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murphaph
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Everything posted by murphaph
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I'm afraid I only know it from afar Jonathan. My mother is also a Kildare woman but from further along in the UP direction, hailing from Newbridge. Glad you enjoyed the photographs The cattle market was on what was called the showgrounds. It appears that it was not connected to the station, just abutting it. The cattle loading pens for the station itself were located on the DOWN platform side, about 100 yds south of the platform. I'm assuming cattle were driven over the bridge to be loaded onto trains.
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There was definitely another variant I wasn't aware of, but I'm guessing somebody was? I've found two of them in this cab ride video and they are sandwiched between the common type with the "heavy" bolsters. The variants are markedly taller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-5w7_6Ie2E&ab_channel=GerryConmy Around 1:53:00 By the way, does anybody know what the rake of dark brown or black looking tanktainers are before the acrylonitrile wagons are?? Oil to Asahi in 1994 still? That's a great looking train to model. A pair of 121s hauling 10x 40 foot containers, followed by a rake of those dark tanktainers, followed by the barrier wagon and a good rake of the acrylonitrile wagons making up the rear.
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This is the "common" variant of the tanktainer that I've seen before I guess. The one in the video at 8 mins (last tanktainer before container barrier wagon) is the one I'm curious about. It looks newer and more generic but has the same colour scheme I think. @Noel I think trailing sprung points like that are common enough, sometimes called "train-operated points"?
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Rather than open a new thread I'll reopen this old one. I was looking at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86a2iPdx82w&ab_channel=GerryConmy At exactly 8:00 the last of the "well known" Asahi tanks passes by, followed by what looks like it might have been a different variant. But maybe it was just another tanktainer from another firm in the liner? Any ideas?
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I found some great old photos of Athy station and approaches here: http://www.athyphotos.gallery/railway-station.html There's a decent shot of GN cement hopper wagons crossing the Barrow to or from the Asbestos Factory. I believe the factory was served from Boyne Road Cement Works at one stage, before supply witched to Castlemungret. The collection shows other stuff for example aerial photos of the cattle market directly adjacent to the station off the Dublin road: http://www.athyphotos.gallery/dublin-road.html Might be of interest to someone.
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Irish Railway Model Enthusiasts - facebook page
murphaph replied to Bumble_Bee's topic in General Chat
Along with the O gauge B&I ferry no doubt!! -
Irish Railway Model Enthusiasts - facebook page
murphaph replied to Bumble_Bee's topic in General Chat
There's no point in worrying about "marketing" locos that don't exist to North American modellers. That would just lead to frustration and abandonment of the idea by them. There is no need to "lobby" IRM or MM to create a particular model either. They know well enough their business. The trick would be to see if posts targeted at North America could get a percentage of them interested in what is currently available. Deviating from 00 to H0 for the American market is a complete non-starter. The established Irish and UK market will remain the heart of any expanded market and for better or worse for historical reasons we're stuck with 00 now. I doubt anyone here would buy a H0 scale Irish model now. That ship sailed 20 years ago and I wouldn't criticise the decision to stay 00 back then either. It was risky enough in 00. -
Irish Railway Model Enthusiasts - facebook page
murphaph replied to Bumble_Bee's topic in General Chat
The comparison with NZ is interesting. Would you say the hobby is actually more popular there or just better organised John? Thinking about that for a minute I wonder would Bumble bee's efforts not perhaps be better spent (or differently spent to put it more diplomatically) by trying to increase the profile of the MRSI on social media? http://www.modelrailways.ie/ -
Irish Railway Model Enthusiasts - facebook page
murphaph replied to Bumble_Bee's topic in General Chat
The Irish diaspora in North America especially seems like it might be a market for Irish railway stuff, particularly given the "GM connection". Something like ten times the population of Ireland consider themselves Irish American. Model railroading in North America is, I suspect even in percentage terms, far more popular a hobby than model railways are in Ireland. If I was hoping to attract more people into our small corner of the hobby I'd be looking there. Bachmann clearly thought there was merit in the idea when it brought out that trainset for the US market. I watch too many American "layout tour" videos for my own good. Often the guy has a basement empire of American prototype but up on the walls might have a collection of foreign stuff on display. Nobody needs to be convinced to go "all in" for it to make a difference. So bumble Bee I humbly or should I say bumbly suggest that you use your FB page to target North America -
Irish Railway Model Enthusiasts - facebook page
murphaph replied to Bumble_Bee's topic in General Chat
It's not at all obvious to returnees or newcomers. This may sound crazy to the more established members here, but I'd never heard of IRM this time last year. I found this forum through the shop which I found through googling after finding a few IRM items on the Mark's Models website. -
Irish Railway Model Enthusiasts - facebook page
murphaph replied to Bumble_Bee's topic in General Chat
Any FB pages to promote the Irish aspects of the hobby are good as long as they look the part and preferably encourage people who come across them to sign up here. I would love to know how many new or returning Irish modellers just grab the first GB outline yoke on the shelves and go from there. I almost only found out by accident that Irish stuff even existed. I was very close to modelling US outline. I'd have really kicked myself if I hadn't dug a bit deeper. -
I reckon here in Germany the appearance of the parcel is the biggest factor. Commercial parcels with everything printed on sticky labels: highly likely to be stopped. Handwritten address and customs declaration, even if well over the threshold: likely to have a green sticker from customs freeing the parcel from a closer inspection and instructing the post office to just deliver it. I honestly think the parcels are just whizzing by on a conveyor belt giving customs officers a few seconds to make a call on which parcels to look more closely and which ones should be waved through. The one hand written parcel I had that got stopped was a cardboard tube thing from the S4 society and I reckon the unusual look of it just drew their attention to it. I also reckon that customs know that the likes of DPD is much more likely to be transporting commercial parcels than private ones.
