spudfan

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?

Does anybody know the correct code that should be applied to books entering Ireland from the U.K. to allow them to pass as normal through the system?

As An Post has passed the charges(minus collection fee) on to Customs and Excise, An Post cannot issue a refund. It will have to come from Customs and Excise. So if An Post has made a mistake they no longer have the money. It will not be easy chasing up a refund.

If you can get the correct person who is willing to take the time to sort this out it can be done but it is pot luck. Bureaucracy can be annoying and time consuming. You will probably spend many an hour on hold dealing with this but best of luck.

As far as I know postage is taken in to account so €30 plus €6.47 would put the packet over the €30 limit. You packet was listed in dollars but comes in at €26.50 and postage of €5.30 puts you over the threshold. However you were charged in Euro initially instead of dollars which is wrong. You can appeal this but it will be a long process depending on who you are dealing with.

Well it seems IE have decided to go down a different route to other railway administrations regarding converting to a "greener " fuel for their loco fleet. Where as other administrations are investigating hydrogen cell technology the powers in IE have opted to convert the fleet to run on hot air. This initiative has the full backing of the members of Dail Eireann. Yep the members of Dail Eireann are 100% behind this. Seems it will be piped directly from the Dail to storage tanks. The super fuel is guaranteed to be available all year round. The only problem envisaged is getting enough storage capacity