GSR 800

Excellent work as always Killian.

 I am a great believer in the potential for 3d printing, especially for the Irish steam scene. The great challenge for RTR Irish Steam is the sheer variety of classes and variants. This example illustrates the possibilities of bringing these to life and taking full advantage of the ever-widening range of Irish RTR rolling stock coming online. Killian's excellent work shows the level of detail that can be achieved.

8 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Fascinating stuff.

The clip of the railway wagons, going by the NCC lettering style, is late 1920s, even up to mid 30s. The GNR vans in particular look very “modern” for this era.

I know virtually nothing about things that float rather than run on rails, so I can’t suggest whether the maritime clips are the same age.

Looks like a lot of the WW1 mass-built tramp steamers, there's a sail vessel there, and the cross channel steamers look to be of 1890s-early 1900s vintage. I would say this is the early 1920s. The 'Melmore head' freighter picked out in the footage was built in 1918, and sunk by a uboat in 1942, so its definitely interwar.

If I can pin down the liner in drydock can probably have a near exact date

19 minutes ago, IrishTrainScenes said:

Sorry, This is just information I have that I either was informed of or observed for myself.

 

During the autumn or winter months there tends to be a period of non stop failures, and that can happen for up to 2 weeks.

 

I will send an updated version tomorrow.

during leaf fall early morning (and possibly late night idk) Enterprises are subbed by ICRs. 

They are also preferred for winter, as if a loco engine decides its not going to cooperate with cold weather its the train out of action. On an ICR (or any DMU railcar) it has a large degree of redundancy so usually isn't an issue, or can at least limp to terminus. 

2 hours ago, commerlad said:

Kit Built OO Gauge County donegal railway joint Committee | eBay

 

Do not know who the seller is trying to kid here.

I sent a message to tell him and got a snotty reply saying he knows what it is!

 

Just wish he would tell the rest of us then.

Some horrible lab experiment hybrid jinty USA tank gone wrong?

31 minutes ago, Horsetan said:

Given the changes to TwiX since Elon Musk took over and decided to mess with the settings, there is no longer any visible feed on the board.

Is it time to unplug and save some resources?

Works fine for me 

2 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

 

If cork is getting 29s then the re-flooring and intirior has to be almost gutted! 
 

Long live the mark 4s. There not perfect but there my favourite! 

AFAIK seats on 29ks aren't being replaced, "all" that's being done is floors, cleaning and replacing graffitied seat backs

51 minutes ago, 226 Abhann na Suire said:

Ahh ok, it’s a slight. shame, but I suppose the MkIV’s are definitely still very comfortable and they’re probably right not to, money could be spent elsewhere like refurbishing the 29k’s 

29k reflooring is currently underway. 

13 hours ago, 226 Abhann na Suire said:

Irish Rail announced today that they’re refurbishing the CityGold carriages on their MkIV sets. Looking very well I have to say but I presume that a similar upgrade - better lighting, wireless charging, more sockets and leather seat covers - is going to befall the standard class coaches too…? Anyone heard anything?

Upgrading is always good, IIRC there are no plans to replace the Mark 4s in the near future. I imagine if they are it will be with DEMUs rather than 22ks. I am unsure about the cream colour scheme, new carpeting for the floors would have refreshed the carriages significantly.

On 20/2/2024 at 9:35 PM, DERAILED said:

According to IE's latest Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/iarnrodeireann

Inter-city trains are to become even ridiculous - see image. Hot on the heels of this comes more speculation about terminating Rosslare trains at Wicklow or Greystones....and it's not even April 1st.

https://m.independent.ie/regionals/wexford/news/works-to-help-improve-rosslare-to-dublin-railway-service-are-ongoing/a2134218808.html

 

Nothing ridiculous about it. Badly needed additional bike space + standing room, and likely to be added to consists so another car per train.

6 hours ago, Louth said:

When I heard of Irish government investment in cross-border infrastructure, I really expected a major upgrade of the Dublin-Belfast rail line. €50 mil for Casement Park and a paltry €12.5 mil for the rail service, not to mention the €600 mil for the A5 road. Metrolink will cost €9.5 billion with a connection to the Irish Rail system at Tara St and Drumcondra only. No joined-up thinking there. It all just doesn't make sense.

