Warbonnet

Thanks Noel, glad you enjoyed the closer look. All our news gets posted here as well as in the mags of course (we've been lucky to receive great support and coverage from them so far!) so you won't miss out. One publication does want to do a sit down interview with us in the near future and we will give everyone a heads up when it happens. The ballasts and bubbles will be pristine when they arrive.

We took a trip to the recent Model Rail Scotland show in Glasgow where we met, amongst others, the legendary modeller and former editor of British Railway Modelling Tony Wright. Tony was impressed with our now slightly battered and well travelled pre-production samples and offered to take some professional grade pictures of them for us. We thought we would share them with you. At the show we met with Hornby Magazine, Model Rail magazine, Rail Express magazine and Railway Modeller. Keep an eye out in all of the above for updates! Production of the ballast wagon is well underway in China, with tweaks having been made to the model based on feedback on the model pictured. Pack A is now sold out! There are still refinements being made to the bubble before it arrives in the summer.

Only pulling your leg Noel! Some close up detail shots of them would be great when you get the camera settings sorted out

Have you been appointed director of marketing for IFM and Wheeltapper sounds, Noel??

They are the same except for the shaved head on the hopper top, which makes them look quite different alas.

You're not short in stature or patience Noel (except maybe in the case of a RTR A Class! )

Super stuff, thanks Kieran!

You reminded me that there is that other Gareth, who is also still a member!

Good man Noel, thanks! Any idea on wheelbase by any chance?

Hi everyone, does anyone know what the length of each car in a 2600 class railcar is? Cheers! Fran

They go for big money on EBay these days. Don't think many were produced.

One Gareth is still a member, another one was politely (and rightfully) told to take his leave.

£90 for the twin pack is a decent price. One single Autoballaster in UK livery is €70 in Marks for instance. In hattons a Genny is £46 on its own. Though who knows how high it will go!

Overall black as per the roof doesn't capture the prototype though. It's a combination of silver, rust and diesel exhaust black. They do start out in life silver as far as I can remember. I have seen them painted silver as per Eamonn's suggestion and it really pops them out.

Sean Ryan will be the man to talk to Peter. Usually placed towards the back of the hall.

Irish Railway Models will be there this Sunday, happy to take orders and shoot the breeze!

As many of you probably know by now, there was an IRM delegation in Germany this weekend. We got to check out real trains too, here's some pics from Frankfurt Hbf and Nuremberg Hbf for those who are interested. Enjoy! ICE 1 Frankfurt Hbf 05022017 by franburke, on Flickr

So, to the news! As Patrick mentioned earlier, himself and myself had to fly out to Germany this weekend to meet our Chinese factory representatives to discuss and finalise a number of details. They are as follows: 1. The ballast wagon will be going into production next week after Chinese New Year ends with a delivery date of late April 2017. 2. The tooling for our Tara Mines wagon will start next week also, which will see our production schedule accelerate dramatically now we are dealing directly with our factory. 3. Once the Ballasts lands the bubbles will go to production with a summer 2017 release date. 4. We have secured extra production capacity with our manufacturing partner which will see an increase of new models we will be bringing to market. Some of these will be fairly easy to guess while others will come as a surprise to many! That's the news folks! It's been a hugely tiring day but we've reacquainted ourselves with some old friends, made some new ones and have begun our next chapter!

We appreciate the patience and help everyone has given us in bringing you the first indigenous Irish RTR wagon Kevin. As you know there was a hiccup along the way which has brought this delay, but in the grand scheme of things we're doing better than most RTR manufacturers in delivery times (I have a British loco on order since 2010 for example!) considering we do this in our spare time. However, the wait is thankfully, almost over...

Hi Robbie, just to let you know it's forum rules to post an asking price too. Cheers!

Probably the worst time of year to sell anything David in fairness.

They're a sweet wee model. Absolutely tiny. Good to here Mr. Ex-Modelfair is still going. Got some of my 'hard to source items' from him in the past at good prices.

Exactly Dave. Nobody has a clue how this is going to pan out. Apparently the train is a lot less than air freight and faster than ship. I wouldn't be surprised if Britain tries to do favourable trade deals with China, the USA and other non EU markets. Only time will tell.

It will be hard for someone, most likely. However, at this juncture we have no idea who that will be. My purchases from Germany have been comparable to UK, save Hattons who subsidise postage. As I previously stated, businesses like Hattons have been deducting VAT for customers outside the EU for years. If they want to sell to people in the EU, then businesses would be stupid not to offer the same facility to the EU after Brexit. Simple good business sense. I have bought from the States regularly and if you go over the €150 duty (not VAT as you correctly pointed out, my bad) the penalty is large. But I still save over buying the same product in the EU. We simply have no idea how Sterling will react, but economists predict it will drop and already has since the Brexit vote. I guess I'm more a 'glass half full' kinda guy.

We simply do not know what the VAT structure shipping from outside the UK to Ireland at this early stage of the Brexit process will be. At this time, as Garfield has pointed out, if you buy goods to the value less than €150 outside the EU and have it posted to Ireland, there is no additional charge. If UK businesses deduct VAT on products shipped outside the country (Hattons for example has been doing this for years for orders outside the EU) then you will see a 20% discount on the sticker price. The would keep a lot of products under the €150 threshold. Paying an extra fiver on your shipping rather than using Parcel Motel will still see you making a saving. There are a huge amount of variables to consider before declaring 'dark days ahead'. Will sterling tank for instance? Have read many economists predicting parity with the Euro, this will bring down the cost further. Not to mention altering tax rates post Brexit, which could include VAT. It's far too early to say. It has as much chance being good news for us as bad news. I do agree with Noel though, it is almost certain to drive the price of British outline models up further due to the weakening pound and I think we've seen this already with recent Hornby and Bachmann announcements. Shipping from Germany to Ireland is not that expensive. I've done it myself. And most German websites offer English translations. I can't see them scrapping that over Brexit. The import threshold from Europe to the UK may be similar to what we experience from importing outside the EU. Again, far too early to say. There is always Google translate too which is nice and handy. Maybe something like Parcel Motel will cease to be viable, but we will still buy stuff from the UK. I wouldn;t go all out with the doom and gloom just yet.