Railer

Interesting photo Glenderg. Never noticed before that a container on a 20ft flat sits that bit higher than the 40ft flats due to the wagon design. Make me wonder what all the fuss was about clearing the high cubes a few years back.

So along with 8209 in the half finished Enterprise livery and either 206,207,227 or 228 being released in the 2015 Enterprise livery this year we now have the possibility of 231 in the "common user livery" as another special edition. Don't see how it's common as it's basically the Enterprise livery without the swirls but at least it's another bit of variety on the network and modeling scene.

Something I have noticed of late looking back at old youtube clips is that in alot of cases they seemed to be "paired up" in a way that every 2 wagons were facing each other, not always but it's a pattern I noticed. It does look intentional and not by chance of random shunting of wagons into rakes.

When do the pre-orders start.....

Great pictures. What happened 231, they have the black band the full way across the loco up to cab 1, thought she was facing the wrong way round for a second.

No, he'd only two of them at the last show and I bought one. I don't go into repainting rtr stock as it never ends up looking right when you have next to finished rtr stock, it just sticks out.

€85 for a Mk2D, granted it's for the rare 5229 but still, and he has 4 of them. http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Murphy-Models-MM5229-Irish-Railways-CIE-MkII-MkIID-MK2D-Coach-Orange-Roof-/141929662218?hash=item210baac70a:g:KrgAAOSwUuFWv1I-

Always there, storage. There are 23 out of 24 in service. The one with the yellow handrails at each end is never used anymore, think it's number 3. Only 12 CPWs are required for the DFDS flow with the rest used as maintenance spares. The other DFDS links are made up of LX flat wagons like the IWT.

Won't post to Ireland either.

Along with all the spare LX and LP flats half the CPW wagons are unused and are rotated as maintenance spares. The CPWs can take 45ft containers.

No, there are still only two sets back. The last set has yet to re enter service.

Same here, I've only ever saw oil burning American HO models. A rare one for the collection indeed.

I'd agree too that the DD are a few steps above anything else. The old Mk3s were better than the ICRs or Mk4s. I'd rate the ICRs as more comfortable than the Mk4s, yes the seat are a little hard but the ICRs ride the rails better. The Mk4s are still rough even after their ride quality modifications to their bogies.

That very set is in Marks for €109 and there is not shortage of them given that they are a very good model.

When the DDs were first delivered they were all hauled to Inchicore and they were tested up to 100mph on the Cork line before they entered service on the northern line. The DD stock have been to Inchicore over the years for wheeling turning, one DVT had to hauled there by 227 around 2004 after it was dragged from Connolly to Clontarf with it's parking brake still on. When the Malahide estury viaduct collapsed in 2010 the set stuck in Connolly was hauled in Inchicore for storage to free up space at the Connolly VP. While there is was used during the Mk3 EGV testing. Also during the EGV testing the short maintenance spare DD set based at York Road was hauled to Inchicore early one Sunday morning again for EGV testing. During the recent Enterprise refurb loco 233 hauled two DD standards from York Road to Inchicore for internal work and livery repaint as NIR were short of space and behind schedule.

They got that livery much earlier than the mid 90s. The last Cravens to be painted into that livery was around 1995 and it was on an ITG 201 double head special. They did start in 1987 with the IR re branding of Irish Rail. Just took 8 years to re paint all of the Cravens.

TBH I'm not that impressed with the Elite at all. I had the Select, went to the Elite and it's just more of the same. The NCE Powercab is a much nicer system to use, faster to control and better button feedback when you press them. The Hornby controllers are loud, clunky and slow to use in my experience, not good at all considering the retail price of the Elite unit.

They keep posting up those internal pictures, they are just concept shots. The observation coach ending up looking different than the concept shots externally already.

Is that a hint at a future release I detect:p

That's going to make is a bit more difficult in changing locos and sets with York Road. They better put that new jumper connection on both ends of the 201s as I can see alot of cases of locos ending up the "wrong way" round on sets once this goes ahead. So much for the one way facing livery.

Impressive beasts, they are/were of French origin?

The starting point of the record load test.

Here's a clip of 088 fighting with a laden tara train.

They only struggle in poor rail conditions, the 071s don't have creep control like the 201s and they are not great for getting the power down to the rails. In some cases a pair of BGMs were better than an 071 in getting a heavy train moving as they have more axles between them. For pure tractive effort the 071 generates more than a 201 below 15mph. So in theory they are better at getting a heavy train moving than a 201 but in real world conditions a 201 wins out.

They did it to the 2700s, gave some of them new LED clusters, removed the gangways at the cab ends and repainted them. Then they withdrew them before finishing the fleet and put them up for sale along with the 8200 DART units.