GSR 800

I can only hope the new sets when they come out are reliable and comfortable.

There should be a trolley on one of the 2x3 cars. Usually its the one at the Connolly end of the set.

8.50 is usually NIR CAF, 9.50 and 10.50 are usually loco hauled, 11.50 ICR. Hourly service is really too much to ask from the locos and the DDs, the infrastructure of loco-hauled stock isn't in place anymore. There's no loco to save a train if it sits down say in Dundalk or somewhere nearby, the CAFs aren't designed for such a service. Only the ICRs are a decent substitute, and there's not enough of them to fully substitute.

There's this from a while ago https://www.railjournal.com/rolling-stock/irish-rail-and-northern-ireland-railways-tender-new-enterprise-fleet/ Theres also a tender out to refresh the older stock to hold it over until then. One of the gennys has already been refurbished at Inchicore this year. https://bidstats.uk/tenders/2024/W46/834535596

plenty of 29s going around with new floors

This wagon lark was a big misdirect. Clearly its Bulleids CC1

Protectionism through regulation. Nobody wins. This is bad news for getting supplies for kits and other niche items the British market has managed to serve well for so long.

AFAIK yes to all

Currently looking at rtr possibilities for the A and C mgwr 4-4-0s and there's the significant issue of there basically being nothing with 6'3 drivers or smaller anyway, so it'll need to be an alternative.

As per email, I am in

Pretty bad flooding aye

With a bit of weathering added you could easily get away with the wheel colour IMO. I started here at 13-14. Spent a good bit of my hard-earned part time job money throwing myself into the deep end, got a steep learning curve from the mistakes made along the way. It's all a learning process at the end of the day. What I'd say is before weathering, painting, lining etc a good quality loco, it's good to have some old cheap thing like a bodyshell of an old loco as a testbed.

800 is almost complete. Window frames, name and numberplate added along with the long process of lining. Whistle, Tender chassis and cab interior remain to be finished. Gloss varnish worked nicely to clear the 3d printed window frames. She runs quite nicely on the 6x4 test track, clearing its tight curves with ease. The green paint is from vinny byrnes, RBS381 Mid Brunswick green in gloss. Took a while to find the right match but I think this is pretty much bang on to my eye.

Far from limited to railways https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Puritan_(1864) The US navy took a very liberal approach to 'rebuilds' of some of their ironclads to deal with Congress penny pinching on naval expenditure. Literally built a new battleship, slapped the old nameplates and bell of the old civil war ironclad on it and called it a rebuild

Only if they have lost marys blocking the jacks on their ICRs...