flange lubricator

I think that the first series of laminate coaches 1429-1448 were 70 seaters with 3+2 seating nicknamed maze if I remember correctly. super job on the bredins Kirley

Superb modelling

It's interesting that the CIE palvans were built in 1964/65 with no vacuum brakes I think the last non braked vehicles to be built?. I have always heard the railwaymen refer to the vacuum hose as "bag" I don't what the orgin s of that are .

Thanks for the comments Glenderg and Mike84c. As regards brown and grey Jhb171Achill is 100% correct as the 1970's came to a close you would see less and less of the grey wagons they were would only have been repainted if they went for general repair . The wagons that remained in grey probably received running repairs at some of the smaller depots. One point to clarify when Jhb171achill say s "fitted" it means that the wagons were not fitted with vacuum brakes but were through piped this was basically a 2" pipe 16' long attached to the underframe as far as I'm aware. I can't ever remember seeing any with vacuum hose .

Just putting the finishing touches to my CIE Palvans

Thanks for that , it was seeing your one that motivated me to get my finger out ! I wanted to do the one with the crossed braced end as I think they were distinctly Irish compared to the one with the corrugated ends I did three and ended up with two 12 ton vans which are very near to the GNR H van .

I think they were more a stop gap measure to handle pallets which were becoming a more popular way of transporting goods by the mid 1960's, interestingly enough.BR introduced their.palvans in the mid fifties and started withdrawal in the mid sixties , CIE began building their palvans in 1964/65 and they would all be gone by the late 1970's in favour of unit loads .

Both the BR and CIE one's had a 10'0 wheelbase the same as the standard CIE van but they were higher any pictures you see of loose coupled trains in thr 1970's the standard van made up the majority with the palvans dotted throughout the train .

Currently working on coverting some Parkside Dundas BR palvans to CIE 26000 series palvans the CIE one had a number of different end pressings which I have tried to reproduce , Inspired by Patricks models of his Palvans and JHB pictures

Glenderg that's a great paint job on the sulzer

Super modelling so realistic well done .

Glenderg, please don't take any of my postings as verbatim I am far from the fount of knowledge compared to some on here, to use cement parlance I have a head like a cavity block on these matters,but to add to my earlier post over the years the various silos were at various times supplied by either plant Platin or Castlemungret but Athy (Tegrel)was only ever supplied from Castlemungret. I was also led to believe that the Athy cement loaded from a separate silo in Castlemungret as far as I'm aware.

Yes Mayner I think that is correct this photo http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000306218 also from the O'Dea Collection is from 1967 note the newer wagons behind the loco have hand brake lever while the wagons further back dont?? also brake van front and rear.

Found this picture in the O'Dea Collection at the National Libary note the Handbrake which is a wheel as compared to a lever and the position of the Vacuum Bag/hose. http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000307375

The cement was powder, loading and discharge was carried out by low pressure high volume blown air , the cement was the same grade as used in construction the only exception was the Castlemungret to Athy which was used in the manafacture of roof tiles the wagons on the Athy Cement could not be mixed with the wagons from the other cement jobs like Athenry ,Tullamore,Waterford , Belfast,Sligo, Cork and Cabra as far as I aware.

That's a picture form the O'Dea collection at the National Library, note the new craven in the background.

The Commonwealth bogies fitted to the Park Royals and the early laminates were 8'0" Commonwealths , the Bachmann Commonwealths are 8'6" C'wealths used in the UK , the 8'6" C'wealths were fitted to 1497-1503 Laminates(ultra wides 10'2") , 1145-1146 full First and 2403 Kitchen car It would be great to have the 8'0" C'wealth , the Gangways and battery boxes available.

Absolutely superb piece of work .

Great job , just finished the 30 ton brake van myself nobody should be afraid of working with brass its sounds more difficult than it is .

Not wanting to be the dissenting voice and spoil the party I would like to get a certain sense of perspective with this issue , I make my comments as a ‘Customer’ not as one of the usual knockers as some would put it , am I the first contributor to use the word ‘customer’ in fifteen pages of this thread??. I do to date have two MM Mk2a’s, nine B(GM’s) loco’s, eleven MM Craven’s , three 071 class locos and soon to have seven MM Mk2d’s I think this qualifies me as a ‘customer’. I have no issue with the price of these coaches if I get what I pay for, the price point of these models is at the premium end of the scale when compared to other Mk2’s (Bachmann, Hornby, etc) these are the most expensive BR Mk2’s to date so I would assume they would be premium quality and finish unfortunately they are not . I have seen them in the flesh. The colour is one issue , some small detail issues but the not straight black line and overspray on €56 coaches is simply poor , the supertrain livery is the easiest to reproduce a simple black line down the middle . We seem to have a ‘ah it will do’ or ‘they will be grand’ or maybe ‘ aren’t we lucky for what we get’ attitude to all this . Some would say well weather them or drop them into your local respray agent , but these are high end RTR models you should not have to do that , if you pay premium money for a BMW or Audi car you don’t drop it into the bodyshop on your way home to ‘fix it up’. In 2006 with the Mk2a’s and later with the Cravens the finish was excellent above average, a difficult livery in the case of the Mk2a,but the finish is what you would expect of a premium model. I like many am able to touch up or respray these coaches easy enough, but spare a thought for those who can’t. With the Mk2d supertrain coach the price has increased and the standard has slipped, if these coaches fail to sell as someone has said in a previous post even be returned that is not good for PM , the retailers or the end users and the hobby. Some may say ‘pony up or shut’ up well I have ponied up and will continue to do so to support our Irish retailers and enterprising people like PM, but like all manufactures and retailers they must listen to their customers too.

Spot on Dhu Varren The CiE Mk2d's are more a Mk2f fittied with the better Temp control Ltd air conditioning system (better than on the BR Mk2d's)and the toilets are the same as the Mk2e's.

One could also wear dark glasses or perhaps rose tinted ones when running them on your layout , but you cannot escape the fact that I am about to drop the guts of €500 euro in to my local agent ( deposit already paid) for a set of seven of these coaches and there not the right colour !. If you have respray them or weather them that adds to the cost of them big time .

I had been labouring under the misapprehension that this is a discussion fourm but perhaps not, I also be buying all the Supertrain Mk2d .

They are perfect .

Great news, should the composite be 5152 and not 5102 ?