The latest in our popular commissions of the Brtibus model of the Dublin Bus Leyland/Volvo Olympian bus in 1:76/OO scale is a very special one indeed, depicting fleet number RH41 in the complex and attractive advertising livery for Iarnród Éireann passenger services.
Two Leyland RH class Olympians from the Dublin Bus fleet were repainted (by hand!) in two special advertising liveries for Iarnród Éireann following the rebranding to the plug and socket logo in the mid 1990s. RH90 was dressed in a highly complex scheme for Fastrack parcel services, while RH41 was branded "Intercity" and showcased IE's passenger services amid a Dublin themed backscene, featuring the then new 201 Class locomotives and 2600 Arrow units and a LHB DART crossing the loop line bridge over the River Liffey.
Our commission features RH41 in the Intercity livery, which was allocated to Donnybrook garage throughout its career in this special livery. RH41 entered service with Dublin bus in November 1990 in the then standard two tone green Dublin Bus livery. It was part of a batch RH40 to RH50, which was allocated to busy Donnybook route 48a, displacing Bombardiers KD150-159. They remained on the 48a until they were displaced from 1999 by RV482+ on the 48a.
During its spell in Irish Rail advertising livery it was officially allocated to the 48a. However, buses that were officially allocated to a particular route always tend to wander to cover gaps in the fleet due to breakdowns, maintenance and accidents or even driver preference. RH41 was known to appear on other routes covered by Donnybrook garage, including the cross city route 11 and "Nitelink" services.
Ultimately RH41 wound up on, and finished its days on route 7, but its Irish Rail days long over as it crossed into the then new fleet core livery of blue, cream and orange. It was withdrawn from Dublin Bus in 2002, and following a brief stint with Mortons Coaches in Dublin it was sold to Cronin's of Cork where it was converted to an open top bus and worked on tour services for almost 10 years before leaving the roads in 2014.
Since RH41 was largely hand painted and featured a wildly complex paint scheme, a huge amount of research work was required to collect the information required to create this model. Useful photographs of buses at this time are scarce, but thankfully there are a small band of enthusiasts who were able to provide just enough information for us to be able to recreate this beautiful livery in model form. The complex nature of the livery also pushed the skills of Britbus to the absolute limit, but they have captured this livery superbly well, with little features all over the livery which will keep the collector captivated for hours.
We have commissioned two routes on our commission, with the 48A to Ballinteer being the most synonymous associated with RH41 during its time in this livery, and route 11 to Wadelai Park which brought the bus across to the Northside of the city.
Each route is strictly limited to 300 pieces each with limited edition certificates included in our commissions for the first time. Sure to be popular with both railway modellers and collectors as well as bus modellers and collectors, they are now in stock and available to purchase for immediate dispatch on our website for €59.95 each. These are only available via IRM direct and can be ordered by clicking here.
IRM would like to thank Derek Farrelly, Jonathan McDonnell, Adrian Richards and Fred Dean Jr for their invaluable help in researching and creating this model.
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Even if we do more A's we'll never do the same numbers / liveries again/
