tonybonneyba

Been a lot of light engine movements these evenings in Belfast on the Dublin line! Anyone know why this is?

Engineer works on the Dublin line near Lisburn.

This sounds very interesting!

"He does mention briefly using Railtech decals but I checked their website and found no trace. "

It could of been a requested decal(s) which Railtech do....

I believe there is more than one 071 going around with the flying snail 40 year plate. The grey 071 (I forget now) used on the recent IRRS tour had it fitted too. Think it was 076?

I believe it was 076 as i photographed that plate one to many times

Happy Birthday

Nice Garden Scale Loco there Tony

Thanks for the idea!

That MKIII in the new livery is impressive, I'm sure expensive too!

Morning all. The project above is & will be on a very long pause. (It's for my granny's furture model railway which hasn't been started, I'll post updates on that when there's an update to post). Anyways, not includeding my granny's OO gauge railway, I think I've given up on OO guage, so I'm starting a new project which is a wee but larger than OO & O. I'm going point out one thing first before I post ideas & furture photos, this is my railway & I'll do as what I like with it, not every thing has been correct places, for instance, if I build, say a G scale MKIV from a Playmobil carriage, I might have the doors centred as that's where they are on the Playmobil coach. This railway is for me & for my imagination to go 'wild'. I'll post updates when I have an update

UPDATE:

- Hedge Cutter 1 is receiving a refurbishment (can't give details)

- 0707 has been out tamping on the southline between Bridge 164 & the west cross over

Images & videos of workings coming soon

Tony.

For some who don't know, I am a thunderbird/international rescue fan & I was looking about for a old thunderbird 2 to try out detailing on before I start on my bus & IOM loco projects (makes sense in my head) as I thought detailing a easily replaceable £12 toy off eBay would give me some pratice (I'll do a thread on that too, don't worry) & I spotted these really awesome 1/48 kits which are very very highly detailed & thought I'll share here as at least one person might like them or want to try it out....

http://www.takaratomy.co.jp/products/thunderbirds/realkit/

Looks F.A.B James!

Can't wait to see more

Happy New Years everyone, have a AWSome year, CAWS I feel it's going be a good one

Got some detailed photos of the interior of 612.

Will upload them tomorrow & will start making these "stickers" in PS tomorrow for decals, of course, I'm only going for, what you can see on the outside. Now I just need find a goldliner i6 to photograph (unless a i4 is similar)

Anybody know about 227 and 231 are they staying in the intercity livery?

I belive that 227 is no longer a Enterprising locomotive, dunno about 231

Whilst the agreement is that NIR do coaches, IÉ do locos, IÉ refurbished 6 locos in addition to providing the ICR. In trying to defend NIR, you've said exactly why they should NOT have been given the contract for the coaches - way too little infrastructure and staff, componded by poor management on the project team. Would have been easier to ship them to the UK to somewhere like Wabtec Kilmarnock (who have extensive experience in refurbs) and probably quicker and at this point cheaper. However I suspect the EU funding restrictions prevented that.

 

And it should also be said that Inchicore did a van and 2 coaches (9606, 9212, 9214) in 2 months due to the problems at York Road

I was only going by the knowledge I had & who said I was trying to defend NIR, plus, NIR supplied a 6 pice class 3000 in addition to refurbish almost all the coaches.

Good photos and spotted 749 in one photo and is it still hiding in York Road?

Thanks, & if you are talking about the 80 DVT, yes it is.

The two refurbished bogies being unloaded to go under a coach being refurbished ^

The coach being refurbished ^

Recently power washed bogies being loaded for refurbishment ^

Bogie frame being refurbished ^

Wheels waiting to be pressed off the axels, the wheels will the be scrapped along with the brake disks & pads^

The bogie frame I worked on during my W/E their ^

Parts I had to clean^

All clean!^

I also had to clean these. You know air blast sound on the DD sitting in a station? Yeah. Well that is this doing their job, their job is to keep the coach body level to a certain point, so if there is more weight on one side, pushing the body down by a couple of MM, these will put more air in the air bag, raising the body back to level, or release air from the other bags, making the train level^.

Nuts & bolts on top of the frame ^.

Intresting enough, very little of the original bogies are kept, the rest are scrapped.

I don't even think there is a service demand for an hourly service. Right now the Enterprise reputation is at a low point like it was in the early 2000s with all the failures. On the flip side you have cheaper and faster bus services that run every hour between Dublin and Belfast.

