Warbonnet

Hi Tony, Certainly, all vehicles including buses will be under consideration should these sell well! Cheers! Fran

Thanks everyone! As we said it's a toe in the water to see if there is much interest in vehicles on layouts. Judging by the sales so far there seems to be a bit of interest in these! Thank you to everyone who has ordered so far!

NEW ANNOUNCEMENT BUMP!

Well then, how many of you saw that coming? Okay, one of you did. A most astute guess! We have commissioned Britbus of Hong Kong to produce a batch of Dublin Bus Volvo Olympian bus in the distinctive Rail Link colour scheme using existing Britbus diecast tooling! Four Volvo Olympians were delivered new in this new branding for Rail link from Walter Alexander bus builders in Northern Ireland to Dublin bus in mid-1999, registration numbers 99-D-517, 99-D-518, 99-D-519 and 99-D-520, with a fleet number of RV 517, RV 518, RV 519, and RV 520 respectively. All four buses were based at Conyngham Road Garage for Route 90 operation between Heuston Station and Connolly Station via Tara Street station. They also found use on the 91 bus route between Heuston Station and Aston Quay. They also infrequently operated other routes such as the 78A, 51B/C, 76 and others on rare occasions! By May 2000, Guinness sponsored the all over adverts on the four buses and the rail link livery disappeared. By June 2003, the four buses were repainted into normal Dublin Bus fleet livery. The attractive nature of the livery meant it lived long in the memory. We have been looking at doing road vehicles for a while and felt that this already tooled model in 1:76.2 model would be of interest to both our existing railway modeller customer base with its railway connections and bus collectors alike. If these models prove to be successful we will be looking at opening up to do other road vehicle as accessories, including newly tooled models from scratch! Two different bus numbers, one as RV517 (99-D-517) with the route 90 – Connolly Station, and the other as RV520 (99-D-520) with route number 91 Heuston Station. Please note the pair photographed here are pre-production samples and the production models will feature slight corrections. Both are highly limited in number, with just 252 of each being produced. They also come in special IRM branded sleeves mimicking the livery! These 00 gauge buses make the perfect vehicle for your Irish outline layout and collection. Prices are €59.99 each and they can be ordered now for dispatch following their arrival from China in two weeks time by clicking this link! IRM would like to sincerely thank BritBus, Adrian Lemon, Derek Farrelly and Darren Hall for their invaluable assistance in this project.

I'll encourage him to start posting them on here!

It rings a bell that NIR wanted 141s but had to 'buy British' and ended up with Hunslets instead, but not sure how true that was.

As stated in the OP B121 and B135 are also coming in this batch. B134 is limited to 300 models and can confirm their aint many left to order.

Hi there, We understand that, but it's only fair that it's pointed out that the only models we have dropped from the sky is accessories, which are relatively low cost items and do not require much saving for. We have strongly hinted before that we will do a pack of empty liner wagons, three to a box when we launched project 42. I can strongly hint that this will happen and will be available soon! All new models from a locomotive and rolling stock POV will be announced with an EP1 sample. This cuts down the waiting times, but also gives people more notice to save up ahead of a purchase. We think this is the best middleground for everyone. And you dont come across as ungrateful, we appreciate constructive feedback and as you can see above, have listened to it. Cheers! Fran

I think it's best that we keep this thread on topic to the weedspray set and perhaps do wishlisting elsewhere. Thanks! (btw, the next announcement is not beet wagons!)

The project 42 range was announced 2 years ago. So there has been plenty of pre-warning of these items coming out. Future items will be announced with pre-production samples, so there will still be plenty of warning.

Hi everyone, @Flying Scotsman 4472 very kindly sent us some pics of his weathered spoil wagons to share with you which include his custom made sleeper load to reflect the current duties the real wagons are operating on between North Wall and Wexford on flood defence duties! The weathering truly brings these wagons to life! Fancy some spoil wagons of your own? Order yours today: https://irishrailwaymodels.com/collections/ie-spoil-wagons

Going to be a lot of disappointed folk so!

Watch this space.

Derek’s buses are a work of art!

I stand corrected, it was a Galaxy. Planes never did it for me so my knowledge on them is weak to say the least! I might be mistaken, but didn’t CIE consider rebuilding the B101s similar to the As before ordering 071s instead? I guess CIE didn’t think a whole lot about the Sulzer powerplants to order more. EMD always offered great standardisation of components, quick delivery of parts and they worked out of the box so makes sense that 071s were ordered. Sulzers of that era were famed for leaking too and can confirm having been in the engine room of a sulzer Powered loco engine room it is the case. Would be interesting to compare the availability or mileage per failure rate of say a Class 24 and a 141.

