murphaph

Plenty of images of a long ballast train topped and tailed with a plough, ploughs facing inwards on both ends to be fair. Short ballast trains often had just one plough. It's pretty difficult for the likes of IRM to predict the ratio of sales of the ballasts to the ploughs. Different people will build up rakes of different lengths. Many will have bought the ballasts to use as Gypsum wagons. How could anyone know this in advance? The ballasts are due to be re-released in the coming months according to IRM emails. The market is growing but it's still small. For now it's going to be limited runs of this or that I suspect as a small company can't have cash tied up in stock that may not sell for years.

The prime mover in the sound file sounds very similar to the 8-645E available on the ESU website: http://projects.esu.eu/projectoverviews/search?q=8-645 (ESU bizarrely have no SSL)

Hmm, can't clear the quote for some reason. Please ignore. The good thing about the ballasts is that they were also used (much more extensively probably) as gypsum wagons, running from Kingscourt to the Irish cement factories several times a week. I'm gonna need two full rakes of those for gypsum trains (empty and laden) and one rake for my ballast ploughs, which are waiting patiently for the re-run lol.

I would really appreciate if it could be put in a plastic wallet rather than splashed across the box if that's possible. Even my DHL lad (only half jokingly) said it was an invitation to theft inside DHL! I understand that Brexit is complicating matters however Back on topic.... I don't have any of these grey ones ordered. I never liked the livery on the prototype to be honest. But the pictures and video somehow look much better than I've seen this far. It really whets the appetite for the IE/IR ones I have on pre-order. Roll on suitable mkIII push pull RTR stock from IRM

Such pictures clearly show that a mkI GSV model would be even more viable than the mkIId ones. You will never see pictures of a mkIId train like that to my knowledge. Many people have smaller layouts. It would be ideal to be able to run short but prototypical trains like the above. Loads of Cravens out there waiting for that GSV

I'm guessing the latter but it's not obvious to me either.

You can most certainly add my name to the well-wishers here. It was the bravery of the initial runs that I admire most. The size of the market for highly detailed, quality RTR was I would say pretty much unknown. The locomotives are always going to be the most difficult thing to build yourself. Having them RTR has unlocked the door for others to follow and indeed build upon that work. Philip Murphy.

Exactly. They're not toys and compromises must be made in choice of materials or else the cost would be impractically high.

I can't wait to hear that demo. One thing I'd really like is the ability to obtain a sound project from IRM by email, locked to a particular decoder. Some sound project businesses do this where you give them the serial number of the decoder along with the payment and they email you a locked file that will only work in that decoder. There are no postal costs/risks. Completely digital business. Failing that, I would also be happy if I could buy the physical IRM decoder but receive a backup sound project locked to that particular decoder. Why? Because I want to be able to play around with my decoders without fear of losing an irreplaceable sound file through a false click. I can back up the settings stuff but not the sound part. Please at least bear these options in mind for the future I'm aware that there is an overhead involved but IRM could put in a disclaimer that once the file is emailed it's up to the owner to back it up in a safe place and that IRM will not provide endless backups to careless owners.

Maybe I'm tone deaf but the ESU v5 file for the 12-645 NT variant sounds close enough to the A for me! It certainly has that throaty growl.

Listening to videos of both of these locos there is a distinct whine with the 071 as compared to the more gutteral sound of the A. Both had (by the mid 90s) the same basic prime mover in the 12 cylinder 645. Is the difference just a turbo in the 071s or something more? There seem to be T and NT versions of this engine's sound on the ESU site. I am assuming this stands for turbo and non-turbo (rather than the more usual "normally aspirated" terminology). These files seem to correspond to the real thing insofar as the T version sounds like an 071 while the NT version sounds like the A.

There was an update performed yesterday. Almost always better to use up to date software

We're cattle only transported to docks for onward live shipment or were they also transported to meat factories in Ireland by rail?

Yeah great post, even for someone not particularly interested in the era!

Thx a lot guys.

So the consensus is via Clonmel?

Best of luck to Paul in his new role.

How were the Bell liners routed from Cork to Waterford?

I'm confused too. An expert on the lighting arrangements of these locos is required! Anyone?

That's a reasonable position IMO. There's other stuff to make that is more viable than a GSV right now and that helps to continue to grow the market in the meantime. As the market grows, the more niche vehicles become more viable. Though I would reiterate that the weedspray van will always be significantly less viable than any GSV. MM has already released EGVs and restaurant/buffet cars so such 'one per rake' vehicles are quite possibly viable already, notwithstanding the fact that IRM have other priorities and a finite amount of time to manage projects. It's a bit of an anomaly that the Cravens didn't have a GSV but that's presumably down to the lack of a Cravens GSV in the prototype. Trains using a mkI GSV can be much shorter than anything using a mkIId EGV and still be prototypical so a mkI GSV should be more viable than a mkIId EGV.

I believe the mkI GSV would be a lot more viable than the spray van, which is a one off on the network whereas every Cravens rake, no matter how short, would need a GSV to be prototypical. More viable doesn't necessarily mean viable of course but I'd buy half a dozen!

So the headlight can't be controlled with F8 like the 201 for example? Any cab light?

@Arran maybe you could reply here for the benefit of the wider forum?

Can anyone advise which of the C Rail containers would carry the correct livery for a mid 90s layout? I'm guessing not all of the available containers would have actually been seen on Irish rails.

Yep but two wrongs don't make a right lol! For TLCs the difference is probably irrelevant though. It kicks in when you start using the likes of Kadees where the knuckles can slip by each other if not at the same height.