Noel

Yes did you notice the cheeky impatient driver of the classic old merc, trying to push past the traffic as the gates are manually opened. Apparently it was the longest level crossing in these islands. Having cycled it last year I was astonished how long it was and how on earth gate keepers managed to control traffic while one gate was manually closed, before the other gate was also closed.

Another box of Fertiliser wagons arrived yesterday. Love these stunning master pieces. Really appreciate the finess and fine detail. They run free as a bird too. Watching some old videos earlier I noticed these wagons below. Fertiliser wagons with what looks like steel mesh sides. Did they start out line this and switch to sold doors later? Presume the fertiliser bags were plastic so rain proof. Also was there a reason the centre compartments were not fully loaded (eg load limit, etc)?

Is it a deceased C or a broke down B113 Sulzer (Dalek)? I've always wondered about those two locos. The goods train at 6:30 is pure CIE nostalgia gold, nothing RTR for those trains that dominated the network for half a century. Love the luggage van at the end. Brake vans had to be vigilant and work hard on such long loose coupled goods trains. A decent speed too for a longish loose coupled formation.

The Golden Era of Ireland's railways. The line feathered on this is now a greenway. Excellent though it is would prefer to seem summer rail traffic running out to Dungarvan, even a hideous tram would be better than a greenway (ie 22k). Speeds looked rather high in sections of the video, even going over some of the viaducts.

Anybody looking for Tippex IR/IE EGV Mk2 https://www.ebay.ie/itm/114111379199?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&fromMakeTrack=true easy to paint roof orange if you wanted an orange tippex EGV. Like hens teeth these things.

Superb @RobertRoche. Did you do print it yourself or using a print agency? Clearly a nice job on the cad.

With a fan

No thanks please. Expecting even better reliability and the smooth running of Bachmann/Murphy Model 141/181 class. I've no doubt that the IRM A loco will be top drawer by the time it is shipped to us customers. Crossley sound chip would be very interesting. I don't think I can remember the sound, only the EMD GM motors.

Those two photos are stunning scenes

Whoever did the respray for him did a really nice job, but for me it looks too radically different to a genuine class 22k Rotem. There should only be single doors at each end of the coach sides, instead of commuter double doors down the sides of the coach. The donors are clearly commuter stock rather than intercity passenger coaches. Saw them a few years ago in Stillorgan but resisted the temptation. Thought the box labelling was a little misleading because the models contained within are not scale representations or even approximations of Rotem class 22k. Still great christmas present for a child who'd give their eye teeth to have what looks like at a distance a modern Irish DMU set. Eye of the beholder and all that.

Wow 2h40mins Cork to Baltimore, must have been fairly slow trains. Can you imagine the summer traffic they might attract nowadays from tourists and back packers heading out to west cork and the coastal towns.

In the early 80s I used to get the 7:40 Heuston-Cork and arrive in Cork not long after 9am ready for a full days work in the Cork office or at meetings with clients, before returning leg about 18:00 or 18:30. City Gold back then was a great service, comfy, quiet, and decent food service to your seat. Great for business travellers. Hot food, menus, delph and metal cutlery, linen napkins, none of those packet salad sandwich malarky like the 22k nowadays with just a trolly.

Back then as an almost 3rd world country we had no roads, hence the railways were primarily to move agricultural produce and materials. We had no population to move about unlike densely populated GB with its large industrial cities. It is interesting driving through small provincial towns that once had a rail branch and to still see evidence of railway architecture, goods buildings and stores, etc (eg Banagher, Birr, Kinsale, Baltimore, etc)

OPPS. Glad IRM won’t be shipping models using shippers such as these hope MM 121s go by air as well. Insurance nightmare. Still impressive salvage operation with cranes at sea. Wonder how many BELL containers were lost at sea over the decades.

Where is that Dave ( @WRENNEIRE )? Limerick Junction?

Craven images? Never had to do this to an IRM model. Bogies a little difficult to get off this craven creature

Opps, sorry have no boxes for them. Back then I used my toy train boxes to underpin and form scenic landscaping before covering with newspaper mache, etc. Cardboard train set boxes were great for forming mountains and cliff edges. The foam padding newer generation hornby sets used made them very light. The earlier Hornby Dublo were all card structure, before Tri-ang went for that horrible blister pack yellow internal structure dividers. HD were the nicest boxes I remember. I have a pair of CIE Hornby Hymek horrors too, but not original condition as I repainted them the correct shade of orange and weathered them by brush circa 1976'ish. But they do still have the stick on CIE logo stamps. The Lime 215 CL 33s had a nice shade or ST orange/tan, but sadly motors like a kenwood egg whisk. Started at a scale speed of 40mph, and topped out at 220mph scale speed. They are decoration on one of the layout MPDs now.

Fair comment Mr Q, to a point anyway. I have to admit I was fairly chuffed with my Lima CIE 215 psuedo A class in the 1970s. I still have a pair of them somewhere, by todays standards they are utter junk heaps and ran like tractors, but thought they were the bees-knees in the 1970s. Do you have any photos of your Lima models? Lima CIE 215 - Think PM played a part in Lima producing these BR Class 33s is CIE ST livery. They are layout decoration now, and emotionally attached to them for historical reasons so they'll never hit eBay. They are worthless anyhow. Lima 215 hauling Lima BR Mk1s about 1975 on my first layout

Unfortunately also one of the best modelshop's in the country closed in Portlaoise only a few years ago, which could have been a help.

. . . And kit bashing existing RTR coaches into anything you want is always an option. Just plastic,filler and glue needed. e.g: Bachmann LMS Bogie Parcel van makes a reasonable donor for conversion to CIE Brake parcel van

Personally I would waste a decoder on a Lima loco. Prefer to use one as static scenery.

Sellotape for insulating the wires??? Wait till that perishes and blows the decoder, at least its shields from UV

Or gullible plankton. That era of Lima was pure junk IMHO, paper weights, or simulating the scrap line at Inchicore