Warbonnet

Our A Class loco project continues to progress (as you can see here in our latest update) but one area we have been working hard on behind the scenes is the sound project with our friends at ESU. We can now give you a first preview of our new ESU Loksound 5 A Class sound chip featuring the distinctive and unique sounds of these iconic Irish locomotives. Featuring real sounds recorded from the ITG's preserved A39r by professional sound engineers played through two high quality speakers, the roar of the rebuilt A Class can soon be enjoyed on your layout! The sound is still being tweaked but this preview below will give you a taste of things to come! Please note that this video was recorded on a mobile phone, and in person the sound is much more crisp and bassy. As you can see below, there is a comprehensive list of functions on this chip, giving modellers a whole host of operational possibilities. Of course, the A Class used two engines during its career, with this sound chip featuring he rebuilt EMD 645 rootes blown engine the locomotives were rebuilt with at Inchicore. This is suitable for the following locomotives in our A Class release programme: 007 017 018 A23R 027 036 A39R 048 054 056 The earlier Crossley engine is a rare beast, with very few lasting in service and no sound recordings good enough to use. However, there is a similar Metropolitan Vickers locomotive preserved in Australia which features the Crossley power unit. It is our intention to have ESU record this locomotive, but efforts so far has been hampered by wild bush fires and of course the COVID pandemic. Once the pandemic restrictions ease we will get this locomotive recorded and offer the Crossley sound chip at a later date. We will also be offering standard DCC non-sound chips soon, so keep an eye out for that! In the meantime, you can pre-order your GM-EMD sound chip which will arrive in stock with the locomotives in May 2021. Each A Class model will come pre-fitted with a twin speaker set up, as well as an ESU power pack, so all you need to do is plug in the chip and you can enjoy that glorious A Class soundtrack. Pre-order your chips here for €124.94 and your A Class locomotives for €189.95 here.

As I said previously, our production runs are being dictated to in size somewhat by COVID restrictions. There is little we can do about this at the moment. We still have plenty of spoils, weed spray and RPSI 121s left in stock, so we are getting it more correct in recent times.

Hi JB, We initially thought the points logo on ballasts was rare, but it was more prevalent than we thought the deeper we dug into it, especially once we raided "the archivist" collection of pics. We got enough for a run out of it. It seems in this thread yet again we disappoint people no matter what we do, but it's posts like this above from @DJ Dangerous that really warm the heart and keep us encouraged and help us carry on. The sales from yesterday were fantastic on the back of this new announcement so we would like to extend a sincere thank you to everyone who ordered. It's very much appreciated! We're delighted that our newer customers who missed out first time round are now able to get ballast wagons as well as adding the gypsum variant to our range for more operational variety, and that existing customers can add to their fleets! Cheers! Fran

Cheers Jason, the points logo ones are a thing of beauty I must admit!

Nope. once they're gone, they're gone. As we have explained before our hands are tied on these, and we have been heavily hinting at a rerun of the ballasts for most of the year.

Commercially sensitive information I'm afraid but there are less ballast packs than there were ferts and liners, for example due to the COVID restrictions at the moment. So, I would advise getting these sooner rather than later. Gypsum run same size as ferts and liners. Cheers, Fran

Hi Kevin, This is existing tooling. It would've been cost prohibitive to retool it. Many thanks, Fran

Sorry Edo, we can't split the bundles that way I'm afraid!

Hi DJ, They wont change, once the ploughs are gone there are no more bundles on offer, so worth ordering quick to avoid missing out! Cheers, Fran

