Noel

Hi Gerry, layout coming together really well and looking fabulous already. I can see hours of endless shunting fun with sound equipped locos. Echos of parts of inchicore works. Especially like the little bridge and viaduct structure that disguise the base board join. Really adds a city urban rail infrastructure feel to it.

Fabulous I love it. Wonderful scenic story telling as ever. The little clastic people on your layout are becoming quite famous, did they have to join irish equity? I trust no little plastic people (LPPs) we’re harmed nor exploited in the making of these eipic story productions ps. What 201 class model was used as the donor for this production (ie was it a Lima or MIR, etc)?

Hi Fran. Apologies, I wasn't being negative, as well you know I have heaped praise on these superb wagons, but there are limits to how much stock I as a modeller can buy and store on the layout. The well is only so deep and despite my appetite for more, there is a point where I need to learn to be 'content' with what I already have. I went over the top with 141/181s and ended up off-loading some because they could not fit on the layout, were just being wasted and not put to use. Sure I have two rakes of the bubbles alone, and ballasts and taras. Keep producing, I for one will be glad the 'insatiable appetite' of others may fund more interesting wagon prototypes. There will be no room left on the layout for my Black'n'Tan oldies nor my CIE era goods wagons. I've already purged the layout of nearly all of my BR outline stock. Keep going you guys are playing a blinder. Noel

Unfortunately the answer to that in terms of expense and available space on a layout is yes. Wagons stored away or left in boxes seem of little benefit. A time fast approaches when I have to be content with the bountiful stock I already have. Enough is enough.

Almost sold out! Do you really think I need anymore? Drone footage of IRM cement bubble wagons at Woodvale Junction.

I knew there was a risk that might happen the minute I finished some MIR kits Bet too that MM ships their 121s the same week I finish the next batch of 3D ones.

Slow progress on the curtains, got chassis assembled, basic painting done, decals on, varnished, now just the weathering, vacuum pipes and some paint detailing. I used gloss varnish on the sides of the wagons followed by satin to try and make the tarpaulin sides look plastic and shiny. x A few bits of paint detailing remains, vac pipes, etc and finally some light weathering.

Excellent precision work as ever Eoin. Just curious, are you planning to sandwich clear glazing sheets between the white styrene and the coach sides or inset in the plastic card openings, or some other form of flush glazing?

As ever Noel your super layout scene picture tell a thousand words. Great wagon formation. Nice spill and weathering job on them too. As the train guard did you travel in the loco with the driver or in a guard's van? Just wondering because I presume these braked formations did not have a traditional brake van at the end (ie 20 years ago).

Two critical liquid fuels on board, oil and Guinness. Was the empty wagon a barrier? Lovely photo, but every time I see a modern era freight train without a guards van at the end of the formation I wonder "what's missing"? Did a coupling break, but the two red lamps tell the tale.

It could be Gold next year if the two new locos ship before the vote, especially the Deltic

Well done guys.

A re-run in grey livery sounds appealing.Mind you I already have rather a lot of IRM wagons, might need to lay more track

Sounds positive what happened?

Got the first undercoat of blue on yesterday before I had to pause to deep clean a badly clogged airbrush. Will mix some more paint later and get the final coat on.

Rough sketch of plastic card parts needed to make mounts in the 3D 121 body shell for the Athearn SW1500 chassis. I just found this last night as I needed it for the next batch of locos I am working on. Use in conjunction with photos above. Once added to the inside of the body shell the body should friction fit snuggly on the Athearn chassis. Link to 121 Roof cutting template for piece of thin plastic card to form over hanging roof on 121 cab. http://www.derg.ie/albums/workbench/121_Roof_Template.pdf

