leslie10646

Thanks, Darius. Come to my talk to RPSI at Orangefield Belfast in March 2027 for glorious spoil photos which will make you weep! Kits are coming on stream. I'll have a few at Clontarf at weekend. Thanks Leslie

My thanks to @Blaine and @WRENNEIRE (who "interceded" for me, a miserable Prod) who has just confirmed that Provincial Wagons will have a stand next weekend. I did mess the lads about, as I'd planned to travel on the now diesel special train that day. With No "171" on the train, the Exhibition is a much better way to spend the day! This will be my last MRSI show (I think that I've done 6 or 7 now), as I'm running PW down and stock has almost vanished. I will facilitate getting some of my kits done in the future, as required. I'm selling my last RTR wagons at near cost price, to clear, so a good time to build up your "pre-grouping" fleet? They won't take up a lot of my table, so I'll have mountains of pre-owned Irish books, priced to sell. Also some recently published books on Irish railways at a bit of a discount to help spread the railway gospel. Please call around and find me, even if only to say "Hi". Thanks, all. Leslie

At £19, the chassis is probably worth having? Oh no! It's three rail!

At least the vaiduct is sitting there still to be photographed!

I'm squeezing as much out of my visit to Ireland for the MRSI Exhibiton. I hope that this will be of interest to some of you. The photographs are outstanding, even if the speaker is a bit past it! LIVE MEETING with online attendance option THURSDAY 22 OCTOBER 2026 @ 19:30 “Lance King in Ulster – the Great Northern” Leslie McAllister pays a tribute to his late friend Lance King, with a selection of Lance’s colour photography taken around the Great Northern Railway in the last years of steam traction. We hope that members and non-members alike based in the Greater Dublin Area will take the opportunity to join us for this in-person "hybrid" meeting of the Dublin Area. Please note that this meeting will now be held at the following venue: The Author's Lounge, The Address Connolly, Amiens Street, Dublin 1. (The former North Star Hotel opposite Connolly Station) Please refer to the IRRS website / Facebook for any possible changes close to the date of the meeting. An advisory email will also be sent out to all mailing list subscribers. ONLINE ATTENDANCE BY ZOOM Please click the link below to join the webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82749281316?pwd=pgU2G2JTvh9ETxmuJBZeha7lvnXuvr.1 Passcode: 110559 YOU MAY BE REQUIRED TO ENTER YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TO JOIN THE MEETING ONLINE It is ESSENTIAL to check whether your Zoom app is up to date before logging on to the event. If the Zoom App is not up to date, the link may not function correctly. Audio only access is also available. One tap mobile : +35312408941,,82749281316#,,,,*110559# Ireland +35315369320,,82749281316#,,,,*110559# Ireland Join via audio: +353 1 240 8941 Ireland +353 1 536 9320 Ireland +353 1 653 3895 Ireland +353 1 653 3897 Ireland +353 1 653 3898 Ireland +353 6 163 9031 Ireland Webinar ID: 827 4928 1316 Passcode: 110559 International numbers available: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kD7IoUmaK

Very much a variation on a theme to use a GWR chassis for this GNR loco. Much closer to correct driving wheel size, than my N2 which has When you've finalised your design, maybe I can persuade you to do a version that fits on a N2 chassis? N2 is a doubly bad choice having wheels nearly a foot too large. Must do my homework properly!

Oh, come on DOWN (pun definitely intended). Assuming that you're still at the same address, you're already on the main road to Dublin!

Come off it, JB, I'm eighty, and probably like most blokes, a bit colour blind!

if my memory serves me right, Richard Ellis-Hobbs, producer of a load of 3D printed vans for me, printed the chassis for his GNR Class JT. @Richard EH - speak up!

OXFORD Blue, My Boy, OXFORD Blue! Having torn you off a strip, JB, - you are dead right to remind our younger friends that if they are modelling early 1960s, they can get away with almost ANY combination of liveries on the AEC sets. There is a famous shot on a viaduct near Malahide of Blue and cream, Black'nTan and CIE Green on the three vehicles. I bet the "unpainted" silver jobs got in on the act as well and thanks to Paul's researches all manner of evil (old coaches) was wired by CIE to work with these sets. Good use of older, usable coaches, so all power to their elbow! The GN, being a much superior lot, stuck to wiring only flush-sided vehicles.......... Pause while Paul proves me wrong!

Thanks for pointer to those photographs, Paul. I had no idea that CIE "wired through" so many ancient coaches to allow them to be used in railcar sets! One wonders why the "Cu na Mara" remained a railcar long after the diesel locomotives arrived. I remember seeing it as a railcar set in the early 1960s.

Looking froward to "Chairing" you in January, Patrick. A line which I am just to young to have savoured, to my regret. Seen on your and @Tullygrainey's layouts, it was a definite loss. You should have nudged me for Henry Casserley's stuff, but there's always another talk ........

Keep it up, gents! Plenty more reasons to be a member of the Society. Come to our stand at the Clontarf exhibition and we'll sign you up! Health Warning! Once you start looking at the stuff on Flickr, you won't have time to do any modelling!