The highlight of our calendar is the October Bank Holiday weekend, when we "play at home" as they say and exhibit at the Dublin model railway shows, held each year on rotation by the Model Railway Society of Ireland and the South Dublin Model Railway Club. That's where it all began for us five years ago, when the good folk of the SDMRC gave us some space at the very last minute (we will be forever grateful for it!) to meet the modelling public for the first time and announced our intentions to produce an Irish outline model railway wagon; the humble CIE hopper. A lot has happened in those five years, as IRM goes from strength to strength and the Irish model railway scene enjoys support and growth like never before. Of course, we didn't see that we would be in this position today back then, and certainly nobody could've predicted the strange times we are now in that causes us all to miss out on the Dublin show, but there's always positives ahead! We have decided to revisit that first model we announced back in 2015 amid much fanfare among those who knew us, but one that was missed out by many others who have only learned of our existence in recent times. Yes, our lovely little hopper is back, in a host of new guises and including the gypsum wagon variant for the very first time! Beginning with the ballasts, a mere 833 packs were produced in our first run as we tentatively entered the market for the first time. Since that run, we have gained many new friends and people "in the know" when it comes to research material, including a man who wishes to remain anonymous. Let's just dub him "The Archivist". The Archivist had some amazing research material which allowed us to bring back the ballasts back with a bang, offering a number of packs spanning three distinct eras with some unique and tasty markings covering their lifespan on the network! Beginning with CIE featuring their iconic roundels, before progressing into the IR post 1987 era sporting the points logo and text, and then entering their final years in IE guise with a smorgasbord of interesting markings and painted out patches. Of course, these hopper wagons were used for other services too. Hoppers numbered 26666-26694 were built by CIÉ in 1972 to cater for mineral traffic from Irish Gypsum’s railhead at Kingscourt in County Cavan, which served Irish Cement factories at Drogheda in county Louth, Castlemungret in County Limerick and Platin in County Meath. Initially, these wagons could often be found in mixed rakes along with ‘Bulleid’ corrugated open wagons. On such occasions the hoppers would always be located closest to the locomotive as they featured continuous vacuum braking, while the open wagons were loose-coupled and required a brake van to be included at the rear of the train. By the 1980s gypsum traffic was carried exclusively by the hopper wagons and this remained the case until the flow ceased in 2001. This long lived and widely travelled working featured A Classes, 141/181s as well as 121s during its life, even with the odd 201 featuring in later years in the Limerick area! We have tooled some all new loads to give the distinctive variety of shape and size of the gypsum as per the real thing! The best part (apart from variety, multi eras covered, gypsum variants with newly tooled load etc) is the price, with each pack costing just €99.95 each! This is a €10 reduction on our first run and is our way of saying thank you for your support since we started, as well as a little helping hand during these uncertain times. Ballast packs will be available in CIE, IR and IE bundle packs, with three packs per bundle along with their respective plough vans for just €370 (11 wagons per bundle including ploughs.) The gypsums are available in four packs of three wagons at €99.95 each or €375 for all 12 wagons. You can order the ballasts by clicking here and the gypsums by clicking here. Due to COVID restrictions on factory slots the production runs have been limited in size so order early to avoid disappointment. Delivery is due in late November 2020!

Correct. I saw the 183 and 187 photo in the flesh and was surprised to see the roof was painted black. 001 had it in those publicity shots, but all other As we have come across had a tan roof. I wonder did the lima 215 paint job get influenced by those 001 publicity photos all those years ago?

Hi everyone, Lockdown is almost upon us, but do not despair! Our offices may remain closed, but we are working online and our online store will remain open during the next 6 weeks and we will still be able to dispatch our models to you via mail order! We also have the forum here where you can chat to other like-minded modellers and pick up new tips and skills, as well as keeping up to date on all the latest news and releases. Finally, we will be taking part in the MRSI - Model Railway Society of Ireland Virtual Show 2020 this weekend on Facebook, and may even make a new announcement for it too (as is tradition at the Dublin show. Dont worry, we will have it on here too!) Be sure to keep an eye out on Saturday for that. In the meantime, stay safe, keep positive and get chatting. If you want to add to the layout, check out our website for rolling stock, buses and detail accessories for those little projects to keep you occupied at home! https://irishrailwaymodels.com/ Cheers! Fran (on behalf of IRM)

More info will be following on this soon. There might just be an announcement from ourselves too on Saturday for this event.... The Dublin October shows are still our favourite to do as we get to see so many friends. We're sad we cant do it this year but hopefully we'll be back at it next October!

