IRM A Class Now In Production! Here's why you should get your pre-orders in sooner than later...

[JasonB]

16 hours ago, Noel said:

I tell ou now, nowat dats an uttur dissgraesh, ou wudnt no a kiry man if ou met him at all at all, ou haf me kilt schton ded wit laughing ut loud. Doz miserable detwanderthals from cark haf not one bit uv a brain cell between al uv dem, ant dey all talk like gerls singing wurds. Dish is de kingdum riaght fella.   No yella in kiry. Wat class uv A fella wud tink udderwise?

German, was he Noel? 

[RedRich]

Nah Jason sounds like he dropped a few disco biscuits. He's at the stage now where the jaw gets slack and you start gurning.

Rich,

[connollystn]

Just one month to go before the As arrive. This is like waiting for Christmas (or the pubs to fully re-open [whichever comes first]).

[jhb171achill]

1 hour ago, connollystn said:

Just one month to go before the As arrive. This is like waiting for Christmas (or the pubs to fully re-open [whichever comes first]).

Imagine..... getting a nice parcel in the post and opening it up...... then setting off to the local for a feed’o’pints to celebrate...... 

Seems like another planet now....

[NIRCLASS80]

Are the “A’s” being flown in to be delivered early June as I see the KUA’s are delayed to late May and they have been on the high seas for weeks already?

[Warbonnet]

1 hour ago, NIRCLASS80 said:

Are the “A’s” being flown in to be delivered early June as I see the KUA’s are delayed to late May and they have been on the high seas for weeks already?

The KUAs are delayed due to being caught up in the Suez issue and the fall out from that. The As are likely to go via rail...

[connollystn]

I've a sneaking feeling that the pubs will be fully re-open before the As arrive.

[BosKonay]

16 minutes ago, connollystn said:

I've a sneaking feeling that the pubs will be fully re-open before the As arrive.

Considering the A leaves the factory in 3ish weeks time, I doubt it

[skinner75]

I'd say it'll be September before pubs are fully reopened - at the very earliest!

(The ones that do reopen that is)

Edited April 14, 2021 by skinner75

[Noel]

30 minutes ago, skinner75 said:

I'd say it'll be September before pubs are fully reopened - at the very earliest!

(The ones that do reopen that is)

I think you are probably right, for wet pubs anyway. There seems more and more potholes for the vaccination programme every week, but at least its a good problem to have (ie 5 proven vaccines available, 17 variants of A classes coming down the tracks) with supply problems for only two of the five vaccines, compared to a year ago when there was zero vaccines in sight. There is clear light emerging at the end of the covid tunnel and it grows every brighter and gets ever closer, yet frustrating that the last furlong is taking a while longer than we'd all hoped. This time next year we might be pestering IRM/AS for C classes and CAF mk4 sets. Or if the vaccines go horribly wrong (ie worse than webbed feet) we could be staring down the barrel of 22k ICE train sets, however completely unlikely such as disaster is likely to occur.    The future is brightening up, we just need a little more time. Keep safe all.

[DJ Dangerous]

31 minutes ago, Noel said:

This time next year we might be pestering IRM/AS for C classes and CAF mk4 sets. Or if the vaccines go horribly wrong (ie worse than webbed feet) we could be staring down the barrel of 22k ICE train sets.

 

You're in the closet about the modern image. Those who shout the loudest have the most to hide. I'm sure you have several weedspray and spoil trains!

Edited April 14, 2021 by DJ Dangerous

[Noel]

2 minutes ago, DJ Dangerous said:

 

Your in the closet about the modern image. Those who shout the loudest have the most to hide. I'm sure you have several weedspray and spoil trains!

Well Dave I've travelled a lot on CAF Mk4 sets so no surprises there, modern and all as they are at least they are trains that have carriages and an engine that pulls them and they were comfy to sit in and quiet unlike the plastic biscuit tin yoyos that replaced the mk3 stock. Now as to yellow s*** no way, I don't have any, your weed spray van was the closed I got to catching yellow fever. I do confess that I have a pair of yellow plough vans still in their box in the attic pending weathering into a CIE brown state.  Also confess I have some weed spray wagons as donors for old CIE era weed train using 20ft container flats for the tankers and laminate brake parcels van for the spray coach. I'll need to buy a serious no of indulgences to avoid being sent to the bogie of eternal stench for my lapse. But I might just be able to buy my way out of model damnation by airbrushing a few laminate coaches in flying snail CIE green. I also confess that I have two 201 locos but I don't run them.

