murphaph

Surely it all hangs on the revival or otherwise of railfreight. Passenger services will go more and more towards multiple units I guess.

There were 87 5 hours ago! I suspected they'd be gone by Friday but I seem to be way off. They'll be gone by tomorrow at this rate!

You'd almost feel sorry for it. "A Lima A Class is for life, not just until IRM bring out something that actually looks like an A Class" https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185127302612

I'm guessing you only need P4 profile wheels if you are regauging to P4 standards as opposed to TOM (Twenty One Millimeter like EM standard), no? Don't most EM folks just push the wheels of their 00 diesel locos out (where axle length permits)?

Will the ones with missing stickers be like the old upside down stamps worth millions in a hundred years??

I had actually wondered why you weren't on here having seen your great work over there. Welcome!

That doesn't really narrow it down much.

I guess we can thank IRM for keeping a closer eye on the whole process. We know stuff wasn't right a few months back and it was corrected before full production started. That's clearly a better way to handle things.

When were the Ranks wagons retired?

I guess they're all popular enough so as to have sold down to the point where you can see an exact number of remaining units in the IRM shop.

I think it was longest lived on the A's as they knew they were the closest to withdrawal in many cases. Didn't someone provide evidence that a single 071 got this treatment for a short while? I think 121 had the roundels painted out but not patched over for a while. Think one of the books covering the era has a pic.

Maybe @WRENNEIRE has a dark green one available? If not, someone will sell one on eBay. IRM might even find one down the back of the sofa when doing a tidy up when the dust has settled. They have certainly found stuff before during the stock take. Maybe ask can you reserve one if one turns up?

I'd buy one Colin!

Maybe you're right. I hope you are!

Sad to think most of those builders plates probably ended up being melted down.

The A's look great with the mk2's especially.

Ah ok, phew. I was expecting a deluge of cardboard lol. You can disregard my mail then

Is it going to be the default practice to send all items singly from now on with DHL Express or is it just a one off for the A's? How will the forthcoming Taras be shipped, for example?

Mail sent! Thanks for the heads up.

German stuff should not go near a customs check. I can't imagine given how overwhelmed they appear to be with GB stuff that they would do anything except wave all EU stuff through. Welcome to the forum JB. Perhaps there is alternative stay alive product from an EU manufacturer? I mean stay alives aren't anything particularly special.

Only right too if they can't levy the taxes then they should just deliver the parcels tax free. It's their problem to get their house in order.

Exactly. Keep it simple and ship the product. Adding in more variables would just slow down the process for all.

Please pass on our appreciation for their work too

That's really interesting about the relative market sizes. I'm actually surprised the Irish market is worth that much. I would also have thought the UK and German markets were much closer in size than that. When can we expect the Akkuraskale Kriegslok then?

I guess Heljan probably had the same "problem" with the small Danish market and decided to make stuff from another market to cross subsidise. So the British modelling enthusiast gains a great company out of a dearth of RTR Irish modelling stuff down the years. There's some delicious irony in that. I bet the "larger UK manufacturers" wish they'd provided a few half decent bits and pieces to us in Ireland down the years now lol. As others have rightly said, this award is thoroughly deserved not just because the models are of the best RTR quality, but because of the whole openness and communication on forums like this. If I'm honest I was not surprised to hear that Accurascale won MotY. It'll be interesting to see which market you lads tackle next