i know that its far too late to even float the idea of converting now.

Interesting to mention American modellers. 

Do you think that they would prefer H0 scaled stuff (therefore requiring full retools of existing models etc) or do you think they would just get the 00? 

In a way, running a 00 loco on an H0 scaled layout would be kinda close to fixing the scale on the gauging issue?

Perhaps modellers would be tempted to make full 00 layouts instead of H0 if they were interested enough. 

Then again, even if every amercian-irish modeller bought a single irish model as a 'wall hanger' for display, that would still be a LOT of sales! 

I think thats why I feel so much like a 'celebrity' loco like Merlin or Meabh would sell so well, as they are perhaps the Irish equivalent in terms of popularity as Flying Scotsman or Mallard. 

That said, i don't know the popularity of those locos outside of Ireland so maybe they are not as well known as i am assuming

Interesting to mention American modellers. 

Do you think that they would prefer H0 scaled stuff (therefore requiring full retools of existing models etc) or do you think they would just get the 00? 

In a way, running a 00 loco on an H0 scaled layout would be kinda close to fixing the scale on the gauging issue?

Perhaps modellers would be tempted to make full 00 layouts instead of H0 if they were interested enough. 

Then again, even if every amercian-irish modeller bought a single irish model as a 'wall hanger' for display, that would still be a LOT of sales! 

I think thats why I feel so much like a 'celebrity' loco like Merlin or Meabh would sell so well, as they are perhaps the Irish equivalent in terms of popularity as Flying Scotsman or Mallard. 

That said, i don't know the popularity of those locos outside of Ireland so maybe they are not as well known as i am assuming.

Also, bringing it back to Facebook for a moment, you can actually make targetted adverts with a page, and ask Facebook to show them to a specific audience, so i can for example make a post aimed at local young people to maybe catch the interest and get them involved, OR as suggested above, target the US or North America (because I know there are a lot of Irish Canadians too) 

6 minutes ago, ShaneC said:

Going way off topic here but I wonder could <€100 be achieved with a high-volume N-scale model with zero seperately fitted detail - all moulded, moudled chasis, 3-pole motor etc.

The way I see it, home ownership continues to drop, more people are renting apartments and rents in much of the country make owning an extra bedroom a rare feat. With N-scale a decent layout can fit on a standard 160x80cm desk, I firmly believe we'll see more under 30s getting into the hobby trend away from OO (or 21mm) in favour of N.

Thats a good point. I would love to model in N gauge but considering the prices are the same or more expensive than 00, i couldnt justify it haha

18 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

It's a bit like the British "Hymek" done up in a faux-CIE livery about thirty years ago - in an example like you mention, probably just re-livery the existing thing.

Yeah, although to be fair the hymek was way too far from being accurate haha.

At least something like an NCC jeep, jinty or whippet would pass a 'two foot test' as they say. 

15 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

Wow! You'll have me reaching for me smelling salts!

Sometimes I enjoy annoying 'rivet counters' on purpose haha

10 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

A steam loco in NIR livery! Now THAT'S imagination! Well done, Tony.....

Had steam lasted a bit longer in the south, we'd have seen black locos with CIE "roundels" on the tender.....

Well I have just repainted an old gwr county class in 'maebh teal' and I might stick a CIE roundel on it just to see what it looks like haha. 

8 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

While it's not my thing at all, I do feel that an ICR set would be potentially successful, especially if it was only produced to "2-ft rule" standard.

Maybe out of curiosity, one of our IRM folks could answer this question; does the superbly high standard of detail on IRM or MM products contribute much to the finished per-item cost? Would a rough-an'-ready ICR, maybe a re-liveried British or mainland European tube on wheels of some sort, end up retailing for a similar price, when manufacturing, design and transport had obviously been covered by the producer, or would it be not much cheaper than a high-end model?

As some here will know, I recently moved house. My former neighbour had an 8-year-old boy, who sees a train as a DART (and if he lived in the Land of Rural Culchies, it would be an ICR). He, for one, is a little guy who would be interested in a train set of something he knew. A British HST, Flying Scotsman, or Dutch EMU wouldn't cut it for him. This is the sort of young gentleman we need for the future.

Right now, he'd need something he recognises to play with.

When I was about 5, I was given a circle of old tinplate 0 gauge track with three trucks which were wooden blocks painted by Senior to look like a diesel shunter and wagons, on old "scrap" 0 gauge four wheeled chassis. For a child that age, nothing could break. It was a push-along thing - in terms of developing an interest in railways in general with me, it worked...........

