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mphoey

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Interesting thoughts on the whole Chinese manufacturing topic. At the end of the day, we as purchasers of these models have to accept that to continue receiving models of this standard, for these prices, without accepting a drastic drop in our own living standards, HAVE to take advantage of somebody, be it the Taiwanese, the Chinese, or whoever comes next...

And there will be a "next" at some stage.

China's economic conditions will eventually improve to the point where they lose that competitive edge, and manufacturing will move somewhere else.

Living in Las Canarias, I can tell you that €800 a month for a 40 plus hour week is considered normal to good. Minimum wage is something like €650 per month. Even at €800 a month for 40 odd hours, that's €185 per week, or around €4,50 per hour.

There's the downside of somebody having to invest heavily in setting up manufacturing, in training the staff and allowing them gain experience, but this is already happening in Spain. Fifteen years ago, all of the plastic bric a brac crap sold here was made in China. Now, it's all made up in Spain, where wages are even higher than Las Canarias.

Then there's the upside of production still being waaaaaay cheaper than it would be in a first world place like Ireland, and everything being a lot closer to home. No more of this "it's on the other side of the world" when there's a problem - it's less than four hours on a flight here nowadays.

I suspect that at some stage over the coming years, we're going to see legislation designed to protect European jobs, by making it harder and more expensive to use cheap labour from lower wage economies. It may not be a case of production moving to Afghanistan or India because it's cheaper, it may be Bulgaria or wherever because it's the cheapest place with access to sell those products, whatever they may be, in Europe.

The Chinese bubble will definitely burst over the coming years, I'm sure everybody can agree on that.

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3 hours ago, murphaph said:

All valid points and I wonder are some or all of these contributing to some manufacturers' decisions to repatriate at least some of their manufacturing to Europe. Märklin (to Hungary) have and I believe Dapol (to the UK) also. It'll be an interesting trend to watch over the coming years. Perhaps a cluster of contract manufacturers will open up around the Märklin site in Hungary, for example, as expertise is gained locally and ex-Märklin engineers decide they can set up their own operations for the contract market. I'm guessing that's what happened in Guangdong.

New Bachmann and Hornby factory in Athboy?

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On 27/1/2022 at 10:27 AM, murphaph said:

Quick question about the Cravens. Were they ever hauled in a scheduled train by steam traction or only later by preserved steam on specials? They came in right at the end of steam so I'm not sure. I don't recall seeing any photos of such but it's not my area of expertise (nothing is lol).

I was researching Cravens for an article in Five Foot Three many years ago after we put the set back into traffic. I came across at least one source that noted them being in the formation of a steam-hauled cross border working in the mid 60s (behind a UTA Jeep to be specific). I seem to remember coming across another instance subsequent to the article being published, I must dig out my notes...

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4 minutes ago, Niles said:

I was researching Cravens for an article in Five Foot Three many years ago after we put the set back into traffic. I came across at least one source that noted them being in the formation of a steam-hauled cross border working in the mid 60s (behind a UTA Jeep to be specific). I seem to remember coming across another instance subsequent to the article being published, I must dig out my notes...

Ah! I was referring to CIE only.

If you want to include the north, it is possible that one might have been included in the consist of a train between Dundalk and Great Victoria Street, specifically - and hauled, again specifically - by a "Jeep" and in the company of laminates or ex-GNR coaches in CIE livery.

A word of caution though; more than once at that time I personally encountered confusion amongst our northern colleagues on the difference between laminates and Cravens.

I would not rule out such a thing happening, though - but certainly not in any circumstances - even shunting - on CIE lines with CIE engines.

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6 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

A word of caution though; more than once at that time I personally encountered confusion amongst our northern colleagues on the difference between laminates and Cravens.

That's a good point actually, even now there's a bit of confusion out there between Park Royals and Laminates, despite being very different profile wise. :)

Even on preserved workings, I think I traced the first instance of the RPSI having one on a hired set to be part of the North Kerry tour (removed for some legs, annoyingly the most photographed ones) in the early 70s. This caused a lot of midnight oil to be consumed between Tony and myself back in the day, the aul 3am 'look at this!' emails... 

