Railer

The 201 fleet are considered and treated as a combined pool so it's 34 total. 12 out of service with 2 returning in the next two years. Give 22 201s available now going up to 24 in 2020 roughly. There are 8 equipped to work Enterprise services. With 6 needed daily for that including 2 spares and 1 on exam. Leaves 16 free to work the 7x Mk4 sets, plus spares and exam and overhaul locos. 201s work IWT freight liners from time to time too. 201s will be allocated IWT liners all the time once they go to 24 wagon trains from the current 18.

210 in a sorry state on scrap bogies and 225 when is was abandoned during it's rebuild but has since almost been completed.

Decided to create a new thread on the mothballed 201 to avoid derailing the 071 overhaul thread. Anyways, a few pics below of the from last year.

A decade ago it was decided to store and mothball 6 071s in the worst condition to keep a fleet of 12 going. At that time 077, 078 and 087 were withdrawn from service for many years, these would were 3 of the 6 to be withdrawn which thankfully never fully happened.. 087 was basically stripped to a shell. In 2012 the plan was changed, that all 18 would be kept in service and received this major overhaul that is ongoing. 230 will supposedly (And maybe 225) be used as a test bed for a new power unit for the 201 class. 225 was to be used as parts too but plans changed few years ago and the rebuilding/repair work and body overhaul and painting is now complete on it. It's waiting parts and mods for return to service next year.

Basically, yes all the block 1 201s are being used for parts.

Just one of 073 early in it's overhaul process. Also with 230 being rebuilt and overhauled, 215 receiving some mods and 211 and the end being stripped of parts and windscreens boarded up.

A B&T 071 would be an amazing sight.

Odd rumours circulating that 086 may emerge from the paint shop in something not quite battleship grey?

There one each side Noel, the hose with the red connection on the left and the yellow on the right. You can see the red valve lever at the top right corner of the left buffer and the yellow level at the bottom right corner of the gangway.

It's actually fairly regular sight more often than not. They're 5 years into repainting the sets and I think only 7 or 8 out of the 29 are done due to the high demand on the fleet.

Just looking at the above in detail, never knew they were fitted with air brakes, or just a through air pipe. Interesting all the same. Wonder what year that mod was installed as there was nothing airbraked till the bogie bulk cements followed by the Mk3s and the Shale wagons.

Not if running to steam timings like loco 461. In saying that I was volunteering on the recent Boyne tour with No4 hauling 7 plus van and it easily maintaining 70mph from the GPS on my phone. Its a great kettle. In saying that 121s struggled to keep time with crush loaded 6 piece push pulls in the 90s on Dublin to Drogheda runs.

Looking forward to this one. Hope it's as good as the Branchline Explorer back in April. The sing song session in the bar coach on the way home with a hellfire run from 086 as the light faded and the bar ran out of draft beer. Cracking day.

Thanks Stephen, Really appreciate all the hard work and long hours put in behind the scenes you guys do to keep the hobby progressing forward for our very small market base. Also loving the reception you guys are getting on RM web and facebook from the UK punters too, they all seem very presently surprised by the new kids on the block.

To team IRM, Has the recent situation in China and the current season and the impending Chinese New Year coming ever closer knocked everything back? I know with the Tara delay due to the force of nature and missing shipping slots as a result. With the effected parts of China getting back on its feet, I'm assuming the other projects, Plough van and project 42 members may/most likely be pushed back to April/May 2019 time frame? As much as I'm excited for the new model reveal at Raheny, I'm assuming that will be at least a year or more out as going well considering all the 2018 range to get into our greedy mits first.

Yeah very impressed with the Cemflo. What I did like/notice was how thick the brass buffer stem is on it. I felt looking at the same on the Tara pre production it looked very thin compared to the prototype. Could be just the scale of the wagon though.

Great pair of locos, pity the RPSI didn't get 124 too. Now it's just wasting away while 134 has a nice future ahead of it being restored to better than as delivered condition.

Not with it's LED light clusters.

Actually looks really good in NIR blue. Also love the BR one on Facebook

Durty pair

Some pictures I took on the RPSI tour yesterday. 082 chilling at Dundalk 083 on the BGH at Connolly And 084 chilling at Drogheda

I got mine from Rails Sheffield, also on the box there was a sticker on it saying that they had test run it before hand which is a nice bit of service. I assume that was from the high return rate of the first batch of 68s. 68008 Avenger in DRS is from the second batch and on my to get list later in the year.

Plain old DC here. I tried out DCC a few times but found it too messy, awkward and very hit and miss, too much work for too little reward. Far too much setting up and trouble shooting for me. Staying with DC for the forseeable future, it's simple and works most of the time.

Going by all the new CAD renders going up on the site.

Finally treated myself to one. The couple on the 68 hangs low and catches on points unless it's under tension hauling a train. Such a fantastic model and amazing detail such a shame in such a small thing. Great loco though, very smooth and quiet and low speeds and also very heavy.