connollystn

Did CIE/IR locomotives ever haul NIR stock between Belfast and Dublin?

Was watching 'All the Stations' (Ireland) and was delighted to see, on their visit to the Castlerea, that the locomotive inside the railway museum is the A55.

@Sean - Nice collection of stock on your layout, in particular, I like the Mark 2As. Never saw the Mark 2As in real life as they operated out of Heuston and it's a railway station I've seldom used.

With all of these new wagons and locomotives announcements you are really spoiling the British Railway modeler. The Mark IIs have always been my favourite passenger wagons and you guys are doing an exquisite job. Pity the Irish Railway modeler doesn't have anything comparable. The prices are reasonable for such a detailed coach and bearing in mind that back in the mid noughties [2000s] you'd would have been paying between 55€ and 65€ for Fleischmann coaches so the prices of these Mark IIs represent great value for money.

I used to buy tea and an Aero bar of chocolate until they made the cups considerably smaller, felt like I was being ripped off. I certainly don't miss the catering service.

3 hours ago, Rob said:

The thread about 'What happened to 224' has been kinda derailed l think....

A bit like what happens to most threads on this forum.

3 hours ago, Westcorkrailway said:

The black n tan 121s from memory was the quickest to sell out

Think it was unusual for an early liveried locomotive to sell out so quickly but number 125 was the pick of the bunch. The black and tan livery best suited the Class 121.*

*In my opinion

1 hour ago, Warbonnet said:

What is it about test trains we love so much? Is it the unusual formations? The modified vehicles? The rarity? Or, perhaps it's their eye catching, and even iconic liveries.

As highlighted in bold text above.

Really looking forward to it, with a lot of new and exciting new announcements from I.R.M. on the way it should be the best show ever.

My A55 is waiting patiently for I.R.M. to manufacture some passenger stock for it to haul.

Fantastic photograph of the Corrib Viaduct in Galway [town]. The spans seem very long, would be interested to know what the weight restrictions were. Considering how congested Galway is now it could do with a suburban rail service.

Can't wait to see the reviews on YouTube once these babies come onstream. From a pricing point of view it looks like they win hands down without sacrificing details and quality - Bachmann's new Class 47 is over 25% more expensive than the Accurascale Deltics. Interesting times in the British Railway modelling market (think I've just gotten a whole lot jealouser).

Tá díoma orm. Hadn't noticed until I looked at the last image (above) of SDL39 #582 that the pilots at each end are drooping. This is not what you'd expect from a €400+ locomotive, will contact ScaleTrains - they have a video on YouTube as regards to fixing this issue. Surprised that it got past quality control. Would have expected that the retailer could have remedied this problem before sending it on to me.

Some images of one of my A55s.

Below are images of SXT70032 (ScaleTrains ref.). 

Wish there was someone working in IRM who was like me (really bad at keeping secrets).

Almost here - Check out the Hornby Magazine YouTube channel [HM180], they are reviewing some of the Accurascale Class 55s which should be available shortly.

@Mayner, I wholly agree with the above. I got back into railway modelling in the late 1990s and it was quite difficult to know where to go in terms of what to model. There was nothing Irish, the British stuff fell short in many areas so I went continental European (DB AG). When Murphy Models launched the 141/181 a bought some but I just couldn't connect with them so I stuck with purchasing continental European stock. When IRM produced the A class I was quite reluctant to buy any as I had a lot of Fleischmann stock, however, I couldn't resist. The A class was the locomotive of my childhood so once I got my hands on one of those beauties I couldn't let go. That will be the same for the Murphy Models 201s - there will be lots of people here who are familiar with them and once they're back on the shelves it will draw a few more people into the hobby.

What I really want is some coaching stock for my silver [A30] and black [A55] locomotives to haul. I'm quite surprised that there are still some A30s available. I know that some people say that it's not in 'their' era but I'd certainly recommend just buying it - if for display purposes only as it really gleams on a nice sun shiney day like, today.

My SXT70032 x2 arrived yesterday. They are my first DCC + sound locomotives but I only have a conventional DC layout so not reaping the benefits of having them chipped, however, I decided it was time to join the twenty first century so will upgrade my controller/transformer to DCC. The four ScaleTrains SDL39 locomotives will be the only North Armerican locomotives I'll be purchasing - just have to decide which freight wagons to go with them. Will have to trim my Fleischmann stock [DB AG] but that's a lot easier to say than do. I'll post pictures of the SXT70032 when the weather conditions are suitable - it was fairly dull today and, really, there's nothing like a nice bit of sunshine to highlight the details on models.

Covid hasn’t gone away, you know!

One for the rails…

Seeing as I couldn’t get tickets to this event…

The is bound to be a new announcement from I.R.M. at this event, I can feel it in my water!

The photograph of the trams at Sutton awaiting scrappage is certainly a very sad sight.