Irish Railway Models Survey. You have spoken!

[Warbonnet]

Hi Everyone,

 

Firstly, I would like to extend a massive thank you on behalf of the Irish Railway Models team to everyone who completed our recent survey.

 

We have collated your answers and suggestions and are taking them on board. Some of these answers will be discussed in specific posts in the coming days and weeks.

 

In the meantime, we have analysed your feedback about what you would like to see next from us, and here are some of the most popular suggestions:

 

Leading the way (by a nose!) is a bogie container flat. Most were for the humble 42ft flat to recreate those classic Bell and Guinness liners as well as modern day spoil wagons, but there's also love for the 47ft flat as below too.

 

Flat Wagon close up by franburke, on Flickr

 

Spoil Wagon - Portarlington by franburke, on Flickr

 

Right behind was the iconic double beet wagon. It appears many of you want to recreate scenes like below:

 

051 23-10-93 by Ian Leech, on Flickr

 

(And yes, there was a lot of calls for an A Class too!)

 

In third place was the Mark IIIs, with calls for an accurate Irish outline model of this iconic coach which we all miss.

 

Irish Rail 7136 in Kent Station. by Fred Dean, on Flickr

 

Neck and neck in 4th is the fertiliser and bagged cement wagons; both widely travelled and uniquely Irish. Also both sadly missed.

 

Fert Albert Quay 1975 by tom ryan, on Flickr

 

DSCF2917 by tom ryan, on Flickr

 

There has also been a lot of calls for us to do the plough brake vans to compliment our ballast hoppers. We agree that they would look fantastic done to a highly detailed, ready to run model standard, book-ending a rake of our ballast wagons. Tempting...

 

 

Speaking of our ballast wagons; our stocks are running quite low at this stage. Make sure you don't miss out before they're all gone as we wont be doing another run for quite a while. These running numbers wont be repeated. Secure the best Irish wagon model on the market before they run out and start going on EBay at a premium. https://irishrailwaymodels.com/shop/

Edited August 30, 2017 by Warbonnet

[Noel]

Thanks Fran. That is excellent news. Happy to wait until the end of time for RTR double beat wagons.

 

Exciting times ahead.

[NIRCLASS80]

Interesting times ahead. Keep up the great work.

[RedRich]

My own preferences were for the MK111's (inc, Push Pull stock) Beets, Bagged and Palletised Cement. The Ballast plough is a no brainer really. I had also voted for a Bogie Cement as they are a smashing wagon. The results that Fran has posted were pretty much what I thought would be the most popular amongst voters.

 

Lot's to look forward to in the coming years.

 

Rich,

[Warbonnet]

Thanks men!

 

The plough van might seem like a no-brainer in one way Rich, but on the other hand it's a very specialist and even lower than low volume model of course. Were we can sell, say 12 ballast wagons to a customer, we can only really sell two plough vans. Lower volume means higher price. Out of the 130 respondents to the survey, we did receive a handful who asked us to keep an eye on price point which we fully understand.

 

On the other hand, you would pay a high premium to get a kit and have it professionally made for you. In that case the extra premium for a RTR plough would actually be less than professionally kit built. And you'd realistically need two for the train! It's a tough one!

[RedRich]

I fully agree Fran re the Plough. I understand there would be a price increase for a shorter volume, it's economics. It must be a bit of a dilemma for IRM, will we or won't we. Personally myself I'd pay the extra premium and take the hit as it wouldn't be a case of re mortgaging the house or having to sell a kidney and it would complete a rake and make it look right, I also get the feeling that IRM like to finish the book and complete the story. There's also the Per Way yellow livery I love it.

 

If a two pack could be produced at a reasonable price either side of a three pack cement or two pack Tara (when that price is announced) as I said no brainer, but having said that it isn't my decision and you folks are the ones that know the business side of things.

 

Rich,

[iarnrod]

Speaking of our ballast wagons; our stocks are running quite low at this stage. Make sure you don't miss out before they're all gone as we wont be doing another run for quite a while. These running numbers wont be repeated. Secure the best Irish wagon model on the market before they run out and start going on EBay at a premium. https://irishrailwaymodels.com/shop/

 

Lads, interesting results from the survey, and I hope it helps steer you guys to make the correct decisions as to future releases.

 

Can you just clarify something for me.....you mention that you won't be doing another run of ballasts for quite a while. Will there ever be a batch done in CIE era livery in the future or should I buy a batch now and respray? When you guys say quite a while, any indication of a time frame here or what livery/era the next batch is likely to be? Thanks lads.

Edited August 30, 2017 by iarnrod

[Noel]

I fully agree Fran re the Plough. I understand there would be a price increase for a shorter volume, it's economics. It must be a bit of a dilemma for IRM, will we or won't we. Personally myself I'd pay the extra premium and take the hit as it wouldn't be a case of re mortgaging the house or having to sell a kidney and it would complete a rake and make it look right, I also get the feeling that IRM like to finish the book and complete the story. There's also the Per Way yellow livery I love it.

