Ballast hopper delivery update

As you may know, Irish Railway Models had hoped to have the production version of the ballast wagons ready for delivery in time for the MRSI’s October Bank Holiday Show. Unfortunately, this will not now be the case.

When we received the first pre-production sample of the wagon we identified a number of minor issues which needed to be rectified. This required alterations to the CAD design and subsequently the tooling for the moulds also has to be altered. This process can take weeks to complete as the factory’s engineering team has to find a new slot in their production schedule, during which they can fill in the faults in the moulds and apply the changes by conducting further spark erosion. At the same time, the paint samples we sent to the factory for colour-matching purposes took an inexplicable detour en route and only recently reached their intended destination.

To further compound the situation, production levels at factories right across China is minimal right now as workers are entitled to time off during the week of the country’s annual National Day celebrations.

As a result, it is only now that the revised pre-production sample is being readied and we have to receive and inspect this sample before we sign-off on the production run. This is a vital stage for us as we do not want to compromise on the fidelity of the model. We cannot provide an accurate timeframe for delivery until this sequence is completed; all we can say is that we are aiming for late 2016/early 2017.

While we understand that you are eager to receive your models and may be disappointed by this news, we hope you can appreciate why this delay has occurred and why we are not rushing the manufacturing process. We’re confident that the end result will be a highly accurate, detailed scale model of a distinctive Irish wagon.