murphaph

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!

Nice one. Very much looking forward to these beauties. I've already made a space in the display case

Sorry for reviving such an old thread but it's better than starting a new one. Does anyone have any more details on 1518 and 1520 and for how long they operated with bars (Irish Railways Traction & Travel November 1989 refers to them as being fitted with "bars", the 3rd Edition from October 1994 lists both as standards) and in what liveries? Seems to be very little mention of them. When they went back to standards, were the plated up windows left as they were or opened back up and glazed? I'm guessing things happened like this because these snack cars are pretty basic and so it was easier to grab a pair of spare standards (1508, 1509) to convert those rather than take 1518 or 1520 out of service to refurbish them?

Good idea to split this out from the main thread. It's deserving of one of its own. I for one had no idea there were upper quadrant signals anywhere in Ireland so that's pretty fascinating already and a valuable history lesson for me. You have made a terrific start (unsuprisingly!) on what looks to be a fairly big project in itself. I shall be following with interest.

That's serious commitment to the hobby! It looks amazing.

That's the second one. I had two.

I have a 5224 that's sharp anyway. It's for sale too if anyone's interested

I'm out, as they say. The gearbox in a model locomotive should last more than 30 minutes of continuous running, no excuses. Sure that's the recommended running in time for most manufacturers!

Transport to the venue sorted Dave?

Yes, there have been several reports from members here of poor running 00 Works locos unfortunately.

Ah it was bought in haste before I had really settled on an era and now I have, it's a little too late in that livery. I would prefer the delivery livery and I'm sure there are some people who'd prefer the later one, hence the swap offer.