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I spent Septembers in Ireland from 75 to 80, and not at all again until the early 90s, by which time the future had arrived. A particularly noticeable thing on the roads in those years was the absolute preponderance of Hinos, although they were virtually unknown on the Big Island. Harris seems to have started assembling them as early as 1968, but it may have taken a few years to corner almost the whole market, to the extent that they eventually did. As a 'marker' of the second half of the seventies in Ireland to me, a Hino would be as necessary as a few cars with different coloured doors...

For Quartertown Mill set loosely in the 1960-1975 period I think I'm before the Hino period, but I also remember them everywhere in the 1980s and 1990s. Even then, there were still plenty of donkey carts to be seen on the roads, a few churns of milk or a mound of hay on the back (not many balers in the west of Ireland in the 1980s as I recall - lots of rounded haystacks, sometimes on stone 'mushrooms', with a small tarp on top held down with weighted ropes - like half a bikini). Ancient trucks and tractors - definitely. I have a strong recollection of red numberplates, but I think they were a 1970s thing and may be too late for my period (certainly on older vehicles).

and Hinos ... lots of Hinos: that's one of the biggest gaps in 1:76 trucks for Ireland

Rob PM sent John Bruce.

One of my own memories of visiting my grandparents in Eire/the Republic/or as we still called it ‘the Free State’ was the age and condition of vehicles compared to NI. Back then there was no NCT (MoT in GBP) IIRC, so all kinds of things crawled the indifferent roads. If your layout is populated with 1950s British trucks in poor nick you’ll capture the look. There also needs to be an ancient tractor crouching somewhere. They seemed to be everywhere. Now, if you were setting your layout in the 80s, you’d need at least one Hi-Ace van……;)

Yes, they are live frog, and compatible with the Peco 0 gauge track.

Many thanks, great stuff!

Large companies such as CIE, Roadstone tended to but AEC/Leyland trucks smaller operators and owner drivers tended to use 2 axle trucks Ford, Bedford, Dodge with Hino becoming a dominant marque during the late 60s. Growing up in the 60s some normal control models such as the Leyland Comet were still in use with engine/over forward control dominating, Models like the Bedford TK and tilt cab Ford, Dodge and BMC models appearing during the mid 60s. While CIE held a dominant position and larger companies had their own fleets, owner operators (hackers) running their own trucks (unbranded) were significant e.g. delivery from merchants to building sites & farms. CIE is likely to have used owner operators to deal with seasonal peaks such rail from farm to railhead during the beet campaign. Owner operator trucks tended to be 'unmarked" without ownership or fleet details, trucks delivering to building sites in the 70s & 80s sometimes could be quite decrepit.

If you check out the Road Transport Images web site they do lots of resin chassis/cabs/ bodies to make up almost any British marque from pre war to the 2000's . Not cheap but nice models. An S type Bedford tanker from RTI parts built by me. Needs a few detail bits before its complete.

I'm not actively trying to drag the thread off-topic (by about 95 miles to the north east) from Mallow ... but there were reasonably sized flour lorries in Ireland. Portlaoise, again, .. this time Odlums: From Portlaoise Pictures: http://www.portlaoisepictures.com/odlumhistory4.htm Edit: I'm not sure if this is 1960s (maybe later?)?

I think there might be another angle to consider here. The objective for some objectors might not be to get Metrolink cancelled, or the station moved ... they may just want the project slowed down long enough to avoid personal impact. For someone in their mid-70s today, pushing the project into the late 2030s would effectively achieve that. A selfish and cynical thing to do, but rational from their perspective.

Interesting. It was 6208 at one stage, but that 7173 looks like the same vehicle. I suspect the bogie maintenance intervals may have influenced the usage?

Ah, yes! I believe it was numbered as 7173. Part of me wonders why it was often paired with the other Mark 3s.

What's hilarious is that a review can't do anything to stop what they're complaining about- it only checks whether the process of granting permission was fair, not anything to do with the plan itself. NIMBYism seems to be a sport intellectually on par to beating each other to death with rocks while grunting furiously.

The CIE ones seem hard to find, but there’s actually a fairly good range of 1950s and 1960s AEC trucks from EFE and Oxford, as well as Base Toys. A bit of paint and some CiE transfers and they could be quite convincing I think. There are a few trucks available in Ranks livery but I think they are GB prototypes and probably too big for 1960s Ireland.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2025/1125/1545724-ranelagh-challenge-metro/ To the surprise of absolutely nobody, there's a judicial review. Several of the objectors have previously objected to there being a station near them. The application for a review will be heard on Monday. See you in two years when it gets thrown out if I call this coin toss correctly?

228 and 8 car Enterprise set sitting in York Road yard this evening. 9004 looking poor 2!

They could do this with relative ease as the sort of place they took “tail traffic” from and to, tended to be major stations, junctions of termini which had a resident shunting engine. This would creep up behind the railcar and detach / attach vans while it was stopped.

An added snippet that may be of interest - 6208 was unique because it had the BT10-derived bogies from a Mk3 rather than the T4-derived bogies of the International stock. Although branded for the Cu na Mara, it was often marshalled in Mk3 rakes. Some pics in this thread: https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/17397-brel-designs-for-ireland-that-didnt-turn-out-like-this/#findComment-249237

Updated with imagery.

Interesting! There were some special rules for hauling railcars, also in the 1953 WTT. When I'm home I'll check them. Because the railcars used a twin-pipe high vacuum brake system I think that the brakes were supposed to be drained down and isolated before a conventional loco was coupled up to the railcar vac hoses. But perhaps in this case, the railcar engines are still running and keeping the brakes off, and No.90 doesn't have the vac hoses connected - effectively shunting them as swingers.

The following Enterprise services will be operated by a 6 car train today, Tuesday 25 November: 14:00 Ex Belfast Grand Central Station - Dublin 16:50 Ex Dublin - Belfast Grand Central Station

Not quite tail traffic but not far off. 90 shunting an AEC from the inbound road to the outbound road at Albert Quay, 13/10/1961 – faster turnaround than the railcar driver changing ends three times. Photo from @Irishswissernie’s archive

Yes Base Toys, see https://www.marksmodels.com/?pid=18137

Love this!!