jhb171achill

Yes and no. My own recollections, and those of others, are of all-over spray. I certainly saw H vans, palvans, and also on one occasion one of those outside-horizontal-planked GSR vans newly painted, and they had brown roofs. However photo evidence shows up very clearly what is one of three possible things: 1. Wagon resprayed brown, but not the roof. Unlikely but possible. 2. Some wagons WITH grey roofs - though a lot darker than in the artists' impression of the model. 3. Possibly painted brown, but weathered so badly (like CIE grey or CIE green steam engines, red CDR loco domes and blue GNR domes) that it was impossible to tell what actual paint colour was under the dirt. (2) and (3) are the most likely, but all-brown was very definitelt there too - I saw it myself. I'll be ordering some, as they look amazing. When I do, I will take a very deep breath and try to pluck up courage to get them weathered. The roof will be first! IN traffic, the rich brown tended to "flatten" quite quickly. The heavy marine ply the sides were made of didn't take well to weathering.

Macmine would be an amazing one!!

True

If I had the time and money and space to build and equip every layout I've ever planned, sketched out, or doodled or dreamed up, and I'm sure i do two or three a day - put together, they'd be seen from outer space! I once concocted an imaginary system in my head. I wondered how many people it would need to operate it, so I sketched it out to see. The answer was that it would take an absolute minimum of maybe 40 people to operate it fully!

The brown livery started appearing about 1970; precise date of first one is not recorded anywhere. However, even six years later when the last loose-coupled goods train ran, a good quarter of the wagon fleet overall were still grey. As late as 1975 I saw a "H" van at Ballina in the Crossoolina siding still with a "flying snail", thus, it hadn't seen a paint brush since 1963. It's quite possible it was satill carrying its first and only coat of paint. You can practically date a photo - all grey is pre-1970. Early seventies, and a very occasional pristine brown one. gradually, 1973 its maybe 50 / 50, and by '76 only an occasional grey one.

Hopefully

ALL of the above posts make perfect sense; thus adding strongly to my predictions and beliefs that: 1. The Foynes branch is, was, and will be a white elephant. There is no traffic for it, never was, and won’t be. It’ll gather weeds and end up being cleared of bushes every few years by a yellow machine. 2. Bar Ballina - for the time being anyway - rail freight on this island will go the way of steam engines and loco-hauled passenger trains. (Sorry, “customer” trains). 3. The hoo-ha about the rail development plan is largely a load of fantasy nonsense concocted to suggest that politicians north and south are serious about LONG term public transport planning. They aren’t, and even if they were, large parts of this report are unrealistic drivel that a first-year economics student could debunk. 4. Ideas about reopening Rosslare - Waterford, Bandon or the Derry Road are not going to happen, full stop. Sorry to be negative, but these - plus points raised above - are the cold, hard realities in Ireland.

Awful

Yup, 16:50 is an NIR set, not a DD.

Any thoughts on tomorrow's 16:00 set from Dublin? Scheduled DD, NIR railcar, 29 class, ICR, or wheelbarrow?

I’m chasing steam trains in the Isle of Man right now but will dig out whatever records I have when I get home. But western district station colours were indeed mid brown and various beige / stone-colour shades. Often, cast-iron door signs (like “WAITING ROOM”) were navy blue background rather than the normal black.

Yes, the UTA repainted all the stations but in a red, green and light grey scheme which they didn’t necessarily use in many other places. The several CIE-owned stations between Strabane and Derry remained in GNR colours, I think until closure.

I have details somewhere, yes!

Even into the 1980s, NIR railcars on certain services could have a converted MED railcar, now an unpowered parcel van, or some old NCC “brown vans” behind it. I saw a set one time in the mid-70s with no less than six brown vans behind it. I think that was fairly unusual though.

Also, seek out WRENNEIRE of this parish. He can help you with just about any model under the sun. A bit more than that - grey far too light, and black roof and number on tender need to go too. Easy, though - simply repaint the entire thing, bar the red buffer beams, in a dark grey and put cabside number PLATES on, and hey presto - GSR.