[DJ Dangerous]

Thou dost protest too much, but admitting to your growing modern era collection is the first step.

[Ironroad]

Hi  DJ, " modern" is quite relative. Tin vans were "modern" This is the cover of Railway Modeller May 1964;-

 

[Galteemore]

A seminal issue of RM, and C J Freezer’s use of that phrase still echoes in the UK outline community to this day in heated debate !!

Edited April 14, 2021 by Galteemore

[DJ Dangerous]

12 minutes ago, Ironroad said:

Hi  DJ, " modern" is quite relative. Tin vans were "modern" This is the cover of Railway Modeller May 1964;-

 

Pre-ST = "Pre-Historic era" when it comes to classification.

ST was the "Warm era", then IR and IE were the "Golden era".

Anything post-orange is " Modern"...

But yes, obviously, a hundred years ago, Tin Vans were modern and essential!

 

[Noel]

6 minutes ago, DJ Dangerous said:

Pre-ST = "Pre-Historic era" when it comes to classification.

ST was the "Warm era", then IR and IE were the "Golden era".

Anything post-orange is " Modern"...

But yes, obviously, a hundred years ago, Tin Vans were modern and essential!

 

The Golden era is whatever one you remember it as being such. Modern for me was Orange when super train was launched and BR went with Blue/Grey mk2 stock oft referred to by uk press as modern era.

[DJ Dangerous]

29 minutes ago, Noel said:

The Golden era is whatever one you remember it as being such. Modern for me was Orange when super train was launched and BR went with Blue/Grey mk2 stock oft referred to by uk press as modern era.

How could you not call this the Golden era? It's quite literally golden with sexy white stripes!

Admittedly, "Modern" will move on and what's currently "Modern" will be re-classified into the "Silver and Black" era and the "Freight Grey" era...

 

[Noel]

Back in 1972 Super train looked really cool and modern due to the roof profile of the A class and matching curved roof profiles of the new mk2 stock. It looked all modern and sleek (as intended despite the fact the repainted locos were then 17 years old already). Clever marketing campaign and the sleek aerodynamic looking roof ends and A class curves looked from another era compared to what had gone before. 75mph seemed like a spaceship in an Ireland that was then still partial to peat, turf and bogs with only one TV station that didn't go on air until 5:30pm and finished about 11pm with the national anthem which everybody was expected to stand for. That disappearing dot in the TV screen when you turned it off and 405 line TV picture imploded. Only some relatives on the east coast could get foreign TV channels from Wales. Mart'n'Market topped the rankings and had the premium slots for advertisers in an Ireland were the Riordans was our east enders, complete with tea taboos & tractors, scandal after scandal but a preview of Miley rolling in the hay 20 years later with Fidelma in Glenroe. How far we've come as a nation, colour traffic lights now in every town and village, its about 40 years since I've seen the last set of black and white traffic lights.    The A classes were of that era with their 1950s crossly engines before modernised to reliable EMD units. The original super train felt like the Irish Bullet train, little did we know how slow we were still going on jointed rail largely still controlled by manned signal boxes and semaphore signals. A strange overlap just before the 1974 freight modernisation programme was introduced that would do away with the massive goods yards and marshalling sidings full of two axle loose coupled wagons. The A class covered both eras and more later, its hard to believe the original dull grey machines also had the smart IR tippex orange livery in the early 1990s.

[Noel]

2 minutes ago, DJ Dangerous said:

How could you not call this the Golden era? It's quite literally golden with sexy white stripes!

Admittedly, "Modern" will move on and what's currently "Modern" will be re-classified into the "Silver and Black" era and the "Freight Grey" era...

That was actually one of the smartest liveries on the A class from a branding point of view. I matched the coaching stock so well. No point trying to split hairs on a hedge hog, but this looked pretty modern at the time. There's no right nor wrong, only ones own personal memories. We live in a strange world, many of the devices that seemed utterly far fetched and implausible on programs such as start trek now exist and we all use, yet technologically we've gone backwards in many ways, no more concord nor supersonic passenger flight, no more space shuttle, back to large fireworks slinging satellites into orbit, steam trains of the 1930s had shorter journey times on main lines express routes than today, almost gone is the HST, but TGV and ICE still fly the tech flag for rail, gone are the HSS fast ferries, gone are the days air travel was enjoyable before airports were turned into cattle crush's, gone is the 747, even the mighty A380 is at sunset stage. I find it curios that in Ireland we hold smelly ancient diesel locos in high regards as preservation heritage rather than main line express steam locos as in other countries. Mk2d are 50 years old but were part of what for me in my life time were considered 'modern era' as were BR mk2 Blue'n'corporate grey coaches hauled by class 37s and 47s. All ancient by todays standards but still modern diesel electric compared to steam era with its vast marshalling yards with literals thousands of loose coupled 2 axles wagons arranged in diverse formations full of variety. Rose tinted glasses perhaps, it was pretty grimy work environment for those who ran the railways back then.

