GSR 800

12 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

Could be - further research needed on THAT one!

Like I mentioned before - COULD be the colour slide. There is absolutely no mention that I am aware of in IRRS journals of a 101 in the dark green, but even the IRRS Journal (the "paper of record"?) had the odd error or omission in it.

fairly certain that is the lighter green, having looked at a great deal of the CIE green locos I'm convinced there was some level of lack of uniformity, though a deal of it is down to the photos themselves, lighting, fading etc

42 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

I might add - while the “A” & “C” classes might or might not have the waist lining, I don’t think any B101s did.

1 minute ago, jhb171achill said:

Just to show the green…. I know I’ve posted before…..

 

Dark and post-1955 light

the latter pic does a good job of showing how hard the light green is to pin down, with the loco and coach barely in shot looking a great deal for vibrant than the other, which has been faded slightly.

Theres the scaling effect of it all for us at 00 gauge too..

55 minutes ago, Bumble_Bee said:

Roof held on by magnets, body held on by screws instead of dodgy clips that break after one removal... bliss! 

 

Body removal/servicing is one of the biggest reasons I hate diesel models because I always end up breaking them haha. This on the other hand, looks totally eejit proof! Thank you!  

 

Related to that, do the bogies come out for easy maintenance too?  

Also to echo the comments above, my mouse cursor has been hovering above the 'pre-order' button on a few more of these over the last few days but I'm staying strong! 

Can't remember what number I ordered already but it was one of the late day-glo versions. I am sorely tempted to get one of the early liveries too, either that gorgeous silver or the green... having two similar but not identical locos running on my heritage layout would be pretty cool...

 

..no..NO! I'm away to have a cold shower!  

I'll be taking my one in black and tan and throw my wallet as far away as possible where its safer..

Good to hear easy roof removal and no fear of breaking clips or the likes, even many steamers are such an arse to get the body off, setting a precedent for high quality in every aspect means rest assured even if the wallets are empty its money well spent.

17 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

I'm with ya. I ended up ordering four!

We need therapy.

35 minutes ago, DJ Dangerous said:

I took a very different stand on that...

Ordering them WAS my therapy.

Never fight your therapy.

Aye retail therapy...

1 hour ago, jhb171achill said:

My grandfather (1879-1951) started building this (live steam) model in the 1910s. He never got it finished. Too busy working on boiler drawings in Inchicore Works!

I think it was intended to be a 60-class 4.4.0. I believe that at some stage he was working on improvements to these locos.

Sound familiar? How many of us never manage to get a model finished!

 

An outside cylindered version?

8 hours ago, BosKonay said:

It doesn't get much better than this..the attention to detail is just next level.

10 hours ago, Michael Nolan said:

Very Disappointed in todays announcement after such a long delay all  we are offered is a re-jig of the old models. Not good enough.

Ah here would you ever come off it, we might as well being seeing the start of a golden age in irish railway modelling, both with the lads here at IRM, the advancment of 3D printing and kits from the likes of JM, SSM, Provincial and many others. Of course theres a loco or coach or piece of rolling stock we'd all like to see announced at some stage, but so far we've been spoiled sideways with new releases, not to mention the A's within grasp, feck all to complain about, especially considering the limitations of the pandemic. 

Not good enough my arse.

32 minutes ago, leslie10646 said:

Yes, the OHLE makes "photography" tricky, hence all these videos at stations. Just lovely to hear the Bulleid "chatter" as she went by. When Jarvis rebuilt them, the one thing I think he didn't touch was the brilliant Bulleid boiler - a pal of mine maintained that any fool could make a Bulleid steam!

Now, how much would it cost to regauge one? Noel, Rob and Ken would make one of these fly!

Well Bulleid was over here...Light Pacifics instead of Turf Burners?

The Rebuilt Bulleid Pacifics have been growing on me as of late, good few videos of them starting trains at Waterloo, slipping fiercely of course!

Great to see Clan Line at speed.

1 hour ago, Irishswissernie said:

This was the Wasp livery at 2638 Limerick Junction

 

2660 at Albert Quay 1960. Was this a rebuilt crash repair?

