Orange Is The New Black - Iconic Mark 2B and 2C Coaches Announced

[Warbonnet]

Is there anything more iconic on Ireland's railways than passenger coaches in orange and black livery? We certainly struggle to think of one, so it was high time we offer a model in such a condition.

After much demand, here is our beautiful Mark 2B coaches in orange and black, with IR and IE liveries offered and say hello to our Mark 2C too, following on from our Accurascale BR and NIR Mark 2 line of coaches.

History

(All prototype photos copyright Mark Hodge. Do not use without express prior permission)

Desperate for additional coaching stock, Irish Rail made a deal with scrapper Vic Berry of Leicester in 1990 to swap a number of withdrawn C 201 Class locomotives for ex-British Rail Mk.2s. While CIÉ had famously acquired BREL-built air-conditioned and vacuum-braked Mk.2d vehicles in the early 1970s, the 16 secondhand coaches were a mix of open vehicles and corridor stock and were taken from the earlier batches that were pressure ventilated, while all but the earliest BR-specification coaches were air-brake only. They also operated to a different electrical voltage to the rest of the IR roster, which made them completely incompatible and required the use of three specially modified ‘Dutch’ generator vans, Nos. 4601-4603.

Nine members of the fleet were put into service with little modification other than a repaint, including a single Mk.2 SO, three Mk.2a SO and five declassified Mk.2c SO (ex-FO). A further five declassified Corridor Seconds vehicles (ex-FK), two Mk.2a, a Mk.2b and two Mk.2c, were rebuilt at Inchicore Works as Open Seconds (SO) with 2+2 seating, while another pair of Mk.2b SK were even more heavily modified as Buffet Open Seconds. The former were numbered 4101-4114 and the mini-buffets as 4401/4402. They were usually formed in two rakes of between five and eight coaches and could only work with air-braked locomotives, which meant GM Classes 071, 121, 141, 181 and 201.

They were initially repainted Intercity livery with orange roofs and put into service on secondary services to Drogheda, Galway, Limerick, Tralee, Westport and Waterford. They could also be found deputising on cross-border workings between Dublin and Belfast, sometimes even with NIR motive power.

By the late 1990s the classic points logo had been replaced with the later IE branding on each of the four corner doors, while further tweaks included black roofs and the overpainting of the aluminium finish window frames in black as well. Retirement eventually came in the early 2000s as new 29000 Class railcars were delivered. Six vehicles initially made it into preservation, but only four grounded bodies now remain: Nos. 4108, 4110 and 4402 at Moyasta Junction and No. 4106 at Kilmeadean.

The Model

Building on the tooling platform we first developed for our NIR Mark 2 Enterprise coaches and our BR Mark 2B coaches, the new IRM Mark 2 models imitate reality in repurposing ex BR stock for Irish operations. Naturally, our gauge correct wider B4 bogies will be employed, along with full interior lighting, fully detailed interiors, a wealth of separately applied detail, sprung buffers and bespoke tooling for mini buffets 4401 and 4402.

Common Features:

• Highly-detailed OO Gauge / 1:76.2 Scale Models on 16.5mm track
• Extremely fine exterior rivet detail on roof and coach ends
• Separately-applied etched metal and high-fidelity plastic parts, including handrails, brake/steam heat pipes, ETH cabling and sockets, footsteps, dummy drophead knuckle coupler, and roof vents
• Prism Free Glazing
• Pre-painted/printed Western Region destination boards and holders plus water filler covers provided for customer to install
• Fully-detailed underframe with numerous separate parts, pipe runs and accurate differences between versions
• The most accurate B4 bogie ever produced, with provision for re-gauging to EM or P4 (British 18.83mm or Irish 21mm) gauges
• Blackened RP25.110 profile wheel-sets with 14.4mm back-to-back measurements, and 26mm over pinpoints
• Different buffers for retracted and non-retracted positions
• Accurate interiors with characteristic 'winged' headrests, separate metal interior handrails on the brake and corridor vehicles and fully-detailed guard's compartment
• Correct height NEM standard coupling sockets with mini tension lock couplers and kinematic close-coupling
• Easy conversion to Kadee-compatiable knuckle couplers

Full lighting package, including;

• magnet 'wand' controlled interior lighting
• 'Stay-Alive' capacitor in all coaches
• directional lighting with DC or DCC control (Driving Trailer only)
• Minimum Radius 438mm (2nd Radius Set-track)
• Coach Length: 269mm

Price And Delivery

As can be seen, these coaches are already tooled up and have been part of our plans from the outset of our Mark II coach project. With delivery of the NIR coaches due later this year (and completely sold out on pre-order!) it is time to implement the first phase of run 2 with these coaches. 

