Warbonnet

Following on from our recent update on the former Hattons Originals Andrew Barclay tank engines, the other run of tank locomotives initially announced by Hattons but taken over by ourselves, the P Class, are also progressing through production rather nicely indeed. We received decorated samples just after the run was taken over by our team, but it was immediately apparent that some tweaks to correct the samples for production were required. There were three locomotives in particular which required corrections, and recently we received some sample bodyshells with these corrections in place. Let's have a look at them! H4-P-017: SE&CR: Buffer blocks now correctly Indian Red, not black. Front splashers now body colour, not black. SE&CR Crest printing improved. Wainwright Green now improved to match colour samples. H4-P-018: SE&CR: The top of the buffer blocks now correctly in red, not black. Front splashers now body colour, not black. Buffer Beam numerals now correct appearance, and additional text added on the left side. Cab side plates were set too high, and have now been repositioned. Cab roof is now a single colour, and does not have the green inset. Tank side lettering has now been spaced correctly, and the yellow improved in colour depth. Incorrect shade of Simplified Wainwright green has now been corrected, to account for less varnish being used on the paintwork in this period. H4-P-018: SR: The top of the buffer blocks now correctly in red, not black. The locomotive number has now been changed to 1027, correct for the livery shown (1323's livery had been misinterpreted). The rear bunker number has now been located in the correct position. Production is now underway and we are on course to deliver as per our original delivery date of Q4 2024. These are available exclusively via the Accurascale website only for £99.95 each. Pre-order your loco below! Pre-Order Your P Class Here! View the full article

Looks like it was a good show. A friend was there with his layout Ebbsworth Street, which had Jools Holland behind the backscene inspecting at one stage I believe!

Hi David, I complimented the thread on being respectful, and something we could then engage in. My remark about disrespectful behaviour goes back to more historical incidents on here, some of which you defended IRM on, or indeed witnessed even in recent weeks. I think it's a perfectly fair comment. The buffer spacing between both real 121s and 141s is the exact same. It is just the models that are different, both of which were conscious decisions and understandable. Thanks, Fran

If you are referring to the model, then no. Both were built on different chassis in different factories. Cheers! Fran

Hi folks, Just to confirm that these rivets will be present on the finished models. Some rivet elements are added at the end of the tooling development process, so not always present on samples. Cheers! Fran

Very well said and much appreciated @Flying Snail. We are always open to constructive comment and being open and honest with our point of view when there is some respectfulness in the comments and an understanding and acceptance of our point of view too. When a tantrum is thrown it makes engaging and assisting a lot more difficult. All we have ever done is try to do our best by the Irish element of our great hobby and provide lots of models to bolster what has gone before, so we can make Irish outline railways a truly viable and attractive proposition for everyone. I'm sure most are aware of our Accurascale side of the business, and how well that is going for us. With competition for factory capacity at an all time high, it would make more business sense for us to concentrate on high repeatability projects for Accurascale where we can do 15-20 reruns of over the life of the moulds and sell more due to the market size and demands, than doing any Irish outline model, as we may get 1-2 reruns tops of over the same period, and a much smaller production run to begin with. Our external accountants have basically argued that IRM could be seen as "costing money" as we leave those revenue opportunities on the table, but we do IRM and persist with bringing more and more models out because we love Irish railways and this is our home and our market. It's for the love of it. We are not asking to be hailed as heroes, or looking for excuses should we make a decision someone disagrees with, or indeed an error (we are all human after all), just a little bit of respect when expressing viewpoints. All I will say is that many Irish models, not just UK repaints, have had this set up for many years now, so it must be remembered that it's not an exclusively IRM Bulleid wagon quirk. It's odd how it's never been mentioned before. After all, all our wagons before these had them at scale distances and all ran behind locomotives which had the spacing at UK spec, and nobody ever said anything. Our As were the first to have them at correct spacing, and have been hauling coaches with UK spacing. It's amazing how our humble little Bulleid wagons brought it to the fore! Cheers! Fran

