Mol_PMB

I’ve received most of my Park Royals but the last order hasn’t yet been dispatched. I’m going off on hols soon and had the same concern about it being left outside risking theft or rain damage. A quick email to Accurascale support, and they have delayed sending the order until I get back home. A prompt communication, very helpful and courteous. Risk averted!

The Manx Peacocks and Southern N / U class fit the bill. LMS Jinties too.

Ah - a doggy diesel! Very nice indeed. I gather that model is highly sought after.

That looks very neat! It's nice to see a goods yard with plenty of space for the road vehicles to manoeuvre - it's very easy for us railway modellers to cram the space unrealistically full of track.

Having entered service in 1954-1956, mostly in brilliant green, they were due for repaint 6-7 years later, around 1960-62. A few were repainted in light green with black ends and roofs around 1959-60. In my thread on the early BnT livery (from September 1961 for just a few months) there are quite a few Park Royals, suggesting that they were going through the paint shop at that time. Most got the normal BnT in 1962/3. IRM haven't done any in the early BnT scheme but I have. I haven't yet received my green ones, and I'll make a judgement on the colour when they arrive. I think they are light green. I plan to backdate and repaint one in brilliant green which will provide an interesting contrast between those liveries. One thing the light green ones with black ends are definitely missing is the class digits on the doors. And the dimension plates on the ends should be red. But again, an easy fix with transfers. Two received a special BnT livery with advertising slogans along the cantrail. This is reported in contemporary journals and there's an IRRS photo of one of them. At present I have no plans to model this short-lived scheme.

It did vary by traffic and by route, and the transition was gradual from the mid 1960s to the early 1980s. Shipping containers and bulk cement were some of the first traffics to switch to liner trains. Beet and engineers’ works trains were some of the last to change. The last traditional unfitted ‘sundries’ traffic was late 1970s to/from Limerick. There was also a reorganisation of the way freight was handled, with goods facilities at many smaller stations being closed and replaced with larger mechanised depots serving a wider region with final delivery/collection by road where needed.

I look forward to seeing what's involved - please would you post some pics of your process?

Either that, or start needle-gunning the rust off the outside of the tank. (It’ll flake off the inside as well, of course)

I did consider getting one, but having chosen to wear the 21mm gauge hair shirt, the width compromise of an HO scale model would be a problem for me. In OO gauge it's not too bad, this was a tall and chunky prototype based on the German loading gauge, so the scale discrepancy is not obvious.

While they are dispatching pre-ordered stock, IRM/AS usually set all the models of that batch to show 'sold out'. There will probably be some that become available again once dispatch is complete. They may not have been sold out in the first place, and/or some people may not pay for their pre-order and those models then become available to others. So you still have a chance - just keep an eye on the website. It is likely that there will be a run of the toilet-fitted main line variants in the future.

Neil Smith has some nice 1980s photos of Park Royals on Flickr, including this interior view of the main saloon: 1425TL here had been originally built as a 'main line' vehicle with 2 toilets, but by 1988 there's no sign of toilet filler pipes on the ends, and I can see seat backs in the vestibules, so its 1980s rebuild may have converted it into a suburban type: 1384TL was built as an 82-seat suburban, but in the 1980s it had a toilet fitted at one end reducing its seating capacity to 79. My notes say that the toilet was fitted in 1988, after this photo dated 1984: 1409TL was built as an 82-seat suburban and remained that way. It was stripped of asbestos in 1981 but seems to have never had any toilets: In contrast, 1942 had a very complex history. Built as suburban 1408, it was then converted in 1957 to become the Waterford&Tramore driving trailer. After closure of the W&T it stood out of use for some years and was then rebuilt again to ambulance coach AM15 in 1966 until the early 1980s. Its asbestos was removed in 1983, and it was rebuilt again into brake standard 1942 as seen here. Note the unusual roof vents, the two plain windows, and evidence of the position of the double doors in the middle of the side for loading stretchers:

Nearly half the variants were sold out before they reached the UK, but hopefully there are a few left for you.

