Glenderg

Well since the pair of yee are having a go at me, and my connection with IRM, let me explain - I do not deal with the sales, marketing or invoicing. I have done all the technical and design issues to make sure the enthusiast gets quality equivalent, or better to that expected from Murphy, Bachmann and so on. That is complete, so you can park any jibes on that front. If they arrive as poor models, I'll accept your criticism then but not now. I've invested 100's of hours into them for zero personal benefit. I'll reply to you both separately by email in relation to your other issues above, but my lack of time to complete models because of ill-health, a small child, running an office (and on and on) has no impact on a manufacturer in China. Richard.

Brake Fluid - won't cloud the plastic. Finish entire canopy in a coat of Humbrol Clear Varnish (large bottle) for a restored finish on the glazing.

That's a Section 5 your thinking about Eoin (No online register of those). Section 8 is when the Council themselves go into partnership with a private developer and have to put it out for Public Consultation for their input. It goes straight to ABP rather than the Council, things like schools and the like are done this way, but it will be up on their frustratingly poor website at some stage.

Yankee tan was dog poo brown and didn't last long. Tan was a brown orange best represented by the phoenix paint colour. Supertrain was also the same colour as above. MKIII orange was the Tan diluted with about 20% white. The paint shade on 071 above is not historically accurate. A white 3" stripe in photoshop over that shot will tell it's own tale.

Ballisodare mills was the place for converted H-Vans, and there is a photo in JHB's book "Rails through the West". I did cobble together a side elevation drawing, mind, but I just know there was something going on the roof I couldn't identify. I bust a gut looking for the details of the same thing a few years ago upon it's publication and I floundered Mike, and have yet to find a photo or reference since. As for the MGW query, I can't help. R

I must be thick. I don't get it, could someone explain how 161 and 171 are something special? It's hardly 141-D-201071 or something mildly interesting...

http://www.trocadero.com/mgallery/items/1233110/en1.html http://flickriver.com/photos/23885771@N03/15563898906/ The CIE Radio Train was a day-excursion service that brought tourists on scenic visits through Connemara (Knock) and Killarney, departing and returning from Kingsbridge Station (Heuston Station), Dublin. A special feature of this train was its radio studio for the entertainment of the passengers (and crew too). The Radio Train’s compère was Lorcan O’Treasaigh who would play a selection of music, take requests and interview passengers throughout the journey. This special train service ran during the summer months throughout the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s, coming to an end in 1979. CIE reintroduced the Radio Train in 1995 using a similar format to the original one. Does anyone know how long the revived Radio Train service lasted, was it just for the one season? This badge would have been available for sale on the train and the 1950’s ‘flying snail’ CIE logo can be seen on the front. This logo was in use with CIE until 1964 and phased out after that. Lorcán O’Treasaigh (1927-2006) was born in Dublin and coming from a Gaelic speaking family was himself a fluent Irish speaker. His first job with CIE (Córas Iompar Éireann) was in their accounts department and in 1950 became the compère on CIE’s Radio Train. Lorcan was also a prolific writer in Irish producing poetry and fiction as well as having written twenty plays for Raidió Éireann (Ireland’s national radio station). He also did work as a stage, radio and television actor. and from http://www.steamtrainsireland.com/IRN/IRN32.pdf... Radio Train Irish Rail have resuscitated the “Radio Train” which was once such a well known feature of the summer tourist season especially during the 1950s and 1960s. The concept was inaugurated on a centenary special from Dublin to Cork in 1949 whereby commentary and music was transmitted through the train from a mobile studio coach, somewhat of a novelty on the CIÉ system at that time.The tourist oriented Radio Trains operated principally from Dublin to Killarney and Galway although specials were to be seen throughout the system both on excursions and pilgrimage trains until 1979.Thereafter the combination of the decline in tourism, the relatively poor condition of the vehicles and the general rolling stock shortage resulted in the radio studio coaches being pressed into general use and subsequently converted into side-corridor standards.The new service utilizes the saloon coaches of the executive train, 7161 and 7162, the train typically consisting of six bogies, the remaining vehicles being a generator van, two Mk3 standards and a diningcar. Following various preview trips for the press the service proper commenced on 20th June and apart from 8th August is to run each Tuesday until 22nd August. The train departs from Heuston station at 08:50 and arrives in Killarney at 12:05. The return train leaves Killarney at 18:05 and is due into Heuston at 21:00, an average start to stop speed of 60 mph. Given that the only stop en-route is at Mallow (for crew purposes), that the train is hauled by a 201 class locomotive and that speeds of up to 100 mph are permitted between Mallow and Dublin it is hardly surprising that early arrivals have been the norm with the journey being completed on at least one occasion in under 2½ hours - an overallaverage of 70 mph for the 175 mile trip. The day return fare is £29 and includes coffee and biscuits onthe outward trip with an evening meal being served on the way back. Optional extras include the traditional jaunting car trip or a trip on the lakes on board the recently introduced waterbus. While the initial uptake was somewhat slow, due no doubt to the limited advance publicity, traffic has built up quickly with about 130 passengers travelling on 4th July. This venture deserves to be a success given the excellent value for money, spacious accommodation, the enthusiasm of the train’s crew and the high standard of catering. Hopefully the Radio Train will appear in next year’s advance tourist literature so that visitors will be tempted to incorporate the train in their holiday plans rather than stumbling across it at the last moment.• There was some suggestion that the Radio Train would carry the well known “electrical flash”headboard though this has not happened to date.• The Radio Train is to run to Portadown, for Armagh, on 10th August. Passengers will have the opportunity to visit the Planetarium, cathedrals, Navan Fort, Palace Stables and St. Patrick’s Trian.Fares are as for the Killarney trip with admissions being extra. I have photos of the original Radio Train (not to hand at the moment), but none that I can recall of the radio train of the mid 1990's. R