Hi Dave, The Park Royal’s as it stands is done to prototypical Irish spacing. This is due to the future development of our range of both coaches and motive power which will become apparent in the future. Cheers! Fran

Hi Al, It is up to you what you decide to do, but note that a lot of Irish models are made this way, and we tried best to facilitate everyone, but that is impossible. If you wish to cancel future orders please email us with your order number, but it is also worth remembering that your 141 class locos, cravens, 071 etc also has this and it is very unlikely models of this quality of these wagons will ever be made again, being very niche to begin with. Cheers! Fran

Hi folks, As you can see below, lined up with a 141 they match perfectly. I believe this is the same for 071s, Cravens and 201s too from another manufacturer. Not to mention Woolwich moguls, jintys etc from this era. While not in scale position, it does match the majority of locos made and looks more at home on 00 track, which we find that 99% of our customers prefer and use. We also considered the historical usage of these wagons in mixed trains, such as cattle wagons, tankers and vans which many modellers already have represented on their layouts using re-liveried UK models, and we felt it odd to have our wagons have a different buffer spacings in an otherwise uniform mixed train. We went for a compromise as a result. It is a case of "Damned if you do, damned if you dont" I'm afraid. Of course, for the finescaler and top modellers out there, they can be repositioned with some modelling if they choose to do so. We try to be considerate as possible for those who wish to go finescale, hence the new 28mm axles that make 21mm gauge easy, put sometimes we have to make a choice We showed off all samples early on and heard no objections, so we pushed on with production. Cheers! Fran

Hi everyone, Great news! Our latest wagon project from the Bulleid wagon project, the ubiquitous CIE "H Van", is now at decoration stage! These first samples are currently being put together and will be sent to us in the coming week. We will show off the completed samples when they arrive, but these images give you a flavour of what's to come! We're still on track for a Q4 2024 delivery and pre-orders are coming in fast. Secure yours for a no money down below, with each triple pack priced at just €89.95 each, with 10% off when you order two packs or more and free Irish postage and packaging. An incredible piece of value for money for highly detailed, accurate Irish wagons. Pre-order yours here: https://irishrailwaymodels.com/collections/h-van Cheers! Fran

decorated park royals and full update due in the next 4 weeks!

