Noel

Found this old photo earlier while tidying up folders.

Its hard to know but leaving aside the commuter potential Youghal is a domestic tourist honey trap for 9 months of the year, and bursting at the seams with domestic visitors. Rail link to Dublin via Cork opens up more economic potential for the hospitality and tourism sector. The Cobh line is hopping. Its amazing Dublin folks with the travel pass can go to Cobh for lunch. Last time we stayed in Cobh about 4 years ago, the place was buzzing, I'd hazzard half the folks were tourists. The CBSC west cork railways are lost beyond redemption but can you imagine the success today if rail link out to Kinsale, Baltimore, Courtmacsherry, Clonakilty, and Bantry still existed even with just frequent 2 car DMU sets.

However, sadly no mention of reopening the shortish stretch line from Middleton to Youghal. The track bed is still in tact and still owned by RPA and has not been encroached upon by adjacent land owners. Reopening the short line to Youghal seems a no brainer in terms of commuter numbers to Cork plus seasonal domestic tourism, and economically viable given the limited engineering works required to get the line back up and running. Very short sighted. History will not be kind to those responsible for dropping the ball, boarding on criminal incompetence in this era of transition away from roads to CO2 cleaner transport.

Love this, incredible. You’ve recreated the essence of Heuston. Love the video also. Congrats.

Good to hear your positive news Ken. Port Breige looks stunning, it feel alive with activity.

Kingsbridge before it was converted to CIE Irish Outline stock. Nothing but BR era stock in this photo.

Starting a model railway club where there is still a significant railway operating with an interesting railway history (ie MGWR+GSWR+CIE) might be a help. Athlone sounds a great central location with excellent road access. Having a club layout and/or access to club rooms could make all the difference to getting off the ground. Some local authorities may be able to make a room or part of a public building available. Athlone UCD or CIE may be worth contacting as they have a lot of empty building still over at the MGWR station site.

I've a pair of the 1970 variants in ST livery. I use them as scenic yard waste (ie rusting lines). Worthless IMHO, except for nostalgia reasons. CIE never ran anything that looked even vaguely like them. Just BR Blue class 33s covered with orange paint. Awful runners, they can do scale speeds of 200mph and sound like tractors as all junk heap Lima's of that vintage did. I have about 10 of these Lima BR Mk1s also. Again CIE had nothing like this except for highly modified BSK/BCK GSV (generating and heating vans), but these BR Mk1s don't even pass as Cravens or Liminates at 10ft rule. Only reason I keep them boxed away is childhood nostalgia as I bought these in the 1970s.

Didn’t make it to the show but enjoyed reading about it here and especially enjoyed the video posted a few days ago. Almost as good as being there.

Hi Stephen. You already answered this question for the mk2c coaches thank you, but if you don't mind me asking, will it be easy enough to open these for the purpose of putting passengers in the intermediate coaches and/or power driving units? Thanks. Noel The CAD images look stunning.

Yes the superb A class followed by a 22k seems like full circle, top and tails.

The size of some of these bulk carriers at Aughinish's loading quay was impressive. They are frequent visitors to the Shannon Estuary. On another point at one time 80% of Ireland's energy fuel arrived into Ireland via the Shannon Estuary (ie Coal, Oil, Pethertil, etc).

Agree. The power units must have been carefully distributed along the formation so that there was no undue pressure on the tight bends.

PS I may have applied a thin wash of oxide red over the grey before almost completely wiping it back off

Could IRM model record breaking Swiss Rail 100 coach formation? This happened in last few days, some stunning shots of the train overlapping its own formation in the mountains with tunnels and bridges.

The DCC sound will be very interesting to hear (ie do you simulate exterior sound or the interior sound passengers hear), those sets have very unique horns. Hope there is a rail flange noise included, but obviously there won't be any 'buffer clash' sounds needed. Is there sound on the intermediate car or the driving car?

At the big WMRC exhibitions the scones are DCC and lit.

Have a 37 on order to haul my BR ex-LMS coaching stock. In the meantime the superb Deltic will do.

It looks like the new MM mk2d release coaches featured above are a better shade of orange than the original release.

Thanks for uploading and posting. It was as good as being at the show. Great coverage.

For the Russian Aughinish Alumina plant perhaps? Aughinish Alumina near Foynes

Agree, but I can see commercially the numbers probably don’t stack up for items of single occurrence rolling stock such as heating vans spray coach, etc, and a generation of modellers probably already heating their craven sets using SF RTR stuff they’ve already collected over the years. Folks like SF, IFM, MIR and PW have filled such niche needs for years, but agree 100% would love to have IRM quality vans and indeed things like Park Royals and Mk4 sets. Now that the 22k barrier has been breached, anything is possible even mk4 sets. Only time will tell. What a day of announcements yesterday. The hobby is in rude health beyond anybodies wildest expectations only 15 years ago. Happy days.

Yes great to see a cafe for visitors and not just exhibitors at one of the Dublin shows. Essential component of any consumer show.

@BosKonay Stephen, will it be easy to open these new coaches up for the placement of internal passengers?