DoctorPan

On 21/11/2021 at 7:47 AM, murphaph said:

I was amazed how much better the finish was when I put the can in a warm water bath (not having a hot press). Totally changed the consistency. 

By the way my (German) missus once remarked that 'hot press' sounds more like an implement of torture than somewhere to make your towels nice and fluffy lol.

Yeah I always imerse my rattlers in a saucepan of warm water before a paint job, makes for a world of difference.

Ooh that's one of my Christmas presents this year sorted.

22 minutes ago, murphaph said:

But why the need then to give her an IE look? I mean, she will presumably retain certification in the original yellow and grey livery, so why couldn't she be certified like that? I am kind of wondering is there some intention to run her in IE revenue service somehow? Maybe the whole thing was just to give some apprentices in Inchicore a go of a spray gun and I'm overthinking things!

Tis no different to the time 216 was bright green before going blue while on trials and the same is what's happening to 134. She will need to undergo driver training and such so while she undergoes those, she'll be in temporary grey. 

Backwood  Depot in different eras tonight as some As are on shed.

"You expect me to idle?

"No 007, I expect you to thrash!"

And 3 emails today letting me know the rest of my As are in the post. Excellent, can't wait for them.

Well done to the warehouse team for the turnaround!

One of my orders arrived this morning. 007 and 017 both look lovely and I'm blown away by how studly packaged away each model is in their box. Can't wait to get them onto Backwood Depot and for the rest to arrive!

Thanks for the update Fran.  It certainly points to a good and healthy future for the Irish scene and a learning experience for the next loco release!  

37 minutes ago, Irishswissernie said:

I could have sworn yesterday that when I went on the Shop site there was an advert for an ITG A3r as preserved version Class A but later on it had gone. Now I havn't touched a drop of the hard stuff apart from strong tea for the last 40 years. Have I gone even softer in the head or did anyone else see it? 

No, some of my friends saw it too....

7 hours ago, RedRich said:

It's a strange thing how some people have no patience. I think the Sultans of ping need to do a re write.

Looking out the window for the postman to pass. Wait a minute 

Where's me A class 

Where's me A class 

Rich,

 

 

 

 

 

 

More looking at emails waiting for the orders shipped one!

1 hour ago, Georgeconna said:

Bit of an over kill wah?, The must love spending cash, How much to install that instead of dealing with the plant itself.

 

That's installed while they are dealing with it. Takes about 7-8 years to completely remove the plant and its root system. It's classified as "controlled waste" so it's an absolute pain to get rid of, as if not done properly, just spreads it around the place

Yeah, markers to denote areas of Japanese Knotweed.  Here's the Irish Rail equivalent taken on a lineside walk during a site visit this summer.

Eagerly awaiting notice of any of my orders to ship. Looking at the lucky few who've gotten their ones already, it certainly looks to have been worth the wait!

14 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

You've just made me spray-paint a fig roll in CIE green, and attempt to put a waterslide flying snail on a poached egg.......

Surely poached egg would be the broken wheel era?

6 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Yup. Steam don't go with Mk 2 tin cans...... 

They do if mk2s are in dark green!

1 hour ago, BosKonay said:

Right now, we just landed a 40' of MDOs, MDV's, Coils and loads for accurascale, a 40' of A's is 'sooooo' nearly here, another 40' is en route with a mix of Irish and UK stuff and another one will be leaving one of our factories in 4 weeks time. 

Sounds like a job for the 42' flats! 

Oh nice to finally see pictures of the real thing after hearing discussions about it 2 years ago. Will be a valuable bit of kit over the next few years with the various infrastructure projects soon to be kicking off 

I'm hearing reports of a sample A has appeared in Hawkins Street...

One from a recent operating session saw the clock turn back on Backwood to the era of Flying Snails 

8 minutes ago, Warbonnet said:

Rome wasn't built in a day, so don't worry, earlier stock will come. These things just take time is all. 

"....and you can see here that we have tooled the B4 and B5 bogies for these coaches for 4ft 8 and a half and 5 ft 3 for the NIR examples to allow regauging to 21mm..."

The latter certainly point certainly reinforces the first point if one reads into IRM's previous clever combination of wagons allowing utilisation of parts to aid other rolling stock, Ballast and Bubbles sharing a common chassis, Taras wagons having the same bogies as the 42fters. Having Mk2 bodyshells, B4s and B5s in the CAD and tooling libraries certainly is boom to certain possible projects down the road, but that's a story for another day!

1 minute ago, Westcorkrailway said:

Chance that AEC railcars might also be on the way, but much less likely the park royals,C class prediction 
 

im also predicting GWR rolling stock for the accurascale announcement 

Hi, IRM here live from whitehead railway centre Co Antrim Northern Ireland to being you our latest announcement........

 

I wouldn't be surprised with a Jeep and then a Mogul to coincide with the launch of 105.

1 hour ago, jhb171achill said:

So there’s more downhill heading west?

Yeah, there's two climbs out of Waterford, between Kilmeaden and Killmacthomas and then from McGraths Cross to Durrow. Afterwards its downhill and once you hit the tunnel, you can pretty much freewheel the entire rest of the way into Dungraven if your bikes are freewheeling.

Another +1 for the ebikes. Did the Waterford greenway to Dungarvon under my own power with my partner this summer, which was easyish given the ruling gradient towards Dungarvon but wisely we opted for electric assistance on the following day's return to Waterford which made all the difference. 

I would argue that the 90s weren't the greatest era of Irish Railways. Old worn and flithy trains and stock, running on system that was held together by string, rust and prayer.  At least these days, you know your train is going to turn up on time, is clean and delievers a comfortable service from A to B. I've spent a long time trying to convice my parents to travel on train and that the trains of today are far improvement from the old Mk3s and Mk2s they remember from the late 90s and early 00s when they last used the train service. 

15 minutes ago, Mike 84C said:

maybe you should try selling the idea of putting book knowledge into practise to the engineering and civils depts; of Irelands colleges and universities.

   

A long running issue that the professional industry is contantly running into, is that the rail industry does not fly on college student radars. I didn't even know my current employeers had a rail team until during the college placement interview I applied to, it was mentioned to me that I was looking to go into the Highways team, would I consider joining the Rail team. Upon hearing that, I quickly piveted into putting the Rail team as my first preference and led to an enjoyable 4 year career with them that is ending shortly as I move onto pastures new.

Another issue with the Irish scene is how tribal it is. How common is it to hear that railway x has a person who fell out with the people at railway y and doesn't like railway z is friendly with y and so decides to cut contact with anyone involved with y.

The rail industry in Ireland is increditably small, Irish Rail and Arup are really the only two big employeers within the industry, followed by Motts. We've tried increasing awareness of rail but its hard for it to catch with the students, most want to do Highways. The big breakthrough will come when a college or university offers a rail engineering degree.

A venture into a smaller gauge and a new topic.

Inspired by the work of two of my friends experiements in narrow gauge gauge gave me an itch that needed a bit of scratching and plans for a small micro layout for the other set of boards that Backwood used started to be lazily sketched out while preparing for a house move. While the boards await track and for a finalised plan, the railway that was to be the subject of the still unnamed layout was an easily decision and chance for a little more fun prototype. Pints to anyone who knows their stories...

The first major train was the line's top link train, ran for tourists during the summer, bringing them from the port up into the mountains, dropping them off at beauty spots for picnicing and hiking, earning the nickname of The Picnic.

The rake just awaiting couplings and windows. Oh and a loco to haul them!