Our recent announcement of our 21 ton BR hopper wagons, later designated HTO and rebodied and designated HTV has gone down very well indeed with modellers. Considering it fills a long standing and much needed gap in the wagon range of 00/4mm modellers, it is unsurprising how popular they have been if our pre-orders are anything to go by! Of course, even though the HTO and HTVs were very much seen as a humdrum BR standard wagon in grey and bauxite liveries, they did go in differing directions later on in their careers, with industrial and engineering operations making use of them later in their lives. This always gives us some great ideas for some limited edition, one time run "Accurascale Exclusives" packs, and today we present two very different packs to you for consideration; our ZDV engineers triple pack, and our ICI internal user pack! ZDV Pack With the transfer of domestic coal transport to the air braked wagon fleet of HEA wagons in the 1980’s, the HTV fleet were in terminal decline. British Rail engineers saw this and upon evaluation deemed many wagons to have a reasonable amount of serviceable life left in them. Engineering trains were typically vacuum braked and employed ex squadron service wagons in new roles and the HTV’s were no different. Whilst many wagons were converted to box-body spoil wagons such as Clams and Rudds, some of the fleet retained their original bodywork either in cut down form to gain the Tope fishkind name or not altered at all and just receiving the ZDV TOPS code. Our pack of ZDV engineers wagons represent the latter. Photographs show these wagons in use variously in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s for carrying spoil at many infrastructure jobs across the country. The patch painting, rusty bodywork and chalked markings make these wagons stand out from the rest as being unloved, uncared for yet equally vital in maintaining the country’s railway network. ICI Pack ICI Lostock Soda ash works, Northwich is more well known as being the destination of the 1930’s built LMS bogie hoppers from Tunstead but their internal rail network had a number of other vehicles present. As well as a brace of Ruston 165 0-4-0 diesel shunters, there were a small number of ex BR rebodied HTV hoppers. These were used from their withdrawal in the 1980s well in to the 1990s for carrying “hot rocks”, hot, processed limestone around the plant during the production of Soda Ash (Sodium Carbonate) The Model Each wagon features a wealth of separately applied detail, from handrails on the diecast chassis and hopper ends to the intricate brake gear and hopper operating mechanism underneath, all museum quality detail and prototypical accuracy modellers now come to expect from our wagons and which is now our standard specification. As well as a diecast chassis with full hopper detail, each wagon rides on 26mm axles, which are 2mm in diameter, with pin points in brass bearing cups for ultimate smooth performance and ease of conversion to finescale tolerances. With the wagons announced later in development to curb waiting times, we're already at decoration stage and we are about to begin production of these wagons in the coming weeks. Delivery of the models to customers is currently estimated at Q3 2025. Both wagon packs will be a one off, limited production run in special presentation packaging like all models in the Accurascale Exclusives range. Each pack is priced at £99.95 and we're operating their usual 10% off when you buy two packs or more, along with a new offer of 15% when you buy 5 or more packs direct from our website. That means each wagon just costs £27.47 when you factor in loyalty points rewards and postage and packaging being free! They can of course be mixed with other HTO/HTV wagon packs in the launch range to get these discounts. Pre-order yours today for no money down via the link below. Pre-Order Your Accurascale Exclusives 21 Ton Hopper Packs Here! View the full article

Modellers awaiting our very new and very detailed Mark 1 56ft 11' coaches have been awaiting some news on these wonderful coaches. After some trials and tribulations, including something completely new which popped up to throw yet another curveball our way, we can confirm that production is complete on our BR blue and our Yellow Accurascale Exclusives tool van. Shall we take a closer look first? As you can see, they look pretty delicious! The further good news is that production is complete for these coaches and they're already on the way to us! They are due to land at our warehouse in the last week of August. So, that's the blue and the tool van. But, what about the carmine? Well, this is where it gets interesting. When we sign off for production of a new model, everything is correct; the details, the printing and of course, the colour. These act as a template for the factory to follow. Once production is completed, the factory sends us one of every model from the production run to check and sign off on. The Mark 1 coaches were no different. Sadly, the factory used an incorrect shade of carmine which did not match what we signed off on with the decorated sample. This means the whole carmine production batch was wrong. There was only one thing to do; remanufacture the coaches in the correct colour. Our factory partner, brilliant as always, rose to the challenge of this and stood over their error. They wanted it to be right as much as we did and have now fixed the issue for us. However, this does take time, and therefore the carmine coaches have been delayed slightly as a result. We are very sorry for this delay, but it was beyond our control. The good news is that the factory are almost finished the new carmine batch, and we will have a new delivery date for these in approx. 2 weeks time. We do know that they will be approx 4-6 weeks behind the blue and tool van coaches, but we will have a more specific date soon which we will send out to you as soon as we can. Our Maroon production run is still on course to be delivered Q1 2025 as per the original announcement. In the meantime, make sure you order these very special coaches below, or via your local stockist! As you can see above, you will be getting something rather special for your money! PRE-ORDER YOUR MARK 1 SUBURBAN COACHES HERE! View the full article

One of our prouder moments!

