murphaph

Usually Marks Models retails IRM products but you might want to get your name on the list if they are retailing these. In the UK Chris Dyer Fairs usually stocks IRM products.

No worries Kevin. It looks like we may get another bite at the Irish Cement cherry. I suspect those are likely to be very popular among newcomers to the hobby who missed out first time. They were the ones I wanted the most anyway and I was delighted to get pack H when I did. Yeah the wagons are fine and they match the picture on the website. It's the description on the website that has a discrepancy and this discrepancy is also to be found on the packaging but I strongly suspect that they were all like that and it's of no importance. I was going nuts here though because I took out one pack G to display in my display case but I could not figure out why this one wagon was there or where it was coming from as it's not listed as one of the wagons in any of the packs I do own (C,D,G,H) lol.

I think they are probably all like this Kevin. I just never noticed as it was immaterial up to now. Upon closer inspection the image on the website shows what's actually in the box. The listing on the website differs by one wagon and this listing matches the print on the packaging. https://irishrailwaymodels.com/collections/cement-bubbles/products/irish-cement-wagon-multi-pack-g

Quick question about the original run....I am doing some "stocktaking" now that a re-run may be on the horizon. I bought a bunch of duplicate pack G's to renumber but will probably just sell those on now, just keeping one pack and buying new numbers instead. Maybe I missed it as I returned to the hobby after these had been released but my pack G's don't contain exactly what's printed on the box. All 5 packs that I have contain the following wagons: 25064 25127 25136 According to the packaging and the website they should contain: 25064 25136 25178 It looks like in my packs the 25178's are always missing, replaced with a 25127. 4 of the 5 packs I have only just opened now to check. Was this the case for every pack G made or just some? I don't really care what running numbers are in the box but if I am selling them I would like to know if they were all like that, so I can mention it in the ad. I will obviously list the actual running numbers and mention the fact these deviate from the packaging but if they are all like that it's less of an issue when selling.

Cheers Robert, I will be aiming for this look for 112: That's before it was on long term loan to IE (which is when it seems to have started accumulating orange bits!)

Thanks for the update. Looking forward to Q2 & Q3 very much now!

Pack A Irish Cement was very hard to find and I never managed to track one down. It is the only IRM item I never managed to catch up on. I would buy a pack A in Irish Cement in a heartbeat. I would also buy any white CIE roundel ones with new numbers.

Detail being applied to the 111s in advance of another clear coating and then reassembly can begin before weathering starts. The detailing isn't random. It was inconsistent on the prototypes too.

Facebook groups are likely to be the first port of call for many getting into the hobby. I am a "forum guy", being a member of several, but the vast majority of humankind does not know what a forum is

BCK and BSK refer to the original British Rail donor coaches that were converted by BREL to GSVs for CIE. A BCK was a Brake Composite Corridor coach, so roughly half the vehicle had the functions of a brake van (caboose) and the rest was a mixture of 1st and 2nd class (that's the composite bit) and it was a corridor coach in the passenger compartment, so corridor with individual compartments, rather than open seating. A BSK was almost the same except all second class, no first class compartments. The exterior of the GSVs looked slightly different, depending on which donor type was used but they were functionally identical. The Dutch refers to the design of the wagon which was from Werkspoor in the Netherlands, with the vans being built under licence by CIE in Dundalk. The slab sides give the continental European heritage of these things away immediately. The bogies are Werkspoor types, unique on Irish rail. They were only used with these vans.

I'll plug my favourite local shop here in Berlin again. They have a fair shipping policy in that they refuse to accept orders below €25 completely so that they don't have to cross subsidise these from larger orders. Their charges for delivery to Ireland are by weight and as follows: https://www.zinnfigur.com/en/Shipping-and-Charges/ I have never been anything but satisfied with this shop. The range is absolutely huge too. I don't know if they sell Noch stuff (because that is readily available in Germany and this guy tends to retail stuff from abroad really, Woodland scenics, AK, Vallejo, Deluxe Materials etc.) but he does sell scatter from other manufacturers.

There are (currently) no "highly detailed" RTR models of an equivalent standard to the Murphy Cravens available but Silverfox Models do RTR models that may be acceptable: http://silverfoxmodels.co.uk/ir-ie-generating-steam-van-ex-br-mk1-bsk/ http://silverfoxmodels.co.uk/ir-ie-generating-steam-van-ex-br-mk1-bck/ http://silverfoxmodels.co.uk/ir-ie-generating-steam-van-dutch/ The alternatives are to build one yourself or wait until Murphy or (perhaps more likely) IRM releases one of the above.