Thanks everyone. Just over an hour left in our sale. Don't miss out. Ending at 2pm! https://irishrailwaymodels.com/

Hi everyone, Many thanks for the pictures and stories. We really get a great buzz about seeing IRM on layouts, weathered up, catalogued and collected and overall enjoyed. We set out as hobbyists to fulfil a gap in our hobby on the back of an outcry on the forum. @BosKonaybrought us together and the rest they say is history! We're proud of what we have achieved and very lucky to take it to full time status. However, personally, I am blown away by @Edo's story. It's brilliant that a hobby can make a difference for us and take us in a new, better direction. 2020 will go down as one of the toughest years ever for us all I am sure but hopefully the forum and IRM can keep us in escapism together while we go through these strange times. It's what the forum is about and what this hobby is about too. We are working away on new projects and we think you are really going to like our next all new announcement. Tooling is underway and from now on we are announcing with tooling samples only to cut down on waiting times. However, this still gives a number of months to save up those pennies until delivery. In the meantime we've extended the sale to 2pm tomorrow. Remember, it's for in stock IRM items and the discount is automatically removed at the check out. Enjoy the bargains, stay safe, enjoy the forum and the hobby! It is, after all, the perfect way to spend the winter months especially during any lock down situations we may find ourselves in! https://irishrailwaymodels.com/ Cheers! Fran

Thanks everyone! Been a great response to the sale too. Much appreciated and enjoy the bargains!

Hi everyone, Today (October 16th) is a bit of a landmark day for IRM as it is 5 years since we broke cover publicly for the first time! From a chat online, to a few pints in a pub to something which has well, gotten way out of hand, we have come a long way in a short period of time. There has been some great moments along the way, and some set backs too (typhoons, our social event thwarted by snow!) but we are delighted to be here and to have you with us along the way too. Without your support and purchases, there would be no IRM after all! A couple of weeks after we announced ourselves to the world on this very forum, our good friends at South Dublin Model Railway Club gave us some space at the last minute at their Blackrock Hallowe'en show. We will be forever grateful to all the model railway clubs in the land who have supported and hosted us over the years at shows and clubrooms. To show our appreciation to you all for your support, we are doing a very rare sale as a thank you for this weekend! We have reduced all our IRM in stock items on the website by 10%! Just simply add your weedspray, cement bubbles, plough vans or spoils to the basket and you will get 10% off at the check-out! This sale is open till lunchtime on Monday, or while stocks last! We would also like to hear of your IRM related stories or memories and see some pictures or videos of our models on your layout or in your collections in the comments below. Cheers once again for all your support and here's to more models in the future! Fran (on behalf of the IRM / Accurascale team!)

Hi DJ, Murphy Models informed us that they are completely sold out of these models. Cheers! Fran

You should hear the amount of swearing I do in the outtakes Rich, as bad as Reservoir Dogs!

We certainly will!

Hi everyone, As you may have seen over the weekend, Hornby Magazine held a virtual exhibition in lieu of their October "Great Electric Train Show" exhibition. We were asked to provide a video update on our projects to date. Needless to say as it's the UK it was a tad Accurascale heavy, but we did offer a preview of the A Class GM sound chip which you can see below! Please note it was recorded on my phone, so it's not the best microphone around. I can confirm it sounds beastly in person though! We will be launching this shortly for pre-order and will do a better video when we can! Cheers! Fran

An absolute work of art. Well done Brendan and Eoin and congrats Sean on a museum quality loco in brass. Must be like Dave and nail together my own kit! True craft in this model by experienced people!

Hi everyone, A mere 10 Route 90 rail links left. Thanks to everyone who bought one! Grab the last bus before it departs our terminus! https://irishrailwaymodels.com/collections/vehicles/products/dublin-bus-rail-link-volvo-rv-class-olympian-rv517

Hi everyone, We're just at the 10% mark left of these packs in stock. This will be a one off production run of the weedspray in this configuration, so make sure you dont miss out: https://irishrailwaymodels.com/collections/weedspray-train Cheers! Fran

Sorry misread your post as manufacturer of the year.