Sorry to hear about this. I was very disappointed with the poor quality from the first batch, especially the paint job, and incorrect shade of orange, but I didn't loose faith and I have just received some new ones from MM batch 2 from Marks and hope they are better. Will give some feedback after I have had a chance to weather them. Hopefully no bits will fall off. The Mk2 coaches in general and especially the Supertrain livery were indeed disappointing compared to the sublime highs of the Bachmann/Murphy Models 141/181 locos and then the Craven coaches. My main bug bear with all the MM mk2d coaches is the NEM pocket was completely wrong. Mind you I was able to get the tension lock couplings out of the NEM pockets on mine by shaving a tiny bit of plastic off the ends of the tongs. They then easily pulled out. Most annoying was having to glue kadee NEM couplings to the underside of the NEM pockets rather than plug them in because the height was so wrong. Unforgivable at this price point IMHO but not the end of the world either. It was a joy and most pleasant discovery to find that the NEM pockets on the IRM Tara wagons were perfectly positioned and allowed quick and easy 'plug and play' replacement of the supplied tension lock couplings with Kadee no 18 couplings which work perfectly with these lovely little bogie wagons.

Agree with many of those suggestions @jhb171achill. Extremely relieved to see no ICRs on your wishlist, and the nostalgic AEC set gets past my personal DMU filter because it was such an important part of the CIE era. Wish list: (please forgive we can but dream) IRM 121 class Bulleid single corrugated open beet wagons CIE H-Van CIE 20 Ton Brake/Guards Van Laminate Coach or Park Royal Coach (opening doors, lights, connecting corridor option) Double beet wagons corrugated Sulzer 101 or 113 loco would be amazing

Yes I tend to agree. Its just some folks don't have the gear or confidence to do it themselves and even factory weathering like on some of the MM locos while smacks of a loco passing a spray along a production lines does take the bright plastic shine of some pristine models and gives them a gentle weathered/aged effect.

The option of lightly factory weathered orange bubbles might have been interesting?

A few grey and orange bubbles colour wise would look great in a formation.

FYI, I was cautioned by the spelling stassi here last year for accidentally using ‘beat’ instead of ’beet’. And me a lexdysic drummer. I understood what was meant.

Over the past two years this level of detail and finish is what we have become accustomed to thanks to IRM. Cement Bubble In pristine finish. IRM's web site: https://irishrailwaymodels.com Murphy Models web site: http://www.murphymodels.com IFM's web store now on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Irish-Freight-Models-1252098201500518/app/251458316228/ SilverFox website (mainly just passenger stock, locos, etc): http://silverfoxmodels.co.uk Only IRM and Murphy Models produce high quality fine scale RTR models, but the other two still fill some nice gaps, especially IFM with their Brake Vans and two axle non-bogie goods wagons and some other rare stuff. I've converted quite a bit of Bachmann GWR/LMS 2 axle wagons to make up the 1960s and early 1970s era goods traffic rakes that suit my CIE nostalgia era for operating and shunting on the layout (resprays, decals and weathering as many of the basic body shapes are not a million miles off some CIE stuff).

IRM Cement wagons (nearest camera0 and Ballast wagons behind (not yet weathered). Old Lima Vans in back ground. IRM Cement Bubble wagons after a visit to the 'weathering' parlour IRM Bright Orange Bubbles after a visit to the 'weathering' parlour for some dirt and cement gunge IRM Tara mines wagons 1970s CIE era heaven ALL available RTR from a link off the header page of this website. IFM are now only on FaceBook since they stopped using their web site. All that's missing in the gaping hole of goods stock are fine scale beet wagons, H-Vans and Brake vans. Would love if IRM wound the clock back to the 1960s and made some of these in the future. The single bullied corrugated open beat wagon is the last lost holy grail of Irish RTR models, as is the H-Van, now that the holy A class is in process.

Here’s some Bachmann wagons with CIE decals and mild dirt. Since kadee’d. Some 3D open beet bodies on Dapol chassis as well as the BR mineral wagons X These Bachmann vans just needed the CIE logo, and very light overspray of dirt In formation. IFM do quite presentable 20 ton and 30 ton CIE Brake vans in 3D sitting on Dapol chassis IFM RTR 20 ton brake/guards van on. These really punctuate a 1960s early 1970s goods train formation nicely before modern era uniform braked stock took over from manually handled goods