Garfield

28 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

It is - but vans if that design were to be seen in many places until the very early 1960s!

Oh I know... but in comparison to the rest of the stock in what was clearly a staged promo shot, it's still a curiosity...  

2 hours ago, murphaph said:

I am developing a real soft spot for A42. There's something about that green.

There really is; whether pristine or dirtied up, it's an underrated livery.

No. 554 looks like a GS&WR 'convertible' wagon, which is quite something, given it would have been quite elderly even then and the other wagons appear to be newer GSR vans.

10 minutes ago, mmie353 said:

Burning question... when is the next announcement due?

It seems a few ended up without exhaust cowls at one point or another, although I'm unsure whether this was temporary or not. I've seen a few photos of them in this condition but it's very much a 'lesser spotted' feature.

21 minutes ago, Dempsey said:

I'm moate myself, I'd be interested in taking part. 

Only a stone's throw from me, then! If you want to PM your details, I'll keep you in the loop...  

@eeiknh@skinner75 Nice one! I've had expressions of interest from a few other lads, too, so I'm hopeful that this will gain momentum. If you want to forward me your details via PM, we can see about arranging a meeting in the not-too-distant future.

Hi @controller,

Have you tried any other decoders in the loco to establish if there is a problem with either the Loksound decoder or the loco itself?

For further support, you can drop us a line at support@irishrailwaymodels.com.

12 hours ago, WRENNEIRE said:

Or you could just join the MRSI, askin for a friend!

That would be great, Dave, but a three-hour round trip to attend club nights isn't feasible, I'm afraid.

Happy to report there has been interest already, especially from the Westmeath, Offaly and Galway areas.

Now that the photo has your attention I'm going to throw this out there to see if there's any interest:

I'm now based near Moate in Co. Westmeath and I'm curious to see if there are other modellers in the wider Athlone area who might be interested in getting together to form a model railway club in the region?

It might also be of interest to anyone located in north Offaly, Longford, east Roscommon or east Galway as these areas are all within 30-45 minutes of Athlone.

If you think it's something you might want to get involved in, leave a comment below or drop me a PM and if there's enough interest we can move on to arrange a meeting to explore further possibilities.

36 minutes ago, Patrick Davey said:

Thanks - nice to have a model of it now too.  Who owns it?

As far as I know, 015 is owned by Jackie Whelan, who operates the setup at Moyasta. There may be a few others involved, too.

7 hours ago, johnfromoz said:

Does anyone have knowledge they can share about the livery on A12?  That is, CIE black with half yellow warning panel.  Is it appropriate for mid-late 60s or even later?   How many locos ran like this, or is it a one off?

cheers

John

Hi John,

A12 is perfect for the mid-late 1960s period. The yellow panels weren't unique but were less common than the all-over black livery. 

2 minutes ago, Rush and Lusk said:

I just want to say hello ! as I just joined this forum yesterday. 

I'm a "covid rediscoverer" of this wonderful hobby - just started in March and am really enjoying the steep learning curve of learning and exploration. like many folks, I dabbled as a youngster (decades ago), then took the "big train" to work in the city from my home station, Rush & Lusk ! 

I have already learned so much from the extensive knowledge and breathtaking layouts on this forum. Arising from one of the threads on the forum, I attended the wonderful exhibition event in Wexford on Sunday where I was met with courtesy, tolerance and encouragement for this beginner. Amongst the great folks I met were "Tara Junction", "Enniscorthyman" and Fran from Irish Railway Models (I subsequently bought an A3r to compliment my new 054 & A39r) - thank you all.

Regards. 

Welcome aboard!  

25 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

not in traffic, I believe….?

It definitely hauled at least one train (possibly a special for CIE bigwigs) from Heuston in that guise.

5 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

Correct.

 

When they re-engined them, they were designated with the “R” after this, but no sooner were they all done than the supertrain livery appeared (1972) and a new numbering system brought in as they were repainted into the new livery. This involved dropping not only the “R”, but the class prefix letter too, and on all classes. 

So what had originally been A1 - A60 became A1R - A60R when they were re-engined, then 001 - 060 only once repainted into supertrain livery. At the same time the B101, B121 and B181 classes became 101, 121 & 181 classes, and so on. 

Don't forget that A1 (minus the 'R' suffix as the rebuild programme was complete) made a very brief appearance in Supertrain before being renumbered 001...  

3 hours ago, Galteemore said:

 

 

I think the mystery was more that nobody ever seemed to have seen one of the E kits, as opposed to the well known A class! Mayner has answered this on another thread.

The OP didn't mention a model/kit, though?

Nothing particularly mysterious about them...

CIE's 'standard' Maybach-powered shunters:

E401 Class

And E421 Class

Two of the latter type are preserved at Downpatrick, while a third is on static display at Dunsandle.

I would have loved to have seen them in service. 

17 minutes ago, ttc0169 said:

I'm off upstairs to allocate 8 out of the 10 A class locomotives to Fridays nights freight and passenger roster....... 

Will Block Rockin' Beats be pumping out of the speakers tonight or will it be the sweet song of EMD power, Noel? 

1 hour ago, Westcorkrailway said:

for those wondering what supertrain with a black roof looks like 

Nice! Tom Ryan posted this on Facebook this morning.  

9 minutes ago, irishthump said:

On seperate note,

When fitting couplers in the NEM pockets on the detailed end of the A Class it appears you need to remove the brake cylinder at the fromt of the bogie. How is this removed? Is a simply a friction fit and do the sideframes have to come off as well?

It should be friction fit...

10 minutes ago, irishthump said:

Scenes outside IRM Towers within 10 minutes of that comment...

 

That'll be the Texas contingent...

This looks more like a case of the part being shaken loose in transit rather than a quality control failing(!).

I'm not sure if UHU glue is available in the USA, but a light dab of a similar tacky glue applied with a cocktail stick/pin should hold the speedo in place, as David suggests above.

Just now, irishthump said:

Just a quick question for the IRM lads….

My own A Class order doesn’t show up in the “my orders” section of my account on the IRM website. Is this normal? I’m thinking maybe it’s because the order was made so long back….

If you send us a quick email with the order number we can check it for you. 

8 hours ago, Noel said:

Nice video clips. Listening to 319 shows how screechey the 071 sound deciders are compared to real 071s that don’t have the annoying high pitched whine we hear on so many models. They are Diesel engines after all not jet turbines.

The 319s have EMD-567 engine blocks, whereas the 071 engines are EMD-645, which have a different tone. The 071 'scream' comes from the turbocharger; as far as I know the 319s don't have turbos fitted.

Meanwhile, our warehouse team has finished counting-in the delivery.  

1 hour ago, mmie353 said:

I wonder what the market is over here in the US if the Uk and German markets are worth those numbers. Congrats to everyone at IRM/Accurascale

The German market is regarded as the largest in the world...