You Can't Beat A Bit of Bulleid - Open Wagons Next For IRM

[Warbonnet]

After a period of locomotives, coaches and railcars, we are going back to our roots and will now bring you a whole new range of beautifully detailed, uniquely Irish wagons. 

We have been famed with making use of common chassis for wagon ranges since our inception, and it is a number of years since our last mammoth wagon project, the hugely successful "Project 42". 

So, where do we go this time? Well, we wanted a range of wagons that would be widely useful to modellers, widespread across the network and eras, and uniquely Irish. So, we decided there was only one place to go, the Bulleid triangulated chassis, starting with the CIE corrugated open wagons.

History

In 1950 the board of Corás Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) appointed Oliver Bulleid as its Chief Mechanical Engineer. Bulleid, renowned as designer of the distinctive Merchant Navy and Light Pacific locomotives during his tenure with the Southern Railway in England, did not have an opportunity to pursue his legendary innovativeness to the same extent in Ireland, but his arrival nonetheless heralded a period of modernisation and standardisation.

Apart from implementing the complete transition to diesel motive power, he also set about standardising CIÉ’s fleet of rolling stock with his patented triangulated underframe providing the basis.

Perhaps the most recognisable of the goods vehicles was the humble open wagon with its galvanised pressed metal body. More than 2,500 were constructed at Inchicore between 1956 and 1969, with up to twelve being outshopped each week at the height of production. They quickly replaced older wooden-built equivalents, many of which had entered service with CIÉ’s predecessor, the Great Southern Railways, or its constituent companies.

The welded construction of the underframe provided excellent strength despite being relatively light and the pressed metal panels used to create the bodywork were both durable and easily replaceable, resulting in a hard-wearing wagon which could cope with rough treatment in unfitted trains and less-than-careful handling during loading and unloading.

The wagons were a common sight across the entire CIÉ network, from major yards in Dublin and Cork to the most rural of branch lines, carrying a wide variety of loads ranging from peat briquettes to gypsum, pre-ISO shipping containers and farm machinery. However, their most famous duty was the conveyance of sugar beet during the annual autumn-winter harvest season, when trainloads of the crop would be transferred from loading points across the country to plants at Carlow, Mallow, Thurles and Tuam. Even as more modern continuously-braked goods stock was introduced in the 1970s, rakes of these open wagons were retained for beet season, persevering in traffic until replaced by vacuum-braked wagons in the 1980s.

Wagons were initially outshopped with ‘Flying Snail’ totems before giving way to the CIE ‘Broken Wheel’ logo during the 1960s. Typically for Irish Rail, the wagons were rarely, if ever, repainted, with many of the wagons ending their careers with the earlier Flying Snail logos in the 1980s!

 The Model

With an abundance of recent locomotive releases, particularly in the CIE era of the 1950s-1980s timeframe in recent years, we felt it necessary to provide the most numerous and important wagons from this golden era to help the modeller to build accurate trains. The Bulleid triangulated underframe was a standard unit that gave birth to a whole host of wagons, which will be reflected in our range in the months and years to come. 

We kicked off this adventure with the Bulleid open, oft our most requested wagon model for IRM and one that reached every corner of the network from the mid 1950s all the way to the 1980s when they made up the now legendary sugar beet trains. 

An essential wagon for any Irish modeller with Silver, green, grey, black, black and tan and supertrain locos, these are a must and the first step in our CIE unfitted wagon range, which will feature other wagons yet to be announced.

We took a trip to Dunsandle over the summer of 2021 to survey their excellent open wagon undergoing restoration. A big thanks to Maurice Mitchell at Dunsandle for facilitating our visit and survey.  

The open wagon may seem like a fairly simple wagon to produce, and for the most part it is. However, there is one tricky piece to the puzzle, and something that is essential to capture the essence of these characterful wagons; the interior. Due to their corrugated construction, the inside of the wagon required extra tooling to capture the distinctive ribbing inside. Our factory came to the rescue here, with intelligent toolmaking to ensure this was achieved. 

We also wanted to get some weight into the wagon, but not compromise with a false floor to spoil the look of the wagon interior, so we have a fully diecast floor as part of the underframe structure. A wealth of separate plastic detail consisting of all the braking and underframe gear, door bangers, sprung buffers and brass bearing cups to allow the smoothest of running complete the make up of these beautifully detailed wagons as you come to expect from IRM.

Available in our typical triple packs, our first production run covers a variety of eras, from original flying snail, to CIE roundel and then both beet and permanent way packs. Priced at €89.95 per triple pack, and 10% off when you buy two packs or more, they are due to arrive in stock in Q3 of 2024. Click the link below to place your pre-order. Pre-ordering early is recommended to avoid disappointment as production slots will be limited.

Pre-Order Your Bulleid Open Wagons Here!

 

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[Bob229]

Good choice different era's and a variety of uses, the beet wagons will be popular 

Great detail like the interior and floor

[ttc0169]

A useful addition-well done lads.

