murphaph

That's simply unforgivable. The parcel doesn't even make it out of the mails centre and gets sent back?! I think people in Ireland need to start documenting these incidents and making formal complaints to Comreg and/or the responsible minister. What about setting up a Facebook group for affected customers to post their experiences and shame the company into doing what it should be doing as a matter of course?

Interesting use of what appears to be a barrier wagon. I wonder what that is there for.

I wonder were the openings originally serviced by a siding. The station was what, 100 years old already by the time the photo was taken? I guess tracks could have been lifted to make way for the rodding?

Lovely. What was the structure in the first picture? It looks like a cattle loading ramp but there's no track there.

These wagons doubled as spoils wagons and could be seen elsewhere on the network on weekends. They could come up to Dublin on a Saturday morning do some track works and then head back to Limerick on Sunday evening to be ready for the mine's operations on Monday morning. There's a picture of them arriving into the gullet in the Traction book. I have another question that's slightly related.... John mentioned a rotary tippler at Foynes. I was unaware of any zinc mining in that area. Did they use the shale wagons for the zinc? Could the Foynes rotary tippler handle the Tara Mines wagons? Indeed, didn't Tara initially export through Foynes in the very beginning?

An Post appear very quick to just send stuff back to sender. That's not good enough at all for a postal service where the recipient is actually known and all that needs to be established is the value. That really only happens here if they attempt a delivery and I am not at home and don't bother going to pick it up. Even if a parcel arrives in to Germany with zero paperwork, it will not be sent back. They will divert the parcel to the recipient's local customs office and send the recipient a letter informing them of this fact. The recipient then goes to the customs office with some proof of the value and opens the parcel in front of a local customs officer who gives you the total due if anything. An Post need a fallback for incorrect or missing paperwork that doesn't include shipping the parcel back to the sender.

Those guys could barely contain their excitement. Great stuff. I have a copy of the magazine winging its way to me too for that review!

Yep pretty common. There is one in East Berlin (Wuhlheide Parkeisenbahn) and an extensive one in Budapest, both of which I've had the pleasure of going on.

I'm not defending the delays but the €3.50 charge is very much on the low side compared to other countries. It's €6 here and much much more in some places like Denmark. From reading some Amazon (UK) seller forums it seems there's a lot of room for error when creating the shipping entities in the Royal Mail system. It can appear that everything is correct but the data has not been transmitted electronically to An Post (etc.) so the parcel gets stopped for customs.

Why would a parcel destined for somewhere not in the EU have an IOSS logo on it I wonder?

The monthly update is nice to have John, even if there's not a lot to report due to circumstances well beyond your control

I assume it should tell them that the retailer has availed of the EU's import one stop shop and has therefore already paid the VAT to one of the member states. But I honestly don't know if it's there for the carrier or customs or anybody. In different countries, the carrier is responsible for determining and collecting the VAT and in others (like here in Germany) there are customs officials working in the mails centres and they determine the VAT and duties due and put a sticker on the parcels. It's still a pretty new facility. I guess some officials are still not looking for it, though you'd imagine if it was important it would be much more visible?

Look out for the little round IOSS logo on those Hattons parcels. It's printed on the label but it's pretty small. Maybe take a pic of it if it's there and post it up. The missus dumped the box before I could take a pic last time.

I've also ordered a copy on bookdepository.com. Does anyone know if the retailers will have the book already on the publication date and can ship immediately?

I guess the blue springs are rated higher if they are under a GSV.

pAtience is a virtue

When did the fallen flag Bells start appearing? Would they ever have appeared in a train of fallen flag Bells or only individually?

Here's a mk2d with all red springs: https://paulinemckenna.smugmug.com/BW/1993/Ireland-/i-73VNBbh Some mk3's appeared to have had these blue things, perhaps some sort of damper fitted also: https://paulinemckenna.smugmug.com/BW/1993/Ireland-/i-CFv8xt9 Mk1 GSV with blue springs: https://paulinemckenna.smugmug.com/BW/1996/Ireland-1996/i-pr74833 Another mk2d with red springs: Freshly painted mk2b: https://paulinemckenna.smugmug.com/BW/1996/Ireland-1996/i-2S6qWjC

Kevin I think you've seen this pic yourself already judging by the comments That is definitely in revenue service I'd say. There's a few miles of dirt on it I'd say.

There are certainly pics in the Irish Railway Rambler book of Mk3 stock with yellow painted springs dating from the late 80's at the latest. At least some Mk2 stock had red painted springs around the same time.

The bogies need to be painted brown if you want them entirely prototypical with those earlier containers however. If that bothers you.

The spoils wagons are the same. Just pull the spoils containers off them. If none left on IRM webshop try Marks Models

I always find that the light blue NIR shade (is it French blue?) looks way lighter on the MM model of 111 than any pictures I've ever seen of it. I know pics can be deceiving etc.

I got good service from here: https://www.zinnfigur.com/en/Paints-Tools/Tools/?makairaFilter[NEW]=true

Seagoebox you don't know how much time I spent squinting at that picture in the book of 4104 taken from the other end of the coach, trying to figure out how tall the toilet window was. Great pictures indeed. I'd love to see more if you've got any.