Even a usually cruel close up is extremely convincing. Bravo.

I am unaware of anyone selling them, at present. I would be surprised if IRM doesn't release them at some stage though as they were quite prolific for a good 20+ years on the network. Transfers are available from Studio Scale Models to make your own. You could probably cut a c-rail 20' in half add a bit of plasticard and make it look like two 10' containers. The unpainted c-rail containers don't cost much, maybe like €6. Arran will ship them worldwide as far as I know. You could take the opportunity to pick up a few painted "typically Irish" containers of the era like the Bell Lines and B&I ones at the same time.

Cravens in 1990 needed the generator van for lighting. When they were originally introduced they had their own dynamos and batteries to provide light, with heat coming from the steam generator, either a steam loco or a steam generating van if hauled by a diesel. Later the Cravens were converted to "train line" with power routed through the train from a central source, the generating steam van. Even the shortest 1 coach branch line Craven train would have had a GSV in tow in 1990.

Yes flats often ran without the full complement of 5 cages or with one or two cages empty or whatever. Yes, there are photos circulating showing a 20' container sharing a flat with the keg cages. I don't know how common this was but it did happen. If it happened with 20' containers it almost certainly would have happened with the uniload 10' ones.

I agree with Jonathan. I have no personal recollection of anything before the mid 80's but the grey and green era is my "other" era. I will buy stock from around 1960-1962 (end of steam) and 1994-1995 and nothing in between because well, you have to draw a line somewhere. When I came back into the hobby the interest in grey n green wasn't there at all. The wonderful A Class and grey 121s changed that for me and I look forward to more rolling stock from that era too.

Three of the four packs are now sold out with barely double digits left of the sole remaining pack.

Some sort of datum plate to indicate the height (depth?) of the rail head from the red sliding marker I would assume (with zero actual knowledge!). It looks like the plate is fixed roughly in position and then the slider is moved to the exact reference point and itself then fixed in position. But I'm just guessing. The yellow signs, no idea, maybe the same idea though?

Locking bars to prevent unauthorised opening of the container while sitting on the wagon in a freight yard. Edit: You wouldn't have seen much freight during the day though there was still plenty of freight on the system in 1990. The liner trains with the containers on them mostly started to run late evening and into the night as passenger services stopped.

Thanks chaps! Much appreciated Looking forward to completing these and getting on to weathering them up!

Thanks George!

I also find myself using it an awful lot less recently. It's just too much with the ads on there. A discreet ad between forum posts here or there never bothers me but advertising content being overlaid over what I want to read usually sends me away from any website.

Ok so the longest project in the world draws a big step closer to completeion. I was satisfied with a test spray of the laser cut NIR logo on the side of one of the 111s but felt the actual paint job was letting the end result down. I took back down to bare plastic and I ordered Stynelrez primers as an alternative to what I had been working with and I am very glad I did. Priming is a breeze with my setup and these paints. I chose to "zenithal prime" these three, that means priming them all black, then priming the upper surfaces white, so that when painted over, the upper surfaces would be more bleached out due to the effects of the sun. A lot of this will disappear under roof dirt and soot but I wanted to give the technique a try and it works, at least for these darker top colours. I then painted the blue and finally the NIR logo was airbrushed on through the laser cut mask. For me the results are far superior to using a transfer. There's no translucency in the white, it's proper opaque white like the factory finish. It's obviously not quite as good as the factory finish but the actual shape of the logo is closer to the real thing IMHO. I will use the same technique to cut out masks for the yellow warning panels. These were a mare to prepare by hand previously and the result still wasn't as good as I expect to be able to achieve with the laser. It was just too tricky to get the corner radii right/uniform doing it by hand.

The way you can pay online and then your parcel is released and delivered as normal is very elegant. Here in Germany I get a note in my letterbox telling me how much is due and that I can go to my local post office to pay it and collect the item myself. There is no way to pay from home and let them deliver it. Before Corona they would take cash (and only cash and they never gave change) at the door IF you were at home but usually you weren't and the item would then go to the local post office as above. An Post's way is very customer friendly in comparison (and the handling charge is a little over half what we pay in Germany, though ok, our VAT is only 19% on most things but that's not An Post's fault). Credit where it's due!