226 Abhann na Suire

Freight aside, even passenger services to the likes of Adare and Askeaton (or even, dare we even hope about the north Kerry line, but Newcastle West…?) could, with a solid plan in place, really help these towns to grow into large commuter suburbs for people working in Limerick. And, possibly a tad hopeful rather than realistic, but the 2027 Ryder Cup is being hosted in Adare, and while I doubt the Shannon Rail Link will even be planned, let alone financed and built by that stage (though we can hope!) services from Limerick city and from Dublin to Adare could get a lot of Ryder Cup traffic… I know the yanks for certain would be smitten with a little branch line like the Foynes one…!

Sorry lads pictures and videos not loading, take 2!! IMG_3646.mov

The fear an phoist and the lads at IRM and of course Paddy honestly sure know how to treat me well!! Buzzing with this, finally have some prototypical Irish stock to run behind 080! Coaches look fab, a great job from the man himself! Thanks to the IRM crew too, arrived well packaged and very quickly too!! P.S. ignore the auld English yoke on the platform and the mess of the place too..! IMG_3639.mov

As a Deise man myself, I’m probably a bit biased on the matter but I do see this as an unbelievable opportunity and project. I think that any steam engine running in steam on a railway of any sort (and I really do think that the W&SVR have the drive and commitment to make this happen) is far better than it sitting in a museum, which in turn is 10 times better than it rotting in a tumbledown shed. It’s all well and good those people on Facebook giving out about it going to Ireland but the whole point of Railway preservation is to (clues in the name…!) preserve railway items so surely where it happens shouldn’t matter too much… And besides they have enough steamers over there, leave some for us!! And I very much understand those of you above who are saying that the W&SVR is a tourist railway and not a heritage one, and I’d be inclined to agree with you but at the same time, really so is nearly every railway preservation project. There’s a reason Santa Expresses and Halloween and Easter Excursions as well as Thomas the Tank Engine events are put on and it’s to bring in people (and money) that wouldn’t normally be coming to the railway, money without which, the railways would be in danger. What’s the difference between Downpatrick and Waterford? The only big one I can see is the gauge… So maybe we all (myself included because I did one harbour doubts about this project) have a bit of general positivity about this and maybe rather than pondering if they’ll even follow through with the project, we could lend a hand to the first steam preservation project the south east of the country has seen, and the first one Ireland has seen in a long while - I know I’ll have to try and get my hands on helping out somehow!! Oisín

Is that 9 in one set rather than 4+5? That would be crazy to see, I can’t even imagine that, let alone a 9+9 car formation!

Sorry DJ hahaha hadn’t seen this

Thought I heard something about the new ones having the capability for the shunt-lighting set up of one red and one white light on at the same time…? Could be wrong there though

Jesus they look well in 7 car formation don’t they! Great to free up more driving cars now for hopefully increased services on the branch lines…

121 finally sold as well now, and a small rake of MkII’s ordered with the collective proceeds! Thanks everyone for the offers and messages, and of course to the people who bought them too! Cheers everyone Oisín

Just put in an order there for 3 standards and a composite, very chuffed indeed (pun very much intended) and looking forward to that arriving with the auld fear an phoist over the week!! Thanks IRM for the free shipping and great to have had the sneaky extra stock come in last week too!

Yeah I think I had seen a 7 car set before actually thinking about it now, and they’ve definitely brought the 6 cars back but 8 or 9? Wow that would be some sight to behold!!

Just curious as to what the maximum possible lengths for ICR sets (combos and full units) and what the longest set to operate in service was… heard rumours of a 5+3…?? Surely not…

Officially sold the Craven coach lads but the 121 is very much still up for grabs!! Pass it on to anyone you think might be interested - let your Nan know if you think she’s a grey GM kinda person…! Email or PM me if you’re interested Oisín

I wonder would a steam ‘genny’ van be something IRM would do… I know silverfox had a converted version of it in kit form from a BR MkI but is a RTR model something that could be worth IRM’s while…? Also some very very interesting stuff here… @BosKonay been awful quiet since this dropped…