And outside - in the far distance - if the wind was blowing the right way, I could hear the steam-hauled up goods puffing along the GN main line late at night...........

I feel like Hornby etc are only able to do their railroad stock because it already existed from old moulds or previous companies etc. 

I agree that tooling up a basic loco wouldnt make the economic sense, if you are going to make a completely new mould then might as well go for it. 

I wonder what the potential for a 'half retool' would be economically. For example re-jigging the LMS 4P tank mould to make a NCC Jeep. 

An example of my rolling stock so far. Dapol unpainted vans make a great start. 

And a 'what if' NIR/GNR castle class that was used as painting practice haha. 

Most of my locos and stock are actually LMS. 

Until I can get some irish steam locos, my layout works with 'borrowed' British locos, and with the power of imagination I can ignore the gauging issue

15 minutes ago, BosKonay said:

Not only economies of scale but Hornby sell those train sets at a loss to generate market

Yeah, it would be technically possible to do an Irish train set from hornby, their railroad Jinty for example easily repainted into NCC or UTA livery, with some wagons/vans for a 'York road' look. 

I doubt they would though. 

And same here folks, so far my Irish rolling stock consists of a lot of repainted Dapol wagons and some old hornby and lima coaches. I have the early 2000's Hornby 040 with the flying snail livery, but the upcoming A Class will by my first actual representation of a REAL irish prototype  

(Hopefully followed in 2046 by an NCC mogul to coincide with the completion of the real one )

Hello all,

I have decided to finally start a thread for my own layout. 

The track and board is from my childhood but a lot of work has went into painting, priming, corking, pinning,ballasting etc etc to get it to this stage. 

It is of course still very much a work in progress and I am trying to decide which sort of buildings and equipment I should be adding. 

It is a fictional preservation line and I imagine the left hand sidings to form a station/shed area that is like a miniature Whitehead, and the sidings to the right will be the remains of an old quarry or frieght siding that has been converted to storage. 

I know its very small but it is all I can work with until I can get a house of my own etc. 

Being a preservation layout means I can have a mix of modern and old. 

With that in mind does anyone have suggestions for what kind of buildings or equipment (machinery, cranes etc) I can add? So far the only thing set in stone is the roll on ramp to the left and a hornby small station platform (not currently pictured) but I am open to moving that anywhere it will fit. 

As soon as the A Class lands on Irish shores I'm sure there will be an announcement of some kind  

2 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

Looks like FB is becoming a resource for oul fogeys like me! The nippers are all on insta-twitterogram.........

I must admit that my haunt is normally twitter more than anything now because my attention span is less than that of a lobotomised goldfish  

13 minutes ago, Warbonnet said:

Understand where you're coming from, but who is to say no current manufacturer isn't considering or indeed working on Irish steam? Or Railcars? You never know what some of these companies get up to of an eve...

Best of luck with the page. 

Cheers,

Fran

Oh what a tease! 

And thank you!

ooh thats lovely!

Some old Hornby box vans had sliding doors, and there are some kits that can be modelled with open doors (like the dapol meat van) however thats only goods vans. 

That does remind however that when I saw the latest Hornby 'sliding door' mk3 carriages I got very excited then very disappointed that they did not in fact open, but were just the name of the type of door that the prototype had haha. 

52 minutes ago, Warbonnet said:

Actually the forum itself has a Facebook page that is regularly updated with forum content, Twitter too https://www.facebook.com/irishrailwaymodeller

I get the idea of a page instead of a forum, but I dont get the purpose. How many Irish models should IRM and Murphy Models be making every year? We brought out a number of wagons last year and the 121 came out and we were asked by a good few customers to slow down, if anything and let the wallets cool. Both IRM and Murphy Models do a massive amount of PR to promote our models and the hobby (like this forum, magazines both physical and online content) attend exhibitions when we can of course both here and in the UK. We also participate on the likes of RMWeb, Facebook groups various and Twitter, provided models for the Late Late Toy Show and worked with the mainstream media for articles on the hobby. Then there is the efforts in SEO optimisation and search terms for optimised performance on Google. 

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts shared here too on stuff like above, and what you think can be improved to promote the hobby? 

