BosKonay

Loco specific details have now been added to the listing for each loco.

We are delighted to announce that we will be stocking the forthcoming Murphy Models range of 121 class locomotives in OO gauge. A total of 15 of these single cab locomotives were built by EMD at La Grange, Illinois and delivered to CIE in 1961. The locomotives quickly proved themselves to be reliable performers, casting a shadow over previous British diesel locomotive designs. This resulted in all subsequent mainline locomotive orders being awarded to EMD. All 15 locomotives were originally fitted with 8 cylinder 567 2 stroke engines from delivery, which produced 960 horsepower. They were later upgraded with 645 powerpacks in the 1980s. The locomotives would go on to serve Irish Rail for over 40 years on passenger and freight duties, with mass withdrawal beginning in the late 1990s. Two locomotives, 124 and 134, remained in service by 2005, becoming enthusiasts favourites. With the economic downturn and freight, the final 121s bowed out of service in 2008. The Murphy Models 121s will see a continuation of the high standards set by this manufacturer and incorporate a whole host of separate detail and features. A total of five different liveries will make up the production run, consisting of original CIE grey, CIE black and tan, CIE supertrain, IR and their final IE livery. There are over 24 variables applied as appropriate to each model. To enable prototype correct lighting arrangements there are 6 switches which are easy to access. A sugar cube speaker is fitted as standard. . Minimum curve radius will be radius 2. Sound will be catered for with the latest ESU Loksound 5 chips, with both the original 567 and the later 645 engine sounds covered with two different chips, depending on your modelling era. We will also be stocking these chips, and they can be ordered here. Pre-ordering of these locomotives is now open, and they will arrive in three separate deliveries from China, with IE liveried 124, 129 and 134 departing China in June, 121 and 135 in CIE grey departing China in mid July along with CIE black 125 and 131, while Supertrain 126 and 132 as well as IR liveried 127, 130 and 133 leave China at the end of August. Our price for the 121s is €189.95 with free postage and packaging included. Payment can either be up front, or by selecting direct debit can be paid in installments between now and delivery, or in full once the locomotive arrives in stock. The choice is yours! Place your order today by clicking here. View the full article

Hi Enda, That error means the server was unable to parse the image file, perhaps it's too large, too high resolution, or if animated, has too many frames? It can also appear if the max execution time is exceeded, which can happen if your upload speed is very low?

Buy local boys !

Our keg wagons are now complete and are now on the high seas after departing China! They are due to land in the IRM warehouse in late June 2020. While the conveyance of Guinness and other beers dates back to the days of steam, it was the emergence of ISO intermodal standards in the early 1970s which allowed breweries to maximise the potential of rail transport. Córas Iompair Éireann’s new fleet of 42ft bogie flat wagons were particularly suitable, as their capacity enabled large quantities of kegged beer to be transported efficiently. Although brands such as Harp and Heineken were also transported at various times, it is The Black Stuff which became synonymous with this traffic, with CIÉ constructing an additional batch of bogie wagons in 1978 specifically to meet the demands of transporting Guinness. The goods yard at Dublin’s Heuston Station became the focal point for this operation, with kegs being brought the short distance from the St James’s Gate brewery by road and transferred to 42ft wagons for distribution to depots located right across the CIÉ/Irish Rail and Northern Ireland Railways networks. These wagons were often mixed with other traffic, such as containers, bulk and bagged cement, and oil, but demand frequently called for dedicated trainloads, too. Initially carried in transport cages with kegs stacked two-high, trains stopped at signals in certain areas became a target for thieves, who could sneak aboard and remove kegs with relative ease. The solution, introduced in the mid-1990s, was to utilise taller cages which were more difficult to access. Keg trains were a common sight on the network for almost four decades. However, changes to the Irish railway environment in the mid-2000s resulted in the loss of several freight flows, with keg traffic being one of the high profile casualties, finally coming to an end in 2006. Our model of these distinctive wagons utilises the CIE 42ft flat wagon, and follows on from the hugely successful container liners and fertiliser wagons, which sold out shortly after release. To supplement this demand, we have increased the production run of the beer keg wagons. Nevertheless, this increased run is already over 60% accounted for, proving that beer is as popular as ever! These highly detailed wagons are priced at €100 per twin pack, with four different packs available. All different packs feature different running numbers and a bundle deal for all eight wagons is available, priced at €370. Orders can now be placed by clicking here. View the full article

Nice job indeed!

