Where to buy OO 141s 181s 071s and A Class

[raymurph]

Hello,

 

I'm modelling DC OO gauge about a year and currently have mainly US and British stuff. I'd like to get my hands on a 141, 181, 071, or A Class . Problem is I don't fancy paying around 250+ euro for a used loco on ebay. Does anyone have suggestions where else I should be looking? I am happy with DC and the loco doesn't have to be in perfect condition, I don't mind a project.

 

A second related question is should I buy a MM 121 now even though it isn't my first choice? It is available and is good value at 189 new. And I'm afraid that if I don't purchase now and change my mind later on it will only be available for silly money on ebay and I'll regret not having picked it up new .

 

Thanks for any help.

[DJ Dangerous]

I'd suggest grabbing an A Class and a 121 now. IRM have limited stocks of three variants of the A left, and the sold-out A's are already changing hands for over €250.

Likewise with the 121's, grab one now and sell it in six months if you change your mind. You certainly won't lose money on it.

[raymurph]

Yeah that sounds like good advice. Would anywhere else still stock Class As in one of the orange liveries?

 

[DJ Dangerous]

5 minutes ago, raymurph said:

Yeah that sounds like good advice. Would anywhere else still stock Class As in one of the orange liveries?

 

Try WRENNEIRE of this forum or Chris Dyer.

[flange lubricator]

I would think you should pick up some A class or a 121 class that are still available and you could them to swap sell them depending on your era.

[connollystn]

The 141/181 locomotives could be one of the 2022 new announcements from IRM! 

[DJ Dangerous]

1 minute ago, connollystn said:

The 141/181 locomotives could be one of the 2022 new announcements from IRM! 

That would make 2023 a memorable and expensive year.

[raymurph]

2 minutes ago, connollystn said:

The 141/181 locomotives could be one of the 2022 new announcements from IRM! 

Really?! That would be awesome. How likely is it though ?

[DJ Dangerous]

Somebody (not Boskonay obviously) will be on shortly to troll us and say "You never know" or something similar...

[flange lubricator]

32 minutes ago, connollystn said:

The 141/181 locomotives could be one of the 2022 new announcements from IRM! 

Hopefully there will be lots of announcements in 2022 but my gut feeling is it wont be 141/181 as has been pointed out the minimum production run would be at least  5000 unit plus and while some people would buy lots most people wouldn't buy that many(I have six from the 2009 run)so I might buy one or two , I think anyone doing a loco would do one that is hitting a fresh untouched market like the 121 or the A class that would guarantee good sales . At the end of the day its all about sales while some seem to think 141/181 would sell like hot cakes yes they certainly would to anyone who missed out or new entrants to the hobby but established modellers may not buy in sufficient numbers to justify 5000+ which have to be paid for up front . 

My own personal wish would be a C/B201 class which had a number of versions and liveries including a NIR  version which would sell well as no RTR has been done of it up to now .

Edited February 20, 2022 by flange lubricator

[Noel]

1 hour ago, DJ Dangerous said:

Try WRENNEIRE of this forum or Chris Dyer.

Second that, otherwise unfortunately its ebay prices. MM 141/181 long out of production and dealer stock. DCkits could be a long shot. 121s sold out except for the delivery grey, and A class sold out except for the flying snail green and A30 silver. 071s sold out since 2019.  @WRENNEIRE has helped many folk source locos. He knows folks in the know.  Otherwise Braywheelers once a month or Chris Dyer toy fare in Stillorgan every few months often sees locos on sale second hand.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Noel

[Westcorkrailway]

58 minutes ago, flange lubricator said:

Hopefully there will be lots of announcements in 2022 but my gut feeling is it wont be 141/181 as has been pointed out the minimum production run would be at least  5000 unit plus and while some people would buy lots most people wouldn't buy that many(I have six from the 2009 run)so I might buy one or two , I think anyone doing a loco would do one that is hitting a fresh untouched market like the 121 or the A class that would guarantee good sales . At the end of the day its all about sales while some seem to think 141/181 would sell like hot cakes yes they certainly would to anyone who missed out or new entrants to the hobby but established modellers may not buy in sufficient numbers to justify 5000+ which have to be paid for up front . 

My own personal wish would be a C/B201 class which had a number of versions and liveries including a NIR  version which would sell well as no RTR has been done of it up to now .

this is dead right. As scarce as they are now. We still have a few more years to wait for those GMs to become viable again

 

With NIR mk2 coaches, A and C sharing general shape and detail (and as we know, IRM like to re-use assets as per the recent wagon announcement!) the bookies would be odds on for a C Class announcement much later on this year.

[raymurph]

Thanks for all this info. I'll contact those people and see what happens .

[murphaph]

I'd say the baby GMs would already be financially viable now given the seemingly rapid expansion of the market, but there are other fish to fry first probably. 

