BosKonay

Nothing will change.

Indeed! We did state a number of months ago that we were working on a range of contingencies for Brexit and indeed anyone who ordered a Murphy models DCC decoder from us in the last month would’ve had direct next day delivery via on post from our new facility. All 121 and future IRM shipments will go directly from Dublin.

Or you can automatically remove vat for sales outside the EU, as we have done at IRM for example.

Hi BTB, Can we help?

As you are likely aware, we now retail the Murphy Models range, including the new 121 Class locomotives! The first three models released were in original grey and yellow livery. We are currently sold out of B121 and B135, but we still have a very limited amount of B134 remaining in stock. We are retailing this locomotive exclusively on behalf of the RPSI as a fundraiser, so support them with the purchase of this locomotive in future preserved condition if you can. Our friend Mick Bonwick purchased one of these first release 121 Class locomotives and kindly sent us a weathering guide. Mick is a vastly experienced modeller and has done weathering classes for modellers with Pendon Museum in the UK for a number of years now. Check out his step-by-step guide below on how to dirty up your 121! Take it away, Mick! This brightly coloured model was just crying out for some work-staining. It would only have looked like this for the first few days of its working life, accumulating road dirt and grime from the moment it started moving. As an exercise in minimalist weathering I decided to only use one product, just to see if it was feasible to achieve something that looked realistic without expending too much in the way of time, money and effort. Here is the starting point: One wash seemed to me to be the ideal candidate for this task, MIG Products Dark Wash. I have had this bottle for over 5 years and it still has plenty of content, although it has become ‘stronger’ in that time, as the carrier has evaporated and left a greater proportion of pigment to the mixture. To begin with I’ll use a rigger brush (long bristles, thin point) to apply a thinned wash to all the detail areas, using capillary action to take the fluid where I want it to go. Dipping the brush in the white spirit that is being used as a thinner for the enamel wash, the wash is added to the brush by the simple expedient of dipping the bristles in the wash bottle. This gives a thinner version of the wash that can be applied carefully to a corner of raised detail. The effect of this can be seen below together with the apparent horrific mess, where blobs have formed. There is no need to worry about the blobs at this stage, they need to be left for 20 minutes or so to start drying out. Having completed one side of the locomotive and left it for 20 minutes, a start is made on removing the blobs of wash. This is achieved by using the bristles of a cleaned rigger brush laid flat against the surface and mode from side to side at the edge of each blob in turn, using the bristles as a sponge to pick up the wash. Each stroke of the brush requires the absorbed wash to be wiped of on a paper towel, to prevent the wash being simply redistributed across the surface. Cotton swabs have been used to clean larger flat areas of wash that has appeared in the wrong places as a result of my clumsiness. The same process has been used for running wash into the detail lines on the roof – dip the bristles in the white spirit, then in the wash bottle. It may take a few dabs to get the consistency right. The wash should flash along the detail lines as soon as the tip of the brush touches a corner. The same process was used for the other side. Apply the wash, wait 20 minutes, remove the blobs, clean up the mistakes. At this point I also added a random layer of wash on the running plate. Once the cleaning up had been completed, I sat back and studied the result, but was not happy with it at all. The dark colour of the wash and the high pigment content had created what, to my eye, was too much of a contrast between clean and dirty areas. The resolution was to remove the heavier applications of wash around the grilles and lessen the harshness of the remaining grey paintwork by applying a very thin airbrushed coat of the wash. This had not been my original intention, wanting to only use one brush. I think that if I had chosen a lighter colour of wash, such as a medium grey, I could have achieved the required effect without the airbrush. The airbrush was also used to lay down a thin coat of wash over the cab roof, because there was some wash left in the colour cup. The same effect could have been achieved by using a wide flat brush to apply the wash, brushing across the roof from side to side. Finishing touches were cleaning up of areas where the wash had strayed too far, using a clean brush and clean cotton swabs, and applying the same wash to the fuel tank and bogies using the wide flat brush, thus removing the black shine thereon. A big thank you to Mick for putting this together! We still have limited stocks of 121 Class locomotives of all liveries remaining, as well as DCC and DCC sound chips in stock. Order your locomotives here, and your DCC chips here! View the full article

You can grab 8 wagons for a deal (last one too) https://irishrailwaymodels.com/collections/ie-spoil-wagons/products/cie-ir-42-flat-spoil-wagons-bundle

We'll have a proper update on our expansion and Brexit plans in the coming weeks

Part of them yes.

Just to correct that all 121’s will ship from Dublin.

I think a larger concern is the situation in the UK from Jan 1 and the likely ensuing problems in customs, docking, etc.

