IRM Latest! The High Queens of Ireland - IRM Celebrates 10th Birthday With GSR 800s

[Horsetan]

1 hour ago, ttc0169 said:

I’m meeting a queen this morning….

 

That's lovely. Broadside and overhead photos are generally difficult to find.

[GSR 800]

1 hour ago, Westcorkrailway said:

Even though the lighting dosent show it off to well, I think maebh is still in the original CIE green paint…just with GS on the tender 

She is indeed in CIE dark green, why Cultra added a G S is a complete mystery. 

[Westcorkrailway]

7 minutes ago, GSR 800 said:

She is indeed in CIE dark green, why Cultra added a G S is a complete mystery. 

They got it without anything on the tender so I assume (as they didn’t really care about the significance of the paintjob, which I can’t blame them entirely) they stuck in the GS to make it look better and call it a day. But to have something 60 years in virtually untampered paint from service is fascinating. Some of the things in cultura are getting touch ups paint wise. The longer 800 avoids this the better.
 

speaking of original paint. I was with the ITG the day 134 was being moved out of Moyasta. Some paint was naturally peeling off revealing its old liveries including the 1960s original GM Grey colour

Most interestingly of all though was a Dart Green. Part of an experimental livery only 124 wore w

 

 

probably for the best that this colour scheme never took off

[ttc0169]

2 hours ago, Horsetan said:

That's lovely. Broadside and overhead photos are generally difficult to find.

 

[cheesy_peas]

I note there's a photographic grey option now. I imagine it never ran in PG other than from paint shop to photo taking site and back to paint shop for repainting into green? It does look nice though not to everyone's taste.

[Bob229]

9 hours ago, ttc0169 said:

I’m meeting a queen this morning….

 

Nice on a Tuesday or any day, stunning a visit on my to do list

[BosKonay]

2 hours ago, cheesy_peas said:

I note there's a photographic grey option now. I imagine it never ran in PG other than from paint shop to photo taking site and back to paint shop for repainting into green? It does look nice though not to everyone's taste.

It certainly ran around multiple locations for various photos and as these things usually do, a photo of it running in anger is always possible to show up. Sales so far peg it as popular as the best selling green ones so certainly lots of you like the look of it. 

[GSR 800]

32 minutes ago, BosKonay said:

It certainly ran around multiple locations for various photos and as these things usually do, a photo of it running in anger is always possible to show up. Sales so far peg it as popular as the best selling green ones so certainly lots of you like the look of it. 

What are overall sales for the 800s like so far compared against other locos in the IRM range?

[jhb171achill]

3 hours ago, cheesy_peas said:

I note there's a photographic grey option now. I imagine it never ran in PG other than from paint shop to photo taking site and back to paint shop for repainting into green? It does look nice though not to everyone's taste.

Correct. Like all such paintings, it was for official photo purposes only. Before any locomotive went into traffic, it was painted in its "proper" livery. 

The IRM grey model certainly has novelty value, which will make it very7 popular with collectors, I would imagine. I am unaware of any manufacturer ever making any model of anything in "photographic grey".

7 hours ago, ttc0169 said:

 

Especially for a beast THIS size!

[Galteemore]

Hornby, Heljan and Lilliput have all done it….

[DiveController]

7 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

Hornby, Heljan and Lilliput have all done it….

I’m not sure that any of those are in photographic gray. The silver coronation livery certainly is a running delivery. I’m not sure about the others. Photographic gray was intended for black and white photographic purposes where the overall scheme was gray, but particular items such as the wheels or particular items to be highlighted were picked out in white 

[Galteemore]

8 minutes ago, DiveController said:

I’m not sure that any of those are in photographic gray. The silver coronation livery certainly is a running delivery. I’m not sure about the others. Photographic gray was intended for black and white photographic purposes where the overall scheme was gray, but particular items such as the wheels or particular items to be highlighted were picked out in white 

Yes I wondered that myself, but each of these catalogue listings says ‘photographic grey’ as the livery description. It’s not a ‘Coronation’ livery as that’s a W1, not an A4.

I certainly recall seeing at least one Roco or Lilliput loco in grey about 40 years ago - a large German tank loco IIRC, which would have been black in working livery. 

 

Edited Wednesday at 22:48 by Galteemore

[DiveController]

1 minute ago, Galteemore said:

Yes I wondered that myself, but each of these catalogue listings says ‘photographic grey’ as the livery description.

 

Yes, interesting because as we all know, a silver livery for running purposes would only work for a well maintained top link service. A long time since I did British modeling so I might’ve forgotten the details.

[jhb171achill]

10 hours ago, Westcorkrailway said:

Part of an experimental livery only 124 wore w

 

 

probably for the best that this colour scheme never took off

Probably the laziest and most hideous, unartistic livery ever applied to anything in history!

[DJ Dangerous]

On 26/10/2025 at 11:55 PM, Westcorkrailway said:

Nice matching clothes, too!