[Sean]

1 hour ago, murphaph said:

I'd say the baby GMs would already be financially viable now given the seemingly rapid expansion of the market, but there are other fish to fry first probably. 

had been thinking this myself lately, not sure its gonna happen though given the Bachmann tooling situation and i feel like IRM might not want to make one for as long as murphy is still in business.

 

might be more likely that we see an 071 reissue first. then again if a new 141 comes out this year with updated bogies and all the mod cons I will definitely eat my hat, 

 

got a mint 141 on here lately for what I would of considered to be a fair price but would not want to be paying much more for one.

[DJ Dangerous]

2 hours ago, murphaph said:

I'd say the baby GMs would already be financially viable now given the seemingly rapid expansion of the market, but there are other fish to fry first probably. 

This. Exactly this. IRM 141's / 181's would definitely sell out at this point in time, but IRM probably have their rollouts planned 24 months ahead.

Using the A to test the water for price / quality / quantity, it would still mean finding time to do the research and development.

Not so sure about the C Class for three reasons.

Firstly, it's too similar an era to the A Class. With so much to cover both before and after the A, launching a loco from the same period may not make sense. It would be like doing a second run of A's.

Secondly, saying that the C would be easier because it's similar to the A etc doesn't sound like IRM's modeus operandi. They've shown that it's about quality, attention to detail, innovation value for money. A C Class would probably be built from the ground up, not using much, if anything, from the A Class.

And, third, an 071 or a Hunslett would go far better with the upcoming NIR coach packs.

A steamer seems likely at some stage, but with literally nothing RTR to go with it, I'd expect to see an older coach model before a steamer, something that overlaps steam and diesel.

[Noel]

I know a man who knows a man, who knows, but says the 141s would not sell out. I don't know myself.

Personally 071 seems the most financially viable for small re-run, but I've no market research to show that.

Hunslet is such a tiny market, not sure it would be viable numbers wise. (ie a special interest segment of an already small market).

C or B101 would be nice RTR in the future to IRM specs, but only they know the market data.

Sugar beet wagons single or double seem the biggest omission and covers from 1950s right up to 2000s.

What's the rush, haven't we been blessed with an abundance of Irish scale models in the past 15 years.

[StevieB]

PM sent.
 

Stephen

[murphaph]

How long did it take to sell out the A class? A few months max, many liveries sold out almost instantly. How long did it take to sell out the baby GMs? Much much longer because there were far fewer people in the market. PM created that market for high fidelity Irish RTR and the beginning was with the baby GMs really. Nobody knew then that there would be much of anything to haul behind them so people were largely buying them on spec for the novelty value presumably, never expecting that an industry would follow. That's not the case any more. The would be customer now already has the stock to haul and knows more is coming down the line. But I am not arguing for a release of the baby GM by anybody as it's not my place and they would be mad to listen to me anyway. I am happy to anticipate the other things that might be released over the coming years. Hunslets are at least as viable as "obscure" mk2b NIR diner cars and whatnot  Nothing seems to be off the table. The magnesite wagons would appear non-viable too. Only ran for a little over a decade and only in the south of the country and only really with 2 liveries I believe. But here we are and they are coming so they are viable  So I have learned not to try to second guess IRM. A fool's errand if ever there was one. I'm happy to sit back and be amazed!

[Georgeconna]

I you bought all Babies from Seamus Grahams you got one free if I remember, Fitzinghall were flogging them off cheap too toward the end.

I think most Lads will hover up anything Irish these days TBH. As you say the Market has grown a bit. Even the Huns.

 

5 hours ago, Noel said:

Second that, otherwise unfortunately its ebay prices. MM 141/181 long out of production and dealer stock. DCkits could be a long shot. 121s sold out except for the delivery grey, and A class sold out except for the flying snail green and A30 silver. 071s sold out since 2019.  @WRENNEIRE has helped many folk source locos. He knows folks in the know.  Otherwise Braywheelers once a month or Chris Dyer toy fare in Stillorgan every few months often sees locos on sale second hand.

Still get Orange 121 from Marks.

 

[Sean]

not only did he create the market, he created the "you cannot have it" factor for people getting into the hobby late,  thats a huge marketing trick within itself, the best of 121 did not hang around for a long time either.

[Georgeconna]

6 hours ago, connollystn said:

The 141/181 locomotives could be one of the 2022 new announcements from IRM! 

Hopefully not!! . MM could rework the PCB Board for the lighting really, otherwise a fine model. 

 

[flange lubricator]

What locos / livery’s are you particularly interested in ?

[connollystn]

39 minutes ago, Georgeconna said:

Hopefully not!! . MM could rework the PCB Board for the lighting really, otherwise a fine model. 

 

A fine model indeed but I R M could sprinkle their magic on it. 

