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

[murphaph]

Stephen I'm wondering have you just sent the price of pre-owned A's tumbling or skyrocketing 

[Colin R]

That's OK then might have a chance to move to a new location subject to things happening the way we want them to, which means I will have the time to save up to buy some of the next batch. will need more green and silver livery versions I think.

In that case does anyone have the knowledge of when each loco went from as delivered Silver to Green and then to Black and Tan V1? I would be looking at nothing later than say 1966 thanks in advance.

Colin 

[DiveController]

6 hours ago, Colin R said:

That's OK then might have a chance to move to a new location subject to things happening the way we want them to, which means I will have the time to save up to buy some of the next batch. will need more green and silver livery versions I think.

In that case does anyone have the knowledge of when each loco went from as delivered Silver to Green and then to Black and Tan V1? I would be looking at nothing later than say 1966 thanks in advance.

Colin 

I think you might be ok for  any silver green or black except maybe black with yellow panel

[murphaph]

I will be in for more IR ones and green and silver ones whenever they do come out. A46 was as far as we know a unique livery, is that still the received wisdom? If so we should obviously not expect that livery to appear again unless it's A46 again. 

[Westcorkrailway]

3 hours ago, DiveController said:

I think you might be ok for  any silver green or black except maybe black with yellow panel

Ids say there may have been a few A’s in black an tan post 1962. Just without the re-engine so the “R” variants wouldn’t have been around 

 

 

[DJ Dangerous]

On 23/1/2023 at 7:05 AM, murphaph said:

I will be in for more IR ones and green and silver ones whenever they do come out. A46 was as far as we know a unique livery, is that still the received wisdom? If so we should obviously not expect that livery to appear again unless it's A46 again. 

 

For weathering to within an inch of their lives?

[murphaph]

I have to practice on one first. Maybe I'll do a certain one that Catzilla destroyed and send it back to its owner filthy!

[connollystn]

Have to say that the A class looks great in all of the liveries, however, I'm a big fan of the silvers as it highlights all of the great details and love the way it gleams when the sun shines - just like today. Would love to see someone do a really good weathering job on one of the silver liveried A classes.

[DJ Dangerous]

34 minutes ago, murphaph said:

I have to practice on one first. Maybe I'll do a certain one that Catzilla destroyed and send it back to its owner filthy!

That sounds like a challenge within a challenge.

[jhb171achill]

3 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

 

 

On 23/1/2023 at 7:05 AM, murphaph said:

 A46 was as far as we know a unique livery, is that still the received wisdom?

Yes, it and C231 (now preserved) appear to be the only ones to get this one-off variation. The rest were all in the lighter green, like carriages and railcars after 1955.

Edited January 24, 2023 by jhb171achill

[DJ Dangerous]

3 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

 

Yes, it and C231 (now preserved) appear to be the only ones to get this one-off variation. The rest were all in the lighter green, like carriages and railcars after 1955.

An outstandingly attractive livery, I must say, looks great with the green Bachmann coaches.

[Westcorkrailway]

3 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

 

Yes, it and C231 (now preserved) appear to be the only ones to get this one-off variation. The rest were all in the lighter green, like carriages and railcars after 1955.

For how long did the livery last/is there any photos, particular colour photos on the internet/IRRS flicker?

 

I have been told of a few other wierd livery variations recently yet struggled to find photos of these variations at the moment  

[jhb171achill]

7 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

For how long did the livery last/is there any photos, particular colour photos on the internet/IRRS flicker?

I have been told of a few other wierd livery variations recently yet struggled to find photos of these variations at the moment  

The light green was introduced about 1957/8 to cover up the absolutely ghastly mess that the "silver" had become; I think, actually, that the very last few "C"s commenced service in green rather than silver.

The orange and black commenced in 1962. However, just like the survival of the (awful!) Mlime green, white and navy blue on 29 class railcars today, it took quite a few years before all were repainted from green to black'n'tan, or after 1964 or so, all-black. There was still the odd green "C" to be seen up to about 1967. Exact same story for the B101s and "A" class.

What other livery variations were you told about as a matter of interest? I'm unaware of any, to be honest, other than the famous yellow and (separately) orange buffer beam experiments.........

[DJ Dangerous]

5 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

However, just like the survival of the (awful!) Mlime green, white and navy blue on 29 class railcars today, it took quite a few years before all were repainted from green to black'n'tan

 

The 29000's are now black and tan???

