Noel

Saints preserve us. Fantastisch

So would a good few others who missed out on one of the most ubiquitous and most sought after Irish models ever produced (ie got back into the hobby in the last 6-7 years). I can't see a re-run happening anytime soon unless it is an exact rerun done by Bachmann for MM, otherwise they may need a refresh to bring them up to 121 spec which would add significant cost (eg lights, speaker, grills, etc). Personally the 141/181s are my favourite models by a country mile and totally happy with them as they are. IMHO the MM baby GMs are the finest precision runners of any loco from any manufacturer I've ever seen so far. Its a bit of a job 1st time around for a newbie to fit a decoder and sound speaker, but after the first one its plain sailing (ie compared to popping open a body hatch to plug a decoder in to a chassis that already has a speaker). I've heard some folk spout a theory that they believe once the 121 hits the market early collectors of 141/181s may offload some 141/181s on the market which may bring the eBay prices back down to where they were 4-5 years ago (eg GBP£100). One retailer told me he had multiple customers buy up to four each each running number of the original runs when first released!!! Methinks, Why on earth? Except perhaps hoping for a high future resale value based on what happened to the Lima 201s for a while before the pure MM 201s were released. Few layouts can stable that many locos anyway, if it can't run on the available track work, it can stay on a retailers shelf as far as I'm concerned.

Fab-U-Lous

Possibly a brexit dividend

Drip feeding us the joy of an MM 121? Like the boxing video clip, that's a new one.

Hi @warb They look really sharp and detailed. Are the bodies brass, plastic or 3D?

Jeepers Dave your producing some absolutely superb brass models.

I will fit anywhere a Murphy Model baby GM 141/181 fits. Similar length if not a shade shorter.

Live long and prosper! Kingons off the gamma quadrant! But I like "Love long and prosper" too! My airbrush was screaming last week, "She's not gonna take much morea this captain, The compressor's running low on di-lithium crystals" There be whales here!

Bloody amazing work. Folk may not realise the amount of time that went into such art work. Patience yielding sublime results. I see you put the kadee's in the NEM pockets.

The 121s as far as I remember reading came new with EMD 567 and were later re-engined with EMD 645W but don't know if they were taken from already re-engined C class or just as part of the programme for upgrading the original 141 locos. Would be interesting to know. CIE changing to a US manufacturer instead of the unreliable British crossley engines must have been a politically sensitive decision at the time as it was for the young free state to go with Germany's Siemens suckert in the interwar period for the Ardnacrusha scheme and the first incarnation of the national grid.

Cheers Leslie, not sure how many minutes cause I overlap painting with other CIE 'orange' projects but I guess if it was on its own including transfers and weathering total time would have been about 90 mins in seven brief sessions. (prime, paintx2, glass, transfers, matt, weathering, matt). Here it is loaded with an as of yet unweathered IRM 20ft container on an IRM 42ft container flat wagon. I've weathered my other IRM containers. Yes it fits snugly and precisely on the IRM 42ft container wagon and really looks the part from the CIE era. IRM containers at the weathering booth IRM stock back in traffic after a visit to the Irish climate for some years

Stunning Jason

Finished decorating a provincial wagons CIE 20ft container wagon kit. Seen loaded into various container flats including IRM 42ft and 3D 20ft skeletal flat. It fits nicely on the IRM 42ft wagon. Loaded onto IRM 42ft container flat Loaded onto 20ft flat

Not many tools, they are fairly easy to build Craft knife/scalpel Precision Hand Drill (with 0.5mm to 1.5mm drill bits) Micro File Set Mini Screwdriver set (for couplings) Superglue (ie for resin kits) Wire cutters Tweezers Needle nose pliers helpful for forming wire hand rails and wire parts Not necessary but nice to have a cutting mat Method of painting That's it

That's precision. Excellent result. Brake gear looks so right and precise

This is good news, pricing will be a factor. Bare in mind IRM's Tara wagons were €40 each and they were large bogie wagons with the added cost of large detailed bodies, kinematic coupling bars, bogies, four sets of wheels, etc, and the fertiliser wagons were €50 each. Will watch with interest. Like the idea of the ranks.

PS: Was never sure about the compromises needed for future 21mm conversion of RTR models. Most modellers will remain 00 narrow gauge 16.5mm, unfortunately stock can look awful when wheels are far inset away from brake shoes and chassis sides. It's a conundrum. One day I'd love the idea a short 21mm gauge diorama shunting layout for a single converted body GM and a few 2 axle goods wagons. Classic 2 axle stock should sell in volume at the right price point. The open wagons would make nice long rakes as well as in mixed goods formations.

Wow. Interesting initiative. The flying snail era open wagon really caught my eye. Some grey livery flying snail era (ex-GSR) would also look great on the layout (love the faded GS logo on the CAD image above).

I'll need a vaccination now

I have one of those on Richie's recommendation and it works a treat, I use the medium sized cup. Bartsharp are keen on price and good on spare parts. Worth giving Alison a call.

Yes agree, I was playing trains the other evening shunting with B141 and B121 across Peco insulfrog points at a crawl and was so impressed at the continuity with only 4 axles, not a jerk nor hesitation, just smoothly methodically progressed at constant speed over the point work section. (Patrick said) MIR A class? Looking forward to the IRM A class in due course.

Great Result

Interesting. Most of the sound files (ie prime movers) are already available for EMD 645 and 567 engines on ESU's public web site, LokProgrammer might still be an option for those with an adventurous streak and prepared for the steep learning curve. Folks like Graham have already done their own 141 and 181 projects.

Yea the reason for that is only the ESU chips commissioned by MM will actually fit in the restricted space within the 121 body shell. Off the shelf ESU decoders apparently will not physically fit. This is in part caused by squeezing in all the gubbins MM designed into the 121 bodyshell, especially the see through grills, flywheels, PCB and speaker, etc. MM has managed to squeeze an awful lot into a limited space, so no room for a big lump of a 21pin decoder. The sound files will in time be published on the ESU library, so anybody who likes to roll their own with a LokProgrammer should still be able to do so as long as its with the MM commissioned compact ESU decoders.