Thanks folks! Just to say that IR pack 1 is sold out, but we do have limited amounts of 2, 3, and 4 remaining in stock if you want to add to your fleet! Order here: https://irishrailwaymodels.com/collections/mark-2-coaches Cheers! Fran

He was just reporting that a 201 loco has gained some decals which may be of interest to modellers, not delivering a lecture on climate or botany. Let's keep the rants to a minimum please. Cheers! Fran (with moderator hat on)

Hi folks, As above, IR and IE Mark 2 Coaches Have Arrived! Great news! Our Mark 2b and Mark 2c coach packs in classic IR and IE orange and black livery have now arrived in stock! We will commence shipping of these models today and envisage that they will take a number of days to complete, so please bear with us. Fancy some? Well we have put some surplus stock back on sale which you can order below! These will be dispatched after shipping the pre-orders is complete. Order Now: https://irishrailwaymodels.com/collections/mark-2-coaches Cheers! Fran

Our recently announced BR 21 Ton Hopper Wagons have been met with great approval since we announced them last month. Our latest addition to our "Powering Britain" range of coal wagons fill a much needed and long standing gap in the OO/4mm RTR market. We're delighted to now reveal our decorated samples of these wagons, which, along with our Class 60, have been announced much later in development to aid cutting down on waiting times. Feast your eyes below! As you can see, they follow our usual approach of individual numbering and lettering, with great variety across each pack. We have even experimented with differing shades of grey to show faded and more recently applied paintwork to offer further variety throughout your rake. Modellers will be able to accept our wagons into traffic as per our initial estimate of Q3 2025. Pre-order yours today via your local retailer, or direct via our website where you can get 10% off when you order two or more packs and avail of free postage and packaging! Pre-order via the link below. Pre-Order Your 21 Ton HTO/HTV Hopper Wagons Here View the full article

It's been rather a long time since we offered any kind of update on our second ever steam locomotive; the vast group of detail variances that are the J67/68/69 "Buckjumper" class of locomotives. These variances alone which makes what seems to be a little tank engine quite the incredibly complex beast, and it has taken a long while to get it to the standard that we demand of all our models. However, when we received the decorated samples in recent weeks all we could say is; WOW! So, without further ado, check out these absolute beauties, and if you want to know more, keep scrolling to what we are fixing and find out when they are coming! Tasty, right? With any samples at this stage, there needs to be some corrections and tweaks made, and our beautiful little Buckjumpers are certainly no different. Thankfully, they're all relatively minor and already well under way. The drawbar hook will be changed to allow for easy fitting and removing of our exquisite 3 link/screw couplings. The destination boards are proving to be a bit of a tight fit, so these are being fine tuned ahead of release to make changing in and out more straightforward. Each model will get a full selection of destination boards included in the box. The chemical blackening on the buffers and wheels alone does not render them dark enough, so faces will be painted, and finish adjusted to a deep matt finish, just like the wheels on our beautiful Manor steam locomotives. This will give them a beautiful rich colour and make them look even more realistic. As ever, the application of paint highlights areas where tolerances are very tight. These have now been adjusted to take into account paint layers. Worst affected areas were the cab roof, the drilled holes where optional fit pipes need to go and the fitting of the door trim. The application of paint has also revealed witness marks where the moulds separate. This is entirely normal and highlights where the moulds need additional polishing. Additional paint application will also make the world of difference to the finished models. The design and fitting of the PCB was based on one example with a deeper internal recess on the smokebox door, which has affected the fit of alternative smokebox doors. This is now being amended by our friends at ESU. Due to the complexity of tampo printing the lining, it was decided to pre-approve body paint samples, which was done successfully. This wasn’t a photogenic process, and so no updates were issued at what was, effectively, first decoration stage. We then took delivery of the full suite of decorated samples and it has to be said, our factory team have done an amazing job in capturing the intricate lining, numbering and lettering of these beauties. Additional livery research was required in certain areas, which was undertaken with the kind assistance of the Great Eastern Railway Society, along with Adrian Marks and Mike Bootman. We would like to thank them for all their input and assistance in the research and creation of these models, alongside some excellent chat and debates! These decorated samples also show the vast array of detail differences across each loco, particularly when it comes to cabs, tanks and chimney options alone. We estimate that it might just be the biggest tooling suite ever created for a tank locomotive, or certainly one of the biggest at least. The amount of parts and variations to make up this class is simply staggering, and it has taken a long time to get them all correctly proportioned and have them fit together in a manner that gives us a museum quality model. We understand that delays are frustrating, and they really frustrate our product development, marketing and accounts teams too, but we entered this industry with the intention of producing the very best models we can so we can take models and the hobby to a new level. This does mean that it can take more time to develop the models, to get the finish as close to perfection as we can get with the skills and technology we have available to us and produce the top of the tree models we have become known for. We will not compromise our standards and sell mediocre models, even if this does mean taking extra time to get it right. We know that the vast majority of you, the modelling public, understand and agree with our viewpoint on this matter. As you can see, the final result tends to be a bit special, and these are very special indeed! So, when are they getting here? Well, the exciting news is that production is now underway and delivery is now slated for the end of this year, so Q4 2024 is when tour buckjumpers leap into service on your layout. Pre-order yours via 150 Accurascale stockists around the world, or direct (including our two Accurascale Exclusives) via the link below! Pre-Order Your Buckjumper Here! View the full article