A total of eight coaches will be offered in IR livery and eight in later IE livery, sold in sets of four coach "rake builder" packs allowing us to give you greater value per coach. Each pack will be priced at €269.99 each. Delivery is slated for Q4 2023 and as ever, demand is expected to be high!

So, plenty of time to plan our your purchases and it also allows you to make use of our partial.ly and clearpay options, that allow you to spread the cost over easier monthly payments at no extra cost! Just simply add the models to your cart, click on the cart and you will see the options to either spread the cost over 6 months, pay a deposit with the balance when the models came into stock, or up front now to get it out of the way.

The partial.ly system can be used on any model that is 6 months or more away from arrival, so perfect for the Mark 2s.

Pre-order yours by clicking here!

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[Flying Snail]

Excellent choice - I love anything black and orange!

[chris]

Stunning. Another excellent addition to the fleet.

Edited October 29, 2022 by chris

[Robert Shrives]

Great news .  I look forward to getting a pack with buffet car along with home spun mods and repaints I will have 10 vehicles.. 

Vehicles do of course have use for augmentation trailers in the "projected" - in my little world! 80 class project  

Robert  

[BosKonay]

12 minutes ago, Robert Shrives said:

Great news .  I look forward to getting a pack with buffet car along with home spun mods and repaints I will have 10 vehicles.. 

Vehicles do of course have use for augmentation trailers in the "projected" - in my little world! 80 class project  

Robert  

All in time Robert. We promise

[DJ Dangerous]

Absolutely fabulous stuff from IRM this week!!!

Perfect timing for this months wages - have ordered some of these and will be ordering more next pay day!

[Robert Shrives]

 I will have to check out the coaches at Warley at end of November.

Robert 

[Dempsey]

Excellent 

[Rapid130RS]

Great news, as per the ICR announcement, very welcome and well done to all at IRM for bringing this forward. 

[Noel]

@Warbonnet Hi Fran. On checkout I don't see the options for partial.ly or clearly. It's just looking for a credit card for full payment now (ie deposit or payment plan). Please forgive if I'm missing something obvious on screen. Thanks. Noel

[DJ Dangerous]

4 minutes ago, Noel said:

@Warbonnet Hi Fran. On checkout I don't see the options for partial.ly or clearly. It's just looking for a credit card for full payment now (ie deposit or payment plan). Please forgive if I'm missing something obvious on screen. Thanks. Noel

Deposit and payment plan probably ARE partial.ly. They were the three options that I saw when purchasing. Full, deposit or payment plan.

[BosKonay]

42 minutes ago, Noel said:

@Warbonnet Hi Fran. On checkout I don't see the options for partial.ly or clearly. It's just looking for a credit card for full payment now (ie deposit or payment plan). Please forgive if I'm missing something obvious on screen. Thanks. Noel

The deposit or installments options are in the cart. Once you add what you’d like click on your cart and choose the button for either option. HTH

[Branchline121]

Cannot wait!

[murphaph]

Lovely. Absolutely lovely. To my own amazement I finally guessed right (though it was fairly heavily hinted at previously). I will definitely be taking the two IR packs which absolutely fit my chosen era. When did the roofs start to be painted black? Does anyone have a year please?

Perhaps I missed it in all the excitement but what will the packaging be like? Will the 4 coaches be in a single box or 4 cartons shrink wrapped together a la MM's mk2a's?

Does anyone need a dozen BR Lima mk2b's? 

[BosKonay]

Just now, murphaph said:

Lovely. Absolutely lovely. To my own amazement I finally guessed right (though it was fairly heavily hinted at previously). I will definitely be taking the two IR packs which absolutely fit my chosen era. When did the roofs start to be painted black? Does anyone have a year please?