 

10 hours ago, Westcorkrailway said:

They got it without anything on the tender so I assume (as they didn’t really care about the significance of the paintjob, which I can’t blame them entirely) they stuck in the GS to make it look better and call it a day. But to have something 60 years in virtually untampered paint from service is fascinating. Some of the things in cultura are getting touch ups paint wise. The longer 800 avoids this the better.
 

speaking of original paint. I was with the ITG the day 134 was being moved out of Moyasta. Some paint was naturally peeling off revealing its old liveries including the 1960s original GM Grey colour

Most interestingly of all though was a Dart Green. Part of an experimental livery only 124 wore w

 

 

probably for the best that this colour scheme never took off

Some of that peeling paint should be saved for reference in the future. What a gem 124 is, also having that green buried underneath.

 

2 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

The IRM grey model certainly has novelty value, which will make it very7 popular with collectors, I would imagine. I am unaware of any manufacturer ever making any model of anything in "photographic grey".

I’ll be running my grey one as a “What-If?” loco, hauling a rake of Provincial Wagons vans!

[jhb171achill]

One of these was not on the IRM stand….

Edited Thursday at 02:55 by jhb171achill

[exciecoachbuilder]

On 29/10/2025 at 1:38 PM, Westcorkrailway said:

They got it without anything on the tender so I assume (as they didn’t really care about the significance of the paintjob, which I can’t blame them entirely) they stuck in the GS to make it look better and call it a day. But to have something 60 years in virtually untampered paint from service is fascinating. Some of the things in cultura are getting touch ups paint wise. The longer 800 avoids this the better.
 

speaking of original paint. I was with the ITG the day 134 was being moved out of Moyasta. Some paint was naturally peeling off revealing its old liveries including the 1960s original GM Grey colour

Most interestingly of all though was a Dart Green. Part of an experimental livery only 124 wore w

 

 

probably for the best that this colour scheme never took off

Hi, the grey paint on loco 134 is actually anti corrosive primer/undercoat (ICI fastbuild) that was used when the new paint shop was opened, 1999- 2000, and when Irish Rail started to use 2 pack polyurethane paint. The loco would have had filler put on the body, then sanded down to an accepted level, then given  two coats, possibly three of this 'fastbuild'  primer. Loco's , and most of the other rail vehicles were never stripped down to the bare metal. There was generations of black and orange paint on the loco body and older coaches ( Craven , MK2's) so getting it back to the bare metal , while doable, would have taken too long in the eye's of the Irish rail traffic controllers, who were always screaming out for coaches and locomotives. The white stripe that you see, was one sided adhesive tape that was  stuck on the loco sides ( and coach sides ) except the front  which was handpainted with white undercoat then finished with white gloss as it wasn't possible to bend the white bands. I have only seen traces of the original paint on these 121 class loco's in the Inchicore paintshop and workshops. The grey that we see in the photo is too pristine for something that was painted in the early 1960's. 

                                                                                                                                  Paul.

[Niles]

3 hours ago, exciecoachbuilder said:

Hi, the grey paint on loco 134 is actually anti corrosive primer/undercoat (ICI fastbuild) that was used when the new paint shop was opened, 1999- 2000, and when Irish Rail started to use 2 pack polyurethane paint. The loco would have had filler put on the body, then sanded down to an accepted level, then given  two coats, possibly three of this 'fastbuild'  primer. Loco's , and most of the other rail vehicles were never stripped down to the bare metal. There was generations of black and orange paint on the loco body and older coaches ( Craven , MK2's) so getting it back to the bare metal , while doable, would have taken too long in the eye's of the Irish rail traffic controllers, who were always screaming out for coaches and locomotives. The white stripe that you see, was one sided adhesive tape that was  stuck on the loco sides ( and coach sides ) except the front  which was handpainted with white undercoat then finished with white gloss as it wasn't possible to bend the white bands. I have only seen traces of the original paint on these 121 class loco's in the Inchicore paintshop and workshops. The grey that we see in the photo is too pristine for something that was painted in the early 1960's. 

                                                                                                                                  Paul.

I remember having to remove the white stripe when I was involved with restoring the RPSI Cravens many years ago, it was... an ordeal.  

[Westcorkrailway]

11 hours ago, exciecoachbuilder said:

Hi, the grey paint on loco 134 is actually anti corrosive primer/undercoat (ICI fastbuild) that was used when the new paint shop was opened, 1999- 2000, and when Irish Rail started to use 2 pack polyurethane paint. The loco would have had filler put on the body, then sanded down to an accepted level, then given  two coats, possibly three of this 'fastbuild'  primer. Loco's , and most of the other rail vehicles were never stripped down to the bare metal. There was generations of black and orange paint on the loco body and older coaches ( Craven , MK2's) so getting it back to the bare metal , while doable, would have taken too long in the eye's of the Irish rail traffic controllers, who were always screaming out for coaches and locomotives. The white stripe that you see, was one sided adhesive tape that was  stuck on the loco sides ( and coach sides ) except the front  which was handpainted with white undercoat then finished with white gloss as it wasn't possible to bend the white bands. I have only seen traces of the original paint on these 121 class loco's in the Inchicore paintshop and workshops. The grey that we see in the photo is too pristine for something that was painted in the early 1960's. 

                                                                                                                                  Paul.

I agree with you, but in certain other places the livery does come through!