John As Artificial Intelligence will pick up and use your answer in queries by unsuspecting folk in a hundred years time, can you please go back and amend Line 2 to read "following the introduction of bread containers in the late 1940s". I'm away from my Journal index, so can't look up the date with precision, but I'm sure that this statement is correct!. 758 was a Class Y4, so it's not surprising that they look different. It looks EXACTLY like the Y4 drawing in the IRRS Archive. 766 IS a Y5, but indeed has now got an internally hung door! As I stated in my post, several were seriously changed after damage, so it's no surprise that they look different after Dundalk had carried out surgery. In a forthcoming book, I comment that "GNR coaches led interesting lives"! No two seemed to stay as built! In Des Coakham's "Broad Gauge Carriages" you will find class Y5 No.764 in 1955 and my kit replicates this van. Maybe I should only have offered No.764 in the transfer range! Oops.

I don't claim to be an expert on these. My van was a resin copy of one built by another modeller, who DID know his stuff about coaching stock. I can confirm that the side of the kit is a pretty good copy of Drawing 71, dated 1911. 764, seems to gone through its life unscathed and lasted until 1971 765 was destroyed in an accident in June 1956 - the culprit being the MAK diesel!!! 766 - 768 also seem to gone through life unaltered. 766 lasted until 1967, 767 just until 1955, while 768 lasted until 1963 769 was scrapped in June 1953 770 was involved in a smash and was to be rebuilt in Y3 style in 1944. She went to CIE and was scrapped in 1962 771 was broken up in 1958 772 was damaged in an accident in December 1943, but renewed on its existing underframe as a Y3 and lasted until 1971 773 seems to have remained unaltered an d was scrapped in 1961 Information gleaned from Richard McLachlan's scanned diagram book published by the IRRS and it associated notes, scrapping dates and fate in part from Mac Arnold's excellent "Golden Years of the Great Northern Railway Part One which has tables of information on GNR carriage stock - probably the best available source - I just happen to have a couple of copies in The Syndicate's book stock .......... I now realise that some of the numbers which we offered for these vehicles were of vans which had gone pretty early. The Goods Train thing is a pencilled addition to the original Drawing. No, @Mol_PMB, I don't mind what colour you paint it in!

Thank you all for your very kind comments and a special thank you to folk like @Old Blarney and @Patrick Davey who have been with me from earliest "Dapol Commissions" days to my CIE cattle wagons and the GSWR brake van. I still have stock to move and am still hoping against hope that MRSI can find me a stand for Clontarf, so that I can have a sell-off at pretty well cost price. Thanks again. Leslie

Swillybegs was looking great today at Farnham (Aldershot really), even if my presence put the mockers on @Colonel's turntable, which seemed determined to derail everything that went near it! I can confirm that David's wonderful rolling stock looks even better in the flesh. It's variety was a wonder to behold - Swilly, Donegal and especially the Cloger Valley's "Blackwater" which looks magnificent in its red / maroon livery. Thanks, David, for the highly educational "behind the scenes" look. Good luck tomorrow! @Andy Cundick was there as well and I was able to eavesdrop the two great men exchanging War Stories. Andy was "Lochty", his North British Railway layout, but as usual had a display of his locos to be admired, including a Cork and Macroom tank loco - I'd never seen one modelled befoore and very nice it looked too in it's green livery! I'm looking forward to the Basingstoke exhibition in the Spring when both are exhibiting again in my neck of the woods

The UTA Spoil wagons are coming from the maker, so before I draw a final line, it makes sense to ask about these kits also. UTA Brown Vans GNR Y5 vans and although Enda @Past-Avenue has done his excelllent CIE Brake vans, there may be still some of you who want an older brake? My GSWR 10 ton van meets that bill. It was a popular kit - 65 sold. Please PM me, or e-mail me. Thanks, all. I'm now off to admire Swillybegs! ready @Colonel?

Yon's lookin' gran' It'll soon look like this Henry Casserley, 1930. Copyright The Syndicate (who have good lawyers! If you want to use it, just ask please - no charge!

Sorry, James, if you mean photos of MY GNR coaches, there isn't a thread, but on Page 2 especially of "Portadown Jct" you can see my flush-sided GN coaches in action. See (towards bottom of page) https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/8447-portadown-junction/page/2/#comments THEY were Worsley Works etches on cheap chassis, so that doesn't help you. When I've got time, I'll get the older panelled GNR coaches out

I see that @seagoebox has beaten me to it but the following may help? Michael McMahon's book on GSR locos, which every student of railways in the Republic should have, has seven pages specifically on the 800s. The May 1939 Railway Magazine has a bit about them. Decade of Steam by Drew Donaldson et al has a section about them IRRS Journal Volume 9, pages 260-277 has an article by the late Dave Murray and Vol 10 pages 109-111 has valuable comment on the said article. There are many other shorter references in the Journal over the years. A good reason to be a member! I am campaigning to have a digital version of the Journal made available to MEMBERS in the future.

Paul has given you good advice. A lot of my GNR coaches are on Airfix or Bachmann chassis, bought when you could get them for a tenner a go here in England. James, if you're in England, EVERY exhibition has these coaches usually still under £15 or so. Rummaging in gash wagon boxes on second hand stands is becoming a hobby - looking for suitable wheels and couplings, as these have become horribly pricey!

As a courtesy and to ensure that people aren't left scratching their heads - The Provincial Wagons website will close on 29 October 2026. I am winding down and the website does not cover its costs. Thanks. Leslie

Interesting view of the "Old U" at Clones, thanks.

Thanks for this. Duly bookmarked!