Connolly is going to be at capacity with accelerated Enterprise timetable and Dart +, and Tara Street allows one to travel to Connolly or Pearse within 5-10 minutes in either direction. Link to Drumcondra allows access to services on Cork mainline (hopefully the station at Heuston platform 10 will be completed to facilitate a more cohesive overall network)

The sum for the enterprise is quite low, I suspect that may be in part due to any more significant investment in Enterprise services to come when the 201s + DDs are replaced with tri-mode sets. Whatever to be said about the complexity of the Dart + and the power transfer from overheads to batteries, I'm sure a tri-mode will cause no hassle at all....

13 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

If they took the amplifiers out of them, and cleared out 20 years of litter, maybe they'd be OK..............

that is being done, one at a time...

29 minutes ago, irishrailways52 said:

true capital of ireland 

just wondering why so many people hate the 29000s

Noisy old yokes, floors are so bad they are being replaced

7 hours ago, Westcorkrailway said:

It’s what we get for calling the 29000 rubbish!!!

You'll have no shortage of them once the Dart + are up and running

13 hours ago, Darrman said:

https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2024/0124/1428430-dart-airport/

A bit of an old report, but this has the Irish Rail CEO suggesting it could be done in about five years. He also did not cost it, nor is it funded. The closest to a detail you can get is him suggesting going over the M1.

While I think having an airport link is important, I am under no illusion that it will be built - nor do I have any faith in the Dublin Metro being built either. Pretending it will be built for a moment, I'd say the service should either be direct to Connolly or maybe allow a stop at Clongriffin for people to change onto locals. Of course, there's only so much capacity on the line and it's jammed enough as is. Divert them to the new Docklands station when/if that's built to relieve Connolly? Won't fix Enterprise traffic jams without extra tracks, which would require a lot of construction in its own right. A nice idea, but would need a lot of work to do correctly.

Good excuse to quad track out to Drogheda, which they will need to do anyway whether they want to or not.

46 minutes ago, dave182 said:

I was looking at some images of the traversers at Inchicore Works, specifically the longer one at the carriage shops, and that got me wondering if Inchicore had anything like a small roadrailer or locotractor for moving coaches and locos in and out of the sheds onto the traverser? Specifically in the 80s and 90s time period. Anyone can shed some light on this? 

On another thread on this forum, member @Niles mentions there is a Zephir LOK 1400 at Inchicore. This might be a more recent addition. 

shunting on and off traversers is done with a forklift with a coupling attachment these days. Dunno about 80s and 90s

10 hours ago, Mayner said:

My comments were based on my experiences living and working in Ireland, Great Britain and New Zealand. Since the 60s the Irish Government has been very astute in setting up conditions (tax breaks, education system and IDA) to attract inward overseas investment which has been good for the country, the downside is that it earned Ireland the reputation of being a tax haven and unfair competition.

Living in Scotland during the 90s there was a belief that Scottish Enterprise was wasting their time in attempting to compete with the IDA to attract new industry, although the NZ Government considered setting up a financial service sector during the 2100s providing similar tax breaks to Ireland was considered politically unacceptable and potentially damaging to international relations.

Working in the construction sector Irish Government's policies of mortgage interest relief, home buyers grants and tax breaks to developers contributed directly to todays problems with housing affordability and high construction costs in Ireland. The ending of price control (Certificate of Reasonable Value) and the introduction of 1st time buyer grants during the 70s lead to a shift from building what we now term 'affordable homes" (3 bed terrace) to larger more expensive homes, the builders simply pocketed the £1000 1st time buyer grant (7% cost avg new home 1976) by increasing the price by £1000 and pocketing subsequent increases as the grant was increased to £4,000. The company I worked for shifted from building £14,000 to slightly smaller nos or £48,000 houses in 3 years as grants and increasing rates of mortgage relief came into effect.

Developer tax breaks introduced from the late 80s onwards became were more insidious as already viable developments did not take place without a tax break, investors withdrawing their stake once they received their tax break potentially leaving the business with insufficient working capital to continue operation. I built a 150 bedroom hotel in a prominent Dublin location under one of these schemes during the late 90s, the Irish owners selling their stake upon completion. 

