IRM Hits the Road: We Commission Rail Link Buses!

Well then, how many of you saw that coming?

We have commissioned Britbus of Hong Kong to produce a batch of Dublin Bus Volvo Olympian bus in the distinctive Rail Link colour scheme using existing Britbus diecast tooling!

Four Volvo Olympians were delivered new in this new branding for Rail link from Walter Alexander bus builders in Northern Ireland to Dublin bus in mid-1999, registration numbers 99-D-517, 99-D-518, 99-D-519 and 99-D-520, with a fleet number of RV 517, RV 518, RV 519, and RV 520 respectively.

All four buses were based at Conyngham Road Garage for Route 90 operation between Heuston Station and Connolly Station via Tara Street station. They also found use on the 91 bus route between Heuston Station and Aston Quay. They also infrequently operated other routes such as the 78A, 51B/C, 76 and others on rare occasions!

By May 2000, Guinness sponsored the all over adverts on the four buses and the rail link livery disappeared. By June 2003, the four buses were repainted into normal Dublin Bus fleet livery.

The attractive nature of the livery meant it lived long in the memory. We have been looking at doing road vehicles for a while and felt that this already tooled model in 1:76.2 model would be of interest to both our existing railway modeller customer base with its railway connections and bus collectors alike.

If these models prove to be successful we will be looking at opening up to do other road vehicle as accessories, including newly tooled models from scratch! 

Two different bus numbers, one as RV517 (99-D-517) with the route 90 – Connolly Station, and the other as RV520 (99-D-520) with route number 91 Heuston Station. Please note the pair photographed here are pre-production samples and the production models will feature slight corrections. 

Both are highly limited in number, with just 252 of each being produced. They also come in special IRM branded sleeves mimicking the livery! These 00 gauge buses make the perfect vehicle for your Irish outline layout and collection. 

Prices are €59.99 each and they can be ordered now for dispatch following their arrival from China in two weeks time by clicking this link!

IRM would like to sincerely thank BritBus, Adrian Lemon, Derek Farrelly and Darren Hall for their invaluable assistance in this project.