Edited by Niles
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If we've learned one thing from all manufacturers its that new models will arrive only when they arrive, not when promised, but they invariably are always worth the wait. We have been utterly spoilt for choice these past 10 years between Murphy Models, Irish Railway Models, Silverfox models, Irish Freight Models, MIR, SSM, Provincial Wagons, OO Works, D&M, etc. 30 years ago there was not one single scale model of an Irish loco nor one piece of rolling stock. The world changed when Patrick Murphy teamed up with Bachmann to produce the 141/181 class baby GMs around 2007, and its been nothing but progress since. We have an abundance of quality Irish rolling stock and locos from 1955 to 2021. Thank Goodness nobody has yet contemplated producing toy 22k yo-yo DMUs (ie literally pointless train operations). 

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10 hours ago, BosKonay said:

Heh. Correct. I was simply giving the ballpark that at best you are looking at a year from engineering samples to delivery. And that’s if you can nail down factory slots. So once you’ve seen physical samples you can assume anything is about a year or so away. 

Is Boskonay one of the team members at IRM?

 

Will Paddy Murphy really be releasing models of Cravens again and the BR Van/GSV?

 

Regards Kian.

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1 hour ago, Noel said:

If we've learned one thing from all manufacturers its that new models will arrive only when they arrive, not when promised, but they invariably are always worth the wait. We have been utterly spoilt for choice these past 10 years between Murphy Models, Irish Railway Models, Silverfox models, Irish Freight Models, MIR, SSM, Provincial Wagons, OO Works, D&M, etc. 30 years ago there was not one single scale model of an Irish loco nor one piece of rolling stock. The world changed when Patrick Murphy teamed up with Bachmann to produce the 141/181 class baby GMs around 2007, and its been nothing but progress since. We have an abundance of quality Irish rolling stock and locos from 1955 to 2021. Thank Goodness nobody has yet contemplated producing toy 22k yo-yo DMUs (ie literally pointless train operations). 

To each their own and all that like...

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36 minutes ago, railfan222 said:

Is Boskonay one of the team members at IRM?

 

Will Paddy Murphy really be releasing models of Cravens again and the BR Van/GSV?

 

Yes he is 

it’s a maybe on the cravens if he thinks the demand is there (that’s what he said in the initial announcement), I think no BR vans

44 minutes ago, murphaph said:

Would you really say no to an AEC 2600 set in B&T Noel?

GNR, UTA, CIE green and CIE Black n tan. A nice variety of liveries, on those AEC sets. The only issue is the rolling stock isint there yet for if you wanted an intermediate coach 

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52 minutes ago, railfan222 said:

Is Boskonay one of the team members at IRM?

 

Will Paddy Murphy really be releasing models of Cravens again and the BR Van/GSV?

 

Regards Kian.

Yes, Boskonay is one of them, so be careful what you write or you'll be blacklisted by IRM... Do not sell to this guy!

😂

Regarding Cravens, the opening post in this thread reads as follows:

On 1/3/2021 at 2:01 PM, mphoey said:

just got this from facebook if its genuine which i believe its going to be great for us

Great news from Paddy Murphy !!
 
201 Class locomotives
There will be short production runs of the 201 Class locomotive in three different liveries. These will be the most recent Enterprise livery, the interim Black & Silver 'Raccoon' livery and the Intercity green/silver livery with the current IE logo. Exact schedule is not available at present but it is hoped late 2021/first half 2022. Because of the small quantities involved, these will be allocated to model shops on a fair Pro-rata basis.
Mk2d Air-conditioned stock
The next release of these coaches will be produced in IR livery. Versions will be Full First, Composite, Standard, Restaurant and EGV. In addition, to complement the existing EGV and Restaurant stock, Standard class coaches in the 'Galway' livery will also be produced. Minor adjustments will be made to existing tooling where necessary. Similar schedule to Class 201.
Mk3 stock
It is over 20 years ago since Murphy Models last produced ready to run Irish Mk3 stock. It is planned to release a brand-new range of CIE, IR and IE Mk3 coaches featuring all new tooling incorporating all the unique features of the Irish Mk3. This will include items such as plug doors. Proposed versions across the liveries will be- EGV, First, Composite, City-Gold, Restaurant, Standard and Executive.
It is also planned to produce the suburban version of the Mk3 with the hopper windows as well as the push-pull driving trailer.
Craven
I am also considering a new production of Craven coaches. This is subject to there being enough interest to make such a project economically viable.

