murphaph

@WRENNEIRE just for any future visitors to this great list, you might want to correct MM541 to MM5411 if I'm not mistaken.

Much appreciated Dave, that's just what the doctor ordered. Thanks also to iarnrod and old blarney for their efforts. Phil.

Cheers Old Blarney I'm familiar with that MM portfolio page. I was really hoping for a listing with running numbers and brief description (ST, IE, Std, 1st, Diner, EGV etc.)

Can some kind soul provide me with a comprehensive list of the mkIIds that MM has produced? Here in thread for the benefit of all if possible, otherwise per PM. Much appreciated! I'm getting a bit confused here.

Hi all, I'm hoping to lay my hands on some of these lovely blue monsters somehow as and when they become available. I'd like to be up to speed on which of the MM liveries ran during which years. Can someone advise for the following: MM0111 (that's the light blue one with red ends) MM8113 (dark blue with large yellow ends) In my "Irish Traction" book there's a picture of 8113 down south in 1999. Would she have come south any earlier in that livery? I think the red ends came before the yellow ends, right? Until what year did these locos carry the red ends? Thanks a heck of a lot for any information you can provide. I think I know enough about 112 being lent to IE etc. so it would be great if we could focus on the other 2, cheers!

I'm guessing the lads already know what it's going to be. I like a bit of suspense though. Keeps things interesting! I'd be delighted with the chance to buy any coaching stock that ran in the mid 90s.

Ooh that's nice. I'm not a huge fan of the livery but the odd one mixed in like that is a nice option to have.

Was that with a snack car @NIRCLASS80? I have also seen pictures of just the gsv + one standard coach.

Hi all, What was the shortest regular train in passenger service where a Cravens snack car was utilised? How many standard coaches in that train? Perhaps Waterford to Limerick services?

@Arran thanks for posting here. Can you also (no rush) at some stage do another run of the B+I 40 foots?

How are the yellow skids (or whatever they're actually called) affixed to the chassis?

Maybe you could add a "vote for re-run" button to sold out items in the shop so you have a rough idea what might be the most popular. Just an idea.

Ah wait, now I have it. When I just view the order summary after clicking "account" (I'm using a phone not a desktop, maybe desktop layout is different) then I just see "fulfilled" and when I click into the order from that list I see the items ordered and the shipping and billing addresses but nothing much else. However when I click on the live chat I am prompted to select an order and when I do this I am redirected to a page with much more shipping information including an embedded Google map and the all important tracking reference link to royal mail. Maybe that link could be added to the initial order details page. Anyway I know where to find it now and my cement bubbles are out for delivery today. Lovely stuff

I have a question. I have an order that is showing as fulfilled. Will I get an email to say it's been shipped or even the tracking number of the parcel? Shipping is to Germany.

I'll email c-rail. They obviously have the designs done for the "missing Irish containers" as they did them for IRM for the liners. If they get a few more requests they might be persuaded to release them for sale on their site. Something special about them.

Cheers @Warbonnet Fran but they only have the 20' Bell in stock. No 40' and no B+I at all, unless I'm going blind. Those ones would add real character to an Irish layout. Phil.

I've already ordered the CIE containers but is there any chance of running the other "typically Irish" containers that were part of the rake sets?

Yeah I believe I will when I have moved on from rolling stock collection mode. Some very interesting possibilities in a Limerick junction/Limerick/Foynes/Nenagh layout.

Tricky for any business given the uncertainty that still abounds. Fingers crossed it isn't as bad as it could be.

Yeah makes sense for now at least. Not sure what it's going to be like in January when our neighbours are really out of the EU altogether. Potentially quite messy.

Can I ask a noob question? Why are royal mail involved? Are the products shipped from Ireland or the UK? Just curious.

Personally I think track occupancy cannot easily be replaced by a wireless solution. How do you detect a lost wagon without block occupancy detection via the rails themselves? I'm in rolling stock collection mode for the next couple of years having just returned to this hobby after a 25 year hiatus. I intend to use the bidib (bidirectional bus) open standard which has been developed by mostly German manufacturers and openDCC folks. I already built my first openDCC central station (Zentrale in German) a few years ago during a brief return to the idea of a layout and I'll reuse that for programming purposes only as it's incompatible with the bidib concept. The main advantage of bidirectional communication is that if you completely power your layout down or you have a power cut or whatever, the DCC chips self identify to the host software (I will use the open source rocrail to run the "boring" parts of my layout, taking control of shunting movements myself at stations and yards). The bidib bus goes further though and there are a multitude of boards available as kits to drive motors/servos/leds/whatever. The main supplier of the kits is the fichtelbahn shop.

Hopefully IRM can push the Irish models more alongside the Accurascale line in GB. There is definitely more opportunity there. There is a huge untapped market in the EU also. I'm a member of a small German forum for modellers of British & Irish outline. The view of the average German modeller is simply dated. They remember vaguely the relatively poor UK models of yesteryear, when they already had finescale stuff as standard. They remember the awful tension lock couplers being "toy like" but that's all history. Nowadays the RTR models of UK and Irish outline can be on a par with typical offerings here and NEM pockets mean you can ditch the tension lock couplers for something more realistic with ease. Maybe it's time for a renewed marketing effort here in Germany by UK and Irish outline manufacturers and the wider EU. As someone on my German forum posted "I got sick and tired of all my locos being black with red wheels". There is certainly potential in that market, after all plenty of UK and Irish modellers buy German models. Why not the other way around. One can dream anyway!

That's good enough for me. Thx Ernie!

Yeah I hadn't noticed much availability of them lately myself.