Noel

I only visited Monck place a few times when I was working nearby many years ago, a real Aladdin's treasure cave.

The quality and nature of the model I meant Pure Gold, class.

Pure gold

Yes that old line is the way I remember visiting grandparents in Galway, and moate for cousins. Galway trains back then departed either Westland row or Amiens street and went via Mullingar. Athlone original MGWR station was a rail metropolis. On some trains you had to sit in the correct carriage as trains were often split at Mullingar one bound for Galway, the other for Sligo. It would have been great to see those lines used nowadays to bring more commuters into dublin area. It won’t even make a popular greenway as unlike waterford and Westport it’s through flat countryside with little scenic views at bicycle level and vegetation was allowed grow into vast hedgerows blocking any limited views anyway after the end of steam. I have vivid memories of moate, going with my uncle to collect agri supplies from the once busy station. Yes one day 22k trams may be seen through nostalgic eyes, but I suspect they won’t burn themselves into the memory as much as the hi-pitched GMs notching and bucking along the clackety clack rails, through busy midland stations alive with daily goods traffic, powerful horns sounding, buffer clashes, coupling snatches, or the sheer excitement of walking the length of a passenger train jumping over the noisy carriage corridor connectors with the gaps in the floor showing sleepers flying bye, wobbling connectors, and massive rope hand rails, often when the train passed over point work increasing the urgency to quickly pass through making a cacophony of rail clatter, banging and flange screeching. Travelling on trains back then was an adventure and an assault on the senses, with much interesting activity and movements to watch the a train stopped for a while in each on route station. All manner of interesting and varied goods wagons loaded with produce. These noises combined with the visual stimulus is something I’m grateful I experienced growing up. Swishing down to cork in city gold in a quiet air conditioned coach on CWR doesn’t feel quite the same. No open windows, no clackety clack, nowadays toilets that almost need a smartphone app just to flush. RPSI specials with craven coaches is the closest I’ve gotten since then, but alas those modern cravens were relatively boring compared to the older park royals and laminate carriages. Cravens were the beginning of the end as they heralded the dawn of uniform rakes, and mk2 aircon from 1972 was the death knell, albeit more comfy as a passenger.

Yes I know what you mean. For me personally it was about 1974 when Irish railways ceased to be interesting and the destruction started. An infestation of . . . . bla bla bla, you know the drill. Agree about the ferts and also the bubbles. I have no living memory of some of the modern stuff, and certainly never ever saw anything in defaced yellow

Yes I might run them with a brake van as a means of bending light and altering time. Modern stuff like this is so good it could almost make you time travel forward 20 years.

These are growing on me big time.

Weathered some of these today. Had to scrub my hands afterwards even more than a CV19 wash, having handled such modernity There is no doubt these are stunning wagons.No airbrush was harmed on these two 20ft CIE containers. What's inside them, A class models smuggled out of china?

About two years ago I started experimenting with some German online model sites and amazon.de, in anticipation of possible brexit issues and also because for certain items the euro price in Germany is generally better than UK online retailers, however buying in EU land in the past had generally meant significantly higher postage costs than UK which can negate the lower prices, but the sands seem to be shifting in that respect. For example, last Tuesday I ordered some ESU hardware from ModdleBahnShop-Lippe and it arrived here this morning by UPS, shipping cost was only €3.90. Once you switch to english language on these sites they are as easy to use as UK ones, and you don't get hammered with currency conversion rip offs. Could it be bye bye UK, hello Germany? So far Hattons remain an exception in the uk mainly due to their aggressive pricing and low postage costs, but there is still the currency conversion cost. Since about 2017 I've ordered most of my DCC gear, decoders, etc, direct from Germany. Pricing and delivery so far has proven good. I also use Marks Models locally for online purchases of modelling hardware, MM rolling stock, etc. Marks do a good service but shipping can be expensive if buying just one or two small inexpensive items. ID models online store in Kilcoole ship post free in Ireland and carry a decent range of model paints and tools, etc. ID have a very fast turnaround. I've ordered Tamiya paints that arrived the following day.

These new rolling stock items about to be released into traffic after ageing process. CV19 seems like only yesterday, hard to believe it was 10 years ago. 10 CIE wagons in total.

Fabulous. I nearly fell off my perch when I saw this wagon. Superb build.

