spudfan

I did not know that they owned ABEBOOKS, I thought it was THE BOOK DEPOSITORY that they had taken over.

You have more important things in life to be worried about than trying to deal with AMAZON. Sometimes it is the "little" things like this AMAZON situation that can build and make it harder to deal with other more important issues, such as your wife's illness. Fair enough it is only an AMAZON bill and trying to sort it someone would say, but they do not understand that given enough little things of a negative nature they can build and be a tipping point when you are trying to deal with something more serious, like your dear wife's condition. Regards to you and your wife and hopefully you will be able to navigate the road ahead without any more similar distractions.

I have never bought anything from AMAZON.

Owing to the price of fuel my "A" class locos are laid up at the depot at the moment. Was running one and it ran out of fuel so it is blocking the mainline. Normally I'd send one of the 071 fleet to rescue the loco and clear the line but I can't afford to fuel them either....

Many moons ago when I was a wee wain, the family went by train from Dublin to Galway. When we got to Galway my father went to the luggage van to collect my pram, and there it was...gone. Despite having a luggage destination tag on it, it had been put off somewhere else. Anyway it turned up before the holiday was finished. A well travelled pram!

Watching the rugby today. On RTE Jacqui Hurley in the studio had on pink trousers for the Wales/Italy match, yet for the France/England match she is wearing black trousers. I thought this would give us something else to discuss other than the "A" class....

Helped me out too.

Yes they do, I phrased my post wrongly, so thank you for that correction. I still rate the 141/181's highly even without the rotating axle boxes.

I think the issue was the way Irish Rail were using the HEP facility. I think a revised schedule sorted that out.

I stand corrected on the "A" class and the sprung buffers. I just checked but you really have to push them to get them to move. Must be a very tight fit but like I say not a deal breaker for me. Likewise the speakers and lighting package would not be high my list.

I am happy with both as they are....

Did the 201 not predate the class 66?

Just been running the "A" together with some 121's, 141/181's, 071's and some 201's and they all look very well together. The "A"'s being the new kids on the block but to my eyes the others hold their own with the "A" class locos. Fair enough the "A" class have rotating axle box covers while the others don't. Only for the fact I new about the rotating axles boxes before buying the "A" class locos I probably would not have noticed them. So rotating axles boxes are not a deal breaker for me. The "A" do not have sprung buffers whereas the others do. Unless you touch the buffers on the Murphy's you would not know that they were spring loaded so again this feature is not a deal breaker for me. None of the locos have opening doors which does not bother me or it would not be a factor in making a decision to purchase a particular loco. As you can guess I am happy with the 141/181 locos as is. I'd like to say that if more were released I'd buy some but taking into account how things are I cannot say that. Any loco produced from now on will cost a lot more due to transport charges on their own let alone the cost of materials and getting a slot in Chinese factories. The price of a loco is a fair chunk of the household budget and as costs rise it will be an even bigger chunk of it in the future. I would be very surprised if any manufacturer will be able to stand by projected prices for future releases. Anyway to cut it short I am as happy with the 141/181 class as I am with more recent stuff.

Yep that is the photo I was thinking of.

Don't think an 071 could ever look bad!!!

The 201 shape was initially put forward to Foster Yeoman when the class 59 was being planned. They did not go for it as we know. I might have put the photo of the planned design on here somewhere before but if you want I'll put it up again. It is in one of the books about Foster Yeoman. Imagine if Irish Rail had gone for a stretched 071 rather than a new design.....

Irish Rail to paint an 071 in Black and Tan, name it "PADDY MURPHY" thus enabling Paddy to release an 071 in Black and Tan....

De-engined 201 from the discarded, criminally underused, unloved sound barrier line of locos at Inchicore.

SIMI would like us to change our cars every year! If there is a big increase in sales of battery/electric vehicles the Dept of Finance will have to come up with some way of making the owners pay more in the way of road tax and missing fuel duty to make up for the loss of revenue. That will kill some of the big selling points.

Have a look at this. Bit of a novel idea, a road/rail bus for lightly used lines. Can then leave the rails and head on into the city centre. Road-rail midi-buses to start revenue service on December 25 | News | Railway Gazette International

The ad is from 1939

Trying to decide whether to splash out on the higher end model or not.

Wonder how long before one of these finds its way to Inchicore Works? This distributor handles sales for UK and Ireland. Sales here would be limited. There would be a big "green" announcement if one did end up at Inchicore. Battery shunter replaces diesel locomotive | Rail Business UK | Railway Gazette International

I found that the tension lock couplings on the "A" class are slightly lower than on the ballast wagons and it is also a different size. If I shunt the Ballast wagons with an "A" class the loco coupling goes below the leading ballast wagon and derails it. Funnily enough the MM 121 class coupling is bang in line with the ballast wagon coupling and it will shunt the wagons without derailments. I would have thought that any manufacturer would standardise on couplings for all rolling stock. I did contact IRM regarding this but they said no one else has reported this issue.

Thank you. Am I right in assuming that if the correct code is applied to the books there will be no duty/charges applicable?