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Surely if they're margins were so big, somebody else would just buy a machine and start offering the same service at less margin. I mean there is no monopoly on these machines and we can safely rule out a global cartel, so I guess the true costs aren't that far from what is being charged. It's all the costs any business has, especially fixed costs like rent, wages, insurance etc. The times the machine is idle have to be paid for too. All that adds to the unit cost, and then the business has to make a profit or there's no point in going to all the bother and risk of setting up shop.
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Good stuff. I like the clean graphics. Page liked
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You're welcome K801. The video is from The Irish Mainline and he told me he has more mid 90s videos to post up so check his channel out. I really like it. You may see more clips of your late uncle.
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I hope my comment wasn't received as a slight. Sometimes it's hard to make oneself clearly understood on t'internet. If anything I was hinting at what I perceive to be IRM's ability to go much further and conquer new markets.
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I'm also not sure what the benefit beyond a handful of jobs in a highly automated plant in Europe would be. The models are already of great quality. There are no tariffs on model railway items.
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Thanks Shane. It's interesting information. I guess Western European wages are just generally too high for this business. I forgot to mention Mehano, which also produces in Europe, but again, it's Eastern Europe, in Slovenia, and I would rate their quality lower than say Murphy Models or IRM, most of their products being more what I would classify as toys. For companies like IRM/MM they are reliant on contract manufacturers. They don't own their own factories (yet). As far as I'm aware, there are no contract manufacturers even offering this kind of service in Western Europe (or anywhere outside China?) That may happen someday, when some Hungarian Märklin engineers decide they can leave and start their own company offering contract work but it's never going to happen in Ireland IMO. I think in N scale you can just about get away with leaning a bit more on your injection moulding process to depict grab rails etc, whereas the market in H0/00 scale Europe at least has moved on a bit and customers now expect fine metal detailing in such places.
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Can anyone confirm what I suspect to be the case, that there would have been no 3 aspect colour light signalling from anywhere south of Kildare as far as Portarlington and Athy? I think it was all 2 aspect, right?
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Beautiful work. RIP Dave.
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The only major European manufacturer that I'm aware of that doesn't produce in China is Märklin. They did at one stage but in recent years (starting about ten years ago) began shifting production from China to Hungary. Now all of their production is either in Germany or Hungary but the labour intensive operations are carried out in Hungary. The German plant does some of the highly automated moulding/casting work, shipping the parts to Hungary for final assembly. I see no way to do final assembly of highly detailed RTR models in a non low wage economy without the models becoming significantly more expensive, certainly pricing me out of the hobby. That's lose lose surely. The Chinese (or Hungarian or whatever) employee loses their job and we lose our models as they simply wouldn't sell at those price points. I think 3d printing will have a bigger impact on the hobby in future but for smaller runs where the cost of making the tooling simply can't be justified. I think the technology will make previously too niche models viable, but not cheaper. I think the popular, already viable models, will continue to be made using injection moulding for the foreseeable future.
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Might be interesting to (in particular) ESU Loksound/Lokprogrammer users who intend buying the mk3 driving trailers: http://www.esu.eu/en/products/loksound/loksound-5-fx/ It's a new product from ESU. It's a Loksound 5 fx, which means it does sound and lighting but has no motor control circuitry, so it's a third cheaper or so. You'd need a suitable or close enough "prime mover" sound to replicate the generator in the driving trailer. Does anybody know what generator engines were used in them? You'd also need a horn sound from somewhere, youtube maybe (and a Lokprogrammer to get the sounds on the chip of course) It would work best in conjunction with a full fat Loksound 5 in the loco, so that it could be synced (brake squeal mainly). If money is no object one could equip normal EGVs with such decoders to get the generator sound vibe if desired, though if you slap the EGV behind the loco you probably wouldn't hear it over the EMD prime mover.
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Conclusive proof that the push pulls were operated in push pull mode by the 201s soon after the locos were delivered. Earliest shot in the following video is from mid 1996 already with a 201 propelling a PP set along the Waterford line.
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The huge advantage with the IRM type flat wagons of course is that they are not plastic at all but die-cast metal, so they are the correct weight even unladen. Hiding a weight inside a plastic skeletal wagon, regardless of manufacturing method, is nigh on impossible so you end up needing to place a load on them, missing out on all that detail visible through the chassis from above.
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Didn't Noel get his printed 121 from Shapeways? @Noel