[Wexford70]

How many were in a typical beet train in the 80s?

[BosKonay]

4 minutes ago, Wexford70 said:

How many were in a typical beet train in the 80s?

All of them

[DJ Dangerous]

The diecast flooring is a brilliant idea!

[Noel]

Order placed for a rake of them.

19 minutes ago, Wexford70 said:

How many were in a typical beet train in the 80s?

Early 1980s 30+ wagons, and the braked double beets got close to 50.

So H-VANs next - hooray.

[Broithe]

Will beets be available in multi-packs?

How many beets would you need for each wagon?

[Mayner]

6 minutes ago, Wexford70 said:

How many were in a typical beet train in the 80s?

001 Class loco 20 laden wagons 20T Brake van or 28 with 30T Brake on South Wexford Line east of Campile 

001 Class loco 40 Laden wagons  20 or 30T Brake Van Campile-Thurles or Mallow Beet factories

Campile basically functioned as a small marshalling yard during the annual Beet Campaign due to load restrictions on Taylorstown Bank. Trains were restricted to 380T with 20T Brake and 550 with 30T Brake between Campile and Wellington Bridge and were allowed to load to 780 tons between Campile and Thurles or Mallow. 

[patrick]

Just wondering if a 30T brake van is in the pipeline. 

[Flying Snail]

Looking forward to these and I think they won't be limited to OO scale either. I think we'll be seeing the Bulleid - Open Wagons in as IRM's first O scale wagon too before long.

After all, with the Accurascale O Scale Rustons announced, it's logical to think an IRM O Scale Ruston can't be far behind either ... and it'll need something to shunt won't it?

[DJ Dangerous]

10 minutes ago, Flying Snail said:

Looking forward to these and I think they won't be limited to OO scale either. I think we'll be seeing the Bulleid - Open Wagons in as IRM's first O scale wagon too before long.

After all, with the Accurascale O Scale Rustons announced, it's logical to think an IRM O Scale Ruston can't be far behind either ... and it'll need something to shunt won't it?

 

Was just thinking the same about the wagons, but the Ruston's are too far off.

IRM's first O Gauge loco will definitely be an A Class. Probably not this side of Christmas, but let's not rule anything out!

[StevieB]

They look the DB’s. You lovely people. 
 

Stephen

[Westcorkrailway]

Litterally forgot that beet wagons could be announced. An essential wagon to have rocking about in a siding or for full rakes, traveled over a huge veriety of railway lines by all sorts of locos from steam (hint hint) and diesel. Not to mention it’s a very uniquely Irish wagons…and the tri-angulated chassis will be “handy” for other models 

[Robert Shrives]

That is a great move as chassis used on several more wagons.  The body is crying out for double stacking and having the sep floor is inspired!  Have to check finances but a short rake possible. 

Thanks gents 

Robert   

[Noel]

2 hours ago, Westcorkrailway said:

Litterally forgot that beet wagons could be announced. An essential wagon to have rocking about in a siding or for full rakes, traveled over a huge veriety of railway lines by all sorts of locos from steam (hint hint) and diesel. Not to mention it’s a very uniquely Irish wagons…and the tri-angulated chassis will be “handy” for other models 

Yes and widely used as a general open wagon for general merchandise and agri products. Essentially made planked open wagons unnecessary on CIE network.

[Noel]

This really is great news. Unbraked 2 axle wagons are ideal for Irish layouts and look well on typical layout sizes. I gave up waiting for IMP beet wagons years ago, but so glad they've arrived now, they'll suit the new layout perfectly, otherwise I'd have ordered even more. Hanging on to the PW wagons and the 3D versions for now, every siding needs a few of these rusting in the briars. Did any of the prototypical wagons have smaller buffers, as used on some older H-Vans? The new IRM wagons will go well with my existing PW kit built wagons (sample below).

Edited October 28, 2023 by Noel

[derek]

7 hours ago, Noel said:

Order placed for a rake of them.

Early 1980s 30+ wagons, and the braked double beets got close to 50.

So H-VANs next - hooray.

30  to 50 per train? Mother of God! That other kidney of mine is toast

[Westcorkrailway]

2 minutes ago, derek said:

30  to 50 per train? Mother of God! That other kidney of mine is toast

Hey in courtmacsherry. 3 plus a breakvan happened often enough to be considered “prototypical” you just need a C Class, MGWR J26 or number 90 to make it fully prototypical!

[Noel]

11 minutes ago, derek said:

30  to 50 per train? Mother of God! That other kidney of mine is toast

10-15 would look just right on any layout. Long enough to snake around bends and through siding crossovers and won't break the bank. These are great value compared to the ballast wagons. If I hadn't already built so many PW kits and 3D print kit bashed versions I might have ordered 25+ of these stunning diminutive wagons that were the essence of Irish goods traffic with beet and also mixed formations of general merchandise and agri produce. In the 50s, 60s, and 70s, every station you passed through had these in sidings and loops.

