murphaph

Oh maybe my info is out of date Lev. I'm sure somebody more knowledgeable about the scene will come along soon to help.

Third last coach in the first video seems to have been bricked too.

The 10' Uniload ones would indeed be pretty special. I'd grab a few, though by my era they were largely, but not quite completely a thing of the past. They'd look well with the IRM forklifts for sure!

I think at the moment none of them are hauling any freight as there are enough 071s available and these seem to be preferred in this role. Welcome to the forum

Does anyone know why NIR didn't allow for continued push pull operations with the 111s? Seems retrograde to introduce shunting when with the Hunslets there was none required previously.

Q4 this year was the original projected delivery date. Not sure if that still stands with the world in seemingly constant turmoil. I saw a nice comment over on RMWeb about these engineering samples along the lines of "they are the sort of quality other companies would ship to end customers". I thought that hit the spot. They are going to be awesome, whether BR, NSE, Trans-Penine, NIR or someday IR. I am super looking forward to the NIR corporate livery. What a great splash of colour they add to a "south of the border" layout. I always considered the NIR stock "exotic", like a little bit of BR in Ireland or something.

Why not start with the unrebuilt kit from SF? You get the correct bogies thrown in for good measure: http://silverfoxmodels.co.uk/ir-ie-generating-steam-van-dutch/

The NIR stock made it all over the IR network. In fact some of the longest rakes assembled made it out on the GSWR as specials to things like the Irish Derby at the Curragh. Great scope for a modeller there as they ran on empty to Kildare or Portarlington so the loco could run around and drag them back to Heuston for servicing before returning to the Curragh to collect passengers for the return journey, before running around again at Kildare and heading home.

Hopefully this helps a bit:

It's almost certain that IRM will release the 2b's in IR/IE liveries in the presumably not too distant future given the tooling will exist for it. Common sense dictates that much. Common sense also dictates, that if NIR coaching stock is viable (especially the oddball ones) then CIE laminates and Park Royals should also be viable but IRM can't release the stuff in too quick succession because well, most of us can't afford it if they do that, so releases have to be somewhat staggered. Personally I find the release cycles from IRM just about right for the sake of my marriage.

Will do Sean. Give me a couple of days to dig it out from "storage".

A tragic start to this summer's cheap rail travel today with a fatal crash in Bavaria. At least 4 dead on a regional train that seems to have toppled over in a curve. RIP.

Yeah looks like sprung points to speed up running around. I think Heuston yard had at least one set as well.

Lovely things. Will they be available in IRM bricks and mortar retailers or online from IRM only?

My ticket: It's strange seeing the Deutschlandtarif at the top. Might never happen again. It's a first in my lifetime I believe. The ticket is not valid until you write your name on it and it is not transferable so changing the name invalidates it immediately. A passport or national ID card is required when using the ticket. Driving licences etc. are insufficient. I got one for all the family. Sure it'll encourage us to take a couple of random trips somewhere. Can't go wrong at that price. Edit: This guy simulated the 9€ ticket in advance and travelled from Munich to the Baltic coast using only regional and local trains. He took 16 hours to do it, 2 longer than expected because there was an embankment fire along the way which closed a section for a while as the fire brigade extinguished the blaze:

I guess you could travel the entire network minus any purely high speed and freight only sections. You have 3 months to do it for €27 plus your accommodation costs.

Yeah you can't use it on IC/EC/ICE trains, only regional and regional express and everything below that (commuter rail, metro, tram, bus) but it's a hell of an offer nonetheless! It's a one off to get people to use trains and buses during the holidays instead of their cars, to reduce dependency on Russian oil I guess.

Wow. 7 million of these tickets have been sold so far for June already. People with monthly or annual passes don't even need to buy one, their local/regional tickets are valid nationwide and they will get a refund on the extra cost so they aren't out of pocket.

Yeah it's mad to see some of the journeys people are planning from one end of the country to the other, effectively for free but generally taking very many hours and multiple changes. I am planning a trip to the Harz on a school day before the holidays start. Will set off early and get to Quedlinburg for 10.30 and spend the morning and afternoon travelling the system around to Wernigerode before heading home. Might take a spin to VW Autocity as well. That's reachable in 2.5 hours on regional trains from here. The obvious destination is the Baltic sea coast but that will be mobbed completely with Berliners as it's easily reachable for a day trip.

It may be of interest to some. Germany is introducing a nationwide 9€ per month train/bus/tram ticket for the summer months. The ticket allows use of (almost) all regional and regional express trains in the entire country as well as all local public transport networks. Interestingly however it also includes several steam operated railways, such as the Mollibahn and the Harz Narrow Gauge system (except the ascent to the summit of the Brocken mountain): https://www.hsb-wr.de/Fahrplan-Tarife/Tarife/Fahrpreise/9-Euro-Ticket/ I will definitely be grabbing a ticket in each month and taking a spin somewhere. Trains will be packed on weekends however, so beware!

A similarly clumsy driver seems to have caught this by now faded Bell container in the same way: A grubby old CIE box:

No it's bought not built. I did modify it though. The fan it came with was stripped out (super loud thing) and a replacement manifold the same size as the fan body was made out of a piece of scrap wood and I plumbed it into my house's ventilation system so it runs silently and in fact more powerfully than with the fan in.

Weathering those Merlinir trucks up and a couple of containers. Bit of learning more than anything else. Going to apply a coat of grime and then a final coat of varnish. Oil paint needs to dry first though.

I wouldn't order those Bell reefers from DC Kits if I were you. I did and I got 20' Bell dry boxes instead and this was never rectified or the error acknowledged. I don't think he has those reefers as the same thing happened to others on here IIRC. I'll stick to ordering direct from Arran from now on

Arran has 20' B&I in stock still.