MOGUL

Picture for context, his name is lumpy and he lives in my garden..

Have a very tasty trunk, including a Mcburney DAF in OO, a silverfox MK3 DVT and PP coach(slightly damaged), a model rail sentinel in GSR livery that’s been chipped and weathered and about 5 packs of Dapol containers(last Cobelfret in stock, dong fang and Hapag, Yang mings and unpainted 45fts) Going to wait till the end of this month to see if there is anything else good to throw in there, maybe a 1:400 747 or something

Not very, zim never had much of a presence in Ireland.. In fact they no longer have an Irish agency, and look after Ireland from their U.K. agency.. I have a pack of the dapol 20fts, I bought after getting 1 booking on the train from the Irish agent to deliver a 20ft to Ballina.. He was a pain in the hole, needed updates every two hours and didn’t understand why a factory that takes a hundred deliveries a week didn’t think his one 20ft container was a priority to offload.. Needless to say that was the only time I know of a Zim box being on the rails since 2005

Now you just have to figure out which box of 9-10000 you are looking for… I’ll give you a clue, it’s reddy brown

You can’t say things like that and no elaborate! any sniff of 071s sets tongues wagging these days

They are in a TEMU container like this one, should be offloaded at Dugort harbours tomorrow morning in time for the up mixed

Its out there somewhere, one of those little dots with COSCO written on the side.. I have a theme song for you and all, enjoy(it was stuck in my head for about 3 months thanks to the 2 year old!).. Beats Barney anyway

Funny you should say that, they passed by you around 9pm last night heading North.. Vessel routed around the cape due to the Houthis, maybe we should have warned the shipping line they were in more danger off the Canaries from a man with a step ladder and army of Felines!

That’s one for the man himself, I am but a small cog!

Yes I arrange the shipping for Paddy, so probably know better than anyone where everything is! The MK2Ds should be here late this week/early next week.. 141/181s, it will be tight if they are ready before Chinese new year in early February, but we should see them by Easter I would imagine

And more importantly, what Calibre is that Barrel?

From where I’m sitting, they are fairly imminent….. Not enough to have a file waiting on my desk for tomorrow morning like the MK2Ds, or a file in the pile like the IRM MK2s but they are in the pipeline

some overlapping Accurascale ranges that will feature IRM elements: This one should get a speculation thread all on it's own.. Here's a stab to get the conversation going: MK2Fs, continuing on the Mk2 theme, although Bachmann and Hornby have both done them already, could give you NIR 904 and the Gatwicks MK3s, done by most UK rail manufacturers by now, maybe something more niche like the MK3 international train which ended up on Irish Rail.. Also, Mk3 EGV would be a unique tooling that could be handy as they survived the scrappers axe Ammonia wagons, yep the IFI wagons had very similar UK cousins(same diagram or similar) BR class 08,09 and derivates, applying the modular accurascale approach and allowing for CIE D class?

Keep it in blue but add an IWT logo and orange cheat line.. 15 years of IWT Dublin-Ballina this August and it will help her blend in

Yes, it took most of a decade to repair 225.. 216 was similar, I think was out from 2010 to 2016.. But they obviously weren't being actively repaired for most of that time! That list seems to cover it.. So 22 locos to cover Enterprise(3 locos on links, plus 1 standby at each end), Cork line(7 locos on links, plus a standby in Cork) plus whatever freight is assigned to them(normally just 1 of the 2 IWT links).. They do seem to be getting more use on PWD work recently however, including mixed 201/071 pairs top and tailing HOBS trains

No sign of 230 coming back yet, she's in fairly bad condition.. I think the plan might have been to use her as the guinea pig for re-engineering/new power pack but that has obviously been cancelled/put on the back burner.. All of 201-205, and 210-214 are stored.. 225 was stored for a good while after colliding with a tractor in 2010, it was back in service late in 2019(nice pic with all those lovely PINK one boxes) http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/irish-rail-225-back-on-the-roll/ However, shortly after the fleet gained 225, they lost 224 to the frame cracks. But with the BGH not coming back after COVID, they were up a loco(216) anyway..

I never said this year, haven't even talked to the man with the factory yet! Thought you didn't want my craypola boxes anyway even if I put in all that effort!

Sorry I should have specified that it’s a work group and a lot of the pics are very boring and mundane.. Im not that into containers that I’m in some WhatsApp super group where people post the boxes they see, not sure if such a thing exists.. but there’s always matts place https://www.matts-place.com/intermodal/part1/sea_containers1.htm

Also 20ft open tops(Cawoods) and 20ft Gypsum boxes( which are similar to the boxes being used for the clean up of Roche in Ennis).. And all the unusual nuke 20fts

How did you find special hobby George? I have an ms 406 in the stash that seems pretty basic but like the look of their fouga in Austrian markings( 4 of them ended up with our air corps, the other two being the embargoed aircraft destined for Katanga ironically)

If they outcome of my suggestion is nudging you guys towards moving project 47 up the schedule by a few places I’m happy! As I have told Patrick before I can supply as much research material as is needed, I have a WhatsApp group with over 1200 media files attached to it, mostly pictures of containers!

Here’s the pickle, Dapol are the only ones with a 45ft tooling and the cost to tool up for one or two runs of twin packs would be prohibitive, especially as them being OO gauge means they are unlikely to sell in Europe.. So it’s Dapols best printing or nothing really.. Thinking about it more, two twins pack could work 1) Basic blue Cronos livery(with horse and 45ft corner sticker), plus a unit 45 box or a brown Cronos unit(this would allow you to re use some artwork) these would be more general appeal so suitable to the UK market also to get volume up but still very suitable for Ireland.. Brown Cronos, common to DFDS, IWT and XPO liners: http://www.matts-place.com/intermodal/part4/crtu0600880.jpg Unit 45, ditto http://www.matts-place.com/intermodal/part4/unit45_leg1s.jpg 2) IWT Twin pack, one with Orange Band and one without..

Good to see some interest in our containers! We have 35 CXSU(Cronos) boxes and another 17(was 18 but a certain infamous bridge in the midlands changed that) IWTU boxes which are former CLDN unit that have been debranded and renumbered(more pics to follow when I’m at the PC).. That video brings back good memories, some of my finest work getting the train to be mostly IWT containers and van den Bosch smiley tanks, which coincidentally Hornby are releasing with their KFA wagon in the new year.. Raises the question(which I have put on back burner for a few years), if a twin pack of IWT containers in the two main liveries ( with and without orange bands) was to be made, would there be many takers?

It looks like the scene of a possible mass grave to be honest! Either that or you buried the carcass of a gigantic Christmas turkey!)

Spotted this pic of the CIE creosoting plant in the parting shot by Norman Johnston, it was taken in 1970 so predates the PWD flats but does show a similar wagon (likely a predecessor) awaiting loading with a fresh load of hot stick stick pine.. I would imagine the PWD flats were regularly loaded here @Warbonnet, sleeper loads on the cards? Also of note is the extra broad gauge track for the overhead crane