Ballast hoppers en route!

The countdown to delivery of the CIÉ/Irish Rail ballast hoppers has begun! The finished products departed the factory in China yesterday and are currently being airfreighted to Dublin, where we are expecting them to arrive in the coming days.

Once the shipment has cleared customs, we will begin a thorough quality control process. As this is the first time we will be conducting this task, we cannot provide a definite timeframe for completion, but should take no longer than a few days to complete. We will definitely have stock available at our stand at the North Down Model Railway Society’s show in Bangor on April 22nd and 23rd. If you would like to collect your order at the show, please let us know in advance and remember to bring ID and proof of purchase with you on the day. Postal orders will be dispatched on the week following the Bangor show, if not beforehand.

We understand you have waited a considerable length of time to receive these models and we thank you for your patience. However, we believe the quality of the end product will have made it all worthwhile. As a token of our appreciation, a code entitling you to a 10% discount on eight-wagon rakes (four two-wagon sets) of our forthcoming Tara wagons ordered from irishrailwaymodels.com will be enclosed with each set.

Now that the ballast wagons are completed, our attention is shifting to the CIÉ/Irish Rail cement ‘bubble’ wagons and we are currently on course to deliver the first batch (CIÉ/Irish Cement ivory and black livery) during the summer of 2017. These models are still available to order through www.irishrailwaymodels.com.

Meanwhile, the tooling process for the Tara Mines bogie zinc/lead ore wagons is well underway. We are planning for a late 2017/early 2018 delivery date and we hope to announce pricing in the near future, after which we will be accepting payments.

Since we made the decision to work directly with factories last December, we have begun working on a number of other exciting projects. Some will be announced well in advance of their delivery dates, while others will come as pleasant surprises! Either way, we are confident these products will push the boundaries of what is possible with Irish-outline ready-to-run, and indeed OO/4mm scale in general. To keep up to date with the latest developments, keep an eye on www.irishrailwaymodels.com.