Ahh ok so haha not a worry

Attached pictures of B135. Front buffer beam detail fitted but alternate coupler and front guard are still in the detail bag in the box And the Cravens 1149TL First Open coach. Any questions please feel free to drop me a message or email me oisinbobcooke@icloud.com

Hahahahaha I might drop him a message and see if he’s interested!!! I should have specified IR/IÉ cravens (the one I have is CIE B&T, and as I said, not my era, plus I only have a single one) but the edit tool wasn’t working, and I simply forgot… I’ll go back and change that now, thanks for the reminder!! Yeah absolutely, I’ll put up pictures of both later on

Hi all, looking to free up a bit of cash and so decided to sell a few bits that aren’t really in my preferred era of Irish modelling in the hopes of being able to buy stuff that is. I have a mint condition Murphy Models Class 121, no. B135 in CIE grey and yellow, which is a perfect runner, just not my preferred era. This is going for €165 which is €25 off their selling price. I also have a CIE-liveried Cravens 1st Open Carriage with again is in mint condition and I’m selling for €50. Again, a perfect model, just not my preferred era. Please private message me if you’re interested in one or both of the models. Price mentioned above excludes postage but I’m based in the south east of Ireland so I can do collection or postage. Thanks a million

Jaysus JB that has me tearing up and ready to go fighting at the same time!! Maybe if they got yourself to give the Mayo football team their half time rile-up speech, Sam would be in hand in no time!!! In all seriousness though, a mighty speech and I certainly will be trying to send money Whitehead-bound wherever I can!! God bless the work and long may it continue!

Really really chancing my arm here given the scarcity of these in todays world (wouldn’t a rerun be only mighty) but does anyone know where I could come across at least 1 Murphy Models Craven coach for anything less than the cost of my kidneys… thanks a million

Are any of these still available by any chance… a couple of red Tara’s (or anything really) would be a lovely start to the year!

Hi all, I know that OO Works have a model of a J15 out but am not quite sure if they are doing a re-run in the coming months and have seen Hornby LNER J15s (which I know to be a good model) for a pretty cheap price around the Internet so I’m wondering what kind of conversion would be needed to turn an LNER J15 into a GSWR one… or with a couple of transfers and potentially a different tender, would I get away with it… Happy new year to everyone! Oisín

Very much not ‘Back in the Day’ so to speak (unless the mid 2010s count..) but just maybe on a bit of a hopeful note that the good auld days aren’t truly gone: My brother and I were and still very very much are huge railway enthusiasts (although ‘train nerd’ is the term I’m more commonly - yet affectionately - christened with!) and in 2014, were lucky enough to get to go on the Toy Show and such followed some amazing railway experiences! We were very very kindly invited by Iarnród Éireann to visit Inchicore and got to a tour of the works - I recall being intrigued at the wheel lathe and giant crane - the and even have a go at the DART simulator (I also remember hitting a horse I think somewhere between Sandymount and Dun Laoighre…) and it truly was an amazing experience and to this day I am extremely grateful to the kind people at Irish Rail that organised it. The best part of this story however, is in 2015. Our dad knew the District Area Manager at Waterford, a Mr Emmett Cotter who, maybe after the previously mentioned events, and also out of sheer kindness arranged for my brother and I to get a tour of the elevated signal cabin in Waterford before it was officially signed off to CTC (I’m very proud to say that 9 year old me set the route for a morning arrival from Dublin) and astonishingly, he also arranged for us to cab the 7:20 Waterford to Limerick Jnct!! Well at the age of 9 this absolutely blew my little mind! We were on the footplate the whole way and were even sent back through the train to check tickets and count passenger numbers! The driver and guard, whose names shamefully slip my mind, were unbelievably good and kind to us and let us operate the doors at the stations and even beep the horn! It was a fantastic trip and day out and I will forever remember and appreciate the kindness and hospitality of everyone at Irish Rail who made it all happen! So maybe not quite as good as the good auld days mentioned in this thread so far (which sound amazing, and had I a time machine I would go back in a heartbeat!) but a somewhat hopeful note at Christmas that those times still aren’t truly gone and an Irish wink and a nod (kind of) can still get you into the cab of a train!! Merry Christmas or holidays or whatever you celebrate to everyone and enjoy the break :)) Oisín