[raymurph]

4 hours ago, Georgeconna said:

I you bought all Babies from Seamus Grahams you got one free if I remember, Fitzinghall were flogging them off cheap too toward the end.

I think most Lads will hover up anything Irish these days TBH. As you say the Market has grown a bit. Even the Huns.

 

Still get Orange 121 from Marks.

 

Yes I saw them in their Cork store recently.

4 hours ago, flange lubricator said:

What locos / livery’s are you particularly interested in ?

141s 181s 071s or A Class. Orange liveries, especially the one with the white lines. 

[Noel]

Methinks, Time for popcorn and just patiently watch to see what happens over the next few years.  Those of us modelling Irish stuff 10 years ago and earlier are perhaps very fortunate to have collected suitable stock to run on our layouts, whereas newer folks who entered the Irish hobby in the last 5 years are lumbered with scarcity and ebay prices. We are fortunate to have two excellent manufacturers still serving the Irish Outline scene (MM + IRM). The glass is more than half full the the RTR future looks bright with MM and IRM.

[Galteemore]

The best analogy is probably with UK modellers who model the pregrouping scene eg LNW, SECR. For decades they have had to sort their own stuff and resort to kits or scratch build. Some fine RTR is coming on stream for them now but it will always be a small market. And there will never ever be a complete off the shelf LNW or whatever package.

So you will have to buy what you can, when you can - and resign yourself to having to build or modify what the manufacturers aren’t supplying.

[jhb171achill]

13 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

The best analogy is probably with UK modellers who model the pregrouping scene eg LNW, SECR. For decades they have had to sort their own stuff and resort to kits or scratch build. Some fine RTR is coming on stream for them now but it will always be a small market. And there will never ever be a complete off the shelf LNW or whatever package.

 

Off topic, I know, but Cyril Fry built a serious amount of LNWR stuff himself (obviously, NOTHING suitable RTR back then!) It has to remain in storage due to space constraints, but I am agitating for extra display space for it....

[raymurph]

7 hours ago, Noel said:

Methinks, Time for popcorn and just patiently watch to see what happens over the next few years.  Those of us modelling Irish stuff 10 years ago and earlier are perhaps very fortunate to have collected suitable stock to run on our layouts, whereas newer folks who entered the Irish hobby in the last 5 years are lumbered with scarcity and ebay prices. We are fortunate to have two excellent manufacturers still serving the Irish Outline scene (MM + IRM). The glass is more than half full the the RTR future looks bright with MM and IRM.

Sounds about right. I've decided to buy a 121 MM0124 or MM0129 in Iarnród Éireann livery, it looks gorgeous in those colours and the 121 class has really grown on me. I'll hopefully get it in Marks in Cork this week before they sell out. I have about 25 locos but this will be my first one bought new. It's way more than I usually spend on a loco but at least from a dry financial point of view it's almost an investment. 

 

Thanks for all the insights in this thread.

[flange lubricator]

10 minutes ago, raymurph said:

Sounds about right. I've decided to buy a 121 MM0124 or MM0129 in Iarnród Éireann livery, it looks gorgeous in those colours and the 121 class has really grown on me. I'll hopefully get it in Marks in Cork this week before they sell out. I have about 25 locos but this will be my first one bought new. It's way more than I usually spend on a loco but at least from a dry financial point of view it's almost an investment. 

 

Thanks for all the insights in this thread.

You won’t regret buying them they are beautiful locomotives and look great on a layout or in a display case . 

[mmie353]

Can anyone please confirm the email address for Chris Dyer? I have tried enquires@chrisdyerfairs.co.uk but I got kick back email to advise the email address was not found. 

[Noel]

3 hours ago, mmie353 said:

Can anyone please confirm the email address for Chris Dyer? I have tried enquires@chrisdyerfairs.co.uk but I got kick back email to advise the email address was not found. 

That’s the email I used in the past. His Phone number is 00 44 7966 694579

[ganderino]

Im still after the limited edition a class if anyone has a spare let me know cheers

[StevieB]

5 hours ago, mmie353 said:

Can anyone please confirm the email address for Chris Dyer? I have tried enquires@chrisdyerfairs.co.uk but I got kick back email to advise the email address was not found. 

I think you’ll find it’s enquiries@chrisdyerfairs.co.uk.

Stephen

[Georgeconna]

19 hours ago, Noel said:

Methinks, Time for popcorn and just patiently watch to see what happens over the next few years.  Those of us modelling Irish stuff 10 years ago and earlier are perhaps very fortunate to have collected suitable stock to run on our layouts, whereas newer folks who entered the Irish hobby in the last 5 years are lumbered with scarcity and ebay prices. We are fortunate to have two excellent manufacturers still serving the Irish Outline scene (MM + IRM). The glass is more than half full the the RTR future looks bright with MM and IRM.

Quite and a lot of those folks have a fleet of babys so most likely would not be purchasing too many from a second coming...or would they!