 

If a two pack could be produced at a reasonable price either side of a three pack cement or two pack Tara (when that price is announced) as I said no brainer, but having said that it isn't my decision and you folks are the ones that know the business side of things.

 

Rich,

 

Yes agree its a difficult one re ploughs. Tooling up for selling just two wagons per client of a very specialist item may not make economic sense, especially when there are brass kits available and people who take on commissions to build them for those like myself who don't do brass kits. I don't do modern yellow stock, so I'd be commissioning somebody to build older brown ploughs anyway. But that list above posted by Fran is superb. It looks like IRM have the next few years exciting production just about penciled in. Looking forward to hearing about each new project as they are announced over the coming years.

[iarnrod]

Yes agree its a difficult one re ploughs. Tooling up for selling just two wagons per client of a very specialist item may not make economic sense, especially when there are brass kits available and people who take on commissions to build them for those like myself who don't do brass kits. I don't do modern yellow stock, so I'd be commissioning somebody to build older brown ploughs anyway. But that list above posted by Fran is superb. It looks like IRM have the next few years exciting production just about penciled in. Looking forward to hearing about each new project as they are announced over the coming years.

 

Potentially more than two wagons per client as these wagons initially had CIE logos applied, then IR logos applied and whatever markings they had/have in IE days. Depends which period people model, but the current batch of ballasts only lend themselves to IE period, unless you want to respray and re-decal them.

Edited August 30, 2017 by iarnrod

[Warbonnet]

Speaking of our ballast wagons; our stocks are running quite low at this stage. Make sure you don't miss out before they're all gone as we wont be doing another run for quite a while. These running numbers wont be repeated. Secure the best Irish wagon model on the market before they run out and start going on EBay at a premium. https://irishrailwaymodels.com/shop/

 

Lads, interesting results from the survey, and I hope it helps steer you guys to make the correct decisions as to future releases.

 

Can you just clarify something for me.....you mention that you won't be doing another run of ballasts for quite a while. Will there ever be a batch done in CIE era livery in the future or should I buy a batch now and respray? When you guys say quite a while, any indication of a time frame here or what livery/era the next batch is likely to be? Thanks lads.

 

All I can say Noel is that we have no plans to do another run of them at this moment in time.

[NIRCLASS80]

Great to see a manufacturer being open to ideas, one of the advantages of having genuine modellers at the heart of it all.

I personally would prefer a RTR rake of fertiliser wagons than the plough. Rake of 10 "ferts" made to IRM standards would be awesome!

[aclass007]

Thanks for posting these results from the survey. They make interesting reading.... Personally, I'm delighted to see the bogie container flats at the top of the list! The fertiliser wagons would be high on my wish list too, which got me wondering.... How much, if anything, do both versions of the container flats and the fertiliser wagons have in common? Are bogies and underframes similar on all three, or does each wagon require individual research and development?

[Warbonnet]

Thanks for posting these results from the survey. They make interesting reading.... Personally, I'm delighted to see the bogie container flats at the top of the list! The fertiliser wagons would be high on my wish list too, which got me wondering.... How much, if anything, do both versions of the container flats and the fertiliser wagons have in common? Are bogies and underframes similar on all three, or does each wagon require individual research and development?

 

There is common parts between the 42ft flat and the fert I believe.

 

Also, please note that this is the result of the survey, not an announcement of what we plan to do. We may do some of the above, or none of it and just do Sambo RTR...

[RedRich]

Yes agree its a difficult one re ploughs. Tooling up for selling just two wagons per client of a very specialist item may not make economic sense, especially when there are brass kits available and people who take on commissions to build them for those like myself who don't do brass kits. I don't do modern yellow stock, so I'd be commissioning somebody to build older brown ploughs anyway. But that list above posted by Fran is superb. It looks like IRM have the next few years exciting production just about penciled in. Looking forward to hearing about each new project as they are announced over the coming years.

 

Yes there is a brass kit for the plough and it is a nice kit when completed. The killer is that it sits on a Dapol chassis acceptable for many for a long time, but I think and hope that modellers strive for more accuracy, which is the level that IRM want to strive for themselves with their products.

 

Rich,

[Noel]

Yes there is a brass kit for the plough and it is a nice kit when completed. The killer is that it sits on a Dapol chassis acceptable for many for a long time, but I think and hope that modellers strive for more accuracy, which is the level that IRM want to strive for themselves with their products.

 

Rich,

 

Fair comment on the dapol chassis. I guess for the same design and tooling up effort other wagons might sell in significantly greater volume (e.g. beats, ferts, flats, etc), hence more economic and less risky to produce. I'm very pleased with the rake of superb IRM ballast wagons, (please forgive the sacrilege) but I pretend they are 'gypsum' wagons (i.e. mineral wagons) as I have no interest in PW stuff, hence don't need yellow plough vans.