[Westcorkrailway]

26 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

The light green was introduced about 1957/8 to cover up the absolutely ghastly mess that the "silver" had become; I think, actually, that the very last few "C"s commenced service in green rather than silver.

The orange and black commenced in 1962. However, just like the survival of the (awful!) Mlime green, white and navy blue on 29 class railcars today, it took quite a few years before all were repainted from green to black'n'tan, or after 1964 or so, all-black. There was still the odd green "C" to be seen up to about 1967. Exact same story for the B101s and "A" class.

What other livery variations were you told about as a matter of interest? I'm unaware of any, to be honest, other than the famous yellow and (separately) orange buffer beam experiments.........

Yellow/orange buffer beams on a C class? Didn’t know about those

 

Recently while surfing through a private collection I came across is a photograph of C234 With a flying snail on the side….all I was told was was told they weren’t there long before they started cracking due to the heat (they were not metal snails like the A class) I couldn’t find another photo of this variation on any other loco nevermind C234….possibly a “republic of glanmire road job” as you call it

[DJ Dangerous]

4 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

Yellow/orange buffer beams on a C class? Didn’t know about those

 

Recently while surfing through a private collection I came across is a photograph of C234 With a flying snail on the side….all I was told was was told they weren’t there long before they started cracking due to the heat (they were not metal snails like the A class) I couldn’t find another photo of this variation on any other loco nevermind C234….possibly a “republic of glanmire road job” as you call it

@jhb171achill, this is your mission, should you choose to accept it.

[jhb171achill]

13 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

Yellow/orange buffer beams on a C class? Didn’t know about those

Recently while surfing through a private collection I came across is a photograph of C234 With a flying snail on the side….all I was told was was told they weren’t there long before they started cracking due to the heat (they were not metal snails like the A class) I couldn’t find another photo of this variation on any other loco nevermind C234….possibly a “republic of glanmire road job” as you call it

One “C” (or possibly an “A”; I’d have to look it up) very briefly had an orange buffer beam instead of red; it was a black loco at the time. Another, while in the black-with-yellow-end livery, briefly had the yellow patch on the ends extended down to cover the buffer beam. 
 

I’m unsure of C234 carrying a “snail” while actually in traffic - have you a photo?

[Westcorkrailway]

37 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

One “C” (or possibly an “A”; I’d have to look it up) very briefly had an orange buffer beam instead of red; it was a black loco at the time. Another, while in the black-with-yellow-end livery, briefly had the yellow patch on the ends extended down to cover the buffer beam. 
 

I’m unsure of C234 carrying a “snail” while actually in traffic - have you a photo?

No I don’t have the photo. Although I do wonder if this loco was working out the skibbereen and Baltimore or Clonakilty branch would it have been well photographed or noted at all. 

[jhb171achill]

On 24/1/2023 at 4:55 PM, Westcorkrailway said:

No I don’t have the photo. Although I do wonder if this loco was working out the skibbereen and Baltimore or Clonakilty branch would it have been well photographed or noted at all. 

I'm sure it would. No diesel loco in the silver livery ever carried the "snail" in traffic, other than the "A" class, on which the attached metal cut-out symbol, like the number, was painted light green.

As for C234, if anyone can unearth a photo of it in use with this thing on it, I will be surprised.

Edited June 28, 2023 by jhb171achill

[Georgeconna]

On 21/1/2023 at 11:07 AM, murphaph said:

I've probably not run my A's long enough to see the failure George. I am interested to hear what it turns out to be though. Hopefully just a dry joint somewhere in the chain. Have you tried a different decoder first? The ESU stay alives are a three wire job I think so in theory the decoder could be gone bad as well. It's not a simple capacitor connected across the potential of the rails AFAIK. There's a bit more too it because big fat capacitors work as stay alives but they also swallow the ack pulses from the motor when programming so they have to be switched out of the circuit then. The three wire ones use some charging and discharging circuitry on the decoder and therefore don't need to be isolated during programming like simple caps do.

 

Good news is that got some help from FB, The CV value for 113  was 0, Strange as I had not done any programming on this at all. Anyway set it to 127 and it works again so happy days.

[murphaph]

That is strange indeed. Good to know it was something easy to fix though. I will make a mental note of it lest I encounter the same issue

Edited January 25, 2023 by murphaph

[mmie353]

Quick question, @Warbonnet or @BosKonay I was just thinking, is there any update on the sound decoder for the A Class Crossley sound decoder? Figured I would poke the question. 

