murphaph

IRM has seemingly decided that completely oddball stuff is fair game though

We've spoken about 4112 privately but I guess there will be a lot more interest in the discussion now that we might some day get an IRM RTR version of this oddball yoke! It was you that put me on to the mk2d door swap that was done on it and the long CIE grab handles as opposed to the small ones. Also of note are the square biscuit tin shaped "GM" roof vents instead of roevac types. The early vintage of this particular mk2c is belied by its toilet windows which are from the 2b still rather than being the "AC" type fitted to most mk2c's including the coach directly behind it. Some early 2c's got the 2b toilet windows, presumably just using up the stock in Derby.

Deffo a 40' as the 45's have the inboard anchor points (to allow stacking with 40s) as can be seen on the third container which is a 45' Hi Cube in the same pic. Don't think the pic is correctly captioned however. That's surely the retro livery with those leds I would have thought.

Thanks LC. It's the "foyer" to the (future) railway room (which is through the glass door). The "Railway room" is at present my workshop and will only be vacated when I get around to building the garage lol. This display system allows me to enjoy a part of my collection in the meantime. Eventually I will re-home all this stuff to the layout and fill the cases with something else of interest to me. This space is in the basement so the missus let me away with it. She wouldn't have agreed to taking up so much wall space anywhere else in the house. Th cabinets are from a German online retailer but I believe they are French made. They were very reasonable, something like €30 a unit so for the price of one loco I got a full wall of display space. The spaces on the left are for a certain A Class locomotive, expected imminently. I can't find them on the retailer's site I bought them from but they wouldn't deliver to Ireland/UK anyway but this is the product on Amazon for reference (a tenner dearer than I paid): https://www.amazon.de/Inter-Link-Sammlervitrine-Hängevitrine-Glasvitrine/dp/B002PHLZJQ/ref=asc_df_B002PHLZJQ/?tag=googshopde-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=268405760521&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18397947486874646964&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9043180&hvtargid=pla-420239704950&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

The answer to your first 2 questions George is a definite yes. The third one will be a matter of taste I suppose. @iarnrod I reckon renumbering these might be easier said than done. The numbers are bound by the black stripe. The transfers would need to be very small. I'm not sure how tall the railtec ones are.

Definitely some scope to re-release these to cover the (in many peoples eyes) interesting early-mid 90's era, now that suitable coaching stock is to become available. The prices of all the second hand ones will presumably skyrocket due to the IRM announcement of NIR mk2b & c stock.

I suspect (but don't want to speak on his behalf so am open to correction) that DC is referring to the apparent need to cut out the brake gear and move the brake blocks out in front of the wheel flange when regauging. I see the point (I asked about it myself after all) but considering how much effort and sheer number of modelling hours these coaches will save me I can certainly live with a little bit of modelling on each wheel set. IRM's approach makes 21mm modelling practical going forward as we know the commitment is there to cater to it on future projects. Converting existing MM coaching stock will be a significantly bigger job as the whole bogie needs replacing or destructively modifying. It would be an absolutely awesome gesture if IRM would perhaps consider selling these highly detailed bogies separately to allow an easier regauging of older MM coaching stock. Even if they could be sold loose in an unbranded plastic bag to cut out the need to develop packaging (which would surely make the whole enterprise a loss maker) it would be great. I'm not asking for an answer now as I know you'd need to do some sums of you were so inclined but it would be appreciated if it could be considered.

Some more video. All thanks to Gerry Conmy's YT channel. Kildare: Portmarnock: Poyntzpass: Not sure where: Balbriggan:

They definitely made it to Kildare and possibly Portarlington to reverse, having brought passengers down from Belfast for the Irish Derby. At least one pic of them at the Curragh in the Irish Railway Rambler book springs to mind.

Not entirely because the cab side window frame on 112 was replaced with an IE one while she was on loan to them in the 2000's I believe. I've decided that the tiny details like this and lights and running numbers will probably never be 100% prototypical on my railway. Swapping the bodies of 112 and 8113 would at least give a closer to prototype mid 90's 112. I hadn't thought of doing that but I might now.

Same here.

The announcement yesterday was very slick by the way. You guys had all your ducks lined up beautifully and everything going live in quick succession was like a Swiss watch. I still can't quite believe such coaches are going to be released RTR. The joint AS/IRM release was also very clever as a way to expose more GB modellers to "our little railway" and its quirks.

Some day I'm sure lol!

You can say that again:

Will we be getting a "leader board" like for the A classes or will they just sell out without warning?

Looking at the underside of the bogies I'm wondering will the brake blocks sit behind the wheels where the wheels are pushed out to 21mm? Or is there a magic IRM solution for that in the works?

No. The GM's couldn't do Push Pull. The DVT was used as regular coaching stock with the withdrawal of the Hunslets from Enterprise duties.

Did NIR ever lend a set of these to CIE/IR/IE? I believe they were lent on occasional bank holiday weekends where there was a bank holiday in the south but maybe not in the north but were they ever lent for longer periods?

Woah, hang on a sec....you guys slipped a ex FK mk2c into the NIR set! I completely missed it in all the excitement. https://irishrailwaymodels.com/collections/mark-2-coaches/products/nir-mk2b-pack-corporate-intercity-1 Now that means we can almost certainly expect RTR versions of IR 4103, 4104, 4105, 4106 and 4107. 4109 was the only standard based on the mk2b so that should also be doable. Very excited for the future, even more than I was!

Did they ever run all 9 of the planned bumble bee coaches together?

We demand Hunslets!! lol

Well you have to have something to re-release. I doubt it was forgotten. I'm sure it was a conscious decision

Yeah I didn't see that coming at all. Fair play, they look beautiful already. The Hornby chaps were clearly impressed. Obviously there's some common tooling between BR and NIR versions but the decision to press ahead with the "oddball" NIR variants is brave and I hope will be rewarded. With this announcement I can't help but feel an 80 Class isn't too many years away.....

Park Royals make the most sense to me given the hints about coaching stock and the fact they ran with A's their whole (long) lives.

*Bicycle pump not included