jhb171achill

Having seen them on a friend’s layout the other day, yes, even if it wasn’t obvious from the pictures (and it is!), I can vouch that they are indeed WELL worth waiting for. I think I can speak tor all here in saying how much we hugely appreciate the massive effort and commitment of IRM, and especially with the odds stacked against you - China nit being exactly next door, covid and supply chains. The models are seriously exhibition standard. They exceed anything I’ve ever seen. Very well done, folks. (Yes, I patiently await mine! Silver, green and black….). Is there any truth in the rumour that you’re doing one in NIR blue and silver next April 1st?

I did see somewhere a post (gawd knows how long ago, though) which showed a coach that someone had used a car rattle can to spray to look like the 1956-62 carriage green - but far from being approximate, it was actually spot-on. I reckon if you get the right colour in your head from many of the excellent photos to be seen in various books nowadays, and try to find something that looks right, you could hit lucky. If the IRM mods are reading this, I think that IRM may have a note of the RAL colour code for this somewhere?

Superb! Which system is this?

They need a proper Transport police force, and with powers to simply put people off trains too, irrespective of whether they're near their destination or not, or whether it's the last train of the night! Human nature always dictates that unless people know there are very severely unpleasant consequences for bad behaviour, they will do it. You wouldn't argue with a bouncer in a Russian night club. The trains and trams (and buses) need people on board who will force anti-social elements to comply with civilised behaviour and obey the law, or else throw them off. I was on an up Cork service one night about eight years ago, and there was one man acting the maggot in the carriage I was in. Two other (large male) passengers made him go out and sit in the end vestibule, and told him to stay there or they would physically put him out at the next stop. They looked like they meant business, that was clear! The troublemaker behaved himself from then on.....

Maybe that's why they're called Memory foam. You won't forget them.....

Realistic sound is good. Not sure about realistic smells!

For their sake, let’s hope so - though we cannot be the “collateral damage”!

That I can believe! Certainly applies to all of my own relatives over there…..

Beano, that’s a really excellent layout with loads of interest in it! Love to see more of it, and the bubbles look great too. Interesting and varied scenery with lots going on….superb.

I think I’d prefer “chaos” to “boris….”

A very good and valid point indeed, and vital for future enthusiast generations. While I have yet to see this volume myself, I doubt if it would disappoint on this issue! It is pricey, but as Leslie says, those who WOULD be in a position to know their onions have been well impressed so far.

That just looks SO realistic. The scenic quality matches the modelling quality of the locos - seriously top notch.

IMG_0545.MOV IMG_0538.MOV

Guess what I saw on Sunday! Eagerly awaiting Mr Postman to get my own…. Turn the sound up full! IMG_0535.MOV

Crew change at Crossmolina?

Perfectly possible, indeed - I’d be interested to see a pic of a 121 like that! When liveries change we always get stuff like that - when I were a mere nipper, you’d see a dark blue & cream railcar (GNR livery) with the “G N R” on the side, and the crest, painted over and a UTA logo and number on it, and in the mid 1920s Broadstone went on using up MGWR dark maroon paint but with GSR markings, until it was used up. NIR put their logo on several “Jeeps”, over where the UTA crest had been, but these engines remained otherwise in UTA lined black. No. 4 actually ended up with a NIR logo on one side and a UTA crest on the other!

Quite possible with both these ideas, but I have to say I never saw either 071s or 121s like that, nor did I hear of it.

It would appear so, yes. I saw a few 141 / 181 classes like that, including one with "IR" logos on the sides and CIE roundels on the ends! This may be seen in one of the pictures in "Rails Through the West"**, and was probably unique. What I did NOT ever see was a 121 with this hybrid livery. It should also be added that in most (but not all!) cases this hybrid livery was short lived. (** Page 43, loco 155)

I'm hoping to get it moved along with extension soon - it's been far too long in the process....! New "A" class locos will heighten the urgency!

464 and 90 yes, the latter in 1957 or 1958 I believe. Not sure about 201. One of the more unusual ones to become black seems to have been T & D No. 6 on the C & L - likely the only narrow gauge loco CIE ever painted black. And there was the one Woolwich which having been green, became black in 1956 but with (uniquely) red lining, for the "Rosslare Express". No sooner was it released into traffic and diesels took over!

Just to update this project - yes, it's Jackie & Pauline Whelan who applied; the ITG are simply allowed an area to store their stuff. An initial funding application was prepared, submitted and processed, but rejected some time back. It is my understanding that the Whelans are still investigating other funding options, or "tweaking" the rejected application. The fact that they have planning permission will give a few "brownie points" to their funding application. Should their centre find funding and is built, the ITG will be allowed (indeed, encouraged) to display some of their items there, cosmetically restored, in perpetuity. Here's hoping....

And there was me thinking that the crowd you get on the DART was bad - with maybe 10% NOT having them! Rules or not, I WILL be wearing one in public for some time to come........ can't be too sure. Sadly, several friends of mine have died of Covid-19. I don't want it to come to me and anyone around me. Imagine how any of us would feel if we had been responsible for giving it to one of our nearest & dearest!

It is - and it shows how the grey (all models started in CIE grey) became "black"-looking in many cases! I wish I could find a list that the late Bob Clements gave me one time of the actual locos which did end up being repainted black after 1956. I think I've lost it, unfortunately. There weren't that many - most remained grey. Those passenger engines in green got so exceptionally dirty that often they looked "blackish" too.

Autumn 1962, and two steam engines are at Dugort Harbour probably for the last time….. one is with a lifting train off a nearby branch, closed six months earlier, and the other is shunting. Superbly realistic weathering by Dempsey, of this community. On another day, “G2” 650 shunts wagons for the morning mixed train. Eighteen months later, and it’s diesels…. Weathered again. I have several 141s and a 181. One will be almost pristine, and the others weathered to varying degrees. This one will be the dirtiest, the 181 the cleanest.

Ah, they've turned to ashes! (I've gone home now....)!