Junctionmad

The other interesting might have been , was the proposed replacement of Dublin port by a new deep water port of the coast near drogheda , which wax to have included significant rail access

I don't beleive the Rpa has any role in heavy rail ?

I'd love to agree with you here. Firstly UK rail freight s benefitting from the economies and dynamism behind freight operating companies. Secondly consumer freight is return to UK rail In Ireland the 2013 rail review effectively abandoned freight and cast serious doubt on whether iE could now Marshall significant resources to actually operate any serious freight. 071 are refurbished because ir needs tbunderbirds and pw engines. Then they have recently announced track charges of 9.6 euros per kgtm, 4-5 times European ( and UK ) prices , how's that a commitment to rail freight or even leased freight trains which the fee weeky liners are. I'm a passionate believer in rail freight , I see no evidence at all that IR has any interest whatsoever in revving it., sadly

To bring it up to date. Imagine if cie /ir had got the money to electrify the main lines. Now that would have been interesting

I shall accept my chastisement and do penance by filing a crossing vee

or this one, this is amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJw0UG1rXy0&spfreload=10 now this might make sense

no , he's the son operating a model railway is not about just driving trains , its about " operating " a railway theres a nice video of a guy that built a Cab stand DCC controller from a DCC throttle , that was quite nice

no signals, focus on driving trains, etc etc , why would anyone want to build something like that.

Im looking at this pic and wishing I had the Mk2D to travel in , last week instead of the 29K. The 29K reminded me of the old bray service with leaky parkroyals and laminates

yeah , next trip scheduled for 2020. recovery should be complete by then. I looked up timetabled times for that trip in the 50s . Things are not looking up. a read of the 2013 strategic rail review, has done nothing for my confidence

yawn, driving trains US style,

IE takes 2 hours to cover 60 miles to Gorey, I think that could be bettered , 2 hours is hardly a " short hop" IN fact the mk2 and mk3 stock that is refurbed on Uk railways, is some of THE most comfortable stock ever made. way better then 22K for example. ( quieter too). Passagner number are up in the Uk, due to increased service, faster trains etc. Rail freight is resurgent , while it has in effect totally disappeared from the rail network here Add to that an operating company that last year , essentially completely ran out of money Things are not looking up

I remember it being mentioned to me that one of the uses of the southern track connection between platform 4 ( water ford ) and platform 3 ( cork ) at limerick junction , was to connect up a P&T/mail wagon from the limerick waterford train to the cork one. That would mean it was after the heating /guards. any comments ?

definitely one for the " prototype for everything " box

all we need now is a supply of park royals and laminates and mix all them up in a rake . lovely jubly

Theres is a reasonable supply of good quality motor bogies from various suppliers, some obviously quite pricey. They dont necessarily need to be centre drive of course thats just one way of doing it hmm the next 40 might be a challenge though :banana:

So are you saying you'd forego a particular model , because it had some deficiencies , in a vain hope that a some point a better one would appear, how many years would you wait, 5, 10 , 2, if you had access to a reasonable 3D model of a 121, would you forego buying it , in the forlorn hope that MM might release one in this century , I think not Noel, Ive seen your stock !! personally if I want a model, Ill take the best I can get at the time, I'm too old to wait

Clearly that in itself will be the biggest motivator to do something, However as before, I believe its the trade carrying the stock not MM

If anything Noel, the state is " carrying" the railways more then it was in the 60s. Successive ministers of Transport from Nationalisement forward promised CIE would " break even " etc. ITs only really recently that the notion of continuous social subsidy has taken hold in the form of the PSO. the problem that the UK solved, is that in the UK, subsidy is now clearly seen as primary infrastructure investment and then secondly PSO type support for non profitable routes. There is a clear incentive for Network rail to justify track and infrastructure upgrades as this reduces its fines from the TOCs. equally the TOCs are heavily incentivised to ensure timely running etc. In Ireland , the block support for CIE encourages neither, in fact it does damage ,as CIE chases high profile public projects ( dart interconnector) and leaves simple interim improvements to fall by the wayside ( Park tunnel, non mail line speed improvements , new freight etc ) there is simply no reason for CIE to grow, as growth means it needs more money and consumes up resources

I think, Noel, and you have pointed this out before , there was a build up of latent demand for good irish stock of all types. When the 141 etc appeared, there seemingly was a rush to buy multiple units way in excess of what was needed on the layout. This was partly a desire to " capture " the market by " collectors " who thought that these would be " worth a fortune " in years to come. In reality many layouts dont need more then 3 or 4 of any type of loco and many need just one or two. This purchase activity was clearly not replayed for 071, 201 or other releases in the same way The fact is that outside of the 141 ( and these are still available ) there is reasonable stock of MM around the trade m you can walk in and get 071,201, cravens, MK2d etc will little difficulty, even if you cant get an exact livery ( livery is really irrelevant anyway , as if you really want it, you can have it resprayed) Therefor it clear there isn't a bottomless pit of demand, especially as prices have risen significantly, its one thing paying 80 euros, but at 200-250 or more for locos, thats an awful lot of dough flying around on the PECO. This is before you've added carriages and wagons , again at expensive prices, you could easily have 10K tied up in stock. Thats not mass market

MM is in a difficult position, If you publicly acknowledge an issue then you confirm its existence to your potential customer base. You then come under pressure to seek to resolve the issue. Such resolution may be financially difficult to do and may in fact be impossible to do anything about. Now you haver a public dispute If you remain in private, you may either dealt with " those that shout loudest" etc , or in fact do nothing. IN reality this is a captive market, what else are you going to buy if you want Mk2ds. The colour argument is nonsense anyway, if you cant live with it, factor in the cost of a professional respray. Now its just €100 to get a mk2d etc etc window placements etc are another issue all together, as are quality of build etc . ( some of which can be fixed) as I say its not like were spoiled for choice

yes kid with about €300 to spend , mind you to accurately model the prototype would then only require , about two points, a signal and lots of heaps of model ballast .. hmmmmm given that the " kids" are not major customers in this hobby anymore, I suspect the 22K would have a very limited audience

Yes but that argument also applied in the 60s , 70s , 80s , 90s etc. But UK railways have dramatically upped their game. Im not suggesting that an identical system would work here ( mind you Id argue the toss). But its clear the current one simply is leading to a lowest common demoninator railway, a " race to the bottom" so to speak. So do you continue or do you change ?

" Yet" maybe . all companies balance complaints against response , if the clamour gets enough a response will be made, if the clamour isn't enough, well its not real in the first place is it. what MM can actually do of course is entirely a different issue.