[BosKonay]

On 10/5/2023 at 3:57 AM, mmie353 said:

Quick question, @Warbonnet or @BosKonay I was just thinking, is there any update on the sound decoder for the A Class Crossley sound decoder? Figured I would poke the question. 

We are working on a solution, hopefully not too much longer to wait!

[mmie353]

@BosKonay awesome thanks for the update

[Fowler4f]

There was me thinking, a bit of time now to squirrel away a few quid in the piggy bank, oh well I’ll only need 8.

[Warbonnet]

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update re Crossley sound decoders; we currently have one in testing. Tweaks will be required but it's shaping up nicely. Once we have tweaks completed a delivery date will be confirmed and pre-ordering shall commence.

Cheers!

Fran 

[Sean]

Go on, give us a wav preview  

[Warbonnet]

Don't worry Sean, once we're a bit more happy with it a full video will be provided of it! 

[Sean]

cant argue with that  

 

are you able to tell us where the prime mover sounds came from? I had always assumed  it would have to be Australia but with mention of a crossley engined diesel shunter earlier on in the thread you have me pondering now .

[Warbonnet]

1 hour ago, Sean said:

cant argue with that  

 

are you able to tell us where the prime mover sounds came from? I had always assumed  it would have to be Australia but with mention of a crossley engined diesel shunter earlier on in the thread you have me pondering now .

After 4 years of trying we have given up on Australia and it's from historical recordings, some of which were recently unearthed. 

Cheers!

Fran 

[Noel]

4 hours ago, Warbonnet said:

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update re Crossley sound decoders; we currently have one in testing. Tweaks will be required but it's shaping up nicely. Once we have tweaks completed a delivery date will be confirmed and pre-ordering shall commence.

Cheers!

Fran 

Fran, thank you very much for that information. Much appreciated. Looking forward to them. Noel

[leslie10646]

Like Noel, looking forward to this retrofit to my Silver "Bullet". Yep, that's what we called them back in the Day.

Where do I put the SMOKE unit in, to make the model really true to life ........

[DJ Dangerous]

I'm a bit ignorant of sound files and decoders and stuff, so sorry if the terminology is wrong here.

Let's say IRM release a sound decoder for the A Class next summer.

Then, two or three years later, for whatever reason, be it technological advances or unearthing more recordings or a running Crossley being found somewhere, IRM decide to record a new sound file.

Does that new sound file get released as a patch or an update or something via the ESU website?

Or would it only be available via a completely new sound decoder, hardware and all?

[aclass007]

Has anyone tried the A Class - EMD Sound Decoder on a DC layout? I know the functions will be limited, but I'm wondering how well it sounded, and performed in general....

[DJ Dangerous]

On 31/12/2021 at 10:35 AM, Georgeconna said:

You can see I have some silicon grease is added to the 42's to help this but no luck. I can't figure out why the couplings are not going back to the center.

 

Regarding lubricant (shut up about the weekends, @JasonB!!!), and not just for the stiff couplings on the 42' flats, what is "silicon lubricant" suitable for and what is it NOT suitable for?

How did you solve this, @Georgeconna?

I cannot get graphite powder, here, and no retailers will post it.

I slathered the stiff couplings on some of my 42' flats with 3 In 1 oil and it worked a charm, but I understand that it may cause damage to the plastic long-term.

The only thing that I cab find here that's even close is "silicon lubricant", designed for rubber, wood, vinyl and plastic, according to the label.

Also, on that topic, three products recommended for locomotive maintenance are "light oil", "light grease" and "sewing machine oil". None of these are available here, and no retailers will post them. There is no model railway scene, no RC car scene, no antique sewing machine scene, so what are the alternatives, in general hardware store products, not specialist niche products?

 

On 30/12/2021 at 4:00 PM, BosKonay said:

We hate tension locks.

While included, the MK2s and MK5's include magnetic couplings, the caldrons have magnetic chain couplers, and we're working on a range of magnetic and knuckle based systems that will offer compatibility with NEM and those that really want Tension Locks, will be able to continue using them

 

Aside from grabbing both pieces of rolling stock to pull them apart, is there any trick for more subtle uncoupling of the IRM magnetic couplers?

Like, tapping them with another magnet or something?