Glenderg

Ah sorry Railer, It's hard sometimes to answer these things without photos! These are the heavy duty versions of the bogies, with the "sticky outty bit"* found on the bogie cements, ammonias and a few others. *technical term

Theses are the infilled panels you refer to (they would be the 47' variety) ? Sometimes in ordinary plate steel, sometimes in chequer plate. Some wagons were entirely plated over for Per Way duties.

So prior to the introduction of bogied freight in 1971, the only bogied frieght stock would have been the short wheelbase Guinness grain wagons, which sounds like The Creator got his priorities right R.

offtopic/ Had they the triangulated underframe too?

H Vans? Triangulated underframes like that on the weedspray tankers? We can't be having that kind of talk now, next thing ya know folk be going on about Bullied Opens, 10 and 12 ton brake vans, all sorts. Isn't that right @leslie10646

Yup, Round buffers and Ride Control Bogies too, such that those who want to run older pattern wagons can. For instance, the Guinness train was almost exclusively Ride Control, and the current spoil is Sambre et Meuse, so the serious detail enthusiast will be accommodated. The buffers will be sprung too. I wouldn't mind but a pair of those buffers is stuck to something else on the North Wall, (which we didn't announce) so I've something to measure off. R Edit - I didn't have time to finalise the cad on the buffers and Ride Control bogies, but as soon after I've had a lie down in a dark corner, I'll tidy them off and @Warbonnet will keep yez updated with progress. The spark guards on the bogies are for heavy duty only, like the shale, bogie cements and the ammonias.

I'm genuinely stuck for words, spud. Haha

First off, many thanks for the positive waves gents, its been an inordinately busy 2018 from the Research and Design team. To that end, I need to thank Kieran Marshall, Colin Brack, Herrflick, the per way group on FB, Finbarr O'Neill, Neil Dinnen, aka The Wanderer, the bauld Weshty, even Jhb with his Australian photography, but especially John-R for some lifesaving shots of the older 42's. Without the resources that folk post here and elsewhere, we'd be hamstrung at times, and I'm enormously grateful to this wonderful community for saving me going to the North Wall with a measuring tape in the rain! As for the release of all these projects at the same time, this is a practical decision from both a design and manufacturing point of view. All loads and wagon variations have to be designed at the same time to ensure compatibility with the base wagon. Similarly, our manufacturer would not be impressed if we were to stagger this over a number of years, which would involve forklifting the moulds in and out of cold storage every 12 months or so. So, from a design and manufacturing point of view, it makes sense to get them to D12 as soon as possible. I, personally, don't expect a bread/milk scenario of zombie proportions that we've seen recently, with our wagons. We have the shelf space, and when it suits to purchase, they will be there. Fran alluded to various savings and payment options earlier, and he'll expand on that in the coming week. Richie.

In my humble opinion, Eau-de-nil is really really light, more of a toothpaste level of colour saturation than the vibrant colours shown. I know there's headboards from headhunters and so on, but the colour is just a really washed out version of the main green colour. I painted these coaches many years ago with what I consider to be the lighter shade, with commensurate eau de nil for the stripe, and when glossed up, and weathered, tone to match photo's I've referred to. Much paint was messed about in trying to get a shade right that I thought might be right. Could still be wrong, mind, and would happily admit it. The other shades shown are bottom left a CIE green (I think, could be ammonia frames too) , and right, an RPSI Green to match the MK2 coaches and bachmann yank ones. R Edit - Would it be possible there are two Eau-de-Nil shades to match each period of CIE green @jhb171achill

Oh Shipping Forecast...better get a move on...

Looking at it now, I'd agree with popeye. I reckon that 216 should be 226 with loads of white in it

is it just me or does the track look 21mm in these snaps? stunning work

@Warbonnet @Garfield @BosKonay Please star the above post, under "mighty"

Zinc Ore is a horrible bit of goods, seriously corrosive and can destroy a paint finish in little or no time. There's a reason why there's not many shots of the wagons up on the tippler. It would be so easy to ascribe a "grey livery" to what's actually "red oxide", but blink and things change. Here's a shot I grabbed off google earth many years ago, to highlight the mad colours as they change. When talking to our man at North Wall, it became clear that these are the hardest working pieces of stock, not just MK4's etc., on the network, and they see a similar level of scrutiny from an inspection point of view that should see them working for some time to come. R. Edit - Mr. Brack, hardly a day goes by that the Curious and Questioning Department of IRM /Accurascale doesn't access your library. Many a bet has been settled on foot of photographic evidence, for which we're all so grateful.

Robert it is indeed a classic conundrum.

Just to give you an idea of the stenciling, this is an example of the current alphabet - It should allow for more daylight between characters and more definition in the printing process. Off the shelf fonts just don't come close to the "unique" nature of irish wagon markings !

Yes. As to the stenciling, the BULK CEMENT on the Pack B was hand drawn as I had a perfect side on shot from Lmk Jct. and its a really well spaced out bit of text on the proto. But on the orange ones, the scale width between the characters is 6 - 12mm in prototype or about 0.07 - 0.14mm in model terms , and the characters are all really compacted Combined with the tampo process (and I think our chaps are top of the class in it) even a few microns of ink one way or the other may give the illusion that it's not a stencil. (If you ever hear of me getting a hiding whilst in China, it might be the Tampo man, such are the demands we ask of him at times ) But on a related topic, we now have a full alphabet/font of wonky CIE text to use, all hand drawn, based on the prototype samples, for all test codes and so on. Basically we've replicated the process of a person putting a mask on a wagon, stamping it with a sponge full of paint, having a rough edged finish when complete, and scaling it down to 1.31%. WooHoo!!! R

The decoration/tampo looks tighter all round, would love to see them in the flesh. The white lines appear crisper, if that makes sense? Agreed Rich, the benchmark for coaching stock, especially when you consider the width and airyness of the proto in comparison to the like of the MK2 A-F coaches. R.

Deadly! Really good light to work from, even if it's tedious decal stuff. As an aside, Lidl/Aldi do an A3 cutting mat every now and again, 8 Bobs or thereabout, if you ever start running out of cutting surface.. Richie.

Full of meandering tales, some taller than others, plenty truth, a hint of equivocation, but a goldmine nonetheless! Back to the layout - I just love the architectural juxtaposition of windows and symmetry, or lack thereof. So well captured, and as for track, just yummy...R.

JB, I got catering tin foil, sprayed spray mount glue on it, and folded four sheets over to give it some density. I got some corrugated plastic and cut two pieces to size to make a simple hand press. Cut the tin foil into long strips and used a little roller from the kitchen drawer to get even compression and glued it to the cardboard base of the roof. Plenty wobble in it to look prototypically wonky! Takes ages to make that amount below, mind. R.

There have been a few pilot tech log entries with a suitably wry response from the maintenance chaps, and the instance above reminds me of this "(Pilot) - Mouse in cockpit.(Engineer) - Cat installed." Full list if anyone's interested - http://www.b737.org.uk/techlogentries.htm

Always on both sides, but no reason nor rhyme to placement, so long as they are along the solebar. It's down as 12-04 for the first two (December 2004) and there'd be a few months between the ULT test usually, so it might be ULT 5-05. Interesting to note the alternative placement of running number between lower left and centrally on the doors when compared with my photo above...

Robbie, Hope the attached photo helps with locations. Open to correction here, but I believe that D-LK is brake test carried out in Limerick, GR-LK is General Repair, and ULT is ultrasonic, carried out in the North Wall. First two are generally grouped together since they are usually done at the same time. R.