The latter was one of the unusual Bulleid built types, looked very box like

2 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

What do you suggest instead?

170 is far from perfect, has the opposite problem but with a bit of surgery would do the job.

Maybe if you get the same shovel the Silverfox A's got a belt with, otherwise the nose is a long way off

1 hour ago, DJ Dangerous said:

Ah, he's alright.

He has a nice voice for narration, and his videos are aimed at teens and pre-teens who are saving their pocket money each week for a new Hornby loco every few months...

Not exactly the same target group as MM and IRM!

Sure look, saves us all a few bob finding out which locos are useless.

What we need is a Niall Toibin type doing model Irish loco reviews, going off on occasional tangents telling stories with an aul joke at the end...what was that one about Carrauntoohil and the American..

1 hour ago, Galteemore said:

In the world of 7mm small suppliers, that is a warp speed change! It’s good to see Roger taking steps in this direction - he’s a great friend to Irish modelling. 

Probably the largest boost to Irish 7mm modelling I've seen in my (short!) time, makes it an order of magnitude more accessible.

Some of you may be aware of Graeme King, provides LNER resin body kits, modifications and details.

Well documented examples of what can be achieved here 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/10588-thompson-a11-from-a-gresley-a1/

https://www.lner.info/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2443

The main question for anyone who would even consider a similar job for the irish market would be..is there a market?

Lots of irish locos with common boilers, smokeboxes etc, especially when it comes to the GSR/CIE era and 'Inchicorisation' 

Next question is of course, donors, and I think this is the big stick. Lack of anything irish outside the Woolwiches and NCC types means both the whole niche hinges on conversions from British types, doable, but not a perfect science. Worth the money if some of the more common Irish steamers come around in RTR in the next decade or two? To what extent are people willing to pay, not only for a loco that could cost 100-150 euro plus the resin body or mod kit on top? If it gets into the price range of brass kits sounds increasingly like a waste of money for something that still won't be 'perfect'. 

Conversion kits for the Woolwiches could be a start, pretty much just replacing out the smokebox for an inchicore one? Flip side, N class isn't a great model, especially if you're unlucky enough to come across one with dreaded mazac rot...

I do think even looking ahead 20 years, there will be a lot of vaguer irish steamers that will be unlikely to ever get an RTR run.

Food for thought rather than anything serious.

36 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

Sheer size of the drivers is also an issue - 6’8” !! Even bigger than an 800 class ....although to be quite honest I think stripping off the air pump, adding a smoke box door wheel, flying snail on the tender and lots of weathering, and she would look very passable indeed as a ‘generic’ Irish type 4-4-0. 

301s had 6'7, same as the 800s, so difference isn't that significant.

26 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

The lower picture is the correct livery; upper one not, by the way. (Just in case anyone is modelling a BNCR or MR (NCC) locomotive.

While "Midland red" was the way of things in Brexitland, the ex-BNCR retained the dark green, until LMS NCC days.

Correct. There was never a full train of them. One each on the up and won day mails to / from Cork and Galway. They were never used elsewhere, expect perhaps as a one-off of some sort long after they were no longer pullmans.

And yes, they ended their days in the dark green, but with lining as above.

Made it as far as Limerick too no?

Cultra has definitely made some bizarre decisions on livery, slapping G S on Maedbh after CIE had just repainted her in the Dark CIE green is just one!

22 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

Anyine got photos of the irish pullmans? Ive only seen 2. One in an arial shot of cork in the 30s and one in a siding left abandoned. They were in a green livery that looked interesting. They would certainly be something enough people would be interested in

One can see that they were the "matchstick" variant.

I believe there was usually only one in a train, at least by CIE days. Theres a photo of 102 withdrawn in a siding at Naas in 1959 in Irish Railways in Colour, still in the older dark green and eu de nil livery, which may be what you are referring to. JB would probably know if any of the three got as far as the light green, I'd doubt it myself.

