Mol_PMB

Sorry, I didn't see this before. I have a couple of packs of fertiliser wagons that are surplus to requirements as I've backdated my modelling period. I got them both secondhand but they appear as-new. I have: Pack D - IRM1043D 35027 & 35071 Pack E - IRM1044E 35001 & 35012 I'm in England though, so depending on where you are that might be an advantage or disadvantage.

I wouldn't be surprised if Glasnevin becomes a stop on the Sligo trains once the Metro is in operation.

:-) (Photo by Jonathan Allen on Flickr, NIR's second batch 825-828 were early Mk2c and are first and third in this train, with a Mk2b between)

The same could be said of any piece of transport infrastructure though! I wonder how many people travel from Belfast or Cork to Dublin Airport? Belfast and Cork both have their own airports with a good range of destinations, and if you want to go further afield then it's perhaps easier to fly from Belfast or Cork to (say) Manchester or Amsterdam and change there. For those who do want to go to Dublin Airport there are some express road coaches which seem to provide for the market fairly well and have the advantage of a direct journey to the airport with no need to handle luggage through changes of transport mode. But I don't think there's a huge volume of traffic that way. Malahide - well that also has a regular direct bus to the airport. It runs through from Sutton. I used it a few weeks ago and it was reliable and convenient. This metro will surely be useful for commuting into Dublin from north and south, and for providing a quality link from the airport into the city centre for onward connections to greater Dublin by suburban train or LUAS.

This is the sort of rake an RTC Mk2 could turn up in... looks like someone went through the bargain bin in their local modelshop and came out with a load of mismatched carriages and an alien loco:

Given that this is an early announcement of the specials in Batch 2, I can't help wondering whether the main content of Batch 2 might include some early NIR maroon and blue stock. The relevant mouldings for the initial Mk2B deliveries have been done already, it's just a different paint job. Over on RMweb, AS have hinted that there aren't any more NIR grey/blue liveried Mk2s in the immediate plans.

Quite a lot of photos of special and excursion trains seem to include a bogie van, including GAA specials. I had visions of it being stacked high with crates of Guinness, but perhaps that's unfair.

The RTC painted all sorts in blue and red, including Mk1s / Mk2s / Mk3s, an autocoach, various types of wagons, locos, even the prototype Maglev. The later livery as a variant of the Intercity scheme was quite good too. By my time it was mostly Railtrack lime/blue, Serco red/grey, AEAT blue, or later NR yellow. I have fond memories of testing the two Mk2 coaches in the first edition of the NMT at 140mph.

This is a short question with a very long answer! There was a fairly large fleet and it was used in all sorts of different formations and in different ways. Broadly the RTC train activities could be divided into 3 groups: Track or infrastructure measuring trains, which ran regularly to monitor things like track geometry, rail cracks, overhead catenary, structure gauging. Each train would have one or more test cars and some support vehicles with staff messing facilities, perhaps also some other vehicles to provide brake force. Some had a driving car to enable them to be propelled. These would have reasonably consistent formations. Test cars used for assessing the performance of new or modified locos or rolling stock, things like ride performance, brake tests, traction power. Often operated as single vehicles together with the wagon or loco under test. Test trains associated with research programmes. These would be developed and formed up to suit the needs of each research programme. When the tests had been completed the train would be split up and the vehicles might well be re-used for other purposes. Examples of research programmes included the Tribometer (wheel/rail adhesion tests), radio communications, developments of improved freight vehicle suspensions and the validation of computer models such as Vampire, and many aspects of the APT development. This website gives a good overview of the RTC activities and has many photos of different types of test train: Testing home page Hope that helps!

There were more Mk2s in RTC livery, but some of them were other types of Mk2 (e.g. there was one of the very early Mk2 FKs with the different windows). At one time I worked at the RTC and I've been on a few test trains, but the classic RTC livery had mostly gone before my time.

Hmm, the red looks a bit too bright to hook behind a Hunslet. Maybe some early NIR examples are waiting in the wings though…

The locos are in supertrain livery, so it’s after 1972. Behind the locos is a bogie van, not a TPO. That opens up more options of what type of train it is.

The first is a bogie luggage van, probably one of those converted from passenger stock, mostly early CIE (2562-2591) but some late GSR (2559-2561). The second is a compartment coach, probably CIE early 1950s. Note the toilets near the middle. It's hard to tell from this view whether it's a standard or a composite, but I think there's a door between the toilets making it a standard. Best guess would be one of the 1372-1378 batch of 1954, as it has commonwealth bogies and triangulated underframe. The next two are 64-seat open standards, with only a single toilet window at the end, but they seem to have different cross-section profiles and different bogies so may be different batches. The leading one could be from the 1356-1371 batch of 1953, and the nearer one may be from the 1497-1503 batch of 1962. Then the Park Royal - seems to be a suburban type without toilets. The last is a 32xx series steam heat van converted from passenger stock - some of these retained some of the compartments in passenger use. I think it might be from the 3213-3218 batch. There is no catering car in the train - their roof details are quite distinctive.

Many thanks John, very useful. Interesting to see the different arrangements of vestibules and toilets on the two types, and the high proportion of smoking accommodation. Photographic evidence indicates that the 1429-1448 type were delivered in 'silver' (unpainted aluminium) but the the 1449-1496 type were green from new. Edit: there's a nice close-up view of one end of a 1429-1448 type coach in the book 'Bulleid and the Turf Burner', page 65. This photo dated October 1957 shows some interesting details: The small window in the toilet compartment was frosted, as one would expect, but the adjacent one above the handbasin was clear. The large windows in the saloon had curtains on their lower part, which were hung from a rail just below the opening vents. The panelling and beading of the sides and roof is shown very clearly, also the door furniture. Some of the autumn 1957 tests of CC1 used a full train of these coaches (with a tin van on the back) which must have looked shiny!

Having suffered commuting on those terrible things for many years, I don't have any good words to say about them. And I'm still commuting on 150s, while you lucky Irish sent your 450s to the scrapheap years ago!