Mol_PMB

We need IRM to announce the C class! in the meantime I’ll keep building other stock that is suitable. One of the great things about Saturday’s trip is that with photos like the one above, I can mentally place them in the landscape I’ve seen with my own eyes.

It would make a nice little diorama, and I have a selection of appropriate goods vans.

Absolutely! A pleasure to meet you too and Cathal’s deep knowledge of the subject was a real bonus. Once I’m home and have sorted my photos I’ll upload a few here and on other relevant threads. There are some very modellable stations on the West Cork but I need to get my current project finished!

Absolutely wonderful and a deserved winner. Good to hear that it all worked well too. Sorry I couldn’t be there myself to see it, but I was at the opposite end of Ireland. Hopefully there will be other opportunities in future.

And a very minor point, I have validated my choice of red squirrels rather than grey for the trees on the Quartertown Mill layout. I don’t think JHB’s livery files extend to the lineside wildlife

The Blarney brewery ales are rather good. And I’ve even found some hand-pull cask ale from Kerry!

This orange sign still survives, right at the end of the platform: As does the traditional footbridge, though I expect the Cork suburban electrification will see the end of this piece of history:

Good to see this had worked out well. I didn’t engage with him because he was very specific in the initial messages about wanting to sell to Irish customers only.

A very good day had in west Cork where the sun was shining and there were many interesting things to see. Skibbereen: Some of my toy trains on the trackside at Ballinascarthy: No doubt there will be more pics to follow in due course. I even spotted an old 1960s CIE container by the roadside!

Many thanks for the update and photos. I don’t suppose there were any Park Royals on show?

A few of Ernie’s pics showing the type of GSWR van we saw in the field today. Two on the left: Right background: Partial view on the left: Mostly hidden by the loco smokebox: second wagon in the train: second wagon in a different train, this appears to have special use lettering and is numbered in the A series: on the left, this one has had thin metal sheeting added over the planks, like the one we saw in the field: on the right: And finally this is almost the main subject of the photo, and again one skinned over in metal sheeting:

Many thanks to @Westcorkrailway I had a fascinating private tour of parts of West Cork this afternoon and saw some interesting survivors. One of my models has been for a trip out to see its larger cousin. And I have been introduced to another that is crying out to be modelled It was only a few days ago that I was saying I need more trucks… I now feel ready for the proper Tailte tour tomorrow which will visit other parts of the network and see some more rolling stock survivors.

Visiting the site has given me a much better feel for the place, and may prompt a few minor changes to the position of the buildings on my model. I also dropped in to the library in Mallow and looked through the local studies section. They had a full set of Mallow Field Club journals including the article on Quartertown Mill which I had previously found online. But I didn’t find much else. A general tome on industrial archaeology in county Cork didn’t mention Quartertown. I should have asked about maps, but forgot. I don’t think the trackplan is going to change!

The buildings are still here, though a bit more of the old mill has fallen down!

Oh, I wish I’d been able to see that. Hopefully it will go up on the IRRS Youtube channel. Thanks for the tip.

Thanks! This morning I am going to see what, if anything, remains of Quartertown Mill.

I see that the Navy has been sent to Cork to defend it against Donald’s thinly-veiled ambitions! Or is it the French hiding their ships so they don’t have to go to the Straits of Hormuz?

They sound a bit miffed!

Looks like sort of thing that could have found a use at York Rd or CSD!

The team at AS / IRM are certainly going to be busy! There must be a huge amount of work to integrate the Heljan ranges and to decide how to take them forward. And there have already been some strong hints about how many new AS projects are in the pipeline. Hopefully some new Irish developments are occurring in the background too.

I'm in a similar pickle, I'll be on the plane to Cork. A pity to miss it.

Make sure you give Murphaph some breathing apparatus or decent air extraction, if you're going to lock him in a garage with a spray gun. Otherwise it could end badly. Bearing in mind that Heljan have also produced an O gauge Hymek and Class 33, is it time to reproduce those 1980s 'Irish' train sets in a larger scale? (no)

This does open the door to a lot of developments, and when Accurascale said they want to do 'everything' it's a good step in that direction. This may not have originally been in the AS long-term strategy, but it sounds like the best option to keep the Heljan tooling going which will ultimately be a significant benefit to modellers. It buys AS greater experience and market share in scales other than OO. It's interesting to see the Heljan OO brand being repositioned loosely equivalent to the Hornby 'Railroad' - i.e. lower cost entry-level models for those who don't demand the expensive full-DCC and extremely fine detail options. That does make a lot of sense in the short term and perhaps in the long term too as a parallel range once some Heljan prototypes have been 'promoted' to the main AS range. We may even see more 'budget' models developed - perhaps including some Irish ones? I do think Accurascale will have to be careful to distinguish between the two product lines and manage buyers' expectations to avoid damaging the excellent AS reputation for accuracy and detail. I shall wait to see what transpires, but first I might just pop over to the Heljan website and see if there are any O gauge bargains...

Nah, small fry. Hornby...