[Westcorkrailway]

33 minutes ago, DJ Dangerous said:

How could you not call this the Golden era? It's quite literally golden with sexy white stripes!

Admittedly, "Modern" will move on and what's currently "Modern" will be re-classified into the "Silver and Black" era and the "Freight Grey" era...

 

Despite me having virtually no interest in that era. I must admit that livery is smartest of the "orange" era and the IR logo is one of the best railway logos ever used on this island if not thee best. But of course, ill bias to the flying snail

[connollystn]

I like both the Flying Snail and IR logos. The IÉ logo is awful.

[flange lubricator]

Never hauled MK3's as they were airbraked .

[Strimmers]

Will the dcc chips be landing in time with the A classes?

[Garfield]

That's the plan.

 

[connollystn]

Hi Garfield. Is it possible to place a tracking device on the containers containing the As when they leave the factory in China so we can trace their progress to your warehouse? It'll give me something to do for the long weekend.

[Georgeconna]

Y

5 minutes ago, connollystn said:

Hi Garfield. Is it possible to place a tracking device on the containers containing the As when they leave the factory in China so we can trace their progress to your warehouse? It'll give me something to do for the long weekend.

 

No need for a tracking device (cold war stuff that!), If they fancy giving out the ship number you can track that way but don't forget there are quite a lot of railway modellers in Somalia and if the pirates hear of this it could be in jeopardy and intercepted by them.

 

 

[DJ Dangerous]

57 minutes ago, connollystn said:

Hi Garfield. Is it possible to place a tracking device on the containers containing the As when they leave the factory in China so we can trace their progress to your warehouse? It'll give me something to do for the long weekend.

No need for tracking, as George says...

The lads will want to make this launch special, so they'll probably fly the pallets of locos on an Antonov, parachute them out over the Canaries, then the lads will skydive alongside the pallets with their GoPro's.

They'll then land and film the unboxing of one of the best models ever in one of the most beautiful places in the world, edit all the clips together, and make the best "unboxing" video ever.

Twenty minutes wouldn't be long enough.

[Georgeconna]

13 minutes ago, DJ Dangerous said:

No need for tracking, as George says...

The lads will want to make this launch special, so they'll probably fly the pallets of locos on an Antonov, parachute them out over the Canaries, then the lads will skydive alongside the pallets with their GoPro's.

They'll then land and film the unboxing of one of the best models ever in one of the most beautiful places in the world, edit all the clips together, and make the best "unboxing" video ever.

Twenty minutes wouldn't be long enough.

LOL! I reckon that Sams Trains have the  get the unboxing exclusive rights for the A class, 1 day long special ( Guinness book of records attempt)

 

[DJ Dangerous]

Just now, Georgeconna said:

LOL! I reckon that Sams Trains have the  get the unboxing exclusive rights for the A class, 1 day long special ( Guinness book of records attempt)

 

I'm not so sure, that chap looks like he wouldn't survive the sky-diving.

[connollystn]

Wouldn't that be great - a 1 day long special of the unboxing of the A Class? Not really into sarcasm but I get the feeling that many of you guys would fast forward past the first 23 hours and 45 minutes of the show just to avoid the review about the box.

[jhb171achill]

I detest “unboxing videos” just about as much as watching tennis, golf or grass growing.......

”Take the damn thing out of the box, throw away all the plasticky bits, put it on the track, and let’s see it go!”

[Warbonnet]

Hi everyone,

A quick update on the A Class for you in our latest news section of the website: https://irishrailwaymodels.com/blogs/announcements/a-class-update-april-2021

Thanks,

Fran

[connollystn]

Tá go h-an díoma orm.

[burnthebox]

2 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

”Take the damn thing out of the box, throw away all the plasticky bits, put it on the track, and let’s see it go!”

A man after my own heart, burn the bloody thing...

BTB

Edited April 30, 2021 by burnthebox