Something I noticed too railer was that the wagons were always paired like that. It would cut the discharge time in half straight away, the hose that connected was a bit of a handful. I can't think of any other reason to stack them in that AB-BA-AB-BA format

Since you've been so keen to mention the bogie fert twice in 24 hours JB, can I point out that it sits on a 42' chassis, (of which there is a grand little brass kit available) is a plate based design which would suit a brass kit (see where I'm going with this ?) and it might be in the best interest of a certain brass specialist to make the unit which would sit on top of that chassis. As for beet, that requires a whole new tooling of a completely different chassis and unlikely to happen in the short term. I mean, who's going to want a chassis that will not just do Beets, but also Curtain Side Cement Pallet Cement Fuel Oil Molasses Wagons Pallet Wagon Baryte Ore Wagons Timber Wagons Zinc Ore Wagon Would you like Weshty's phone number to discuss the ferts

Dive, The shot you posted of the rake rattling through Kildare from the O'Dea Collection - http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000306704 - you can see the top of the vacuum chamber just on the last wagon on the right, so they did have them. The other one from Derry doesn't show them at all, but as JB rightly says they could have been mixed up in all sorts of rakes. Anyway, brake vans can look pretty sweet in a rake.

I colour corrected Wrenn's slides, here's one worthy of posting.

it's 25112 and the wagon to the right is 25097

There are a couple of things yet to go on the underside - the two vacuum chambers at the far left end, between the steels. There are also two brackets that straddle the centre of the wagon and the main discharge pipe, and the two rivetted plates at the bottom of the hopper "boobs". I only have a drawing of the discharge pipe, no photos, and the pipe is supposed to straddle between the axle and bubble itself, so some compromises to achieve free running may be needed. R

Cheers Dive, Both photos are really interesting, in a really nerdy way. Kildare shot, the W-irons are the open older style, the axle box also. No covers present on the Vaac chamber at the far end either. This later became a cover with a chequerplate pattern, I assume to keep all the cement dust and crud forming on the gear itself. The colour is a dark grey - like a gunsmoke grey, with White "BULK CEMENT" text, orange broken wheel, and white CIE lettering. The shot in derry is even better as the chassis appears to be a donor off a wagon perhaps. Note the brake wheel at the far end, and the vaac pipe on top, lack of lifting eyes and a brake gear generally. As far as I'm aware, and open to correction on everything here, these were produced in a primer grey with white text for "BULK CEMENT" along with the "NOT TO BE LOOSE SHUNTED" at the bottom of the bubble itself. We have a theory that the newer batches of bubble were produced in the orange livery, and in or around 1982 the entire run of wagons were repainted in the ivory and broken wheel livery, which lasted up until they were turned into razor blades, with the exception of the 4 "Irish Cement" wagons. A trip to the IRRS to research further beckons for Warbonnet and I Rich. Edit: RedRich and John-R - thanks lads - we may only get one shot at each wagon, it's expensive to re-tool something if we get it wrong. You'd want to hear the discussions we have over axle boxes, valve levers and things that may not be seen. Hopefully in the near future we'll have actual plastic to show off for the ballast and the finalised CAD images for the cement bubble.