I read a comment from an EMD employee involved that it wouldn’t fit in a Hercules so they had to hire the 124 through the British firm that were the freight agents for these. I believe this was a request from IE regarding styling. The 59 styling was loosely based on Class 52 westerns apparently! Regarding British diesel locos of the period being reliable, this is not strictly true. A Classes of course, but even in the UK there were the spectacular failures of classes 15, 16, 17, 21, 23, 28, 29, all the 263 Class 31s had to be re-engined within 10 years, all 512 Class 47s had their engines derated to improve their reliability. The Classes 40, 44, 45, 46 were too heavy and underpowered, the Class 50 was too complex and had a high failure rate. The Class 56 had availability rates so bad when new that Foster Yeoman bought GM Class 59s in the early 80s. A few years later BR wanted to buy a fleet of 59s but government pressure forced them to buy the British built Class 60, a loco with an availability rating of around 75% in early privatisation days, so a fleet of 100 locos had 25 out of use at any one time, whereas the 59s were posting 99%. Of course there were successes too, like the 20 and 37. The 37 is the only diesel loco from the era still truly working hard today, with test trains. There are some 20s and 47s still working stock transfers but that’s not the most gruelling of work. Most 60s sit rotting in Toton, most 56s are gone (with some currently getting GM engines) all the 58s are gone. I love my British diesels but they really weren’t tried and tested and a real mixed bag when it came to success when CIE was ordering its various generations of GM locos. GMs were working in the harshest of conditions and were well proven by the 60s. Competitively priced too I’m sure with lots of spares availability to this day. No brainer.

One in the next week (which is admittedly a little left field And a test in the water) and another later towards the end of September!

They are not in stock yet. The video is from the factory.

Morning everyone, Orders have been flying in for this overnight and almost 40% are sold already. Thanks to everyone for your support and orders! Cheers! Fran

Hi Edo, Many thanks. I dont take it personally and everyone has their view which is what it's all about. I just think it's important to explain where IRM are coming from and it's important to remember where the hobby was a few years ago compared to now (not to blow IRMs own trumpet or anything!) If we're not sensible then it's game over and the hobby will be poorer for it. Dont sacrifice the lab though, not when they have faces like they do! Cheers! Fran

Nail, meet head! Basically everyone would have to buy at least 2 (and some of you 3) of the weedspray vans to make it viable currently. It has one livery and you only need one, so why would anyone buy one or two circa €150 coaches they dont need? That's the reality I'm afraid, Noel! If we can work something out we may do something like this. Cheers! Fran

Hi Wexford70, We always appreciate your custom, along with everyone who purchases from us. I understand your point of view, but if we made the vans and were unable to sell half of them and the price was astronomical as it was such a small run (which it would be, we're looking at at least €150!) then IRM would be sunk and that would be that. I wish it wasnt the reality, but it is sadly. As I said, we're trying out best to resolve it. Thanks, Fran

The original first EP of the weedsprayer was shown here: https://irishrailwaymodels.com/blogs/announcements/first-project-42-sample-arrives also shared on the forum. There is a van for this set already available from Silver Fox models. We were honest and up front from the outset that doing the van will be very difficult. If you read back over my opening post it states that we have not ruled it out yet, but it is very difficult to do. We have been honest about this from the beginning and any level of debate cannot alter the facts of this matter. With a van available from Silver Fox you can now complete a weedspray train. I think people are looking at this from a glass half empty viewpoint. Thankfully there are many who are looking at it from a glass half full viewpoint and 25% of the production run has sold since announcement. Thank you to everyone who has purchased and supported us so far! Cheers! Fran

Hi Grahham, We would need to make 1000 of the vans as a minimum, which is a totally unique tooling. We do not have 1000 customers for IRM, or anywhere near. It's a completely unique body compared to other vans. As we saw with the plough vans these niche items dont seem to sell and we are a business at the end of the day. the outer hoses were left off as they would've caused derailments around curves. We modelled the container in original condition as it was longer lived and it is easier to add the panel than remove it and match paint. Both are prototypically correct. The 42 project cost a small fortune to tool and the grills would have caused all the other wagons in the series to be incorrect with mounting points etc., so we had to make a call. Would be a nice area for some etching manufacturer to offer components perhaps. We are sorry you are disappointed with these, but it does seem to be a highlighting of very small areas. Totally understand if they're not for you but many others are speaking very positively of them. We have had much feedback complaining of long lead times, now we release something to buy straight off the bat and we get more complaining. We really just cant win. Thanks, Fran

Thanks Robert, we tried to keep the prices on these as keen as possible! Thanks for the order. The headboards are not included but believe Studio Scale Models offer them. They were modified for weedspray use, but you never know! Cheers! Fran