They will come with the yellow lugs fitted, and a baggie of spares too, so you can swap off the keg cages and use them for containers also.

In these unusual times, you can rest assured that here at IRM towers we are taking specific measures to safely deliver our products to our valued customers and in some small way, help provide some solace and distraction. At this time we have not been directly affected by the pandemic, and are operating as usual, with our core teams working remotely, and our warehouse team taking several measures to ensure their safety and yours. Our physical offices are closed, as are our telephones, but we remain online to assist via Live Chat and email - we're here to help! Specific measures we are taking include all incoming shipments are being quarantined for at least 3 days after receipt, before being disinfected and receipted into stock in our warehouse Our teams are practicing social distancing, with packing stations spread out and all packers handwashing, sanitising regularly, and packing with gloves and masks. Flight restrictions mean slowdowns are inevitable, with particular hits to air freight services, so please allow longer for your delivery to reach you View the full article

We're also now set up for Direct Debit, so you can put a few bob away each week, or each payday against future or pending purchases!

The CIE cement bubbles are iconic in their design, but also how dirty they got in service, particularly in their later years of service. We handed over some bubbles to Tony Mirolo so he could show you his weathering techniques to bring out the very best in our models and add that extra bit of realism and show how you at home can have a go too! Over to you, Tony! Trying to keep the materials and the tools to a minimum (that most modellers would have) I have experimented with weathering the cement bubbles using a brush, but the effect was not to my liking, so in order to get the right effect that I wanted I’ve had to use an airbrush. If you have photos of Cement Bubbles use it as a reference as the severity of the weathering varies on every wagon. Materials Used: Tamiya acrylic XF-2, XF-21, XF-64 & XF-72 Airbrush. No.3. brush Old No.3 brush for dusting Glass fibre pencil. Cement or light grey weathering powder. Step One: Put the Cat Out!! Step Two: Underframe I find it best to remove the couplings and wheels in preparation for weathering the underframe. Spray the whole of the underframe with Tamiya XF-72 and a light dusting to the bubble. Also give the bubble a light dusting of XF-64 to the bubble as I’ve noticed the mix of cement dust and road dirt tends to go a red/brown colour. I tend to use a mix of 50/50 paint/thinners (Tamiya thinners X-20A) in the airbrush. At this point use the XF-64 and paint in the discs of the wheels. I prefer to do these separately as to not get paint on the tyres of the wheels and make your track dirty. Step Three: Let's Get Streaking! After about half an hour when the paint isn’t quite hard, use the glass fibre pencil to create the streaking effect on the bubble. Lightly use the glass fibre pencil in up and downward strokes to remove the paint all around the bubble. It doesn’t matter if it is not even that just adds to the effect. Step Four: The Experimental Stage. Use your brush to get the water into the corners where the cement would build up. Then use your old brush to get the cement (or grey weathering powder) into all the corners. Don’t be afraid to put too much on as we will be brushing off the excess dust. If you think there is not enough put on another drop of water and more cement on. As you can see it’s a bit messy! Wait for the cement to dry and give it another rub with the fibre pencil to take off the excess. Step Five: Finishing Touches Give the whole bubble and chassis a light dusting of XF-2 (white). Apply the paint a bit heavier around the top, the pipes and valves to create that finer cement dust effect. Also give the brakes a heavier coat of XF-64 to represent brake dust. Finally, give it all a coat of XF-21 (Flat Base) to seal everything over. The Grey Bubble There are not many colour reference photos of the grey bubbles, and as they were new in this livery I decided not use the cement or weathering powder to show a more subtle technique. However, some of the steps are the same as above. Step One As before spray the whole of the underframe with Tamiya XF-72 and a light dusting to the bubble. Step Two This time apply XF-2 to the top of the bubble and around the pipework & valves. Step Three Again use the glass fibre pencil to create the streaking effect on the bubble. Remember to keep the running number of the wagon clean. Step 4 Finally, apply a coat of X-21 to seal everything over. I hope you enjoyed this short tutorial and remember don’t be afraid to give it a go! If you need some canvas to have a go, we still have a limited supply of grey and ivory bubbles in stock. Order yours today for immediate dispatch and have a go to pass time time! Order here! View the full article