So yes, Cravens would seem to be in consideration.

The chronological order has not yet been released, but I'd suspect that Mk2D coaches will be the first of thecoach releases, as they were a definite in the OP, and do not require tooling from the ground up like the Mk3's.

IRM have raised the bar with their Mk2 B/C range, so Murphy Models will probably be tweaking the future products a little, but that's only heresay, not fact.

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1 hour ago, Noel said:

Thank Goodness nobody has yet contemplated producing toy 22k yo-yo DMUs (ie literally pointless train operations). 

What's the issue if one was produced? Some like them, most probably don't. As with all things Noel, if you don't like something, you don't have to buy it. 

I have all of the Spice Girls albums. Again, some like them, most probably don't. 

Edit: Ignore the above. I wasn't supposed to admit to that. 

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3 hours ago, Noel said:

If we've learned one thing from all manufacturers its that new models will arrive only when they arrive, not when promised, but they invariably are always worth the wait. We have been utterly spoilt for choice these past 10 years between Murphy Models, Irish Railway Models, Silverfox models, Irish Freight Models, MIR, SSM, Provincial Wagons, OO Works, D&M, etc. 30 years ago there was not one single scale model of an Irish loco nor one piece of rolling stock. The world changed when Patrick Murphy teamed up with Bachmann to produce the 141/181 class baby GMs around 2007, and its been nothing but progress since. We have an abundance of quality Irish rolling stock and locos from 1955 to 2021. Thank Goodness nobody has yet contemplated producing toy 22k yo-yo DMUs (ie literally pointless train operations). 

23/24 years ago Marks Models was producing resin kits to scale i.e. 141's/201's way above what was being produced at the time.

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2 minutes ago, warb said:

23/24 years ago Marks Models was producing resin kits to scale i.e. 141's/201's way above what was being produced at the time.

Very true Noel and fine kits they were too 

Rich

2 minutes ago, JasonB said:

Christ Rich, I thought you knew me better than that :D 

Thanks man for putting me at ease.

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2 hours ago, murphaph said:

Surely T-ara take that honour given the origin of these units 😁

Jesus, that's scarily niche knowledge there... What are you hiding?

1 hour ago, warb said:

23/24 years ago Marks Models was producing resin kits to scale i.e. 141's/201's way above what was being produced at the time.

I vaguely remember the resin 201 bodies in Marks, but can't remember the 141 / 181 bodies.

1 hour ago, RedRich said:

I think a 22k would also attract younger kids to the hobby. Most people model their favorite era and if a 22k or 2900 are what bring the next generation to the hobby everyone's a winner 

Rich

And the rest! Anybody wanting to get into railway modelling, Irish or otherwise, will look for something familiar, either what they see today, or what they remember from their youth. A multiple unit is also a very cost effective way of getting a model railway running, as a three-car unit is likely to be cheaper than a loco and two coaches.

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I'm disappointed nobody's mentioned B*Witched. 😁

I remember the Marks kits on display there, I'm guessing the arrival of the Lima 201 shortly time would have had an impact on the 201? They had a 141 resin body on display for a while there, I never seen one painted.

 

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, DJ Dangerous said:

Jesus, that's scarily niche knowledge there... What are you hiding?

I vaguely remember the resin 201 bodies in Marks, but can't remember the 141 / 181 bodies.

And the rest! Anybody wanting to get into railway modelling, Irish or otherwise, will look for something familiar, either what they see today, or what they remember from their youth. A multiple unit is also a very cost effective way of getting a model railway running, as a three-car unit is likely to be cheaper than a loco and two coaches.