They are stunning, and I wasn't intending to complain, more to illustrate how I backdated mine. Apart from regauging (which thankfully was relatively easy), the vestibule seat backs were the only physical modification I felt was necessary. I entirely understand that the biggest part of the market for these is the 1980s/1990s era, and the detail references have to be based on the survivors which are no longer quite the same as when they were first built.

As built, photos indicate that all the suburbans had the higher seat backs (the main line ones didn't have seats there, but had a toilet compartment). After the 1980s total rebuilds, anything is possible. Most photos I have seen still show the high seat backs, but some may have been different. I posted a link to a Neil Smith image of two post-rebuild vehicles with the high seat backs in the vestibules. They had lost their portholes in the rebuild. Originally the Park Royals had 10 pairs of roof vents and lots of small roof panels. The 1980s repanelling included re-skinning the roofs with larger panels, changing the number and position of the panel joints, and perhaps altering the vent arrangement. I'd be amazed if they all ended up the same. The IRM model may well be accurately based on one of the survivors.

It's a very complex story! As built there were 2 variants, suburban with 82 seats (12 of which were in the vestibules) and main line with 70 seats (toilets in both vestibules, no seats there). Then... Two were converted by 1957 for the W&T, one with 97 high-density bus seats, the other was a driving trailer, with a large van area for prams. Two were converted to ambulance coaches in 1966, one of these had been the driving trailer. In 1968 six were converted to snack cars. In the 1980s, there was a comprehensive rebuilding programme including asbestos removal, which involved stripping them right back to a shell and some re-panelling. As part of this programme, the ambulance coaches and snack cars were converted back to 'normal' vehicles although in some cases their origins could be detected. However, this rebuilding programme did not produce a 'standardised' fleet as there were many variations: Some retained the original suburban layout, 82 seats. Some acquired a toilet in one vestibule but not the other, with 76 seats. Others had a different toilet arrangement, with 3 seats opposite the toilet. These had 79 seats. Some which had previously been fitted with toilets had them removed. Some were fitted with a small guard's compartment in one vestibule. Some of these are listed with 76 seats, others with only 60 seats, suggesting that there were two variants. So it's very complex, and any present-day survivors have been through a major rebuild at some stage.

I'll be visiting the north again in August and was wondering whether I could fit in a trip on this line, which I have never travelled on. After a few minutes Googling I have followed several broken links and failed to find any official website. I'm wary of what's on this webpage because the links are broken so it may well be out of date: Giants Causeway and Bushmills Railway There seems to be a facebook page, but not updated since last year. I'm not on facebook myself. Is the railway still operational, and is there any published information on days and times of operation?

Agreed. It could make a nice cameo appearance on my 7mm Manchester Ship Canal layout

I like yours and I was considering doing the same in 4mm scale. Then I thought it would be easier to do a fresh etch for the cab, and I need a chassis, and then I realised that some new mainframes would be a good idea, and so it would be better just to start afresh with designing a whole new etch! And then the job became too big and ended up on the round tuit pile. Such is the fate of many of my projects I’m afraid.

That looks quite neat. Mike must have done some additions and modifications to the etches to better represent the G611. Is there space between the frames for 21mm gauge wheelsets? (~25mm) For the Irish ones I have only found basic diagrams, but I have better drawings for continental examples. Those are 1435mm gauge of course, so there might be some width differences, but I’m sure a lot of the parts were standardised.

This is the book and the rest of the text about CSE usage:

I have a WW etch, but it didn’t come with any chassis parts. Having compared it to drawings, it’s moderately close but some of the proportions are a bit out. I think it was designed from photos and a few measurements. In some ways it is a mix of the G601 and G611 designs. G611 windows but G601 handrails. G611 footplate but G601 lights (or lack thereof). The mainframes are very simplified. If IRM don’t get there first I might have a go, probably starting with a G601. But I’ve got too many projects in the queue already.

It’s from one of the later edition ITG stockbooks. Let me check tomorrow and see what else I have on their use with CSE - there’s an IRRS journal article on the Gs as well, which I have a copy of.

Is there one?

I’d have a few too, but I think my bank account would be more comprehensively drained by C class or AEC railcars.

No doubt @jhb171achill will explain what’s up with the livery on this Woolwich: https://ebay.io/m/b0jq0M