Craggy island headcode and everything

When I was a kid playing on the line was our playground, putting your ear on the rails to see if you could hear the train coming (usually while some smart arse shoved you pretending to be a train) even today it’s that era of rolling stock and coach / loco that used roll past us I’m most interested in. However I only started collecting and Modelling when my first child was born and I was subjected to two hours a day of Thomas the tank engine. So there is a place for all

Hi all You can review the range here https://irishrailwaymodels.com/collections/guinness-keg-liners

We thought it would be good to share some good news and optimism in these bleak times. We can confirm that our factories in China are back up and running and as you can see below, our Guinness keg wagons are currently being painted and assembled. In this first pic you can see the cages, chassis and kegs (which will be painted silver!) in various stages of assembly. Here are the kegs, undercoated before silver paint is applied (and upside down in this pic of course!) As many of you will have seen, we have a fully finished sample of the wagon which we displayed at the Dublin show in Blackrock last October. As the office is currently locked up, I cannot take a pic of it to show you all. However, we did get a part assembled sample before the show which I did snap and is below. Please note that a lot of detail is not present on this sample. Finally, prices and ordering. We are not taking pre-orders on these at all. They will only be available to buy once they are in stock in our warehouse. So, you dont have to pay down money in advance. We have also made more of these than the ferts and liners, so there should be more stock too in case you miss out, as Irish outilne seems to be growing in popularity. We are not fully sure when these will be in stock, but we are hoping late April. It will depend of course on the freight situation out of China. We will keep you informed of any changes and confirmation before then. There will be four packs of two wagons, with a price of €100 per pack. A rake bundle deal of €370 will also be available. The cages and kegs will also be available in a separate line side accessory pack. Details on this will be revealed later in the year. View the full article

Do they make a slightly shorter one?

The same ivory cream as the late bubbles.

To provide some perspective it’s pretty much all six figure costs up front and something like the A costs half way to 7 figures.

We provide coupling bars with our kinematic stock. These work the same way.

In addition to our extensive 'high tech' methods for ensuring the cad and model are an identical replica of the real thing, the 'mark 1 eyeball' can determine that the profile, matches the 'fat' part of the 071 (which is the tall part in the middle) pretty much exactly. The ferts are actually bigger and taller than 141/181s or even 201's as Fran mentioned above.

As above should Britain eventually leave the EU from a Vat point of view all of our euro orders would shift to originate in the EU rendering any such worries null we do our best to make life easy for you guys.

Royal Mail and DHL and even DPD see more competition in the UK, so prices are lower. We've reduced our average per parcel ship cost by almost a half by moving all operations to the UK. Additionally, at the moment Our items attract no tariffs anywhere under WTO rules, so just like we don't pay any duty or customs charges bringing stock into the UK or Ireland from China, there will never be any such charges between Ireland and the UK for these items. We also have an additional contingency plan in place with our logistics partner, to move stock to the EU should the situation deteriorate over time. In the mean time, we can offer a cheaper, faster, better service !

Hi Railer, 7 seems unlikely given that everything is shipped either next day DPD if you are going for paid shipping or Royal Mail 48 hour tracked otherwise. The worse we've seen to date has been 4 working days, with full tracking and visibility so if you've seen 7 days or more recently, please PM me the details so I can investigate. In terms of 'why UK' accurascale now accounts for 90% of all our revenues and is literally paying for the irish models - which is great news for Irish models as we've a very exciting roadmap of same coming in 2020! The small tradeoff is that its also cheaper for us to centralise warehousing in the UK and cheaper for us to send parcels from Peterborough, than from Dublin!

We’ve seen the number of Customers at IRM almost quadruple in the last 4 years... with availability of stock the Irish railway Modelling space is definitely growing.

It will

The fertiliser wagon packs left China in the last 48 hours by air and should be with us by the end of the week. We have suspended preorders until the stock is in hand and tested. All paid preorders will be dispatched late next week through into the week after. Thereafter we will open sales of the remaining packs on the website. Many thanks for your support!