murphaph

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.

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.

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.

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?

Beautiful work. RIP Dave.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Didn't Noel get his printed 121 from Shapeways? @Noel

Maybe hold off and see what PM releases. He might release single stripe versions and then you can just sell your tippex ones and buy as many of the singles as you need and renumber. Should easily get the price of the new ones by selling the old ones and then you have a factory spray job. I hope to see single stripe ones released too. I don't have many of those at all, nearly all tippex.

Flog a rake of the originals and buy a rake of the updated ones maybe?

I'd certainly take a rake of Cravens with updated running numbers. How will PM judge demand I wonder? Just asking the retailers?

I'm not sure that item is sold in Europe but even if it is, it's a sound decoder. Just so you know. I'm not sure that's what you wanted. It's also a hard wired decoder, rather than a socket for a decoder. If you are happy to hard wire the decoder you could bypass the Bachmann PCB altogether and solder the wires (extending where necessary) directly to your existing decoder, though I would recommend against it.

Much appreciated. Now I understand why I've never seen it before. Was it from the UK or built in Ireland or where did it come from?

I was watching the following video and at 4 mins there's something I've never noticed before. In a rake of double deck beet wagons there's what looks like a 16t mineral wagon body but with forklift slots. What's the story with that wagon?

That's mad looking. Like a ghost of a bygone era. Are there many fallen flag Bells still knocking about in Ireland? (I live in Germany and never see them here).

Push pulls being propelled by a 201 on Waterford line by 2001 (32 mins). I genuinely suspect as stated by gm171 kk already that these units saw regular enough push pull duties with 201s on the Waterford line soon after the push pull capable 201s were delivered:

The hedging looks very well.

Very much looking for to ordering a few Bell Bulks when they become available. I'd like to see those plain light green consent leasing 40 foots to mix in with the bells next though.

Some great information in this thread. It seems the push pulls made at least sporadic trips on scheduled services to Waterford by the mid 90s but likely not with a solitary 121 as they were run out of Connolly. I feel it likely that if they were filmed on the Waterford with a 121/141 pair that it's highly likely a 201 would have been used for this role soon after they started arriving as they were push pull equipped from the start. I think modelling a 201 and a rake of push pulls on the Waterford line ca. 1995 would pass the plausibility test, even if it wasn't a common occurrence. They definitely made it down that way on specials even with a single 121 and control car plus 5 or 6 (can't see on my phone to clearly): https://www.flickr.com/photos/jncarter1962/17826420825/in/photolist-tag4Rc

I forgot about the LHB bogies. That's going to be an interesting decision for MM to make. Most people probably want to run them in the earlier configuration with 121s.

Any idea of year?

You have two photos Keano. The first pic behind the loco is of mk2d stock. The second pic is a mk3 You may have seen the thread in the News section, that Murphy Models will be releasing both of these coach types later in this year, early in next year. Some mk2d coaches are still available retail (eg Mark's Models) in their original super train livery (golden brown and black, no white stripe).

When did they get moved over to Heuston IC duties? Already around 1995 maybe?