They work on DC with micro switches and take an 8-pin decoder so you can manage that way. The tail lights are directional. https://irishrailwaymodels.com/blogs/announcements/how-to-fit-a-dcc-chip-to-your-plough-van?_pos=3&_sid=76400dfb9&_ss=r

Luckily our A class has a magnetic roof, so you can pop a chip out or in, in about 10 seconds

No - we always make a point of not duplicating any running numbers.

Sounds like my childhood

For perspective, our first ballast run was 2,499 wagons. This run is nearly 5 times that. So while the Irish market remains small relatively it is certainly thriving and growing. (And these runs are not ‘small’ in real terms. This run runs to healthy 6 figures in cost)

Our A Class loco project continues to progress (as you can see here in our latest update) but one area we have been working hard on behind the scenes is the sound project with our friends at ESU. We can now give you a first preview of our new ESU Loksound 5 A Class sound chip featuring the distinctive and unique sounds of these iconic Irish locomotives. Featuring real sounds recorded from the ITG's preserved A39r by professional sound engineers played through two high quality speakers, the roar of the rebuilt A Class can soon be enjoyed on your layout! The sound is still being tweaked but this preview below will give you a taste of things to come! Please note that this video was recorded on a mobile phone, and in person the sound is much more crisp and bassy. As you can see below, there is a comprehensive list of functions on this chip, giving modellers a whole host of operational possibilities. Of course, the A Class used two engines during its career, with this sound chip featuring he rebuilt EMD 645 rootes blown engine the locomotives were rebuilt with at Inchicore. This is suitable for the following locomotives in our A Class release programme: 007 017 018 A23R 027 036 A39R 048 054 056 The earlier Crossley engine is a rare beast, with very few lasting in service and no sound recordings good enough to use. However, there is a similar Metropolitan Vickers locomotive preserved in Australia which features the Crossley power unit. It is our intention to have ESU record this locomotive, but efforts so far has been hampered by wild bush fires and of course the COVID pandemic. Once the pandemic restrictions ease we will get this locomotive recorded and offer the Crossley sound chip at a later date. We will also be offering standard DCC non-sound chips soon, so keep an eye out for that! In the meantime, you can pre-order your GM-EMD sound chip which will arrive in stock with the locomotives in May 2021. Each A Class model will come pre-fitted with a twin speaker set up, as well as an ESU power pack, so all you need to do is plug in the chip and you can enjoy that glorious A Class soundtrack. Pre-order your chips here for €124.94 and your A Class locomotives for €189.95 here. View the full article

As Fran said they are the same tools bar the Newly tooled gypsum loads As such the couplers are cranked just as before.

The highlight of our calendar is the October Bank Holiday weekend, when we "play at home" as they say and exhibit at the Dublin model railway shows, held each year on rotation by the Model Railway Society of Ireland and the South Dublin Model Railway Club. That's where it all began for us five years ago, when the good folk of the SDMRC gave us some space at the very last minute (we will be forever grateful for it!) to meet the modelling public for the first time and announced our intentions to produce an Irish outline model railway wagon; the humble CIE hopper. A lot has happened in those five years, as IRM goes from strength to strength and the Irish model railway scene enjoys support and growth like never before. Of course, we didn't see that we would be in this position today back then, and certainly nobody could've predicted the strange times we are now in that causes us all to miss out on the Dublin show, but there's always positives ahead! We have decided to revisit that first model we announced back in 2015 amid much fanfare among those who knew us, but one that was missed out by many others who have only learned of our existence in recent times. Yes, our lovely little hopper is back, in a host of new guises and including the gypsum wagon variant for the very first time! Beginning with the ballasts, a mere 833 packs were produced in our first run as we tentatively entered the market for the first time. Since that run, we have gained many new friends and people "in the know" when it comes to research material, including a man who wishes to remain anonymous. Let's just dub him "The Archivist". The Archivist had some amazing research material which allowed us to bring back the ballasts back with a bang, offering a number of packs spanning three distinct eras with some unique and tasty markings covering their lifespan on the network! Starting with CIE featuring their iconic roundels, before progressing into the IR post 1987 era sporting the points logo and text, and then entering their final years in IE guise with a smorgasbord of interesting markings and painted out patches. Of course, these hopper wagons were used for other services too. Hoppers numbered 26666-26694 were built by CIÉ in 1972 to cater for mineral traffic from Irish Gypsum’s railhead at Kingscourt in County Cavan, which served Irish Cement factories at Drogheda in county Louth, Castlemungret in County Limerick and Platin in County Meath. Initially, these wagons could often be found in mixed rakes along with ‘Bulleid’ corrugated open wagons. On such occasions the hoppers would always be located closest to the locomotive as they featured continuous vacuum braking, while the open wagons were loose-coupled and required a brake van to be included at the rear of the train. By the 1980s gypsum traffic was carried exclusively by the hopper wagons and this remained the case until the flow ceased in 2001. This long lived and widely travelled working featured A Classes, 141/181s as well as 121s during its life, even with the odd 201 featuring in later years in the Limerick area! We have tooled some all new loads to give the distinctive variety of shape and size of the gypsum as per the real thing! The best part (apart from variety, multi eras covered, gypsum variants with newly tooled load etc) is the price, with each pack costing just €99.95 each! This is a €10 reduction on our first run and is our way of saying thank you for your support since we started, as well as a little helping hand during these uncertain times. Ballast packs will be available in CIE, IR and IE bundle packs, with three packs per bundle along with their respective plough vans for just €370 (11 wagons per bundle including ploughs.) The gypsums are available in four packs of three wagons at €99.95 each or €375 for all 12 wagons. You can order the ballasts by clicking here and the gypsums by clicking here. Due to COVID restrictions on factory slots the production runs have been limited in size so order early to avoid disappointment. Delivery is due in late November 2020! View the full article

