Flying Snail

Nice pics @Irishrailwayman - looks like a good show! Model Rail Scotland have some videos from it too on Youtube here. I thought York (in your pictures above) was really eye catching with the cut away view into the station.

The RPSI have both Cravens and baby GMs so you never know ... maybe one day! Hopefully when the time comes a 2600 set will find its way into preservation too

Happy to put my name down for two etches too (two pairs of wagons).

Exciting project, I hope you get the numbers. Is the request for expressions of interest a learning from the 22000 experience? I hope you crack the ' multiple units' nut ... would love to see more Irish DMUs in future

HMRS in the UK have a large collection of Irish drawings: https://hmrs.org.uk/ Google Irish Rail for responses to Freedom of Information requests - lots of people request diagrams

Your cottages and farm buildings are lovely models (as indeed are all the items you've shared with us here). The plans would be a great resource for anyone looking to create an Irish layout

that would do nicely - especially if it was with "realistic chuffing and mooing sound" for all the sound aficionados

Then there'd be noting to modify for people like MoI to impress us with ... well apart from the buffer spacing

Interesting development - maybe one day we'll see some Irish train packs ... a Loughrea train anyone?

And there's plenty of people into cars that would do just that ... The other thing to remember is that for most of us a collection like DJ's is collected over a long period of time. For the sake of argument, lets imagine that once you leave school and start working that you can save €500 per year to spend on models - thats not a small sum of money, but thats not a crazy amount either ... now imagine how big your collection will be once you reach DJ's age!

Those are very nice MoI! I do think spotting a fake one on an exhibition layout would be a nice easter egg to find, .... but then for every one who found it funny, the poor exhibitor would probably have another ten visitors pointing out his 'mistake' to him. It would probably stop being funny very fast.

I would love to see someone print one of these up in 7mm scale for their layout ... go on, go on, go on!!

From 1916 too, that just adds to the value and sure a little rust is to be expected .... Section 90 of the Great Southern and Western Railway Act 1903 really was far reaching wasn't it? It reached all the way up to Newry apparently

I believe (but am open to correction) that Marks Models here in Ireland also purchase collections - they certainly sell secondhand stock.

I think you're gonna need a bigger bookcase ... I hope IKEA have enough Billys

You'd be mad not to ..

I'll miss the IRM brand if it goes. When a pal from England told me that Accurascale was IRM's parent company, I took delight in pointing out that actually IRM was the older of the two. I'm going to need another angle for my one-up-manship now However, I'm not surprised at the changes and for what its worth, I think coming together under the Accurascale flag makes sense. My own (very small) business once tied itself up in knots with multiple different brands and websites - bringing everything together under one identity and structure made a massive difference to us in terms of operations/corporate structure, brand awareness etc. ... and ultimately to our bottom line. Best of luck with the consolidation lads - anything the makes your business stronger is a good thing for both you and the Irish scene

The rail tragedy on 30 January 1925 claimed the lives of four people and injured many more when a strong gale derailed two carriages on the train bound for Ailt an Chorráin in the west Donegal Gaeltacht. There's a commemoration today (30 January2025). More on RTÉ website

Thats a lovely video - very informative too!

There's a nice anecdotal source here of the latter days of the line here from A community project in Abbeyleix: https://abbeyleixbog.wordpress.com/2016/05/13/a-railway-ran-through-it-2/ Oops - post crossed with Broithe - he has the same link to Abbeyleix above

Portlaoise-Kilkenny was originally part of the Waterford & Central Ireland Railway. It was absorbed into the GSWR in 1900 so there's not so much info as other railways (especially on its the early days). However, there are references in some books and a few articles in journals like the IRRS. This thread Where to find images/drawings of Waterford & Central Ireland Railway rolling stock? has some information on the lines history suppled by some of the learned members on here - including scans from an IRRS journal article (which would be good strong references to include). I'll also have a look through material others have shared with me on the line.

Thats great news for us over here Leslie

Circus train loading at Heuston in 1961 .Taken from the IRRS Twitter: https://x.com/irishrailways/status/1064866932065792001/photo/1 Anything Anywhere Anytime .... love it!

Hi Leslie, I got back into the hobby during Covid, and I've had the pleasure of meeting you at the most recent Blackrock and Clontarf shows. On both occasions you've been very giving of your time and a mine of information. I'm the happy owner of some of your kits as well as two of the Dapol vans. As others have said above, the market appears to be heading to RTR - even for niche items from the Irish scene. However, your kits are great and very accessible for the beginner - having all the components required (and excellent instructions) to produce an OO model. They've helped me transition into building model trains, and its clear to anyone involved in the hobby that they been an important part of the Irish scene! Thanks for all you've done. I've no doubt that even in retirement that'll you'll continue to be an important part of the Irish scene for many more years to come!