murphaph

Yeah I very much appreciate the flat rate shipping which kicks in more or less straight away if I buy "railway stuff" but for the new stuff you lads have added (Oxford diecast especially) I'd love to be able to throw this or that little item into a trunk until I hit the hundred quid before pulling the trigger on shipping the lot. Anyway it's just a thought. I understand if it's not feasible for whatever reason also

One of them sold for 311GBP one eBay a couple of days back. Good but used condition. There's a market for them, though sadly too modern for me. Now if more tippex babies were to be re-released.... (can't be beyond the realms of possibility if the 201s are getting a third run out, Lima version included)

Yesssssssss! That is all.

It's not as simple as that unfortunately. Union goods lose their union status after a fairly short time period and you have to be able to prove that they were always going to be re-imported into the EU anyway. Stuff that's been outside the EU for decades you can forget about claiming as union goods. I checked this avenue out thinking the same thing.

So yeah my Hattons parcel that was supposed to arrive delivered duty paid arrived with no DDP markings whatsoever. Of course the German customs slapped VAT on top of it again (and DHL added their handling charge of course). I'll be looking for EU stockists for any "commodity" stuff in future. IRM: Please consider a trunk service for the smaller items so we can throw stuff into a box until reaching the minimum order quantities for free/reduced price shipping. I would definitely order more "small stuff" if such a service existed I appreciate there may be issues surrounding ownership/insurance that aren't immediately obvious to us as customers but maybe there's a solution.

Agreed. Though even there I would urge caution. It's a topic that can get out of hand very quickly and sour the air for good.

12 X 62' must be one of the longest trains to have run in Ireland?

Great stuff. When did IE first start hauling logs actually?

It would be nice if folks could post any alternative EU sources for materials etc. For example I bought stuff (finnboard, plastikard) from https://www.architekturbedarf.de/versand They list Ireland lower down. Shipping is a flat €30 though so I'm guessing you'd want a nice big order to make it viable.

I think the meets (US railroad speak, crossing trains here maybe?) are a particularly interesting part of the railway. Trains definitely had to wait to cross each other at Athy and following on from the decision to go back to the hidden spiral as suggested by Robert, it opened up the possibility of modelling a slightly different area. I am now honing in on the idea of: Top shelf around the room: Curragh Mainline to immediately south of Kildare station. Offers possibility of stopping NIR specials to the Curragh, running on to Kildare to run around. middle shelf around the room: Monasterevin to Portarlington. Monasterevin has really nice model railway friendly scenery. Raised on an embankment, the track crosses water three times in a mile. Portarlington offers more crossing trains as the single line to Galway and the west diverges. Also offers realistic parking of ballast trains! Bottom shelf: Kilberry siding to Athy (Tegral). Adjacent to Kilberry is the BnM works. Possible narrow gauge modelling opportunity. BnM railway came very close to mainline here. Nice industrial scene directly adjacent to railway in any case. Athy station offers passing trains and Tegral siding offers bridge over Barrow and nice industrial canal quayside, perfect for a shelf layout. These are the more interesting areas to model and because a long hidden spiral connects them, a realistic delay can be introduced between each scenic area so a realistic timetable (natural or in a fast clock) can be executed. I don't think I'll ever be really taxed by the shunting movements. It's just Tegral and Kildare. Tegral could easily be automated but I want to retain some shunting.

Do logs also go by rail to the other Coillte plant in Clonmel at all? I had no idea they were being processed in Waterford. I always assumed that the logs were for export. Interesting.

You can feel the art deco (if that's what it is!) off it already. Lovely.

Hattons are the only UK shop I order off and for one reason: their trunk service. Saves a fortune on postage costs.

