murphaph

So my first few bits have started arriving... Filing jigs, track gauges, 10m of bullhead rail and 28mm pinpoint axles from the S4 society (stung for vat by the customs unfortunately but not unexpectedly). I managed to get a hold of Marcway (at home as the shop is closed) on the phone just now and placed an order for 1000 34mm copper clad sleepers and a few sheets of strip for the points. Step by step on the way to 21mm.

Yep. Miles ahead of others in this business. Many are completely clueless about what they need to do to at least make the best out of a bad situation.

Parcel from the Scalefour Society waiting for me down the local post office. Customs due on it. And so it begins for me too.

Here's a photograph from the O'Dea collection of the siding in operation, seemingly taken from north of the over bridge, facing south towards the loading ramp, which must be immediately beyond said bridge on the left hand side. http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000306821

Thanks chaps. A mine of information as always. Looks like in all likelihood that both Kilberry and Athy (Down side) would have been lifted before my proposed time period of the early to mid 90s.

I'm just looking at Google maps and wondering did the Bord na Mona facility at Kilberry (between Cherryville Junction and Athy) have a siding for heavy rail? The long shed (or a predecessor) parallel to the line looks like it may have seen rail traffic at some stage. Maybe it never did but I was surprised to read about the Athy Brick Works (not the Tegral factory!) slightly further south of here, which did have a siding for a few short years and of which no trace can really be seen on Google maps today. Does anyone have any track plans for Athy by the way, from the 80s or 90s? When were the sidings into the goods shed lifted does anyone know?

This is really good stuff. I'm especially looking forward to new commissions, especially typically "Irish" cars (cheaper cars like Daihatsu Charades, Nissan Micras, Toyota Starlets etc.) that you saw a lot more of in Ireland than the UK.

Thanks for this. I intended doing this mod as well and actually had assumed that a single led would be found inside. It's a pleasant surprise to read that the required led is actually present but just needs isolating and rewiring. Great stuff.

It's crazy to think but the 2600 Class is in it's 27th year of service already. Plenty of livery choices. Some day. I'd certainly take a few sets in Arrow livery.

It's a real pity the 201 wasn't ever given the tippex treatment. Would have looked great.

I guess they became the property of Irish Continental Group. Maybe some were repainted into Eucon livery. Eucon containers would be cool if @Arran was so inclined at some stage I have a couple of the 45 footers from Bachmann but 40 footers would be great. A typically Irish container.

The seller looks for that sort of money for all their stuff. That coach or one like it has been on sale at that price for ages. No takers thus far. Seller is happy to wait until someone comes along who just has to have that coach and is prepared to pay for it. I picked up two of them last year for normal money from other sellers.

B&I went bust in 92 I believe. How long after that were these fallen flag B&I containers to be seen and was there ever a liner full of them?

The Lokprogrammer has a basic throttle that can run a loco to test it. Mine is connected to a rolling road but you could hook it up to a small test oval. It has enough power to run a couple of locos.

Modellbahn Union in Dortmund sells GB outline stuff. I hope someday they will stock Irish stuff too.

A MK3 suburban set would make a lovely short train for many smaller layouts. Plenty of 121s out there waiting for such a set now.

Did they in fact go to Galway or just Sligo?

I'd take a few Bell tanks as well if they appeared I would also like to see the plain green Consent Leasing 40 foots that were very often mixed in with Bell liners in the 90's. I guess these would have wider appeal as well as they must have popped up everywhere being a leased container.

Great stuff. Order on the way from me for a few 40' Bells for sure. Did the bulk Bells run on Irish rails?

Animal feed maybe?

Some great thoughts there folks. Indeed I have been reconsidering what I can realistically fit into the available space and also what I can realistically accomplish alone. I would really like a mainline/branch line setup and I really want it largely based on a real location. The plan is eventually to run a real timetable from the 90s. I've been thinking a more realistic approach might be Kildare-Cherryville-Athy. This has other advantages, more colour light signals and fewer semaphores (but still some for interest). I could include the Tegral factory in low relief (it would lend itself extremely well to this and there's the interesting concrete bridge over the Barrow). Still retains some shunting/running around at Kildare and at the factory. Lots to consider. I will definitely be doing it all in phases so I don't feel overwhelmed by it all.

Me neither. In summary, many eBay UK sellers simply don't and never did offer shipping outside the UK. I feel that the eBay GSP is largely responsible for this. Some sellers would ship to Ireland if asked nicely but for those that wouldn't, parcel motel type redirection services were fantastic. I used parcelwizard. It was a very reasonable €3.75 per redirected item. They've left the market because of Brexit. Only An Post are still offering such a service currently, at almost twice the price. And who knows how well it's working. I reckon a lot of people are getting nasty surprises where used eBay items arrive without so much as a declared price and customs are estimating values.

I think 2f is actually closer but externally I'm not sure if there was much of a difference.

The mk2d's were also vacuum braked. Only the second hand mk2a's etc. acquired used in '89 or thereabouts were air braked. The original AC stock delivered from BREL was vacuum braked though.

It may have been posted before but I found an interesting video from Tom Tuohy on YouTube. It seems to show ECS mk2d's being taken in a short train of older stock. I can't quite make the loco out.