 

Irish rail and NIR need to get the line up to 120mph running the whole way, get faster rolling stock and better pathing around local services to bring times down below 90mins . It will never happen but it's what really needs to be done.

It's not the rolling stock, the 201s & DeDietrich are well captable of doing over 100mph, but just havnt able to on the Northern line. It's the time tabling, the Enterprise never used to stop at Drogheda, Portadown or Lisburn. If it wasn't for the fact the train stops in every town it comes across, it would get to Dublin far more quicker, because when your stopping a 70-90mph train, you need to slow down in advance, then when your the station, it takes three ministers to get people off, get people on, close the doors, do your checks & depart. Already, that's 12mins just for Drogheda, Dundalk, Lisburn & Portadown.

The last time I traveled on the Dublin/Belfast line, there was many of speed restrictions in place (this was about a week or two after 9002 was lunched back into service), these where due to track works to help improve the speed of the service. I think if you explained to a passenger why the limit is in place, they would appreciate it, I would prefer a couple of weeks of slowness for a couple of years of high speediness.

Now on to that ever long lasting argument which has lead to many fall outs & hatered to the DD stock.... The refurbishment program.

What many people don't know about the Enterprise arrgrement is, IÉ take care of the Enterprising locomotives while NIR look after the coaching stock, so ideally, Inchicore done their part (easy, four(?) locomotives to refurbish) compared to what NIR get which is, four genny vans, four driving trailers which all need new equipment & 24 passenger coaches which also all need new equipment, completely refurbished bogies (yes, I know your shock, they aren't just painted).

NIR's network & fleet isn't as big as IÉ's, meaning NIR don't require as many people working in their main depots, which isn't ideal when it comes to a major refurbishment like this, where all the coaches are completely stripped back & mainly rebuilt, electronics ripped out & new ones put in & the gennys complete refurbished too. So ideally, it would of been fair for IÉ to refurbish at least one of their sets, rather that, which in this case would be 9003, because 9001 was started before months after 9002 on the inside part.

Any ways, here's some photos of the bogie refurbishment, which was agreed between me & the DeDietrich team NIR, not to be uploaded to any forum or social media until the set was released into service, this set being 9002.

They where on tests on the northern line, but only got up to Dundalk (I think) & not a word said since. There was plans to put on 22000's with the DeDietrichs, because of their speed, comfort & already in use on the northern line because of having correct IÉ & NIR equipment. Tho, trying to imagine the 22000 in the new Enterprise livery is puzzling.

I've just noticed the wee thing at the bottom of the forums home page saying it's someone's birthday.....

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday dear Warbonnet

Happy birthday to you!

Have a fabulous day!

Fantastic!

Very interesting story Jhb171achill, would you remember the colour of the ticket?

Little question, was the late 1990's handheld machines electronic?

Good evening/morning,

I've been Googling about for photographs of not so modern handheld ticket machines which could of been used on IÉ or NIR, tho, haven't been so lucky.

The reason behind this is because I like handheld ticket machines, they have always had a wee interest spark in me (because I'm wired like that).

If any of you kind ladies or gentlemen have any photographs to share of the pre 2005 machines, could you post here please?

Marks Models in Dublin

& Gismo in Belfast, I'm looking for model shops in NI which sell Oxford Diecast stuff, in particular, buses, as Gismo only do the stobart bus if anyone can help?

Thanks Tony, that'll come in really useful when I go to get inside the coach to detail it & spraying it.

I'll be popping round to the depot to get photos of 612's details tomorrow, then up in to Belfast to get the models & while their, hopefully get some decent detailed photos of the goldliner i6 interior & exterior.

Made this for a decal for the goldliners door this evening.... Just some adjustments on the onboard part then off to the printer.... Once the model is painted of course

Any UTA half-cabs there? :-)

Two opt are town service buses (both NC)

A hell of a lot ULB & Cairnshill P&R Wright Scania low floors

A hell of a lot ULB & Cairnshill P&R Wright Volvo double deckers

Some Wright Volvo school run buses

One Scania Irizar i4 who is the most detested bus in the yard because of having a slow door, a bad gear box & a annoying hand brake... 612

One ford transit SEELB school bus

One Mercedes Benz Sprinter SEELB school bus

& the occasional Metro (on lend to ULB) or Goldliner (covering a broken bus)visitor

Hope that helps. Oh & one man cleans every bus from 0700-2000 (Not me!)