Perhaps I missed it in all the excitement but what will the packaging be like? Will the 4 coaches be in a single box or 4 cartons shrink wrapped together a la MM's mk2a's?

Does anyone need a dozen BR Lima mk2b's? 

They will come In a single 4-coach set box with the magnetic wand etc included. Much like the forthcoming mk5 sleepers over at accurascale towers. 

[ttc0169]

Delighted with this announcement….just need the converted Dutch EGV to complete the set….

[murphaph]

5 minutes ago, ttc0169 said:

Delighted with this announcement….just need the converted Dutch EGV to complete the set….

I can only imagine the price of decently finished resin models when these coaches start hitting peoples layouts! 

9 minutes ago, BosKonay said:

They will come In a single 4-coach set box with the magnetic wand etc included. Much like the forthcoming mk5 sleepers over at accurascale towers. 

Thank u.

[Noel]

1 hour ago, BosKonay said:

The deposit or installments options are in the cart. Once you add what you’d like click on your cart and choose the button for either option. HTH

Thanks. Sorted, order placed.

[Noel]

@BosKonay Stephen, will it be easy to open these new coaches up for the placement of internal passengers?

[murphaph]

Will the unique details (GM roof vents instead of roevac, long grab irons, mk2d doors) of 4112 be modelled or is that too much given it's the only one with all these oddities? I could certainly understand it if the numbers don't stack up.

[BosKonay]

1 hour ago, murphaph said:

Will the unique details (GM roof vents instead of roevac, long grab irons, mk2d doors) of 4112 be modelled or is that too much given it's the only one with all these oddities? I could certainly understand it if the numbers don't stack up.

100% accurately 

1 hour ago, Noel said:

@BosKonay Stephen, will it be easy to open these new coaches up for the placement of internal passengers?

A couple of simple clips and full access is easy. They are designed for easy access to the lighting assemblies and for passenger installation. 

[Noel]

21 minutes ago, BosKonay said:

100% accurately 

A couple of simple clips and full access is easy. They are designed for easy access to the lighting assemblies and for passenger installation. 

[gm171 kk]

Does anyone know when they started painting the roofs black? 

[flange lubricator]

2 minutes ago, gm171 kk said:

Does anyone know when they started painting the roofs black? 

I think that started happening in the late 1990's

[gm171 kk]

35 minutes ago, flange lubricator said:

I think that started happening in the late 1990's

I can't find any photos of them with black roofs until about 2003.

[flange lubricator]

Edited October 29, 2022 by flange lubricator

[Wexford70]

Did any of the buffet coaches ever have black rooves?

[flange lubricator]

58 minutes ago, Wexford70 said:

Did any of the buffet coaches ever have black rooves?

Don't know about 4401 but 4402 never had a black roof 

 

[murphaph]

I'd like to order 3 of the packs and pay in instalments via paypal but I don't see the option to do this at the checkout. Am I missing something? I haven't paid by instalments previously so I'm not familiar with the flow.

[BosKonay]

22 minutes ago, murphaph said:

I'd like to order 3 of the packs and pay in instalments via paypal but I don't see the option to do this at the checkout. Am I missing something? I haven't paid by instalments previously so I'm not familiar with the flow.

The installments options are in the cart. 

[murphaph]

5 minutes ago, BosKonay said:

The installments options are in the cart. 

So I have to select paypal and click the yellow complete order button first?

Edit: No I see it now thanks!

[DJ Dangerous]

This is what I see when looking at my basket:

A green "Checkout" button with two blue buttons underneath, one for installments and one for deposit payment.

 

 

[John-r]

Quick question lads, is there anyway you can let us know how many of the coach packs are left as you are doing with the icr sets, just to budget out which to order first, as I missed out on some of the nir coach packs, and before anyone helpfully suggests we had plenty of notice, I have to eat first then trains. Totally understand if you do not want to divulge this information.

[ttc0169]

Order has been placed…

[Georgeconna]

Went for the Black roof ones myself.

Had the whole lot of coach options selected and the total price 6 month payout was a sobering 180 per month so cut back a tad. Have to eat too!!

When I started the Irish stuff it was just a 141 and a couple of cravens running around a Country Terminus I had in Mind.