Thanks Robert, It certainly helps but Irish models and related items under the noses of nearly 1500 registered members and many more again guest users! I think that particular A has a Hornby 55 chassis underneath.

Good morning all! Fed up with eBay charges and fees, want something more targeted than done deal? Your very own Irish railway modeller community now has a new addition - Classified Ads! Free to list, no charges or commissions, you can provide full details of the items you have for sale, exchange, wanted or free to a good home. You can find this new area under 'Classifieds' on the top menu. https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/classifieds/

https://www.keymodelworld.com/article/hornby-magazine-model-railway-awards-voting-2020

As the factories in China return to normal post COVID19 shutdown, we are able to bring you the latest updates on our previously announced projects. Today it's on our A Class locomotives. As you know, the A Class is our very first locomotive. It's one that has been close to our hearts since childhood and when we first started IRM it was the holy grail. We really wanted to do this locomotive justice. Of course, we started small with our wagon range, which delightfully found favour with modellers and allowed us to build up to this mammoth project (both in cost and complexity.) It also gave us some experience in producing models so we could take on a locomotive. We tore into this project with enthusiasm and worked tirelessly to bring a RTR A Class of the highest quality to market for you all to enjoy. However, mistakes were made. Sloppy mistakes. A couple of these issues were from the China side, such as missing out on the radiator elements behind the side grill, and the prism effect on the glazing, but most were from us. We moulded the roof mounted radio antennas instead of making them a separate part. These were only added in the 80s so made the earlier SuperTrain and the rebuilt Black and Tan locos incorrect. These are now a separate part which will be factory installed where appropriate. We missed off a pipe on the bufferbeam for the speedo cable, the footsteps for the original Crossley locomotives were wrong, a receptacle for the front vac pipe was missing and the modified cut out fuel gauge which was added to some locomotives when rebuilt was not tooled, so a slide to account for this was created. However, instead of ignoring these issues and continuing to market, we sent the A back to the tooling shop and tooled these amendments at considerable expense. It has to be right at the end of the day. Sadly, that was not the only problem. The other issue was the decoration of the models, which to say the least, was poor on the samples we received. Incorrect chevrons on the SuperTrain and IR models, wrong fonts, incorrectly placed numbers, oversized logos, incorrect CIE broken wheel logos, some wrong colours among other issues meant a serious rethink when the models were scrutinised in depth. As a result, we have scrapped 80% of the printing masks (not cheap!) All in all a 50 page document of changes and corrections has been sent to China to amend these locomotives to ensure they are the very best they can be. We have also learned a harsh and expensive lesson and have taken some very strong measures to ensure such mistakes do not occur again. What does this mean for the A? Well, our plan had be to land them in time for the three day show at the end of October this year. However, with COVID rearing its ugly head, we have been subjected to delays in China for tooling amendments and production. The knock on has hit both re-tooling and production slots badly. The tooling and new decoration samples will arrive with us at the end of November, and then once they're up to standard production will begin in December. This will be completed post Chinese New Year with a delivery of May 2021 envisaged. We can only apologise for this delay, but as you can see from above it is for valid reasons and we do not want to put a substandard locomotive on the market. We want it right, and we have put in measures now to ensure it is right and will be top quality. This will also give modellers budgeting breathing space between the 121s due from Murphy Models later this year which we know was a concern for many modellers. It's not all bad news; we have completed the GM sound file with ESU and will be demonstrating it with a video early next week, so keep an eye out for that. We are still working hard to secure a Crossley engine for sound recording, but events this year have made it somewhat tricky. We will continue to work towards making it happen. If you wish to pre-order your A Class, you can do so here. View the full article

Ultimately growth and success in the UK space will power growth in the Irish market and allow us to grow both in a strong and sustainable manner.

It's probably worth mentioning that Mr. Hubbard was the Bachmann 'end' of the Murphy Models 141/181 partnership