Irish Models That Can Be Converted to British Models (No Really)

[Auto-Train Original]

Hear me out. About 30 years ago, a friend and I were trying to come up with a plan to produce Irish R-2-R rolling stock, but considered the market for Irish 00 trains to be too small at that time. So one idea we had was to reverse the wheel and produce locos with their shells swapped. So a British loco could be put on an A or C class chassis or that some of the coaches could be sold in UK liveries (Mk2s etc) into the UK market to finance the production of the Irish models. It was one of these 'closing time at the pub' ideas, and never really went much further as our knowledge of the prototypes was not in depth enough. We also were looking into an Athearn style drive to make the performance superior to the Ringfield/Pancake motors which dominated UK models at the time. Also the coaches would have flush glazing which was also not a thing at the time.

Thinking about it again the other day, got me wondering if the chassis of any Irish locos, DMUs and so on could have been sold in to the UK market with the 'export' shell or repaint?

Edited Sunday at 13:29 by Auto-Train Original

[GSR 800]

1 hour ago, Auto-Train Original said:

Hear me out. About 30 years ago, a friend and I were trying to come up with a plan to produce Irish R-2-R rolling stock, but considered the market for Irish 00 trains to be too small at that time. So one idea we had was to reverse the wheel and produce locos with their shells swapped. So a British loco could be put on an A or C class chassis or that some of the coaches could be sold in UK liveries (Mk2s etc) into the UK market to finance the production of the Irish models. It was one of these 'closing time at the pub' ideas, and never really went much further as our knowledge of the prototypes was not in depth enough. We also were looking into an Athearn style drive to make the performance superior to the Ringfield/Pancake motors which dominated UK models at the time. Also the coaches would have flush glazing which was also not a thing at the time.

Thinking about it again the other day, got me wondering if the chassis of any Irish locos, DMUs and so on could have been sold in to the UK market with the 'export' shell or repaint?

I think in many ways this is what IRM/Accurascale are doing with the likes of Mk2s and whatnot, wherever possible looking at commonalities to utilise. 

What could be done is something akin to Genesis or Rapidos planked wagons, building something 'generically' Irish that with a different paint job would suit British stuff just as well. The problem with that of course is Ireland has a larger loading gauge. 

For locomotives honestly might have a better chance looking at something like an 0-6-0 and which ones had the closest wheelbases to british ones. You of course have the Woolwiches too, though Rapido is currently doing the U, the larger dia driver variant.

Something that could be looked at, though perhaps not true to the OP proposal, is that with the acquiring of Heljan, a 'common' TT 120 chassis could be utilised for 00n3 Irish. We've seen Bachmann offering a wide range of chassis for kitbashing at the like, Rapido and Fourdees make strides in using a common chassis with a 3d printed body on their Sirdar, perhaps something similar using an 0-6-0 chassis which can have pony trucks and bogies added on front and back to cover a wide range of Irish narrow gauge motive power!

[Mayner]

Funnily enough several years ago I seriously considered following IRM/Accurascale example and comissioning a New Zealand "Coal Route" large GE diesel loco and bogie coal wagons in the almost complete absence of decent RTR, but ended up producing a small range of 3D printed Irish wagons. 

Main issue was while I could largely fund the design and manufacture of the wagons from the 'back pocket' so to speak, financing the loco would be challenging combination of long lead time (2-3 years) and an uncertain market. Apart from money and time there was the little matter of scale, gauge and potential market. While there was potential crossover between New Zealand, Australian and potentially South African outline 3'6" modellers. New Zealand and Queensland 3'6" outline modellers work to different scales/gauges.  Kiwis' choosing Sn3.5 (S on 16.5 gauge) Ozzies HOm for Queenslands' 3'6', scale/gauge used in other 'narrow gauge" States tends to vary between States! So choice of choosing Sn3.5 and potentially limiting myself to Kiwi modellers and those wanting to run something different on HO/OO or potentially becomming a 'disruptor' in the hope that Kiwi modellers would adopt a new scale/gauge in order to appeal to the apparrently larger Ozzie market. A bit like Paddy Murphy or IRM/Accurascale adapting HO rather than EM in order to appeal to American and Continental outline modellers.

In a way taking a more basic prossibly low cost/investment approach Silver Fox has been adapting British to Irish outline models for many years. Not convinced on the adaptability of TT1:120 chassis for Irish narrow gauge, apart from the wheels and valve gear being to a smaller scale than a 4mm loco, modern chassis design has shifted from the traditional standard 0-6-0 chassis block once used by different manufacturers to custom designed chassis for individual locomotives.