The Tralee and Blennerville appears to have been built under such a scheme, the original investors apparently able to walk away leaving Tralee Council with the liability of a disused railway when the business ran out of working capital.

Over centralisation with successive Governments stripping Councils of their powers and CIEs monopoly position on surface public transport has not helped to preservation movement. In many Countries Regional and City Councils have responsibility for funding and operating public transport services and have bought and leased closed railway lines to preservation groups and private operators. The position with Youghal or Fenit Branches could have been radically different had Councils powers to acquire and operate closed railway lines.

One of the lightbulb moments after settling in New Zealand was the realising that I was paying roughly the same amount of net tax as I paid in Ireland or the UK without the same deductible expenses (National Insurance, Mortgage Interest, Health Insurance, Pension contributions).

I won't get into sport New Zealander are extremely competitive in all sporting disciplines, though Munster and Ireland both considered a force to be reckoned with and an Honourable Opponent in Rugby Union

I agree with much of this, though one must consider the inflationary impact low-interest rates (along with deregulation) have had on upward pressure on residential property markets and cause overall increased inequality as housing detached rapido from the average income. These are more international trends, certainly in the West. Something I find personally interesting, especially given the current debate regarding agriculture across the EU, is NZs approach which would probably be completely unacceptable but has proven productive for agriculture in NZ.

What I will disagree on is the omission of Leinster and Connaught as a force to be reckoned with in Rugby! 

1 hour ago, Westcorkrailway said:

As my colleague says, Those who say “the Good old days” have never opened a history book. 
 

Perhaps this is why in Ireland the 1960s era layout with Black and Tan ect. Is really the earliest mainstream Irish modelling goes. There is the odd 50s thing and some GSR stuff but generally it starts around the 60s 

 

saw this yoke in my YouTube recommended. The tender is all wrong but what else would have to be changed….splashers? Nameplates?

Smokebox, splashers, cab and cab footplate area would need to be replaced completely, and if the tender is hard-wired in, strip out the wiring in the tender and put it into a six-wheeled version. LMS-type tender would need modification itself. New dome if you're picky.

I've often thought it 'looks' closer to the 800s with the huge boiler, compared to the Royal Scots, but it seems like it'd be an even bigger job converting it

This is simply awful news. Truly a blow to the hobby as a whole.

I've dealt with them countless times, their service has always been above and beyond, with perhaps the most reliable postage and best packaging from any company, alongside IRM.

13 minutes ago, Dempsey said:

Airfix 1/600 HMS Hood model kit for a nice change of pace.

Maybe I'm looking at this through the eyes of the 12 year old I was making the last kit I got from Airfix but I don't remember the being such issues with fitment as you can see.

Here are some pictures of the progress so far.

Your thoughts and comments are as always appreciated. 

Looks excellent so far.

The HMS Hood Association is a very useful resource on paint matching, detail differences, and countless other things useful to modellers. I'm planning on getting myself a Flyhawk 1941 Hood sometime soon, but other projects come first! They usually have specific tips for the different models, such as a the poor fitting problems you mention.

http://www.hmshood.org.uk/hoodtoday/models/airfix/airfix600.htm

My one bit of advice would not be to go 'crazy' on the rust, especially if you intend on modelling her in the 1920s, the crews were kept busy in peacetime keeping her looking well! 

21 minutes ago, David Holman said:

GER J15s are pretty engines, but to my eyes seem a long way from an Irish one. For one thing the dome on the former is well forward, quite close to the chimney, whereas it is well back on a 101. Very different tender outline too, while the loco body shape is likewise very different.

 However, far be it from me to spoil anyone's fun, it's your railway, to do with as you please and a J15 is a very nice model. Nevertheless, an alternative thought might simply to assume one or more somehow found their way to Ireland, after all, several went to France in the Great War and in their long lives they proved themselves to be very useful, go anywhere engines. 

 Feel sure there must be a space in the CIE numbers list for a couple. Meanwhile, such a scenario might also beg the question of what else could have made its way over the water? Ideally, any steam loco with a high footplate and no splashers, probably. Stainer 8F, or any of the Standards?

 Exits, stage left, pursued by a bear...

