Railer

Yeah they do the most damage alright. I reckon IE will notice the reduced maintenance costs over the past year with most of the Mk4 fleet stored. If they used heavier grade track they would last longer, I think they are starting to install heavier grade track again in the high speed parts of the Cork main line.

Cheaper to make/buy in. Suppose the way they look it is why pay more to have more load than you need. Nice to have but not worth the cost. Basically operating within their means instead of the mentality of better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

Track used today is of lighter gauge than the heavier stuff used in the past. Off hand I think the maximum permitted axle load today on IE is about 19.5-20 ton per axle. 800 exceeds that while a 201 just fits in there. A fully loaded autoballaster can exceed the max limit so a load gauge is fitted to each wagon and watched as they are filled up.

Is it possible it get Peco C75 points that have concrete style sleepers, or do they even make them?

There really is not that much stock still out there. Any online site that has a stock counter only show a few models of each about with alot of sites fully sold out. All the 141/181s are long gone, 201 is gone, all of the orange roof IE Mk2s are gone. 111,112 and 113 are gone. I can only see 1 site with 111 in stock and they just have 1 of it. There are not too many 071s left. The 201s are not too popular from the looks of things. I reckon PM could do another run of 141/181s and they would sell out provided they match the quality of the existing models, same with another run of Mk2 EGVs it would save having to get the ST EGVs sprayed/tippexed.

When 080 gets out, heck 076 still hasn't made it out after almost a year. You have the likes of 071, 077, 084 and 088 that you can't tell from any reasonable distance head on. 088 does have the 8 8 spaced far apart though. What the did with 206 is how 071s should have been with just one small EVN each side.

Have to say I much rather the 071s in the grey livery than the black and silver freight livery, think it was the yellow face that ruined it. Also whoever is putting on number stickers at Inchicore lately is all over the shop with all the different styles, fonts and spacing.

I think it depends if they fit TPWS to 216 or not. If not then a loco change at Dundalk. If it gets TPWS then a 111 would only be needed for parts of the NIR network that is not capable of taking the weight of a 201.

Oh my, can't wait to see the finished results of the no2.end cab face. Not an easy livery to do by any means I'd imagine.

Lads, you are really making a great case for the single life on here. Only now do I see how lucky I am that I can just go and pick something or things up whenever the mood takes me and not have to hide it or justify to myself.

I don't mind how long things take when they turn out good. I'd rather someone take their time and turn out the top goods than rush something out the door. I'm like that dressing data cables at work, I take a bit longer than most of the lads but the end results speak for themselves.

Oh I know. There is a bit of a back order on the 2600s, have 1 set out of 3 so far. Well worth it though imo. As it is, it's a project in itself for me to just try and fit detail parts to a loco. Almost destroyed a Mk2 trying to remove a nem coupler to fit a kaydee that ended up too short and I haven't cut it off yet. I'm more suited to brute force type of tasks I think.

Thanks lads,

As the thread title says really. I currently have a second hand Sliver Fox Mk1 GSV and 2 Dutch Vans, while they nice and do a ok job they are not great runners. Looking through this site there is some great talent and I remember being impressed with the Mk3 EGV brass build and paint job. Basically I am looking for someone who would be willing and able to make an accurate Mk1 GSV, Dutch Van and Mk3 EGV or who would be the people to ask? I bought a D&M 2600 set and am more than happy with excellent work that went in to that so I've an idea of the high end price involved in any custom works.

There are two types of check rails used by Irish Rail. One is just inside the running rails like normal. The other is bolted down in the mid section of the track like on the Bray to Greystones section of the line. As far as I know they are check rails but I don't know why they are placed in the middle and far apart, don't seem to be very effective for their use to me but what do I know. Not to be confuesed with new or replaced rail sections that are often left behind all around the network mind.

Yeah true there is 3 super train standards out there that you can get resprayed but why have more ST standard Mk2s than any other released so far. The ST range is spoiled for choice more than any other, and everything is covered. It's ironic with issues that I won't go into here about the ST Mk2s. Only got my first ST Mk2 yesterday and I'm still not sure how it compares between the IE Mk2s and the ST 141s I have shade wise.

Marks Models have confirmed for me this afternoon that orange roof 5229 is out of stock and no longer be sourced first hand. So that's no more orange roof IE Mk2s, at least they sold well in our small market.

It is odd that there are only 2 numbers of standards, same with the black roof 5210 and 5217. But you can always buy more and renumber if you want but leads to shortages as we can see. Then you have the supertrain Mk2s that got 2 EGV running numbers. But still you have the IR Mk2s to come, if they will ever see the light of days is another thing.

I got 5236 from your good self Dave almost 2 years ago and it was hard to get then too, pity it was shop weathered but still just happy to get my hands on it. Right now 5229 is also heading that way from the looks of things and I don't have one of those yet. Wouldn't mind a clean 5236 like Ray is looking for either.

It's a Mk1 GSV behind the TPO.

That's it fotopic, they was some cracking collections on there. Such a loss. There was a great collection I really enjoyed that was taken all around Fairview, Connolly, Pearse and the Boston sideings and Bray in the pre DART days. The DART depot at Fairview being an old shed for the C201s and 6100 pushpull sets was an amazing find for me.

I was lead to believe it will be a chocolate and custard type livery? Can't wait to see the train running next year.

Thanks for the link. I could not get on the site for a few months now with a bookmark I have. I thought it was gone because they was talk around January of taking the site offline because of the low traffic numbers. When I type in irishrailwaynews.com I get a page saying the name is recently listed in the domain market place so I assumed it was gone. There used to be far more photos on that stie but one of the photohosting sites went bang a good few years ago and a few members with thousands of great photos said they won't bother to upload them again which is a massive shame. So much raailway history lost from so my fans.

Shame IRN is no more. There was a ton of info I wanted to lift from old posts there such as day to day operations and what locos were where. There was even a full running numbers list of all current freight stock, even the stuff that is stored out of use.

Suppose they could take the TPWS system out of 230 and install it into 216. Problem solved. 230 is a spare parts loco now anyway.