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That's how I remember them, behind an A class in Supertrain livery. The last time I saw an A or ferts for that matter was during a visit back to Ireland in 1992. While visiting friends in Farranfore I wandered down to the station in time to see the arrival of a fertilizer train behind a decrepit A class in IE colours, The A ran around its train and shoved it into the Kerry Co Op siding before continuing light engine to Tralee. The condition of the A saddened me and in my opinion the Tipped stripe did nothing for them.

The IRM ferts finally arrived after seemingly getting lost on the way. We lost no time putting them into service. Once again another incredible model from IRM.

I got to agree with Leslie here Noel. I greatly admire your skill modelling CIE passenger stock, you should have no problem achieving incredible results with Leslie's kits. It is truly amazing what has become available to Irish modelers in the last few years but IRM and Paddy Murphy can't be expected to produce everything for what is after all a very small, but thankfully growing market. Duplicating an already good an easily assembled kit can only drive small manufacturers out of the market which is detrimental to all of us. I for one don't want to see this forum dominated by cookie cutter layouts all populated by the same high quality off the shelf models.

I recall seeing one hauled by a Deutz ( without a brake van) dropping off sleepers on the Fenit line sometime around 1970.

There were also drawings for a GM 141, a 20 ton brake van and an article on a station on the West Cork. Tim Cramer wrote the series. I can't help with the publication dates, my copies have long since went missing.

Ardfert and Abbeydorney on the North Kerry line as well as various sheds on the Mallow Waterford line were the inspirations. I never got around to finishing the roof which is a piece of folded cardboard covered with printed slate downloaded from somewhere online.

Thanks for posting these photos again John, I believe you put them up previously on the old site. The insulated container is of particular interest to me. They were frequently seen in Tralee in the seventies and I believed they were used to ship product from the Dennys factory in town. Does anyone know of a suitable container to model them? They appear to be 8 foot tall. The photo below shows my version of a keg swap body on a container flat. It was built from styrene and the kegs are short lengths of wooden down glued together and pained silver. The flat is adapted from a Dapol Prestwin chassis. The buffers are from Dart Castings and some styrene rectangles were applied to the solebar to better represent the prototype.

Hi Leslie, here are four more of your Bulleids and three more SSM opens, all of the opens on the layout on one train. The beets are sesame seeds which are flat rather than round or fat but look well at normal viewing distances. They are also very cheap! They could use some weathering though. the cat Robert mentions seen in one of the photos is Kate, We have three, the other two being Molly and Finbar. None have ever given me any problem with the layout. This I attribute th the layout height and the drape underneath the benchmark which gives them nothing solid to hang on to and climb. Liberal use of a spray bottle filled with water early on probably also helped!

045 on caught an a beet special on the South Waterford line.

I remember the Tralee liner being made up of both bogie and four wheel flats with an occasional fuel oil tank in the mix. The bogies were always at the head end of the train necessitating some shunting before the train could depart in the evening.

Mine arrived in Ohio Tuesday morning and were immediately put into service. Once again a stunning model from IRM.

I have had good results with Kadee Grease-Em, a graphite powder used to lubricate their cuplers.

Turntables survived at Fenit and Listowel until the mid to late sixties so why not Dugort Harbour?

The pal vans also had 2 different door types. The photos I have seen suggest that those in the original gray livery had more visible bracing while those repainted into reddish brown had a more solid appearance. I wonder if the doors were reinforced by adding a panel to the outside before being repainted?

Hi Leslie, put me down for 5. I would also take 5 or 6 pal vans should you choose to do them.

There has not been much progress on the layout over the summer months but the wagon works has seen some activity. This GSR goods van was built on a Dapol meat van underframe. The doors are extras which came with the Parkside 12 ton van kit and the buffers are surplus from Leslie's Bulleid open kits on which I fitted heavier ones similar to many of the prototypes. Decals are still required. Here is a link to the photo which inspired the model. https://flickr.com/photos/holycorner/6934140866/in/photostream/ I have more underframes and doors on hand and may attempt a couple more which hopefully I can improve on, but this time in gray with the flying snail emblem.

Stunning model! What type of DCC decoder will be required? I'm sure many of us will want to have decoders on hand when the models arrive on our doorsteps.

Great looking wagon Leslie, put me down for 6. Is there any chance that you could include the "vac brake" lettering on the transfer sheet for those of us who would like to modify the kit to model that version? Has anyone any ideas about where a suitable brake wheel can be sourced?

Here is photo ofof the Wexford to Waterford loose coupled goods train with two bogie ferts on the head end so that is an option as well as running unit trains.

Operating sessions are generally set during daylight hours so only a portion of the daily trains are run. Some trains have their locomotives moved by hand to the other end of their train at the end of the run so they can run back as a new train during an operating session. We do not have an oil and mag train yet so it is presumed to run at night! I'm hoping that IRM will get around to producing a modern CIE 20 foot oil wagon soon making my job modelling that train easier!

I just recently added two Park Royals and a laminate brake from Irish Freight Model to the roster. Previous to that the entire passenger stock consisted of six MM Cravens, a Dutch van and a Mk1 steam heating van, both from Silver Fox While all era appropriate they made a poor job of representing a typical CIE secondary line passenger train of the early seventies which seldom had two vehicles alike. I am very pleased with the IFM models. They do have some shortcomings but they look the part. Assembling and painting coach kits is not a skill that I enjoy or am good at and would be hard pressed to achieve the finish of the IFM models and the saving in time effort and agitation is well worth their cost, at least to me. At present two rakes are on the layout as shown in the photos. Also here are a few additional photos since I had the camera out.

The raven is a Halloween decoration which found a permanent home above the layout!

With all the new rolling stock acquired in the last few years and more on the way storage space for surplus rolling stock was needed. Of the eight fiddle yard tracks one was permanently used for storage which limited the operation of the layout. To remedy this two six foot long shelves were installed over the Waterford fiddle yard' The shelves are made from furniture grade 3/4 inch plywood, an off cut which I acquired from a local cabinet shop. I had them rip it into four narrow strips which were glued and screwed to form an L girder. I had them cut two grooves on two of the pieces set apart to give a 16.5mm inset track. This saved having to buy track and it is easier to rail stock on it. A strip of thick black card was then glued to the edge providing a low fence for fall protection and to give a nice finish. The Cork fiddle yard also got a spruced up.

A 1976 photo in Michael Bakers "Irish Railways Past and Present" shows a Bell liner composed of 20 foot flats hauled by a B&T GM with a 30 ton brake van on the rear, a perfect train for the South Waterford line.

Current project is a SSM brake van kit which has been sitting in a drawer for the past few years. There is still some work to do on it including a new plasticard roof (to replace the current temporary card one) and transfers but I could not resist putting a coupling on it and giving it a run. Also a pic of the other end of the train.