Railer

I'll be there Saturday to try and get some early bargins or hidden gems.

Great job on 208, if only it came out of the box like that. Love to have a go on my own but I don't have a steady hand. You need to get 233 up on the lowloader, the prototype is well used to it.

After having 209 and 233 for a few days now I'm very happy with them. They perform very well out of the box, better than the first MM201 I got, 229 which is still on the loud side. Sadly 233 suffers from the same gripe others have had about the yellow face 201s not being bright enough. Also the purple thumb prints are the same as 230's and again not much brighter like they should be. For some odd reason the font of the face numbers is very small too. When comparing it side by side to the Lima 8208 it lacks a few small cosmetic details. The Lima model has the builders plates on the side skirts and the small Enterprise logos behind the side cab windows that the MM Enterprise livery lacks. 230 is cosmetically near perfect for the nit picker like myself though.

Just looking at the pictures of the models of 208/9. I couldn't place what looked wrong about them but now it hit me. The blue comes down too low, the soul bar should be black all the way along to the builders plate and drop down to the skirting. Also the cab side numbers are too low. The should be mid way between the should and the the window, not sitting just above the soul bar. Hope they are pre production models.

They are hard to find online, I had on on my laptop somewhere. It was in 1996 and I think afterwards IE said never again to 201s double heading after the damage to the Cravens. 111 and 112 double headed another part of the same tour I believe.

230 suffered a fire June 2013 while working an Enterprise set. The crew managed to uncouple the loco and move it away from the set while the fire brigade put out the fire but had to cut holes in the loco for access. The loco was stored in York Road till August while the investigation was carried out. 112 then hauled it to Connolly and a week or so later 072 hauled it to Inchicore where it has been for the past 14 months and is unlikely to ever run again. 233 suffered a massive engine failure September 2012 at Clongriffin while working a North bound Enterprise. 082 came to haul the whole set back to Connolly. 233 went to Inchicore for a full engine rebuild that took 6 months before it was back in service. 208 and 209 did and iconic run for I think was an ITG rail tour back when both locos were still in NIR blue. The locos double headded a rake of Cravens from Belfast to Lisburn as far as I can remember. It was the only time 201s have ever double headded a train. It was reported after that some for the Craven couplings were strained and damaged from the acceleration of having 6,400hp up front, and one very eager driver.

.208 and 209 never really got dirty in NIR blue, just everything from the soul bar down got brown and the roof a little black at each end but the blue stayed clean until they were painted in Enterprise livery.

Love the details on the Enterprise locos, 230 with it's iconic white fillets and 233 with it's black cab numbers, the yellow on 233 should be a few shades brighter though. Would have liked the exhausts picked out in silver on the NIR locos though, I'm sure they were not painted blue on delivery.

Love the details on the Enterprise locos, 230 with it's iconic white fillets and 233 with it's black cab numbers, the yellow on 233 should be a few shades brighter though. Would have liked the exhausts picked out in silver on the NIR locos though, I'm sure they were not painted blue on delivery.

The orange roof IR/IE Mk2Ds are the hardest and rarest models to find. Standards 5229 and 5236 are like gold dust. I managed to spy 5236 in one of Mr Bracken's collections over a year ago and I said just name your price. The black rook IE standards 5210 and 5217 are easy to find though, don't seem to be as popular which I find a bit odd.

203 is a typo for 230 that will be in old Enterprise with the yellow panel while 233 will be in the revised Enterprise with full yellow face. All the orange 201s are done.

Really hoping that 203 is a typo on the box and not on the model itself.

With the upcoming model show at the end of October and an earlier statement that 208,209,230 and 233 would be released in time for it, what's with the hush hush. The Murphy's site has stated that an update with photos of the new 201s would be released but the old Lima 201 is still there. They must be almost in the country at this stage if they are to clear customs in time. I can hardly wait and don't know what 201s to pick up first myself. Would like to get 2 at first but with speculation that they will be north of 2 bills it's going to be tough.

Only 3 071s had the small IE logo as far as I know and was replaced with the big IE logo. 076,078 and 086 have all been recorded with the small logo. No 141/181s got it, the big version was standard.

228 got an over haul a few months back. I returned to service around the end of June with new wheel sets and a new fuel tank, you can't tell that now. Strange it didn't get a repaint as it was the first 201 in the IC livery. Was even expecting 228 to come back out looking like 8202 but seeing as the Enterprise livery is getting changed again is why they held off on that.

That was only used on the ex Gatwick Mk2F coaches. It was never on the Mk2B/Cs while they were used on the Enterprise before being replaced by the DD stock. The Mk2Fs entered service in 2001 and were mainly used on commuter runs between Newry and Belfast. From time to time they filled in for Enterprise failures.

What's wrong with the 47ft LX wagons or is it a case of not enough of them.

Marks Models have 111 and 113 in stock. It's 112 that's proving to be rare one even though 504 of them were made compared to 252 copies of 111 and 113.

112 got new LED marker lights fitted while it was on long term loan to IE and got replacement cab windows from a scrapped 141 and these are featured on the model. 111 and 113 still have the as delivered marker lights to this day while all of IE's 071s and other locos got LED marker lights.

The spray coach was a laminate I think, it was not the Mk1 used today that is about 6-7 years on the weed spray now.

They stared chopping at Northwall before any were scrapped at Belfast. The Mk3 cut in half and the half on it's side have been left like that for a few months now. Interesting to see some CPWs there. Great shots of 077 "saving" the last of the Mk3s, one hopes.

Those are not Mk3 bogies, they look like B4s. Odd.

There is a thread here covering Mk1 GSVs in detail, I'll see can I dig it out. There are two types of Mk1s IE used, BCKs and BSKs so you have a choice on the window and door layout. I forget which one is easier to convert to. SilverFox models the BSK version and I've never seen anyone do a BCK version. IE used 16 of the BSKs and 6 BCKs. http://www.irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/1276-Generator-coaches-for-MkIIa-and-MkIII-coaches/page2

The ol 201s, if only they could have their required silencers removed maybe more folks would like them. Jump to 3:20 in this vid and listen to the music 233 is making with it's temporary silencer mod. It reportedly gives them a bit more power too but not recommended by GM.

Get 073, it's the best factory weathered loco out of the box I have seen. That and 088 in GM golden brown are my two top 071s of the lot. 078 and 085 annoy me with their black tablet catcher mounts, they were never black in their modeled liveries and won't get them because of that.