murphaph

What was the actual lighting like in the 071 cabs actually? Was it incandescent or fluorescent tubes? The headlights and marker lights are warm white on the models so it would be strange if the cab lighting was incorrect. I always just assumed the models were accurate in this regard but it sounds like they aren't? I will replace my LEDs if they are wrong. Not a massive job really.

I'm sure that was the first thing many of us thought when we read about the Hattons deal!

You can get a far superior Murphy Models one for that money, even given today's high prices.

If it's an ESU one it would be worth sending to them as faulty if it turns out to be (I am assuming the decoder worked previously but now does not work and no changes were made?) I had a LokPilot replaced for free by them a couple of years ago.

Thanks folks. The crack is in the front. It 's not visible in that pic. It is just about visible in these ones:

048 making a recovery of sorts lol: A few oils have to dry and then it just needs a coat of varnish to seal it and it's done. I wasn't able to completely hide the crack without essentially painting it black and that would have been more noticeable.

Didn't the An Post CEO write an open letter in the FT about this, openly blaming Royal Mail for not implementing some required software solution that shipments to the EU as a whole will require quite soon, but which Ireland is already implementing as a sort of guinea pig to give RM a bit of a chance to get things sorted without millions of parcels from the whole EU being returned to it? https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/an-post-boss-criticises-royal-mail-amid-parcel-issues-from-the-uk-1405001.html The FT letter was more detailed but I can't find it right now.

Cheers Mark. I will let DJ make enquiries if he wants to. I never got a response from Shawplan when I tried to order window etches in the past.

The wipers are filigrane so taking a cast is a no go really. They are so filigrane as to be difficult to see to be honest! We'll probably just live with the missing wiper and say it was lost in real life.

I suspect one version is based on an earlier non-HiFi generic ESU recording and the other one is a later HiFi one as ESU is the manufacturer for these chips for MM and ESU has been continually updating its sound file library. I don't believe either prime mover was actually recorded off an Irish loco, likely just the horn sounds.

DJ has been trying to get in touch with Des about 071 wipers without much success AFAIK. @DJ Dangerous ?

The crack to the body is going to have to be hidden under weathering. The missing wiper can't be hidden unfortunately and as DJ says IRM don't have any spares like that or none available to the public at least so she shall remain wiperless on that side. I am sure some wipers broke off on the prototype. The main thing is she is back together and running again. I had to completely remove the main PCB to get in at the worm gears etc. There wasn't enough slack in the pickup wires to push the PCB to one side in this case so I had to desolder the pickups as well as the motor leads and lift the PCB + cab interiors out and off the chassis. The cab interiors sit firmly but will release with a bit of wiggling. They are an awful lot easier to strip down than the MM locos it has to be said. The missing horn has since been located and glued back on by the way Next job will be to weather it "extensively" at the wish of its owner so don't blame me

The Chinese see BEVs as a way to not only eliminate their dependence on foreign energy (China does not have much oil or gas) but they also see the huge global market for vehicles. The legacy carmakers in Europe and the US need to react quickly. Companies like BYD are producing exceptional cars at prices that hardly seem possible. Our next vehicle will be a BEV, no doubt. The tech is mature enough now. The Lithium was never really the problem, it was more the nickel and cobalt but the newer LFP batteries don't use nickel or cobalt. Tesla is moving to LFP batteries. They are safer too, you can stick a screwdriver through the blade batteries in the latest BYD blade batteries and they won't react. A Li-Ion battery will virtually explode if you do that. And LFP batteries are probably just another phase in the journey. Ireland has enormous capacity to produce green electricity and be entirely self sufficient in it and there is no reason the country cannot be a major electricity exporter, both via interconnectors and through green hydrogen production. Who would have ever imagined that Ireland would be an energy exporter? It is entirely realistic now. Putin has massively accelerated the demand for such energy. Irish customers are in pole position to benefit from cheap electricity to run their BEVs. The batteries in such vehicles act as a gigantic distributed energy store and the cascaded batteries from BEVs can be used in stationary applications (like mains power storage, either in the home or as part of the grid itself). The future is largely going to be battery powered. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be much rarer than people once thought they might be IMO.

Good job! My new 203 arrived here in Germany this morning in absolutely perfect cosmetic condition! You can be lucky or unlucky. Cheers again to the IRM lads for releasing at the original RRP.

Oh is that certain that any expansion of the wires will be 25kV? That's really good news if it is. Does that include the more imminent Dublin area expansion(s), especially DART+ West? I have long believed that we are at a point that still allows us to "escape" from 1500Vdc rather than try to roll it out nationwide. We delayed electrification for so long that it allows us this advantage at least!

That's actually a fair point which I had never really considered.

That's the power pickup spring. It should be parallel to the bogie frame and in behind the 3 wheels, touching the insides of the wheel faces. Can you compare to the other side of the bogie and try to seat the pickup to match the good side?

Looks better in those pics. Maybe just the light/camera combination in the original pic. You won't want to send it back because there are no replacements and putting the bits back on a loco is basically par for the course with many models, so the best thing is to lay out the bits and try to match them up using the exploded diagram. The only thing of any real concern would be the shorting you reported. Which piece is it sparking from?

One wheel is also a different colour. Never seen that before on a new one. Can you take some more pics of it @Darrman ?

The bits that fell off can be put back on but the colour looks sort of washed out. Doesn't look like my 203.

DJ is going to ask the lads if there are any spares available. That would obviously be the ideal solution. Heavy weathering might be a good idea alright.

A sad tale today. I am currently trying to piece an 048 back together after a fall from height. The fall was so bad it resulted in a bent chassis. This is one of @DJ Dangerous locos, not mine. The damage is extensive, the bogies themselves left hanging by their pickup wires, a crack in the body and some paint damage, missing wiper blade which was not recovered, cracked bogie frame, radiator grilles popped out, windscreens smashed in and both horns sheared off to boot. She will be patched up as best as possible and sent on her way to Tenerife when I'm done, hopefully running at least, even if not in perfect cosmetic order .

Looks "right" from here anyway!

It was around in the 90's Rob...it may have travelled by rail, but it seems unlikely, but not impossible. I can live with that

Cheers Mogul. I will have to use rule 1 on it then lol. The above pic is from a series taken in GB (on the railway) so they got that far at least. That will have to do