Dear @Gabhal Luimnigh, You’re absolutely right. I guess this is the challenge of landing models ahead of schedule. We’ll endeavour to ensure we have adequate staffing all year round in future, and delay any stock that is running ahead of schedule where we need to. All joking aside, appreciate the feedback, and will work on my greetings in future. Apologies for using Hi and your forum handle. All the best, Fran

Hi @Gabhal Luimnigh, We are short staffed due to the summer months in the warehouse, still getting flats out and the Mark 2s have also arrived so we need to get them out as well. Please remember we are a small team and a lot of models have arrived in recent weeks with us. If that’s not good enough for you I can only apologise and please feel free to email us with your order number to cancel and we will process a full refund for you. Have a great weekend, Fran

After revealing the decorated sample of our DB Traffic Red Class 60 yesterday, we are back with even more Tug news, revealing three more decorated samples from our first production run of this iconic class of locomotives. Today we can reveal three triple grey beauties in the guise of 60031 "Ben Lui" with Metals sector markings, 60075 "Liathach" in triple grey with Mainline branding, and 60092 "Reginald Munns" with trainload coal squadron decals. With each loco thoroughly researched and featuring era accurate detail differences, as well as the correct shades of grey as per BR documentation, our 60s are certainly "a shade above" when it comes to depicting this golden era as BR entered the Autumn of its existence and then passed into the shadow privatisation era. Apart from the odd rogue detail (black lamp irons, some odd nameplate printing on 60075 etc) we are delighted with how these turned out at this checking stage and any corrections required have now been sent to the factory ahead of full production. But enough of all that, let's just feast our eyes! Pre-order your Class 60 below, or via your local Accurascale retailer! With each locomotive offered in both DC/DCC Ready formats along with DCC Sound Fitted condition, there really is something for all Class 60 fans. Order below for just £169.99 DC/DCC Ready and £269.99 DCC Sound Fitted with free UK postage and packaging! PRE-ORDER YOUR TRIPLE GREY CLASS 60 HERE! View the full article