Dive, the font and colouring of "Bulk Cement" of the O'Dea Collection is vastly different from the stencilled version of "BULK CEMENT" of latter years, and I'd imagine that the wagon is the early version with the open W-irons of the late 1960's - stick up a link if you can. I have original colour slide photos of the original gunsmoke blue/grey and all the livery details. I also have the colour codes for the orange bubbles. I also have everything that shows the ivory livery and every bit of text from 1982 up until close of play. I even know why some were orange, and some were blue/grey. I even know which wagon survived the early era, until very recently, without it's livery changed. There is a reason for the walkway codes being different to the solebar running numbers, and I'm all the sadder for knowing these details! But by jesus, can I find a definitive list of bubbles that wore "irish cement". Will I get crucified if I get this wrong? Yes. R. Anyway,

The lower blue is much lighter and the font needs to be bolder, but it's not far off.

I have more photos of them somewhere...

Amazing what track dirt and ballast can hide! Anyway, a quick review of the data I have thus far. Of the 149 wagons on the network, I have very decent photos of 55 unique wagons in the last few years of service. Of those the branding works out as follows:- 22 are clearly branded with the CIE Broken Wheel. (Of this figure only 2 wagons have the "BULK CEMENT" stencil across the body. 24 are Undetermined as filth obscures all. 4 are branded as Irish Cement. The remaining 5 are colour slides from 1976. Makes for interesting numbers when it comes to considering what liveries to produce, how many to produce, weathered, unweathered and so on. The research continues. Rich

We'll get working on how many are unweathered and weathered at a later date Noel. Agreed, but we are talking about the 4 wheeled Cement Bubbles, as opposed to the Double Bogie Cement Wagon (above) Here's the colour balanced version of that photo - The chassis is blacker than a steers tookus on a moonless night.

Not good enough to "assume" JB. I've proofed a couple dozen wagons so far, 3 in the blue logo, the rest in broken wheel cie, all photos taken between 2006 and 2009. Clean only works if your layout is in 1982

Update - we have three confirmed, and pics to go with it. 25199 25183 25171 (small vinyl version) For those interested, I'll be doing a spreadsheet (I know, deep breaths) with all the running numbers, last known branding and so on. That way an informed decision can be made on what amount of the first runs of wagons are done in what branding. 1 in 12?

Cheers Eoin. Myself and Garfield have been at this for a few hours now, and it's only that wagon that appears to have had the branding. It's the last in the series, so perhaps a test wagon, but the bulk of them had the broken circle, and a monumental amount of dirt. The hunt continues for definitive evidence! Wanderer as always comes through...

Gents, Posting this on behalf of IRM as production is far more advanced on the wagon than expected. I've been through hundreds of photo's but have yet to see one where the bubble was branded with the "Irish Cement" logo as seen on the curtain sides and bogied variant. Up until 2008 I know a lot of them still had the broken wheel and "BULK CEMENT" branding. The question I have, and I need photographic proof, is - "Were the Cement Bubbles ever actually branded with "Irish Cement"?" Rich.

Harry, Not sure of the numbers of her sisters but search for their numbers in here and there's bound to be something. (551-562?) https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/collections/72157626625058875/

I love when you're away in the real world, changing nappies and so on, and you come back to a thread like this bursting with photos of top notch stuff. Even moreso when Wrenn's looking for you (Don't answer ) and Weshty uses the word "kink" with such wild abandon. The 071 is beautifully subtle, the 4 wheel flats look far better than they should, the pocket containers look far better than I expected. I thought the lack of length would make them look like MK3 shorties, but damn do they look like they are languishing in a siding beside a St. Josephs in Limerick. As for the 42' flats, I've ditched the superglue, and all are soldered now - I love the tonal variation across them from almost pure grey to the full on solebar bauxite. I have to say I'd have saved my sanity on the plough with white primer, rather than doing the underspraying lark and a bazillion coats of yellow, but I love to see your aircraft techniques slip so neatly in here. Such a tidy finish, your Client, one assumes is one of IRM's and looking for top quality from loco to tail....? Anyway, I'd doff my cap, but I've done it so many times on this thread, it's fallen off. Savage work altogether. Richie.