Orange Is The New Black - Iconic Mark 2B and 2C Coaches Announced

[AY Mod]

October 29th Dublin – Irish Railway Models today announces the Irish Rail Mark 2B and 2C Intercity coaches in OO/4mm gauge as their next coaching. The announcement was made at the Dublin Model Railway Exhibition organised by the Model Railway Society of Ireland.

 

 

History

 

Desperate for additional coaching stock, Irish Rail made a deal with scrapper Vic Berry of Leicester in 1990 to swap a number of withdrawn C 201 Class locomotives for ex-British Rail Mk.2s. While CIÉ had famously acquired BREL-built air-conditioned and vacuum-braked Mk.2d vehicles in the early 1970s, the 16 secondhand coaches were a mix of open vehicles and corridor stock and were taken from the earlier batches that were pressure ventilated, while all but the earliest BR-specification coaches were air-brake only. They also operated to a different electrical voltage to the rest of the IR roster, which made them completely incompatible and required the use of three specially modified ‘Dutch’ generator vans, Nos. 4601-4603.

 

Nine members of the fleet were put into service with little modification other than a repaint, including a single Mk.2 SO, three Mk.2a SO and five declassified Mk.2c SO (ex-FO). A further five declassified Corridor Seconds vehicles (ex-FK), two Mk.2a, a Mk.2b and two Mk.2c, were rebuilt at Inchicore Works as Open Seconds (SO) with 2+2 seating, while another pair of Mk.2b SK were even more heavily modified as Buffet Open Seconds. The former were numbered 4101-4114 and the mini-buffets as 4401/4402. They were usually formed in two rakes of between five and eight coaches and could only work with air-braked locomotives, which meant GM Classes 071, 121, 141, 181 and 201.

 

They were initially repainted Intercity livery with orange roofs and put into service on secondary services to Drogheda, Galway, Limerick, Tralee, Westport and Waterford. They could also be found deputising on cross-border workings between Dublin and Belfast, sometimes even with NIR motive power.

 

By the late 1990s the classic points logo had been replaced with the later IE branding on each of the four corner doors, while further tweaks included black roofs and the overpainting of the aluminium finish window frames in black as well. Retirement eventually came in the early 2000s as new 29000 Class railcars were delivered. Six vehicles initially made it into preservation, but only four grounded bodies now remain: Nos. 4108, 4110 and 4402 at Moyasta Junction and No. 4106 at Kilmeadean.

 

 

The Model

 

Building on the tooling platform IRM first developed for their NIR Mark 2 Enterprise coaches and sister brand Accurascale’s BR Mark 2B coaches, the new IRM Mark 2 models imitate reality in repurposing ex BR stock for Irish operations. IRM’s gauge correct wider B4 bogies will be employed, along with full interior lighting, fully detailed interiors, a wealth of separately applied detail, sprung buffers and bespoke tooling for mini buffets 4401 and 4402.

 

 

Common Features:

 

Highly-detailed OO Gauge / 1:76.2 Scale Models on 16.5mm track

Extremely fine exterior rivet detail on roof and coach ends

Separately-applied etched metal and high-fidelity plastic parts, including handrails, brake/steam heat pipes, ETH cabling and sockets, footsteps, dummy drophead knuckle coupler, and roof vents

Prism Free Glazing

Fully-detailed underframe with numerous separate parts, pipe runs and accurate differences between versions

The most accurate B4 bogie ever produced, with provision for re-gauging to EM or P4 (British 18.83mm or Irish 21mm) gauges

Blackened RP25.110 profile wheel-sets with 14.4mm back-to-back measurements, and 26mm over pinpoints

Different buffers for retracted and non-retracted positions

Accurate interiors with characteristic 'winged' headrests, separate metal interior handrails on the brake and corridor vehicles and fully-detailed guard's compartment

Correct height NEM standard coupling sockets with mini tension lock couplers and kinematic close-coupling

Easy conversion to Kadee-compatiable knuckle couplers

Full lighting package, including;

magnet 'wand' controlled interior lighting

'Stay-Alive' capacitor in all coaches

Minimum Radius 438mm (2nd Radius Set-track)

Coach Length: 269mm

 

 

Price And Delivery

 

As can be seen, these coaches are already tooled up and have been part of IRMs plans from the outset of our Mark II coach project. With delivery of the NIR coaches due later this year (and completely sold out on pre-order!) it is time to implement the first phase of run 2 with these coaches.