It's been nothing but "Tug Life" over the past few weeks since we launched our 00 gauge model of the Class 60, with them being the talk of the hobby and industry. We previewed some of our decorated samples in our launch video, along with the recent DEMU show in Sutton Coldfield, and with our friends at Hornby Magazine, and now we can reveal the first of the rest of our decorated samples from the first run, starting with 60100 in DB traffic red! The First, The Last, The Everything... As you may know, 60100 makes up one of two Accurascale Exclusive editions in our first run as we preview the very first Class 60 in its most original form; 60001 in triple grey construction livery from 1989. and 60100 as it is today. Let's check out the history of 60100! On the 30th November 1992, The final member of Class 60, 60100, departed Brush Traction for the metals of British Rail along with 60097, 60098 and 60099. The locomotives had been completed much earlier in the year but were unofficially held back as part of the dispute between BR and Brush Traction. The “Liquidated Damages” dispute centred around matters arising from the commissioning and modification of locomotives and the resulting delay in accepting the locomotives into traffic. Eventually, the matter was resolved sometime after the quartet of locomotives had been released to traffic. Because 60100 had been a late build ‘60’ and been retained at Brush for a period of time, it emerged looking very different to what 60001 did just over 3 years before. By now, the engine room roof had its first stage of cooling modifications with the fitment of a pair of scavenger fans, The fibreglass cowling around the ends of the buffer planks were fitted along with an easy access multiple working socket door on the ‘face’ of the locomotive. The now standard 3-piece drivers window was fitted, standard style of snowplough and the “view blockers” had been fitted in the radiator room, 60100 was very much a “production” model when compared to 001. Initially 60100 was not allocated a name, but by late 1991 had been fitted with nameplates “Boar of Badenoch”, named after the Scottish mountain, near Dalwhinnie, and was to carry trainload construction sector decals before being allocated to its home depot of Toton, Nottinghamshire – it did not receive depot plaques to show this though. ‘100 settled down to a normal working life for BR, often found on aggregates trains emanating from the Midlands. Falling under the ownership of Mainline, 60100 didn’t lose its construction sector markings for the “wheels” of Mainline until late 1995 by which time it had gained the second stage of engine room roof modifications, in this case the governor breather vent. It remained in this condition when ownership was transferred to EWS in 1996. The biggest appearance change to date came in July 2003 when 60100 lost its “Boar of Badenoch” plates and BR Triple grey base livery in favour of a full repaint into the EWS house colours of Maroon and gold, and, given the new name “Pride of Acton”. 60100 went through a period of change and was placed in store for a couple of months during late 2005 and 2006. The locomotive soldiered on until January 2009 when it was placed in storage with high engine hours (17803hrs) and other power unit faults.This period would last for four years until the locomotive was brought in from the cold in 2013 as part of the “super 60” program initiated by new owners DB Schenker. An upgrade to various components and a heavy overhaul brought a new lease of life to many DB class 60s, they were outshopped in the smart bright red livery of the parent company, 60100 was now without a name but carried the DB Schenker logo in full on the bodyside until the ‘Schenker’ part was removed in 2017. In 2018, 60100 re-entered the workshops at Toton for a refresh including the application of the new larger DB Cargo logo on the bodyside along with “bulled up” silver buffers and the application of a new name. On the 15th of June 2018, 60100 travelled with 66065 and the Royal pair of Class 67’s to the diesel gala at the Midland Railway Centre at Butterley where it would be officially named “Midland Railway – Butterley”. The locomotive remains in this condition right up to the present day and it is in this condition we have chosen to model the loco as part of our "first and last" pair of exclusives along with 60001 as it was delivered in 1989. Pre-ordering for 60100 has already been very strong, and now having shown off the pre-production model, it is likely to get even stronger. Don't miss out on this wonderful exclusive; pre-order below in DC/DCC Ready specification for just £169.99 or DCC Sound Fitted for £269.99 with free UK postage and packaging below! Pre-Order Your "First and Last" Class 60s By Clicking Here! View the full article

Hot on the heels of our opens, flats, and now our tank wagons (Which are not far away at all from delivery!),we can now report that our grain wagons are progressing very nicely indeed, with decorated samples arriving in recent weeks. As you can see, they look rather well! More photos below! We have signed off on these samples and production is now in full swing, with a delivery date of later in Q3 being advised. Priced at €89.95 per triple pack, and with 10% off when you purchase two or more packs, these wagons will make for a wonderful addition to your mixed traffic fleet. Pick yours up below with free postage and packaging around Ireland to boot! PRE ORDER YOUR IRM GRAIN WAGONS HERE! View the full article

Thanks folks. Just to point out that it doesn't have to be new liveries either, it can be new running numbers on existing liveries of course. So let us know!