I've considered Rebuilt Bulleid light pacifics as also being a possible. British loading gauge + 18 ton axle load makes them suitable for all mainline work. (IIRC the loading gauge of the 400s made them unsuitable for the MGWR lines). With tender they were roughly the same length as the 800s. Still I'd imagine turntables would be the bigger gripe with them. 

Standard 5MTs were great, but axle load is near 20 tons, so maybe the standard 4mt 4-6-0 or 2-6-0 would've been a better fit, or perhaps the standard moguls and 2-6-4 tanks. The 'Mickey Mouse' would've been ideal for branch line work but would've been overloaded (as the Woolwiches were) on heavier trains.

With a 'what if' Irish standardisation I think a tint of Bulleid would be great to give uniqueness rather than a copycat of british standardisation. If he had spent more time on standard locos instead of the turf burner we may have ended up with some very interesting designs. 

10 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Best argument for dieselisation I ever heard!

They'd have been more reliable than any Crossley!

I'm quite partial to them.

8 hours ago, Broithe said:

I have one in stock, for that very reason.

I've one myself, but it doesn't have to worry about being "Inchicorised" 

20 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Very much a “two foot rule” thing, but very doable. There are a couple of fairly routine British 0.6.0 tender engines which, with a cost of dark grey paint and a CIE number in the cabside, can look the part.

 

if CIE stuck with Steam we may have ended up with some bulleid Q1s!

49 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

I’ve often had people complain about the gap in Cork and how “the platforms should be built closer to the door of the coach”. It is a little bit more complicated then that. I have heard some modern trains have extensible ramps though….or something like that 

On the Dart + ramps extend from the doors to the platform

1 hour ago, irishrailways52 said:

was passing through Athlone midland recently. seems like they are doing work to the roof on the engine shed. unfortunately the railway has been disconnected from the line. i cycled the greenway about a year ago. a few people use it but more would use a rail system. if you kept a greenway beside the railway people probably would not use the greenway anymore

there is enough land though to quad track you would have to get rid of a lot of the vegetation which residents probably would not like

To Belfast would probably be possible, with some bottlenecks like the Malahide viaduct. AFAIK there's been no mention of quad tracking to Drogheda for Dart +, which makes me seriously wonder how Intercity services are going to manage.

Greenway is a waste of time IMO, and this is someone who's cycled it regularly. Very few trek more than a few miles.

11 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

Saw zebra 231 + 9002 on today; 208 + 9003 yesterday.

208 was with 9001 today. She replaced 227 who had brought the service in from Belfast. 227 will be sent to Inchicore as she's having her bogies removed.

28 minutes ago, Ironroad said:

I hear what you are saying and I don't wish to seem contrary but what I find maddening is the the horribly inept, inefficient and unimaginative use of the network over many decades. Who degraded the MGWR network? Dare I say it was KIngsbridge centric pipe smokers after the formation of the GSWR, succeeded and perpetuated  by a similar ilk in CIE.

Plain and simple if there is congestion on the southern line, that was engineered by CIE/Irish Rail by eliminating alternative routes. Routing trains to Ballina, Westport and  Galway by sending them south is logical ???.  Despite the sabotage of the MGWR network, it should  be relatively inexpensive to restore the double track sections given that the track bed still exists.   I suspect that cost would be a  a lot less than they are lavishing on what should be simple suburban halts- which is a horrible misuse of funds, that does nothing to facilitate the travelling public or fulfil their mandate.

As regards traffic on the line between Dublin and Maynooth, this is  is very light with only 47 trains each way on weekdays. (an average of 23 minutes between trains). So Ballina, Westport and Galway trains would actually improve service to Maynooth. There is a self financing aspect to all of this as money could go into restoring infrastructure rather than additional rolling stock to service Maynooth..

 

 

They'd have to rip up the greenway to get double track back down Mullingar-Galway etc. Definitely not happening with the current crowd in, since the greenway was done under their watch. Any reopening would require serious work. Do you get rid of the Greenway? Leave it running alongside with a big fuck off fence/wall running the whole length of the line?

The biggest thing that can be done rn IMO is double-tracking The Sligo line. Would significantly improve services on the line, putting an end to loop bottlenecks, allowing for more regular services and better timing. The morning commuters and rush hour intercities are usually packed to the gills.