Warbonnet

What's your query with the Tara roof? Cheers, Fran

Thanks for the support! The cost is a significant sum to the tooling as these mounting points need to be invisible for the IR and IE variant, so extra tooling is required.

Hi Noel. Thanks for that. As stated above: Cheers, Fran

It's under consideration, but I can't say any more than that at the moment as I'm sure you can appreciate! It would be great if we could keep focus of this topic on the CIE ballast plough for now, as we are a bit tight for time to give the factory the green light or not. Cheers!

Hi everyone, The recent discussion around CIE era modellers and the plough vans has been the subject of much debate here in IRM Towers. We have love for the roundel as much as anyone, but as sales and our customer survey a couple of years ago showed, the love seems to be for more modern era than CIE days. The debate started around our announcement of our plough vans, where we did announce the CIE version initially, but changed to IR and IE. There were two reasons for this; one as outlined above, and secondly, the CIE van requires additional tooling changes, including doors and removal of the mesh grills. However, there has been impassioned pleas for the van in CIE guise. So, we have looked at it again. We feel we can do it and add it to the order along with IR and IE vans. But there are some issues. Firstly, we really need your support on this. We stand to make next to nothing on the ploughs, as they were more about finishing the ballast hopper train off than a money maker, but if we receive cancellations of IR and IE in favour of the CIE vans the whole project becomes unviable. So, we would need you to buy them and show your support for CIE, but we would really need you to not cancel your existing order if you have plumped for IR and/or IE. We know it’s an inconvenience, but we’ve crunched the numbers several times and it’s the only way we can do it. As an added incentive for the CIE plough, if sales do go well we are looking to do ballast wagons with the CIE roundel in 2019, so you can have an authentic CIE era ballast train. Perfect for your Supertrain 141, 181 or forthcoming 121. We know it’s an unusual approach, but this is a project where we really need your support for it to work. If the desire isn’t there, then we will just do IR and IE ploughs and conclude our market research and gut feeling was correct. Here is your chance to prove that wrong and act as a catalyst for CIE models to appear in the future. Let us know what you think below, and if the desire is there we will put them up for preorder very soon for delivery along with the IR and IE vans in late August. Cheers! Fran (on behalf of the IRM crew!)

Nice job George, the Slater’s kits are nice too. Probably too opportunist of me to point out that we’ve launched our first 7mm wagon with Accurascale, due out later this year. Not much use for SR, but would look well on the Wexford and MRSI club layouts. If it goes well we will do more in he future https://accurascale.co.uk/new-announcement-huo-in-7mm-scale/ cheers, Fran

Hi Graham, There will be more than one per pack so a full train can be coupled with them. This is in addition to the standard tension locks. They will also have NEM pockets at the correct height as there is nothing to inhibit this as per the ballast and bubble. Cheers! Fran

Hi everyone, As you can see above, moulding is now done and they are currently being assembled. Delivery slipped a tad as the factory had to remake the Accurascale wagon for the NRM due to a decoration flaw. The good news is that we will have them here in the second week in August, all going well. We are including a couple coupling bars in each pack to help with close coupling. This will be the finest IRM model yet, so make sure you don't miss out. At €79.95 a pack they're good value too, along with the rake deal helping you save even more! https://irishrailwaymodels.com/collections/tara-mines Cheers, Fran

It was defo a PR shot, and they all got CIE orange as per your pic, originally with CIE roundels, then IR after 87 when they were getting long in the tooth. Most of the fleet was Leyland at that time, with some Guy thrown in for good measure. However, the British made trucks were being left behind at that time by the Europeans, especially for the long distance work, hence buying the Volvos, though I'm sure a Leyland Marathon and a Ford Transcontinental was trialed by CIE around this time. The next significant fleet tender went to Bedford, always amazed that Hino didnt get it, considering how popular they were becoming at the time.