Good thread on them here 

39 minutes ago, minister_for_hardship said:

If we did new builds and turntables here, ideally you would need a decent go most places 4-6-0 or Woolworth, that can be trusted not to hold up services for the normals on the modern network and haul plenty bums on seats. 

A new build MGWR loco or one of those crimson WLWR yokes slathered in copper and brass would be a fine sight, but without any kind of a decent distance go-somewhere-to-somewhere-else private preserved line, theres not much call for things like that.

 

With an NCC mogul under construction, it's clear the way to go for any kind of new build would be mid size, with commonality of parts between other in use preserved locomotives. Very clear from the RPSI site the primary reason to go ahead with it at all was commonality of parts.

The problem for anything new build outside of the GNR and NCC origin stuff is there's nothing in service to standardise to, unless 461 has a common boiler, cylinders and other fittings to other GSR types? Good thing about a Woolwich would be it has cousins across the way.

Getting a bit ahead of ourselves, but tis only speculation!

23 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

True - hence my occasional suggestions of 4 or 171....

S class definitely, well known, good looking locomotives with attractive liveries and a preserved example.

J15s are a good bet too.

7 minutes ago, connollystn said:

It's a pity there were no 4-6-0s preserved by the RPSI. I've been wading through Irishswissernie's massive photographic collection and there were some impressive locomotives. It's a tad depressing to see what we've lost.

Cost would be immense, 400s travel availablility wouldn't be much better than the 800s, iirc Clements mentioned issues regarding frame strength. Would be a nightmare in terms of fueling costs, and creeping up well past the ton in years.

500s would've been a better bet but still would be very expensive. Seemingly all withdrawn relatively early (mid 50s) wheras some 400s lingered on.

GSR 4-4-0s are the biggest miss, along with the Bandon tank.

Alas I won't cry over spilled milk.

27 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

I think the only way to do RTR steam is the likes of 00 Works small batches.

 

Outside the famous, preserved types, 800, V class, S class, J15s, perhaps the (nearly preserved) Bandons, I'd be inclined to agree.

Too much in the way of diversity in classes, too little notoriety, many more famous examples (850, Sambo) are one offs.

Even for something like the 400s, mainline steam with decent numbers, I feel there would be a real need to get the locomotives promoted to be somewhat more in 'public' knowledge before ever going down the RTR track. Preserved locos have an automatic advantage in that regard, not to mention can get away with pulling more modern stock, even have the RPSI set to haul.

2 minutes ago, murrayec said:

Have to agree there on brass kits!

I would recommend kits from Studio Scale Models- J15, Bandon Tank, Maebh and Merlin are all available in full kit form including the chassis and can be built to 21mm if required.

Eoin

 

Agreed, all high quality kits!

DItto with JM models, similar allowance for 21mm.

22 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

Another thing is 21mm conversion. A small few of our number use 21mm gauge. It’s easier to re-gauge a diesel than most steam!

Imagine the work in re-gauging a 400 or an 800.....

brass kit or scratchbuild is easier at that stage

Well the question is what has the most suitable chassis you can pull off, lot harder to cut and shut a steam locomotive(!) but realistically unless you've got serious kit or access to serious kit (ala Kirley making the BCDR Baltic) there aren't many suitable chassis to fit an irish prototype, so any kit will be limited by that.

that said, Jeeps are probably up there, maybe the ncc moguls too, could they fit under some Crab chassis?

800s, maybe 400s and 500s could be lobbed under royal scot, n15 and s15 class, J15s under deans good and likely many other 0-6-0 types, V class under compound chassis. Problems arise in that they would have to be designed around the doners, could effect accuracy.

The issue is in many of these cases there are already brass kits available, in many cases you can build off the donar body and get a decent result, and if (dare I say when..) something like a full rtr 800 or J15 comes about these things will simply get blown out of the water.

market could be there for more obscure types. As I've said before, I think it's unlikely many of the GSR 4-4-0s will see any rtr for a long time, 4-4-0 chassis are usually quite basic, kit builds usually being difficult due to balancing. Hard not to see how it wouldn't be a niche in a niche though.