@DoctorPan I never looked at it from that angle before at all somehow, I actually never thought about that. Having read that, I went to look at the route map and website of Metrolink and I don’t know how I completely didn’t realise that as you say, serving the airport is only a bonus side effect, and it actually provides hugely populated areas of North Dublin with otherwise limited transport connections, with a frequent and integrative service to the city centre. I apologise about going on the tirade, and thank you for pointing that out!! I do still think that Dublin Airport could benefit from a heavy rail link and there are certain aspects of Metrolink’s route that could be slightly altered to improve connectivity. Specifically the O’Connell Street stop which is currently located linking with the Luas Green Line’s O’Connell Upper stop (thus connecting with only one direction of only one Luas line…). This could be moved slightly southwards to around the intersection of Abbey and O’Connell Street, thus connecting with Red Line and both directions of the Green Line by way of having numerous exits from the underground station. DART Underground (or DART + Tunnel as the big wigs are calling it) can also only be seen as complimenting Metrolink with a potential connection at O’Connell Street being amazing but the planned Stephen’s Green or Tara links also being very viable. I also couldn’t agree more about taking services away from Connolly, it is very congested and aside from the Northern Line, has little scope for track capacity enhancements and not much space for additional platforms either. I think the Strategic Rail Review’s idea of the Maynooth-Lucan rail link would be fantastic if implemented as it will allow Sligo (and potential future Monaghan and Cavan services from Mullingar which are also recommended in the review) to terminate at Heuston, where there is loads of space for capacity enhancement and extra platforms (unlike poor Connolly) and which will be reached by full quad-track thanks to DART + SW (also unlike poor Connolly). They also recommended Rosslare line services terminate at Bray, with passengers wanting to journey on to Dublin making a very easy cross-platform interchange for an increased-frequency DART service to Dublin. While this may seem bad, it allows for more frequent services from Rosslare and Wexford to Bray and there would be no actual increase in journey time at all by having to change train, as Rosslare trains are stuck behind DARTs all the way from Bray and so take the same time as them to reach Connolly anyway. This would allow Connolly to be a completely commuter/DART only station (aside from the Enterprise), with 5 platforms (3 through and 2 bays) for DARTs to serve Maynooth, Drogheda, Hazelhatch/Kildare, Bray and maybe the airport being very sufficient and 2 platforms for the hourly Enterprise. I apologise to everyone for that Shpeel, I’m not great at getting my point across quickly at all, so sorry about that and thanks again @DoctorPan for opening my eyes to being pro-Metrolink again! Now, back to the Foynes line!!… I could be missing something, but a solution potentially…?

Something I want to know, and it is a slight side note from the above, but why can’t they throw in a few stations along the Foynes route, Foynes itself, maybe Askeaton, but most especially, and at the very least Adare?? It’s no mystery to this government how much of a congested, busy and growing town Adare is and even with the Ryder Cup coming in 2027 as well, surely it makes tones of sense to slap down a Craughwell/Ardrahan/Sixmilebridge job of a single concrete platform with a few lamps and shelters?? What on Earth is stopping them, the big palaver of relaying and reinstalling the line is the biggest job and that’s being done anyway so there is quite literally nothing to lose by running a 2800 down to Adare twice in the morning and evening peak…? I also think Metrolink as It’s being proposed, is a load of absolute bull**** and this country is better off without it in its current state. Only linking up with the National Network at Drumcondra and Tara Street??? Seriously??? So anybody coming into the country wanting to go anywhere but Dublin (an awful lot of people by the way) has to change trains 2/3 times at least?? DART Underground between Heuston and the Docklands (with an underground station at Connolly too - a direct Heuston to Connolly link is a must in any DART Underground/Metro plan I think) before joining a quad-tracked Northern line to Clongriffin and then going underground to reach the airport and possibly Swords, seems like a much more attractive and, honestly easier project with far more long term benefits for the network - direct trains from anywhere to the airport being possibly with maximum a single cross platform change required. The lack of joined up thinking in this country of ours, as much as I love it, is astonishing sometimes…