Thanks,

Fran

Hi Fran thanks for your comment, 

I understand and appreciate the work that MM and IRM have done for the hobby over the years, its honestly second to none. My reasoning behind the page isn't because I think you folks aren't doing enough or anything like that at all. 

I feel that there has been a fundamental misunderstanding from folks over the intentions of the page. I am not by any means trying to lobby MM or IRM into doing more. Instead I want to raise the profile of Irish prototypes to people who may not have seen them before, and also to show that there are gaps in the market currently not filled by any model manufacturer. 

I understand that you all work hard to promote your products and to work with your audience, but my point is more about creating a more general audience. The options for RTR Irish diesel era modellers have been served well by MM and IRM over the years, however we can see a growing number of folks interested in steam era stock and also more modern interests like the DMU fleets. 

Orange diesels are fantastic, but Irish railway history is far more diverse than that, and I would like to promote that more in the hopes that someone is inspired to make those types of models. 

I am no marketing expert, nor do I have experience with manufacturing processes, I am just someone with an idea for something new to try. 

That said, I am willing to bet any amount of money, that the first company to make a commercially available and reasonably priced (to todays standards), ready to run GNR(i) V 'Merlin' model will make a killing. As the flagship loco to so much of Irelands preservation history, I am sure we can all agree that it would be wanted by anyone and everyone with even a vague interest in irish railway modelling. 

I understand that social media is not for everyone, I personally hate it too, however one cannot deny the power that is has in modern society. To answer some other comments raised, there is no 'dilution', a page is a completely separate idea to a 'group' and completely separate to a 'forum'. I understand that not everyone has a lot of experience with social media, so I do not blame anyone for the misunderstanding, however it is fundamentally different in aim and audience. 

Perhaps I should have phrased my initial post better, I honestly did not think it would bring so much confusion and I apologize. 

1 hour ago, DJ Dangerous said:

I think that @Bumble_Bee is referring more to FB pages than FB groups.

FB Groups are almost like internet fora, whereas FB pages are like owner-operated websites with a lot less user interaction.

The main reason to have a page is for promotion, not so much for discussion, but building an audience requires work and / or costs money.

There needs to be an incentive to do so.

I can only assume that Bumble would be on there several times a day, publishing information, articles etc, and investing a couple of hours in sharing these in order to boost popularity.

 

Yes this is exactly my intention. 

Think of the page more of a way to reach new people rather than 'preaching to the choir' so to speak. ultimately I want to help promote Irish railway models and their real world history, and in doing so will inevitably help funnel new members to forums like this. 

I actually found this forum from facebook because I saw the new MM 121s advertised on Hattons page, which led me to the MM page which then led me to the IRM A class and then to this forum  

18 minutes ago, BosKonay said:

But by that logic there are already Irish railway model groups on Facebook with thousands of members? This forum is one of the oldest communities of Irish model enthusiasts online, and in addition to 1500 registered members, serves over 4 million pages a day of content to people interested in Irish models. Starting a new group from scratch seems duplication  You'll also find a list of services and manufacturers here.

I understand what you mean but I also feel like there is misunderstanding between a facebook group and a facebook page. 

Yes there are groups on fb with 1000s of members each, however they are all different. 

IRM for example as you say has this forum with 1500 registered members. However another manufacturer might look at a group on facebook and think 'oh theres only 800 people interested in this' and not bother when they are missing the larger groups. 

A page means that everyone can 'like' it and if everyone from every group liked it, it would be a wider representation of the irish railway modelling scene rather than just using a single source. It is not duplication because it is a fundamentally different aim. 

11 minutes ago, DJ Dangerous said:

 

I suspect that as @murphaph says, the visual aspect of the parcel plays a role.

If it looks like a birthday present, and doesn't set off any detectors, then it's probably gonna pass through no problem...

I hope to test this theory very soon with a few IRM buses.

Two other factors will be the shippig agent, and how well-prepared the arrival destination is.

Here in Las Canarias, they started preparing customs etc for BrExit in 2016, put everything into place, so nothing really changed in January, other than they actually started applying the charges.

If something is shipped via Correos / An Post / Royal Mail, it's likely to fly under the cistoms radar due to the volume of parcels these entities deal with, and declaration is then left up to the recipient.

If something is shipped va GLS, or Muppets like DHL, they are bored, have nothing to do because tey're terrible and nobody wants to use them, and they are guaranteed to charge fees.

 

Great idea, lets have a 'gift wrap' option from Hattons etc that helps expensive trains pass under the radar as kids toys