GSR 800

Could expand it to suppliers for motors, wheels, hornblocks, gearboxes, castings etc? Can be a bit of a maze for those looking to get into kit and scratchbuilding.

Jellicoe gets credit where its due, and that is bottling the HSF, Jutland, comms, etc. He kept the German fleet bottled up, denying the Germans access to the sea which is all that matters. At Jutland he performed some of the best coordination ever seen in battle, managing to cross the German T in a perfect firing arc. The problem with his run off to Swilly is the loss of a battleship or two is one thing, possibly allowing the Germans to win the race to the sea is quite another, he opened the bottle he had corked, he was just lucky the HSF didnt notice. And he lost a battleship because he moved to Swilly. My biggest critique is his steadfast opposition to convoys, which were the most effective means of countering the uboats. Eyeing the HSF from across the sea seemed to give him tunnel vision, Britain was in pretty dire straits supply wise when the US joined, as Admiral Sims found to his horror.. To keep this somewhat on topic, and on brand for myself, I always thought had Ireland joined the war the 800s would've gotten some proper mileage in and with better coal. the GNRI V class were beat by the end of the war! Another thing, I've always wondered what the performance of the oil burners during and after the war wars like.

I doubt Berehaven would have been the best spot for a British squadron to be posted due to the deep republicanism in the area. Geographically a squadron of sloops, frigates and destroyers operating from there would have been effective in covering the western approaches. Lough Swilly and Cobh perhaps, but Jellicoe had left the North Sea wide open in the first few months of WW1 running off to Lough Swilly with the entire Grand Fleet while Scapa underwent anti submarine defence improvements. Would have given the High Seas Fleet a good operating window to drive up the channel and blow the pre dreadnought heavy channel fleet out of the water. (Coincidentally the man famous for advocating for utilisation of geographic chokepoints such as between Scotland and Norway and the Channel, A.T Mahan, died in a very similar time period...perhaps Jellicoe's gaff pushed him over the edge...)

Grey and ivory

Theres a lot of railing against social media generally, but I steer well clear of facebook. Nothing to do with any particular groups, just the platform as a whole. Facebook is infamous for poor moderation practices, allowing extremist and conspiracy content to run rampant and selling off data en masse (the Irish regulator has fined them close to a billion over the last 2 years). Although also brought about by the natural 'innovate or decline cycle' of any company, Zuckerberg was pissed enough at Apple allowing users to turn off third party cookies (and killing their profits as a result) that he wants to own the software and hardware for 'internet 3.0' aka the disastrous moneysink known as the metaverse. There's also significant controversy over their 'free basics' internet in developing countries.

Good to know the measuring stick on plastic injection...just have to find a 300 grand handy now. I would've thought a cattle engine brass kit could be a good way to go. What I've noticed from my perusal in American O, HO and N scale is the rtr brass imports, mainly from south korea and japan are hot money. Modern American (injection moulded) rtr having all the bells and whistles, literally, with sound, steam etc...even in dc and n scale. Probably adding another 100 or so in the models price as a result. The brass built locos nonetheless are those sought after, though I must wonder the uh...multiplier effect bachmann has had on that trend, so poor is their reputation in the US that it may have turned many modellers off injection moulded rtr. I suppose RTR brass here seems a mainly foreign concept.

Ah, I'm not on facebook.

site?

Eoin, I saw the small turntables, should've been clearer when I meant a regular TT rather than the mini ones!

Could be very interesting to model indeed. Doesn't even look like theres a proper turntable, I suppose there wasn't a huge need with the majority being tank engines? One may have been installed post OS map, idk either way. If modelling the 60s and 70s, the canal being jam packed full of rubbish seems to be prototypical

I think Irish steam affords itself well to a continuation of kitbuilding and the likes. So many classes of locomotive and rolling stock that an RTR producer couldn't justify producing en masse. The loss of British suppliers is however a significant issue, and would be very difficult to justify replicating for the small Irish market. Locos most likely to 'stick the landing' for RTR would be IMO (in no particular order) J15s 800s J26s B4s Q class S class V class Vs class T class 4-4-2 tank Jeeps NCC Moguls I'm sure I've overlooked a few. 400s could be thrown in there, the issue being of course the dozens upon dozens of variations through their career. May as well throw in the 500s in the same batch if the 400s get done. Outside of possibly their 4-4-0s, I wouldn't be too certain about anything MGWR other than the cattle engines. idk how well the BCDR would do, the Baltics are nice but its a bit niche? SLNCR could see a few prototypes in a decade or so, they've got the charm anyway.. The GNR lends itself very well to RTR, as does the NCC. GSR is a lot more varied though the mainline (800s, 400s and Moguls) aren't too bad either. Main issues I'd see are the variations for the 400s (maybe limit it to CIE days where you've two 'main types' of 400) and the Moguls already having (albeit a severly dated by now) representation in RTR. 500s, idk. In terms of tin vans, solution would probably be to include them in certain larger packs of coaches to ensure they get sold. I'd buy a few tin vans anyway, quite sorry I missed out on yours! They are great for making a short train seem longer, something the six wheelers will add to. Looking to Britain, the famous prototypes get reruns again, and again, and again while locos such as the V4s have yet to have a single RTR model! Only now are many of the older types (pre grouping) being looked at, indicating an increasing interests in even earlier eras. (Though arguably in Britain the bell curve of interest has always begun earlier, with the grouping rather than in Ireland, where it seems firmly starting late 50s-early 60s and peaking 70s-90s)

