murphaph

Cheers JB, I can't use them on the planned 21mm layout but they are worth supporting so I have ordered the 4 pack for the display case I know these are "just repaints" but it's a good sign of a growing market for Irish RTR.

Could any of the resident experts say which of these are genuinely close to Irish prototypes? I am thinking about one or two for the display case. I assume these cannot be regauged to 21mm without major surgery.

That's very nicely done. The mottling especially.

I am looking forward to following your progress on these Robert.

Classified is now live:

I will be going ahead folks. There's been enough +ive feedback to justify producing a few units of these at least. I have outlined the details in a classified instead of clogging up this thread. That should go live whenever a mod has a chance to ok it.

Strange looking contraption too. The snowplough seems to be designed to clear left and right of the track and to put in grooves as it does it. It's as if road vehicles are expected along there too.

If I was to do the transfer sheets, I'd probably do say enough for half a rake/4 wagons per sheet with a couple of spares for mistakes. How much would folk be prepared to pay inc postage for such a sheet? I don't want to rip anyone off but I don't want to rip myself off time-wise either. Time is precious and all that. Please bear in mind these transfers are only designed to make the fert pallets look like they are pallet wrapped when they are inserted into the wagons. There is no decoration on the sides or anything, though this makes application very straightforward. You just drape the transfer over the top and smooth out with your wet fingers. The transfer paper used is quite thick and completely opaque white so it actually looks like pallet wrap if you ask me. By the way, I'm not really sure it's appropriate to "hijack" the IRM thread for a "commercial" (he said very much tongue in cheek!) purpose like this. Apologies if it's unwelcome but the transfers have come up a number of times now both here and on Facebook so I thought I should see if there is genuine demand. If this discussion should be in another thread of its own please move it out of here.

I guess anything is possible but I think Martin will want to get the basics working first. It is a work in progress and still months away from a finished polished version I think. But it's all going in the right direction and for those requiring a custom gauge like 21mm it's extremely promising.

Yeah I have been following the topic quite keenly for several months now I get the email updates and read them almost daily. Martin has put in a heroic effort with all this. He's "reasonably" close to getting a point to printable stage I would say. The common crossing is challenging him at the moment I think. I wouldn't worry about the lack of canted rail, sure soldering FB rail to PCB sleepers can't do that either. Martin is a big 21mm fan so he will possibly some day look at FB rail. We have exchanged a few posts about the topic in those two threads. The main difficulty with FB rail is that the clips are so small that making them robust enough will be quite hard. Pandrol clips he reckons will not be doable. Some earlier types which would certainly pass the 2' rule but to be honest I would take his bullhead solution and run with it. Plenty of bullhead in Ireland as well. It is the way I now plan to make my layout's trackwork. I am probably going to go the laser cut sleeper route, though I may get an FDM printer to do the pointwork as some features like sole plates are printed into the sleepers themselves that way.

I suspect not too many would have believed an MV+Hunslet+rake of ferts would have been prototypical had Jim not seen it. Someday someone will model that scene.

Great stuff. the decals really pop out.

It's rather humorous that An Post's International Express takes exactly the same number of days to get to Germany

I assumed it was an IRM manufacturing phase rather than anything prototypical but I honestly have no idea.

Maybe Phase 1 & 2? (SO is just standard open I guess) I'd be interested to know the correct answer too.

The dicky Taras at least have been mentioned.

A bit like these...

I guess the greenway at least protects the alignment from development if nothing else. There is nothing really between Midleton and Youghal and Youghal is a small town (today). I do believe that at present there are better places the money can be invested in the rail network (in Cork). Building the proposed new stations and double tracking to Midleton will bring 10 times more new customers than relaying the 15kms to Youghal would. Some day maybe but personally I think Light rail from Kent into the city and out into the southern and western suburbs should be a much higher priority than Youghal, for now. You can all stone me now

I think it looks fairly positive. Cork's smokey tunnel and through the 5 minute frequency area would be an ideal place to electrify, should these hybrid battery/electric railcars become a thing (and personally I think they will as they make a lot of sense on cost grounds). Let the units charge the batteries under the wires in the middle of the system and operate on battery power out to the termini (where short sections of OHLE would allow trains to recharge a bit while waiting for their next turn of duty. I know that's not part of this plan but long term it's an ideal use case for this tech. The future of the vast majority of passenger rail journeys in Ireland is urban. The regional cities have been largely neglected and yeah, Dublin has a poor rail network for a European capital too.

The Eal is an open high sided wagon. Typical loads would be scrap metal, coal, aggregates. Even finished steel I think.

Lovely stuff. Really nicely done. I particularly like the Eal.

I will not be getting one as I don't need to commute anywhere daily. For the odd time I need to go into Berlin it isn't really worth it for me. Great boost for people who do commute. For comparison a monthly ticket for Berlin ABC which would be something like the short hop zone around Dublin is currently €90 and is only valid locally. The new ticket is valid nationwide on local and regional transport. It'll be good for Brandenburg and other areas surrounding big cities as it will encourage day trips out of Berlin and other cities into the surrounding regions. Only downside is it's subscription only and non-transferable. The current Berlin tickets are available spontaneously or as subscriptions and are transferable, even the cheaper subscription options. But that's a small complaint really given the benefits.

Looks like access was a bit tricky Eoin. Did you mix the concrete yourself on site?

This one will someday adorn the small PW compound at Kildare: Needs a very light dusting of grime when the oil paints have cured. The cab windows are crystal clear which is unlikely in a dusty environment moving ballast around.

Your yellow bags maybe? Pic credit: Ernie.