Tractionman

9mm gauge track and 3mm scale would be great for Irish (and IOM) 3-foot gauge modelling but it does not seem to be that common place? I did start buying some 3mm scale building kits with an idea for such a layout but like most of my railway modelling ideas it never came to fruition! cheers, Keith PS, sorry, we are a long way from Hunslets and Enterprise stock !!

on a Sunday too, which makes things logistically slightly easier (for me!) with things like parking and a 10.40 departure time is quite civilised!

aha thanks, that explains things, it's the maroon/blue driving trailer that it looks like I have missed out on -- on pre-orders https://www.accurascale.com/products/nir-mk-2b-bdts-812-nir-maroon-blue

hmm, I thought these were all new (and as yet unavailable) releases?! I have a nice shiny new maroon Eagle just landed, and was about to think about the rolling stock to go with it so am a bit at a loss now, I guess I shall just have to get what I can

I am curious as to why these have now sold out but the other Mk2 NIR coaches remain orderable! Do some folks just want the Driving Trailer on its own, or are fewer of these being produced compared with the other Mk2s?

Have you particular railway modelling interests, eg period, place, company, operations? I fear I'm at the opposite end, buying too much stuff with wide and varied prototype interests and not enough focus on layout building!

I did the same, too good an opportunity to miss! (Mine's DC only...)

Thanks to a spin and win result I have popped an order in for a Eagle I could not possibly resist! I'll be saving up now for the matching coaches... cheers, Keith

sometimes worth checking TCD rooms, but yes even these are not cheap! https://www.visittrinity.ie/stay/book/#!/accommodation/search/date/2026-08-07/2026-08-08?lang=en Dublin Airport Premier Inn is also around the £120 mark, and good access by bus to the city centre?

Rpsi link https://www.steamtrainsireland.com/whats-on/25/cu-na-mara "As with previous diesel railtours this one is sure to be very popular and will sell out quickly so don't delay, and get your booking in as soon as possible."

Is it cheaper ordering via Rails of Sheffield https://railsofsheffield.com/collections/accurascale-h-van-wagons

this is surely the golden age for preserved railways in GB, with a volunteer workforce and day-trippers keeping them afloat, but if that dynamic changes there will be an impact on the viability of lines' survival in the coming decades--and the volunteer base is particularly vulnerable I would have thought as (a) fewer of us these days have much spare time to offer in older age as we have to work for a living (!) for longer with pensions shrinking in real terms and more debts for longer, (b) the pool of enthusiasts is shrinking, especially as the memories of 'proper' loco-hauled trains let alone steam fades from the population, and 'reliving' our youth disappears as a driver... am I being too gloomy? I am not sure the likes a a few 'celeb' train-spotter influencers will be enough to galvanise the 2000s+ generation (ie those not in the 1960s-1980s enthusiast group) to prop up for free the raft of jobs needed for maintaining preserved railways, from tearoom staff to fitters and platelayers. time will tell, but GB preservation may wane and so we should make the most of what we have while it's here

Interesting points, a big difference too is around nostalgia fueled by kids in Britain who were loco spotters in the fifties and sixties and really drove the preservation movement in the seventies, which bore fruit by the nineties and now very much a part of the tourist industry in GB which hopefully will help the lines continue to prosper for decades to come. Without those pioneers acting on their passion for steam, and reacting to its loss on British Railways in 1968, I'm sure we'd have a fraction of preserved lines in England. The narrow gauge lines in Wales are perhaps a different preservation story to the lines like the Severn Valley and North York Moors. Scotland is not really loaded with preserved railways. Population figures no doubt play an important part in all this, but so does having the luxury of nostalgia.

I see Rails has listed some of this stock on their shop web-site too, eg https://railsofsheffield.com/collections/murphy-models?filter.v.price.gte=0&filter.v.price.lte=220&page=1&sort_by=created-descending

Well, that lot didn't hang around for very long just goes to show the level of demand there is.