... At The Time!
When fbb bought his Irish Railways Mark 2d coach, he knew slightly less than nothing about railways in the Republic. Now he is overwhelmed with information.
The Mark 2d (as fbb's model) were ordered in 1972 and in service quickly as they were to a British Railways design and built in the UK.
At much the same time a complementary fleet of Mark 2a/2b coaches was created using gash vehicles from British Rail.
There were livery variations ...
... on the Mark 2d coaches with one notable variant being grey roofs or orange roofs.
fbb decided to compare his putchase with reality and would have liked to compare the Irish model with a Mark 2d model from the UK. But your tight-fisted blogger has never bought a Mark 2d because such coaches are long and look ridiculous lurching round sharp No 2 radius corners.
But he did have a Hornby R896 Mark 3 Scotrail coach ...
... a wrongly labelled sale item. It might make an interesting comparison with the proviso that Hornby has subsequently upgraded this model.
Oxford Rail also makes a Mark 3 ...
... better than Hornby's, both old and new; more like reality.
So we begin a comparison.
fbb's Hornby model has clear plastic body sides with the livery painted on.
There is a nod to realism in bogies and doors from Hornby ...
... much better on the Orange with added handrails.
We don't have comparable underparts from Hornby, but the mix of bits and pieces on the Irish model matches the major differences between the two full sized side views, one ...
... with large circular fan ...
... and the other with four boxes of mystery ...
... correctly modelled on fbb's acquisition.
Both manufacturers have provided an interior. Hornby's is what you might call basic ...
... but so is that from Ireland.
The designer has, perhaps, gone a bit OTT with the orange plastic, but the seats are roughly the right shape if not colour!
And where are the OO scale curtains?
You might suppose that fbb could get in there and paint his interiors more accurately?
Sorry, folks, not with his shaky left hand!!
Anyway, with those shallow windows, you can hardly see any seats and tables. fbb found the innards very hard to photograph!
The Hornby bogies just clip into the body ...
From Ireland we have neater couplings and screws for the bogies.
The Mark 2d is marketed by Murphy Models.
Of course Murphy does not actually manufacture its models. But then neither does anyone else!
Murphy Models has been involved in the model railway business since the 1970s, originally retailing Hornby, Lima, Arnold-N and Jouef amongst others from a shop in Dublin, Ireland. Although the shop is long gone, our interest continues and we now manufacture models and supply to retail stockists. We do not supply directly to the public.
Due to the lack of detailed ready to run models of actual Irish locomotives and rolling stock up to the late 1990's, Murphy Models commenced production of the highest quality and most detailed Irish railway prototypes in OO scale. Thus far we have produced ready to run models of the GM Class 121, 141, 181, 071 & 201 locomotives as well as Craven Coaches & Mark IID Coaches.
The intention is to have a locomotive and coach portfolio that spans from the late 1950s to present.
Of course Murphy does not actually manufacture its models. But then neither does anyone else!
P.S. A Mystery
What is that centre door on a version of an Irish Mark 2d?
And it is on one of Mr Murphy's models as well!
Suely that will damage the integrity of the structural bodywork 'tube'. Is it because the coach is a 'composite' with both First and Standard seating areas?
Next ''On The Edge" blog : Thur 30th April
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