1950s-1960s is my era and seems to be for many modellers in the younger age group. I started with british steam from hornby. Always liked steam more than diesel, and when I was given the lend of A Second Glance there was no looking back! RPSI tours certainly helped to cement that, having seen 186 and 4 at a young age. I suppose it helps that the modern era is dominated by the 22000s (though I'll almost certainly buy a set) which is far less interesting compared to the 50s and 60s which has such a rich variety of steam and diesel power along with a massive range of rolling stock to consider. I'm partial to the early diesels and enjoy the reliable running of the Murphys and the IRM 141s, 121s and A's but steam remains king, and once IRM is producing rtr steam the bank account will look worse than your man sam bankman fried who lost his entire net worth in a weekend when his ponzi scheme collapsed. Irish locomotive models are a better investment than crypto Sam....

Something about moving over to a new server or something? A significant amount of images were lost in the process which is very unfortunate.

on another forum I'm on, in order to generate upkeep money members can donate if they wish. No ads as a result. Keep in mind said forum has around 80k members, though obviously a great deal fewer active users, but nonetheless twice that of RMweb. I don't find RMweb a terrible hassle on the laptop, dont look at it elsewhere, but I do think it could have been done better. Don't really understand the point of complaining about it here though.

Whenever I've tracked postage, customs duty notices are almost always sent after they've arrived in Ireland so the postage from there should be next day or two. Postage from the EU is usually quite quick, Britain hit or miss. Wonder how the lettuce is doing.

Maybe some T&D? And one of my favourites..

Might as well show us like My own 800 is currently sans chassis, off to the other island for final assembly.

The Bandons 4-6-0 tanks would probably be the most realistic from an RTR perspective, quite famous, handsome, unique, built in decent numbers with some running right up toward the end of steam.

Ah, I thought he was referring to the SSM bandon tank and I was getting mighty confused! Shame about the gear, fiddly carry on changing them out too. For me I've decided I'll wait and see what IRM is producing next year before deciding whether or not to buy the J15.

Other way around?

Maebh only had two liveries unless you include the Cultra addition

Deirdre and Grainne, don't remember anything about Aoife

Guess it went over your head the first time C class would do quite well, natural evolution from the A's B101s I quite like, I'm sure they'd do fine, not sure if they'd sell in great numbers though.

Theres quite a wide variety of possible variants for the 800s, though I think the most likely will be 800, 801, 802 in GSR green 800, 801, 802 in CIE dark green with the later tender (I'm unsure if all three recieved the new tenders, 800 has 82), smokebox door wheel and additional handrail on smokebox door, and escutcheon removed from tender (immediately after CIE takeover there was a small flying snail on the escutcheon). 801 and 802 have the single chimneys from the early 50s onward (looks like Tailte may have been as early as late 40s) Possibly variants with 801 and 802 in the lighter green also, which is what 801 wore during her last few beet seasons and the IRRS tour in 1961-2 But their are dozens of possible variants, though this is pie in the sky stuff. 800 in original shop (unlikely) all three in GSR green (likely) all three in CIE green, mid 50s condition (most likely) all three in postwar CIE condition (before modification but with CIE green, variety of small modifications, unlikely) 801+802 in CIE light green (mayybe?) (From what I've seen it was unlined? Could be wrong on that) 800 in Cultra (not sure) Alas I'd be 70% sure the 800s won't be IRMs first Irish steam locomotive, though probably in their top 5 list at least as far as Irish steam goes. V class or S class would be my bet. Beautiful sky blue livery (and a few other variants for both classes) preserved locomotives, one currently running. Jeeps wouldn't be bad either but ehhh. Only have to worry about 5 locomotives for the V class and S class (unless you count the S2s)

Tell that to IRM.. I'm neither here nor there with this, Ireland is a much smaller market, Though I think an IRM J15 would do well, its not as safe a bet as other preserved types, even if they were the largest class of loco in the country. I think, at least for their first Irish steam model they'd go with something else, money being on GNR, maybe NCC types. I'd lean GNR for the first one. No doubt it'd be the better model though, nothing against 00 works just a fact. If IRM dropped J15s I'd buy two anyway, just as I bought two A's. And the silverfox A's have seemingly vanished from all layouts... In the British market you have the numbers and arguable 'stagnation' from the big two giving room for competitors to produce better models at lower prices. My bet would be on a V class, maybe something NCC though the time for that would surely be to coincide with the Moguls completion. Of course theres the precedent there with 4-6-0s for the 800s but I wont be holding my breath since she's not RPSI.