 

A total of eight coaches will be offered in IR livery and eight in later IE livery, sold in sets of four coach "rake builder" packs allowing IRM to give modellers greater value per coach. Each pack will be priced at €269.99 each. Delivery is slated for Q4 2023 and as ever, demand is expected to be high. While these are an Irish outline model, it does offer a key indicator to a future Accurascale product.

 

Ordering for Irish and Rest of World is through the IRM website https://irishrailwaymodels.com/collections/mark-2-coaches and UK customers can pre-order via the Accurascale website https://www.accurascale.com/collections/mark-2

 

[Philou]

Just a question regarding the images shown above: The drawings show seven windows on the coach sides, whereas the 3D render (or is it a pre-production model?) at the bottom shows 8. How come?

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[Moxy]

34 minutes ago, Philou said:

Just a question regarding the images shown above: The drawings show seven windows on the coach sides, whereas the 3D render (or is it a pre-production model?) at the bottom shows 8. How come?

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

 

They are different (BR) prototypes.  The eight window was built as second class, the seven window was built as first class, but later declassified to second class.

[McC]

42 minutes ago, Philou said:

Just a question regarding the images shown above: The drawings show seven windows on the coach sides, whereas the 3D render (or is it a pre-production model?) at the bottom shows 8. How come?

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

The Sample image is of a mk2b TSO just to illustrate the finish. 

[McC]

[Torbay Express]

"it does offer a key indicator to a future Accurascale product." 

 

"2C or not 2C, that is the question? " (rehash of Shakespeare quote!) 

 

I wonder if Mystic Meg or Russell Grant would be able to predict the answer to that? HAA!  HAA! HAA! 

[Torbay Express]

1 hour ago, McC said:

Isn't the rear one a Strathclyde PTE version...... 👻

 

 

[wombatofludham]

Just out of interest, any plans to do the Dutch vans to go with these?

 

[McC]

1 hour ago, wombatofludham said:

Just out of interest, any plans to do the Dutch vans to go with these?

 

Probably. 

[Robert Shrives]

On 29/10/2022 at 18:15, McC said:

Probably. 

Bound to as I have just painted up my second fox model!    The Mk2s look really good and just await news of Hunslets and original livery Mk2s 

[wombatofludham]

6 hours ago, Robert Shrives said:

Bound to as I have just painted up my second fox model!    The Mk2s look really good and just await news of Hunslets and original livery Mk2s 

And an 80 class...

Some years ago I caught a train formed of ex BR Mk2s behind two baby GMs from Heuston to Ballybrophy which was an experience, so I can see me giving in to temptation and taking a punt on the Dutch van coming along in due course.

[Paul the painter]

Oh I do hope so do all these nice coaches and leave out a vital vehicle the Dutch van!!???, would put me off buying a rake,like many people I have to rely on silver fox models for the generator vans which need a hell of a lot of kit bashing to get them anywhere near a decent standard to run behind accurately detailed coaches,and where's the Spanish arrows and 2700 s??, I know you're 22000 class look fabulous,  but gents start at the beginning not the end eh??

[wombatofludham]

On 29/10/2022 at 18:15, McC said:

Probably. 

Well if you do the Botoxed air braked for the Mk2s and the original vac brake style, that's one of each sold.

[murphaph]

22 hours ago, Paul the painter said:

Oh I do hope so do all these nice coaches and leave out a vital vehicle the Dutch van!!???, would put me off buying a rake,like many people I have to rely on silver fox models for the generator vans which need a hell of a lot of kit bashing to get them anywhere near a decent standard to run behind accurately detailed coaches,and where's the Spanish arrows and 2700 s??, I know you're 22000 class look fabulous,  but gents start at the beginning not the end eh??

Spreading announcements around the eras makes sense though. If IRM had announced these mk2's AND say the Tokyu 2600 at the same time, difficult decisions would have had to have been made by me at least. This way I can order all the mk2's that suit my chosen era (ca. 1994-1995) and then patiently wait for the 2600 which I am sure will be along in time. In a way it is a blessing that IRM is the only RTR manufacturer of note in Irish outline, because the lads can plan out a road map with a fairly high degree of certainty that "other manufacturers" won't try to gazump them. That means as long as one is patient, the goodies will follow. There is much more competition in the GB market, so what competitors are up to plays a far greater role I suspect. In Ireland that is not the case so IRM can release stuff to market in a calm and considered way that is unlikely to force modellers into making tough decisions between this or that. The brilliant partially option helps spread the financial burden further. And bank holiday weekend customer support at 10pm is no problem for these guys as I experienced myself on Monday :-) Legends.