[Westcorkrailway]

2 minutes ago, Noel said:

10-15 would look just right on any layout. Long enough to snake around bends and through siding crossovers and won't break the bank. These are great value compared to the ballast wagons. If I hadn't already built so many PW kits and 3D print kit bashed versions I might have ordered 25+ of these stunning diminutive wagons that were the essence of Irish goods traffic with beet and also mixed formations of general merchandise and agri produce. In the 50s, 60s, and 70s, every station you passed through had these in sidings and loops.

Tbh I think 6-9 plus a break van will look fine on most layouts 

[Darius43]

Great announcement.  Two packs preordered.

Cheers

Darius

[murphaph]

I'll be ordering the green n grey era ones. Great to see a new chassis enter the range.

[Mayner]

Important point the large B only appeared on these wagons from 1977 onwards on wagons retained for sugar beet traffic.

There wasn't a green and grey era with the Bulleid Opens as such the wagons ran with unpainted galvanised bodies on grey mild steel underframes from their introduction in 1956 to their withdrawl from general traffic in the mid 70s, though the galvanised bodywork on a brand new wagon would have been a lot shinier than one that was in service for close to 20 years.

CIE continued to use wooden bodied opens to carry traditional style British Rail type A & B containers or farm machinery into the mid 70s

The brown on the underframe likely to be spray primer rust protection to the chassis following inspection/overhaul.

12319 was part pf a group corrugated open dumped at Liffey Junction after being used a spoil wagons by the PW Department in connection with the DART project

[murphaph]

But the packs with the flying snail description would be suitable for a layout based in say 1962?

[Irishswissernie]

13 hours ago, Westcorkrailway said:

Hey in courtmacsherry. 3 plus a breakvan happened often enough to be considered “prototypical” you just need a C Class, MGWR J26 or number 90 to make it fully prototypical!

You can mix them up with wooden bodied wagons as well. At Courtmacsherry in 1960 it appears that they would be taken  in small rakes (4+ B/Van) to Ballinascarthy where they would be combined into longer sets of around 20 wagons and then went on behind a C Class to Cork and then Mallow. Numerous views in the CB&SC Album

 

[minister_for_hardship]

2 hours ago, murphaph said:

But the packs with the flying snail description would be suitable for a layout based in say 1962?

I don't know where getting the flying snail/broken wheel logo bit from. I've never seen a pic of them carrying either of these logos.

[Westcorkrailway]

8 minutes ago, minister_for_hardship said:

I don't know where getting the flying snail/broken wheel logo bit from. I've never seen a pic of them carrying either of these logos.

I think he means “work with CIE roundel Era stuff” versus “works with Flying snail Era stuff”  I have seen at least one of the grey chassis ones with a snail on the chassis. actually I think one of each in the grey pack has the snail represented.

 

2 hours ago, Irishswissernie said:

You can mix them up with wooden bodied wagons as well. At Courtmacsherry in 1960 it appears that they would be taken  in small rakes (4+ B/Van) to Ballinascarthy where they would be combined into longer sets of around 20 wagons and then went on behind a C Class to Cork and then Mallow. Numerous views in the CB&SC Album

 

A larger Steam engine like a Bandon tank also worked the beet from Ballinascarthy to cork. From Kent, I’ve seen footage of no.801 maca haul the rakes of sugar beet as far as mallow. 

[Wexford70]

42 minutes ago, minister_for_hardship said:

I don't know where getting the flying snail/broken wheel logo bit from. I've never seen a pic of them carrying either of these logos.

 

Edited October 29, 2023 by Wexford70

[Darius43]

This looks like a longer wheelbase “hybrid” made with extension pieces cut from another wagon which had the CIE wheel logo on it.

Cheers

Darius

[Westcorkrailway]

49 minutes ago, Wexford70 said:

That’s a GSR open wagon, not a bullied Open 

 

the snail on Bullied wagons were on the chassis itself next to the running number of the wagon. And not much bigger then said running number 

[Galteemore]

Always nice to see the Sligo Leitrim being used to argue a point……Liatroim bua arís! 

Edited October 29, 2023 by Galteemore

[flange lubricator]

This is a great addition to the range and utilising the same underframe the possibility of a ready to run H van could be a future addition.

I wonder if a beet load or scrap metal load could be available as an accessory only asking for a friend.

[murphaph]

3 hours ago, minister_for_hardship said:

I don't know where getting the flying snail/broken wheel logo bit from. I've never seen a pic of them carrying either of these logos.

These terms (flying snail and cie roundel) are used in the descriptions of the wagon packs according to IRM. 

[Noel]

1 hour ago, murphaph said:

These terms (flying snail and cie roundel) are used in the descriptions of the wagon packs according to IRM. 

Logo was probably the manufacturer plate under the door. The letters CIE were on some of these plates.