Exactly, it's the contemporary rolling stock that appeals to a larger amount of the younger generation. The constant monotony of ridiculing the current fleets is stale and well past it's sell by date now.

Rich

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5 hours ago, warb said:

23/24 years ago Marks Models was producing resin kits to scale i.e. 141's/201's way above what was being produced at the time.

The most impressive aspect of the whole business was the quality and production rate of a small group of younger MRSI modellers who produced scratchbuilt models of the 201s, new railcars and masters for the resin castings, there was no waiting for a kit or rtr manufacturer to produce an accurate commercial model of an Irish prototype they just did it!

As a slightly older Irish scratch builder/kit-basher seeing these high quality scratchbuilt 201s, Sparrow and Arrow railcars and other models was a revelation similar to Neil Young fist hearing the Sex Pistols----------I was blown away by the quality of the modelling and their production rate.

10 years earlier very few people were modelling Irish railways and now a small group of modellers were scratchbuilding high quality fleets of locos, coaches and rolling stock.

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Not sure how this debate sparked again, it’s happens every once and a while, but I’ll give my 2 cents as per usual 

As somone who is barely old enough to remember the 121s and 141s in service. I also know another lad, slightly older then me who also models Irish. Between the 2 of us, I model 1950s-1960s, he models 1960s and also 1980s/90s.

 

between the two of us, we both started in Hornby train sets, that can be made as cheaply as they are because the toolings were so old, and they could be mass produced. This is something neither Irish manufacturers have. Even murphy’s old stuff pre 071 Is tied up with Bachman, Lima and Hornby. Hence they cannot be used, never mind the “mass produce factor”. A large tender loco, two coaches, a ring of track with a siding cost about €120 in 2008 money, very hard to compete with that. 
 

The only current stock I get giddy for is the 201/mk IV set. Accociated with goods days out to Dublin for many of us. Not the best yolks in the world, but good memories most of our generation endured in them (whom just now are coming into the world of work) if they ever come out, my 201/mk IV’s will have to fit with the 1960s 🤣

 

22k’s and 29k’s are the Backbone of what’s working at the moment, if I’m correct the 27k is what Bachman made a variant of before (weather accurate or not, I’m not sure). 22k’s don’t have an accurate representation in Modelling yet, but since they have not been in service for too long, I think waiting another while for those locos to pick up nostalgic momentum is a better idea. Chris Dier makes a few of these Multiple units in RTR. Not much use to a child, buts there for us lot!

 

 

 

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15 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

22k’s and 29k’s are the Backbone of what’s working at the moment, if I’m correct the 27k is what Bachman made a variant of before (weather accurate or not, I’m not sure). 22k’s don’t have an accurate representation in Modelling yet, but since they have not been in service for too long, I think waiting another while for those locos to pick up nostalgic momentum is a better idea. Chris Dier makes a few of these Multiple units in RTR. Not much use to a child, buts there for us lot!

The Bachmann sets were British Class 158's re-painted into a 2600-ish livery.

Chris Dyer's 29000's are three car British Class 166's repainted into Irish liveries. I have two of these on the way from Chris, but both are four-car units, not three-car units.

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17 minutes ago, DJ Dangerous said:

The Bachmann sets were British Class 158's re-painted into a 2600-ish livery.

Chris Dyer's 29000's are three car British Class 166's repainted into Irish liveries. I have two of these on the way from Chris, but both are four-car units, not three-car units.

Ahhh perfect, I remember seeing that Bachman set when I was young and wanting one, unfortunately Back then, I was light years away from being able to afford it.
Somone aught to convince UK companies to make a similar set again…..and then Hornby would try to copy it and sell it for cheaper!

 

 

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11 hours ago, Niles said:

I'm disappointed nobody's mentioned B*Witched. 😁

I remember the Marks kits on display there, I'm guessing the arrival of the Lima 201 shortly time would have had an impact on the 201? They had a 141 resin body on display for a while there, I never seen one painted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Niles

A blast from the past Marks Models kits 24 years on

 

20220129_111523.jpg

20220129_111503.jpg

20220129_111439.jpg

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