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Electro-diesel Stadler Flirts selected to replace Dublin – Belfast Enterprise trains Cheers Darius

Seems like 'AIRR meets the Department of Finance' in terms of scaling back to a more realistic policy. Maintained commitment to reopening the Derry Road is probably the highlight here, along with the commitment to electrification throughout much of the network. The near-complete lack of any attention whatsoever to the Sligo line and absence of any commitment to the reopening of the Mullingar to Athlone section is quite the letdown. The Sligo is begging to be double-tracked out to Longford. It looks like Enfield might be getting a 'station enhancement ' though? This would go some way to improve services between Mullingar and Maynooth. Usually, trains have to cross at either Mullingar, Killucan, or Maynooth, often with significant delays knocked on throughout. Enfield is an obvious point for crossovers, but it is avoided at all costs, as it only has a single platform in use, even though the other is sitting right across from it, meaning trains have to reverse back into the loop. Just reinstating platform 2 and getting a footbridge would do a great deal for services here. Still pretty crazy to see the Sligo line basically get ignored compared to the rest of the network. The trains are incredibly overcrowded; only today, someone fainted on the packed morning Longford commuter. Not the first time I've seen it on a jam-packed 29.

The government’s follow-up, the Rail Project Prioritisation Strategy, came out today. Mostly just a reiteration of the AISRR but a bit more detail in some places. Reinstatement of the Mosney loop and Sligo platform 2 among some of the new proposals. Here it is for anyone who wants to give it a read. Below is a graphic from the document:

Possibly dating pre 1922, British ensigns and stars and stripes? An advertising sign from an auction plus two spotted at a long closed agricultural store premises in Co Kerry.

Webbs Mill/Quarterstown may have focused on processing animal feed following the Cork Milling Co takeover. Mallow is an important dairying centre, its likely that the mill processed corn (maize) imported from the States as supplementary cattle feed during the winter/spring. Interestingly the Dairygold Mallow powder milk plant is similar in scale to plants in the Waikato and likely to have exported milk powder by rail through the Mallow. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dairygold. It looks like CIE experienced a signifiicant increase in bulk grain traffic during the mid-late 50s with the construction/modification of H Vans to Bulk Grain wagons, previously CIE had a total of 18 Bulk Grain Wagons built by the GSR during the mid-1930s, 10 railway owned wagons, 8 owned by Ranks Ireland for its own traffic. There is a photo in the NLI O'Dea collection of bulk grain being transferred from an ex-GS grain wagon to a truck at Fermoy station during the early-mid 60s. The grain was transferred from rail to road using a small portable (probabably petrol powered) screw conveyor) that allowed the graiin to be unloaded at track level without the aid of a pit.

I used an LGB 22 Volt 2 amp combined controller and power unit while running analogue power before converting to DCC using a mid level Digitrax (Empire Builder) command station on the 5amp setting. I have used battery RC control for the past 10 years locos powered by pairs of 7.2v 3000ma NiMH batteries (14.2V). Unlike DCC radio control systems are produced by cottage industry suppliers such as RCTrains https://www.rctrains.co.uk/, probabably best to contact the Gauge 1 Society or Garden Railway groups if your looking at usingb battery RC.

Voltage:- 12 to 24 volt. Controllers;- DCC Roco Z21XL 12-20v 6amp. One needs high amps for some Gauge 1 models so you need to buy high end stuff, the Roco Z21XL is a good starting point but you will need accessories if you plan a large layout or multipal locos - the controller starts at €380 and cost goes up depending on what you add to it. DC Gaugemaster GMC-10LGB5F up to 20V. 5amp. Cost = £280 This could handle 2 small locos! But as per analogue running style a separate controller would be required per track to run multipal locos. Eoin

What voltage is suitable to run gauge 1 ? Also wondering what controller would one utilise?

A route map - that's a great idea! I think there are three really 'good' photos so a route map would nicely fill the fourth quarter of the square. These are the three photos I'd probably use, I'm still looking for more though!

Looks great Paul. I agree that the lower bit would look better left plain. I think the Irish signage is great for shows and will show it’s not your usual SLT or BR depot! On the RH panel a photo or two and simple route map would look well

My next attempt. I've drawn up what's planned for the fascia and then superimposed it on a photo of the layout. I'm currently thinking of a dark grey rather than pure black. The Irish text is a first attempt using an available font, except for the B which I had to draw myself as the one in the font was completely unlike the GSR one. The GSR itself was inconsistent in whether the 'tall' letters were the same height as the others. The blank panel on the right hides the sector plate, and I am considering using this area to display a few photos of the real location. I've mulling over the idea of something on the lower fascia (maybe the oval Webb seal) but the lower fascia is much closer to the scenery and it might be better to leave it plain. Comments/ideas welcome!

Many thanks! The texture was added with matte medium dabbed on. I didn't do all the ground floor as it will be invisible once the canopy is fitted!

That laser cut stone has come out remarkably well.

Thanks Jason

Thanks! I've seen the photo before but the text has some useful info. The part of the mill that the train crashed into would be just off the end of my model - it had been substantially rebuilt after the accident. This is the view from the other side: The siding to Quartertown Mill was only opened in 1864 so the crash that February must have been very early in its life. It's also good to confirm the closure date as 10th October 1976 - I knew it was mid-1970s but didn't have an exact date. That will help to justify my supertrain-liveried 141 class when representing the later years!

Link to the story on a non-rag website: https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2025/1215/1549100-conamara-galway/

More imagery... An old J & R Webb flour sack - but the imagery seems to combine American and Australian(?) flags - maybe the source of the imported grain? Not really telling the Irish part of the story. Cork Milling Company - new silos at the Victoria Quay mill in 1936. The locations of their other mills are mentioned below the image.