In the old days steam days in Heuston there was a loco release road between platform 4 and 5 (ie 3rd track), which ended up being used just for coach stabling until it was removed about 17 years ago. P4 & P5 were arrivals, loco detached ran ahead a little then revised into the central loco release road. In the diesel era, sometimes the arriving loco might uncouple, and another loco take over at the other end of the train for next departure, or shunt the rake out of the platform for servicing, washing, etc. Pushing the rake back into P2 or P3 for departures.

I finally got around to weathering one of the IRM Ballast wagons. Don't know why it took so long as these were the first IRM wagons I got back 2 or 3 years ago when they first hit the market? Perhaps it was because the natural colour of the ballast wagon model doesn't scream 'I need to be weathered'. Even more impressed with these original wagons. Real beauts. One done, 11 more to do. Have to handle with care there are so many super detailed parts on these. It took a while. No airbrush was harmed doing these. The load also got a little wash.

Thanks for posting Jonathan thats fantastic to see.

Apologies but I don't see what is 'belittling' about the above post. It's a simple observation, the game has moved on, the bar has been raised, what modellers were content with 10-20 years ago doesn't quite cut the mustard these days. Yes I get all that about the old days when Irish rolling stock was not available, but it is now. BY way of illustration, SF resin A classes have been superseded by IRM A class, MIR 121/141/071 resin kits were superseded by Murphy Models, IFM Ballast wagons and bubbles were superseded by vastly superior IRM wagons. There was a lot of resin in the old days, but things have moved on. The 'cottage industry' manufacturers were of their time and had their day fulfilling a niche demand back then. Some fab stuff was built by very skilled modellers, even bags of white metal Q-kits. Why is it some sort of modellers blasphemy to dare to suggest or request IRM start to produce stuff that was previously the preserve of only cottage kits suppliers? Most in the market don't want kits anymore, many don't have the time to skill up or interest, they want to open a box and run a quality model that both looks stunningly detailed and runs prototypically like a swiss watch. Open beet wagons and CIE vans seem a gaping hole in to days RTR market, just expressing a wish to see an RTR version of same from IRM. That's not a slight on kit vendors, just a customer request for obvious reasons. People used to make their own cloths in the old days, now everything is off the peg and higher quality. That's not belittling people who used to knit their own stuff many decades ago. Time has moved on.

Yes yes I know about the kits but to have RTR from (drum roll) IRM with their standard for precision scale and innovation with be incredible. Not everybody wants to build kits, or not all of the time. IRM might not exist if there hadn't been a market demand for fine scale RTR. Much of what IRM have produced so far had previously been available as kits before they entered the market and 'blew the bloody doors off' setting new standards for scale precision and levels of detail we had not seen before. That standard and level of quality could never be bettered by any expensive resin or brass kits. Quality RTR CIE open bulleids and vans should sell like hot cakes braking all sales records. The A class may have seemed unlikely 5 years ago but here we are, anything is possible.

Yea looks very like an AEC intermediate coach

Come on guys we need an RTR version of these to IRM's supreme standard. And while you'r at it please rustle up a few vans as well. Enough of this yellow stuff and bogies. In polite jest, but it would be amazing to have IRM versions of these wagons that dominated every corner of Ireland's railways for decades. (C) Photo from Steve Rabone's site http://steverabone.com/RailwayPhotographs/ireland_1984.htm . . . something to look forward to for next year when all this 42ft stuff is completed. And CV19 starts to become a mere memory.

Made a start on these this afternoon. Managed to get the shine off them. Some touching up still to so.

Nice job. Are they no 5's?

I may put my rake up for sale once I've finished weathering them.

As per IRM's recommendation I super glued my couplings to the underside of the NEM pockets on Ballast and Bubble wagons, which gives perfect height for interoperability with other correct NEM stock. The Ballast wagons have a common chassis with the cement bubbles and the ballast plough vans, but this fix works for all. It may be useful also for users of 'Hunt' magnetic couplings. In the pics below I used No 18s. The recommended IRM fix applied below. The effect of closer coupling on the length of a rake

Reasonably content the way these got a little aged and dirty Next up during the week will be to have a go at these CIE containers. Just sprayed them with matt varnish which has taken the bright shine off them in prep for weathering next week.

Once they were re-engined they proved reliable little locos. I really like them and the baby GMs because they are short and therefore fit well on a layout looking plausible hauling small amounts of rolling stock, or just a few 2 axle wagons and a brake van.

I have ten of those Lima CIE Br Mk1 coaches