murphaph

Did the 4/6 wheelers always have their running boards into the 50s/60s?

So I managed to find a copy of the first edition (for 1p) and it seems at time of print in August 1987 the following coaches were all in the process of being converted from open firsts to open standards, remaining firsts bolded: 5101 - conversion complete - 56 standard class seats 5102 - conversion complete - 56 standard class seats 5103 - conversion complete - 62 standard class seats 5104 conversion incomplete - 42 first class seats 5105 conversion complete - 56 standard class seats 5106 conversion incomplete - 42 first class seats 5106 seems to have remained like this until withdrawal as it ran on Enterprise duty until the DD's came along to relieve the mk2d's on the Belfast corridor. I suspect 5104 was already being converted to standard class in or about August 1987. It would be nice to see the post conversion vehicles (increased seating, not necessarily lined up with the 7 windows) modelled at some stage given most of them ran their entire IR/IE livery lives like that.

Thanks chaps!

Thanks @Anders112 and welcome to the forum! That answers the second part of my question nicely. So the remaining part is, when did a Hunslet propel a mk2 set for the last time?

When was the very last time a Hunslet propelled one of these sets? Anyone know? Did they ever do so after the 111's entered service?

@WRENNEIRE Dave do you have any pack A of the bubbles?

Very crisp indeed. What's the story with the black axles? Any particular reason you've changed the design there compared to the P42s?

Awesome, thanks!

Some useful info on the handful of mk2d firsts and what became of them here: https://www.steamtrainsireland.com/rpsi-collection/76/304-mk2-first-open I've decided to just pre-order 1 rake of IR ones. The way things are going with the hobby I will be suprised if either MM or IRM don't do these again in a few years so I am not buying any to renumber.

I have pre-ordered the 5 tippex ones. I'd rather have them and not need them than need them and not have them. @BosKonay I inadvertently placed the pre-orders without being logged in but the pre-order name/email form confirmation popup said the pre-order was successful. I am assuming this is ok and that I don't need to repeat in a logged in state? Edit: The 5 confirmation emails arrived so I guess it's all good.

Another couple of questions for the experts before I pull the trigger and place a pre-order for these.... 5103 is listed on the IRM shop as a first. According to my second edition 1989 Irish Railways T&T 5103 was a standard by then. Was it converted from a first post the 1987 rebranding to IR, or is the book perhaps in error? 5154 was a standard by 1989, having started life as a composite. Does anyone know if the modelled version will be the composite type or standard type? Were there even any internal changes to the coach.

Great stuff! It seems I didn't miss anything that I "need" to model my chosen 1994/5 era. I had some black roofed stuff but sold it as they only started painting the roofs black much later. The Galway livery is also too late for me.

Has someone got a complete list of the "original" IE run of these from MM? I have the following and am trying to figure out which ones I missed out on: MkIId MM MM5229 5229 MkIId open std, IE MkIId MM MM5236 5236 MkIId open std, IE MkIId MM MM5609 5609 MkIId EGV, IE MkIId MM MM5407 5407 MkIId restaurant, IE

071's??

A couple of short videos from the above two locations...

And a few more from Zalabér-Batyk Station kind of in the middle of nowhere but my wife's Hungarian side of the family are from this area so we occasionally visit. I usually drop down to see if anything is doing. Until 2007 this was a branch station providing interchange to the 6km short branch to the south east, which was closed due to austerity measures. Allegedly it will be reopened some day. For a pretty dead station in the middle of nowhere you can still get to both Budapest and Ljubljana direct from here, but most trains are local or regional. Freight trains often stop here to let passenger ones pass. There's an abandoned loading ramp which looks like it may have seen beet tipped from it at some stage! The parking area is clearly made of recycled sleepers laid face down to create a flat surface. And a few from a much more tourist oriented Balatonarács, taken in the evening sun...

Couple more snaps taken today:

I have about a dozen words Leslie. My wife can speak it well enough though so she does all the talking

A couple of impressions from Hungary, which we are currently visiting. We took the sleeper from Berlin to Budapest Nyugati via Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Journey time of just under 14 hours. Still plenty of jointed track in southern Poland which made sleeping a bit difficult. Two long shunting stops in Bohumin and Breclav allowed for some more solid sleep. We departed Berlin in a train made up of Hungarian, Austrian and Polish coaches and arrived in Budapest with the Hungarian, Czech and different Polish coaches (ones which came from Warsaw and joined our train in Bohumin). Allegedly this route is the most complicated sleeper route in the world with all the cities served. This is Nyugati (west) station. From here we took a taxi to the grim Deli (south) station and from there took an ex German built rake of interregional coaches to lake Balaton which took roughly two hours. The stretch along the lake's western shore is single track so there was some waiting for oncoming trains to pass... The Danube was also in flood following all the recent heavy rains further upstream:

@DJ Dangerous has a Lokprogrammer AFAIK. That would be the weapon of choice for changing anything on an ESU decoder. Waaay easier than fiddling with CVs anyway. Once click and you're done with a Lokprogrammer and it's much less likely that you will mess something up.

Personally I have decided to standardise on the "US diesel" way of doing things, so F9 for drive hold etc.

I've seen some folks just use a 2B pencil for things like thise. If it's just for the couplings I reckon it would be just fine but pure graphite wouldn't do any harm of course.

You could just use a pencil rather than graphite powder. The powder is very messy I found. A bit of fine sandpaper and a pencil will also produce graphite powder if direct application using the pencil doesn't work.

Everything including the kitchen sink!

Fair play Derek. Every convert to the cause is warmly welcomed here! I dare say most Irish based modellers started out with BR stuff too as that's all we could get back in the day (the "real" modellers were able to build their own of course but most of use came the RTR way).Good time to make the switch, with plenty of stock due to be announced in the coming months and years.