Many thanks for all the information - plenty of ideas here! The attached document is a history of the mill as published in the Mallow Field Club journal in 1991. It only covers the period when it was an active mill, which as John says ended in 1957. The involvement of the Webb family ceased in 1912, when the mill was sold to Messrs. Hallinan & Sons. However, the Webb brand was still used until the 1930s, when the Cork Milling Co was formed incorporating several other mills and with Ranks as a shareholder too. In the late 1940s the use of imported grain increased, and this favoured mills near docks - so the Cork Milling Co focused on their newer facility at Victoria Quay in Cork and the other mills were gradually closed - Quartertown in 1957. However, Quartertown mill's silos continued to be used for grain storage into the 1960s, and remained rail-served. Once that ceased, the site was taken over by Roadbinders Ltd. I'm not sure whether they were a subsidiary of Cold Chon or just a customer. The rail connection remained in use for bitumen tanks into the mid 1970s, after which the bitumen traffic was in CIE tank containers, by rail to Mallow and then to Quartertown by road. For the model, I'm being a bit flexible on timescales to allow me to model the all different traffics (grain, flour, bitumen and perhaps some other sundries) in the 1960 to 1975 period. Also the occasional railtour! So what does that mean for the sign? Let's just be clear - this is a sign on the layout fascia to identify the layout, not a miniature sign to place within the layout. It doesn't have to be 'accurate', it's primarily a decoration. J & R Webb was long gone by the 1960s, even as a trade name. The oval seal is nice, but represents the wrong period - that old letter was sent in 1866 not 1966. The Quartertown Mill name (in English) has endured to the present day, and that's what I'm calling the layout, so I definitely want to incorporate that. The mill and settlement here seems to have been ancient - with records back to the 1400s, so it would be nice to acknowledge the history and the country in which the layout is set by presenting the name in Irish as well as English. Thanks to all of those who have offered increasingly accurate translations! I'll do some more artwork tonight or tomorrow and make another proposition for comment. Quartertown_Mill_Mallow_Field_Club_1991.docx

Thats my understanding too As for the letters J, K Q, V, W, X Y & Z - I'm pretty sure they still don't formally exist in the Irish alphabet, but you'll see them crop up in loan words and the like - for instance on election posters you'll often see 'Vótail #1'

Indeed, and their various translations of Bray have all been held to be suspect. But - to go to a point Mayner made which I had omitted to remember - a private siding would not, indeed, have had any sign on the railway at all, let alone a bilingual one. These were only for railway signage and name boards, particularly in the passenger parts of stations. By law in Ireland a private company (like a mill) isn’t, and never was, under any compulsion to have bilingual signage, whereas a state utility (like post-nationalisation (1950) CIE) was. The GSR was never a nationalised utility, but in its station signage it behaved as one, although there were many examples of stations which lasted well into CIE times with original pre-grouping English-only signs. So for “Mol’s Mill”, the oval device of the milling company would, if strict accuracy is preferred, really be the only show in town.

In good company, apparrently the GSR manged to spell Drumshanbo incorrectly in both Irish and English on the bilingual station nameboard Possibly someone in authority knowing better or failing to check the spelling/pronounciation with the locals

A product of the Irish education system with good grade in Irish when I completed my Leaving Cert 50 years ago I still haven't got my head around the pronounciation and use of the 'fada' and as they say the séimhiú "was in my fathers time" and he spoke about being put off Irish when a new teacher introduced the Munster (Kerry) dialect in a Galway school! Had fun and games with my Irish (Dub with a country accent) pronouncation of UK and some US placenames but eventually learned to pronounce some Welsh and Kiwi place names correctly mainly by listening to the locals. Back to Pauls dilemma, I don't think a GSR/CIE style bi-lingual signs board would be appropriate for a private siding, I seem to have mislaid my copy of a 1960 CIE WTT and unable to check the 'official railway" name of the siding. Its possible the Webb family may have sold the mill at some stage following the establishment of the Free State, Quarterstown House had been converted to a convent by the 1940s. Milling was supposed to have ceased by 1957. Cold Chon may not have bothered to advertise their presence signed into a long term contract to supply tar to the nearby Cork County council road depot and the 'mill owners" much incentive to maintain the place. The Land Commission began to acquire large country estates and divide the land into small holding from the early 1900s onwards, many of the large Country Houses were sold to religious orders or prominent Irish people during the 20s and 30s as members of the 'gentry' returned to the UK or consolidated their Irish holdings. A sign in the style of a Webb Milling sign or seal or a Quarterstown roadsign may be more appropriate. For many years the name of small towns/villages such as quarterstown were displayed on simple square road signs (black border and lettering on white background) in similar style to pre-1960 UK roadsigns https://www.hattons.co.uk/52086/ancorton_models_n_605_pre_1960_s_road_signs_set_5/stockdetail?srsltid=AfmBOorag12QA99NdUrAy8Z3h9lTVW5mF9PelAQm2nv1AqPb7N4_xe34 (without red triangle!) From memory names were sometimes in English or bi lingual cannot find a photo!

Irish was not my forte at school so I stand open to correction, but I think the name Quartertown in Irish is simply " Baile na Ceathrún". Muileann means mill, so 'Muileann Ḃaile Na Ceathrún' would mean Mill of Quatertown. Note omitting the prefix Muileann means there is no buailte/séimhiú on the B of Baile. And just to add while I think there may have been additions since I went to school, the letters J, K Q, V, W, X Y & Z, did not exist in the Irish alphabet. For Irish place names see https://www.logainm.ie/en/s?txt=Quartertown P.S. the H after the T in Ceathrún, should be omitted and replaced with a buailte as has been pointed out.

One series of IR/IE era white/orange/black nameboards were reversed, English above Irish, an error by the signmakers I'd say.