Exactly as Patrick says. We also said from the outset with the bubbles that we would do it in all liveries, so it was hardly that much of a surprise surely? Much like the bauxite Tara’s are first, but we have said blue Tara’s are going to follow. Orange bubbles remain on sale for anyone who wants to buy them and prove to us that CIE sells as strong as more modern liveries!

I get you now Kevin, that’s for clearing that up. As I said before we find in our market research and in sales that the older CIE stuff does not sell as well as the more modern scene. The Orange bubbles for instance, while selling okay and IMHO are nicer looking that the white bubbles (most of which are labeled CIE too) haven’t sold anywhere near as fast. We’re certainly glad we only done two packs in the end. Until stuff likes them starts flying off the shelves at a similar rate it’s hard to see that experience changing. Thankfully the Fert wagons carried roundels for a long time so I could see some ending up in the rake we do. It’s also fairly easy to add a transfer to the sides of them if you want an all CIE rake too. cheers, Fran

Hi Kevin, Earlier liveries or styles than the orange bubbles? Sorry, not sure what you mean by that. Cheers, Fran

Model Railway manufacturing and design never sleeps!

Our DPD man has a big van and his own parking space with us at this stage!

Hi Noel, The factory are currently putting them together, I would imagine they will be here in early August. Cheers, Fran

Hi everyone, Here's a look at the Fert with the centre beams. @Glenderg has done a stunning job on this, along with all the other project 42 bits! We will have news on the Ferts such as liveries, running numbers and price very soon, and will throw open the order books. Cheers, Fran

Hi AMDaley, You sent this as a status update which is displayed on the right hand side of the forum index page, rather than a PM. Cheers, Fran

Nah, they haven’t played a decent side yet!

Hi Connollystn, many thanks for posting an ad on the forum. One of the rules of advertising on the forum is to list prices with the items you are listing for sale. cheers! Fran

We saw the lovely 'Carrowbeg' at the recent Perth show which along with 'Old Blarney' was flying the flag for Irish outline modelling. We managed to get this shot of our bubbles, featuring some beautiful weathering, in action on the layout. The owner saw our stand and decided to add to his rake too! If you are thinking of doing the same and want to add ivory liveried bubbles to your rake, we suggest you do it soon, as we are down to our last few packs. Order now to avoid disappointment as it will be likely the last white bubbles we do for a long, long time. We have a few pack D left, and that's it, with A, B and C all sold out. https://irishrailwaymodels.com/collections/cement-bubbles

I know a few of you dont like Facebook, but for those of you that do, we're running a competition! We're getting closer to the 1,000 'likes' mark on our page. We really want to get past that figure, so we are going to give away a pack of our HUOs to one lucky person. All you have to do to be in with a chance to win is simply like our page. We will then pick the winner at random from everyone who 'likes' our page, so if you have already liked it, then you are in with a chance of winning too! The sooner we get there, the sooner you can win, so make sure you tell all your buddies in your local club, in your local shop, share in relevant groups and on forums or even tell the spotters at the platform end of your nearest station. https://www.facebook.../AccurascaleUK/ Good luck!

Hi Noel, By the time the weedspray goes on pre-order I'm sure we will have a concrete answer on the van. Taking time to see if another model follows can be a risky game though, as we have some punters who decided to not buy ballast hoppers as we hadn't announced plough vans, and when we announced plough vans the first run of ballast wagons had sold out, meaning they missed out. We would hate to see the same happen to people with the weedsprayer. The plan this time is to let people know the van will be done by the time the weedsprayer goes on sale and we will do our best to do so. Cheers, Fran

We'll try our best Graham, honest. We have a couple of ideas to make it viable, but it has to have a solid business case too as I'm sure you can appreciate.

Not yet Noel, it's even more niche than the plough van to be honest. We will let you all know when we decide!

Hi everyone, While most of us were able to get out and enjoy the lovely weather for the past few days, poor Richie has been slaving away on the latest masterpiece as part of 'Project 42'; the Weedsprayer. Here's a look at the tanks so far. Please note that it is still a work in progress, with items to be added and revised before production, but we know you all like a glimpse of our stuff as it progresses!