My comment about the impact of Brexit on postal deliveries was intended to be purely factual, not to convey an opinion about it either way. I do have my own feelings about it but this is the only forum I contribute to where the matter hasn't become highly divisive and I am glad about that and I'd like it to stay that way It's impossible not to discuss the practicalities of it however as we are all used to ordering stuff from all over. I have a parcel waiting for my down the (German) post office with vat to pay and I have a bad feeling it's from Hattons. I know about another guy in Germany that got stung for vat by the customs even though Hattons are supposed to be vat registered here and delivering duty paid. I expect Hattons will refund me the double vat as they did him but it's needless hassle (in his case they forgot the "delivered duty paid" sticker they said)

The EU changes to vat on parcels from outside the union were delayed until mid 2021 because if Brexit. The UK decided to go ahead with these changes in January already as originally planned when a member state but these changes currently only affect those in the UK, not anyone in Ireland (unless selling into the UK below £150 in value) The negative effects we are currently experiencing on postal deliveries to Ireland are purely down to the UK leaving the single market and customs union in January.

I love the backscenes. Really great depth.

Exactly. Addresspal is much more about being able to order a particular item at all rather than for the cheaper shipping. Certainly for me that was mostly the use case (in my case Parcelwizard). Now it's just way dearer as the delivery charge itself is almost twice the price and double vat. In my case the items then need to be consolidated by the mother and shipped to me in Germany. I haven't used a redirect service yet since brexit but I suspect I will for that niche item.

I guess there's a little bit more to it than just scaling up the 00 tooling cad work as presumably some of the smallest parts are slightly overscale in 00 due to manufacturing limitations whereas they could be scale in 0 gauge. But I could be talking nonsense.

I'm a realist and don't really expect we'll see any increase in railfreight but one has to also note that even given the "hostile environment" of IE (sadly including the management, unions and staff in the past at least), the DoT and successive governments, there are still liner trains operating in Ireland. If that doesn't prove that there's potential there I don't know what does! Imagine if you weren't relying on IE but a private operator to get your load to the port on time and reliably. As brexit continues to force a realignment of supply chains, the island is becoming a single unit economically with shipping bypassing GB and increasing massively through the south east, you'd imagine railfreight from Waterford and Rosslare to railheads across the country would be about as viable as it's been in many years. Instead of 20 drivers taking 20 lorries from Derry or Galway to Rosslare or Waterford, one or two drivers can bring those loads to a railhead to be taken in bulk to Rosslare or Waterford. The island isn't that small really, especially if a large proportion of your freight is now being funnelled through one corner of it and when the proportion of unaccompanied trailers crossing the sea is increasing.

Railfreight could rise from the ashes with the concentration of freight movements now happening in the southeast of the island. It won't happen as long as IE is being relied upon to deliver it however. Without open access to the infrastructure (which should stay in state hands like the road network) to private railfreight companies, there will be no renaissance in railfreight.

I remember reading somewhere that Tara mines traffic went via Foynes for a time. Was this at the very start after the mine had opened? When was that? What wagons were used? Cheers all.

Where did you get it? Homemade? I see nothing like that in Modelling Irish Railways:

My fast clock will be digital and computer controlled

I absolutely love looking through my working timetable trying to "play detective" and imagine what went where by piecing the bits together. Trying to run my railway close to a real working timetable is the end goal. I will build in a bit of "plausible fantasy" to increase rolling stock possibilities (for example in my time period the Cahir viaduct has already collapsed and beet traffic is to be routed via Kildare to Mallow) I will run a fast clock so I can have a train more or less always visible on the layout.

So I'm intentionally leaving the centre of the room free for a possible n gauge (probably US themed) switching layout, should I ever bore of the Irish Midlands or want to allow guests, but I'm not expecting to any time soon and I get a lot of enjoyment out of the computer automation stuff, which gives a lot of room to try new things out, even though the rolling stock stays Irish. I am aiming to build the layout so that I can, without too much lack of realism run it with older stock some day. I understand the gauge is not a problem for most but it really makes a difference to me. It has to be 21mm. It can be done. Quite a few of those American basement empires on YouTube are all handbuilt track. Many of those guys chose that path because they simply couldn't afford to buy ready made stuff when they started. To my mind a 3 shelf layout say a foot and a half deep is something I'll still be able to operate well into old age. I've seen (sadly) a few YouTube layouts where the guy can't crawl under things anymore and the layouts are to be taken apart. I like long runs of open countryside as well where prototypical length trains can stretch their legs.