N scale Irish locos

[Peter]

I am putting this question out to modellers and manufacturers. What is the likelihood of RTR Irish n scale locos being manufactured?

Is there simply not enough people modelling in this scale in Ireland and abroad to justify it?

Peter

[BosKonay]

Simply, not enough people. We're just barely a market that can support OO products to be totally honest.

[MikeO]

This question comes up now and again and the answer as BosKonay says there are not enough people interested  in Irish N gauge to make RTR a profitable concern, hence the concentration on conversions and scratch building. Taking the membership of this form as an example, there are probably only about 5 people with a declared interest in Irish N gauge a very tiny percentage, under half of 1%, of the total membership of 1289. 

Edited October 16, 2019 by MikeO

[WRENNEIRE]

Lima N Gauge which was made in the late 70's

Their usual effort painting existing stock to resemble Irish stock

Only a very small amount was done to gauge the Irish market

It was not successful and never went into full production

 

 

 

[Peter]

9 hours ago, WRENNEIRE said:

Lima N Gauge which was made in the late 70's

Their usual effort painting existing stock to resemble Irish stock

Only a very small amount was done to gauge the Irish market

It was not successful and never went into full production

 

 

 

I think it was you that said before 'rarer than hen's teeth'. 

Thanks for the replies. I'll have to try my hand at making shapeways models look realistic. 

[Mayner]

In modelling Irish railway in N gauge I focused on the overall effect of modelling a railway in a realistic setting with locos and stock that looked the part from the proverbial distance of 2 foot.

The main problem with the Lima N gauge was it was nearly impossible to achieve reliable running because of poor designed electrical pick up and the poor quality of the Lima N gauge motor.

I ended up replacing my Lima N gauge locos with Atlas, Arnold or Minitrix diesels with scratchbuilt or kit-bashed Irish bodies, for me the break through was the Atlas SW1500 American switcher which I used as a basis for B121 & 141 locos, I also used an Atlas GP30 chassis for an A Class with a scratchbuilt plasticard body, wrong wheel arrangement but excellent low speed running and haulage ability that was ahead of contemporary British outline OO gauge.