Garfield

As you may know, Irish Railway Models had hoped to have the production version of the ballast wagons ready for delivery in time for the MRSI's October Bank Holiday Show. Unfortunately, this will not now be the case. When we received the first pre-production sample of the wagon we identified a number of minor issues which needed to be rectified. This required alterations to the CAD design and subsequently the tooling for the moulds also has to be altered. This process can take weeks to complete as the factory's engineering team has to find a new slot in their production schedule, during which they can fill in the faults in the moulds and apply the changes by conducting further spark erosion. At the same time, the paint samples we sent to the factory for colour-matching purposes took an inexplicable detour en route and only recently reached their intended destination. To further compound the situation, production levels at factories right across China is minimal right now as workers are entitled to time off during the week of the country's annual National Day celebrations. As a result, it is only now that the revised pre-production sample is being readied and we have to receive and inspect this sample before we sign-off on the production run. This is a vital stage for us as we do not want to compromise on the fidelity of the model. We cannot provide an accurate timeframe for delivery until this sequence is completed; all we can say is that we are aiming for late 2016/early 2017. While we understand that you are eager to receive your models and may be disappointed by this news, we hope you can appreciate why this delay has occurred and why we are not rushing the manufacturing process. We're confident that the end result will be a highly accurate, detailed scale model of a distinctive Irish wagon.

It's a regular occurrence. I remember travelling in a Mk2 years ago when suddenly there was a loud 'whack' on one of the windows, where someone had thrown a rock at it. It cracked the outer layer of the double-glazing but luckily it didn't shatter. The woman sitting beside it still got quite a fright, though...

Hoping to make it up to the Cultra show to finally see this layout (and Paul Titmuss' excellent T&DR layout) the flesh.

I think the zoom setting is creating an optical illusion, making the recent alterations to the track layout look more severe than they really are...

There's no direct curve at Ballybrophy. The only reason one would be installed is if there was a reason for trains to by-pass the station completely (i.e. it was closed).

He said he doesn't want the Bachmann version as he doesn't like it... To answer your question, bs819, the short answer is no. Your only option would be to approach a kitbasher/scratchbuilder and ask if they could put something together or have a go yourself.

They look quite different to me, to be honest... And I don't think a 2600 will cut the mustard for bs819: Edit: The tram trolling has been flogged to death at this stage. Can we leave it there?

While Richie is concerned with the design itself, rest assured we've got the livery timeframes covered, too.

All will be revealed at the Raheny show...

Superb work, Bren... it looks fantastic!

I pointed that out above and Junctionmad clarified...

You'll have to provide more information than that - there's no user here by that name.

The biggest stumbling block facing Irish preservation is a lack of manpower. Everyone wants to see the likes of A3R, C226, 124, etc. in working order. Everyone wants to see facilities like Moyasts open regularly and manned. Very few are willing to put in the effort to make it happen, though, and those that do end up being judged unfairly as a result.

Well we're not changing the forum title to Irish Battleship Modeller! (PS: stats show forum usership has been steady for this time of year... )

Both those wagons are in the white/ivory livery so both have a heavy coating of dirt. The grey livery was worn by the first batches of bubbles when they first entered traffic in the 1960s. Re. The coupling, as we explained when the swan neck coupling solution was announced for the ballast, it will also apply to the bubbles because the chassis is of the same design.

Hi Noel, Both logos will be represented in the production run.

Hi George, Just to clarify, Mercig would be creating 'master' samples which the factory in China would replicate. Standard factory weathering doesn't float my boat either, but I know the factory can faithfully reproduce weathering samples that are supplied to them, which is something I think many manufacturers don't actually bother doing.

The handiest way of doing it is to upload to YouTube and embed the videos into your forum posts.

Welcome to the forum, Ewan. You don't have to make wild excuses to have NIR's 112 on your layout... it spent a while on loan to Irish Rail in the mid '00s. Pic here: http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/2012/12/12/out-on-the-beet-turning-muck-into-gold/nir-112-with-laden-beet-tay/ (The date in the copyright notice is way later...)

Dave is a retailer...

Not really addressing the OP's issue there, Noel...

Not sure if it's down to settings that can be changed, but in real life the cab lights would be switched off while the loco is moving...

Further to Richie's post on the ballast wagon pre-production photos thread, we've posted a blog on the website explaining why we had to place the NEM coupling pockets higher than normal on the ballast and bubble wagons, and the workarounds we've devised to ensure these products are compatible with the couplings on your other rolling stock... https://irishrailwaymodels.com/index.php/2016/09/12/ballast-bubble-differences-in-coupling-height-and-solutions/

Not a bad rate of acceleration at all. Having studied the video, the train was already travelling at 0.7mph after one second. In your video of the models at the top of the thread, the 071 is travelling at a steady scale 0.29mph. There should be a law against doing maths on a Sunday...

These old girls had a lively rate of acceleration with a seven-coach rake (speed limited by the limit on the curve heading west out of Mullingar...):