Those were the days.........

[heirflick]

remember the days when you could go where you loked on the railway and health and safety didnt exist?

 

 

love this pic of the passengers - kids and all, roaming at will! anyone got any pics like it?

[enniscorthyman]

Shem I was on a few railtours in the 90s and you want to

have seen the rush to the head of the train for a photo,and

people were on tracks and shouting at anyone who dared to

wander into the view.It was worse than a crowd of women

In a Q for a January sale.!

Nice photo too of the IRRS special to Ballinacourty in 1982.

Does it say where the photo was taken?.

[ak425]

I remember that day very well. I got my first footplate trip between Kilmeaden and this station - Carrols Cross. It was my one and only trip over this line. July 24th 1982. Ah happy days.

[Sulzer201]

Thanks heirflick for brill photo. I see 041 is still carrying her snatchers.

[Dave]

Great pic

[Broithe]

I see 041 is still carrying her snatchers.

 

I always used to worry about one dropping down and catching me round the neck...

[heirflick]

anyone notice the horn? must have got a belt at some point.

[Eiretrains]

It's one of Aubrey Dale's (aka Albert Bridge) photographs on his geograph profile. Taken at Carrolls Cross when a number locals stopped the IRRS tour(!) in protest of the closure of the line with the demise of the Quigley magnesite plant at Dungarvan. Do post the original link which contains more info and author's name.

http://www.geograph.ie/photo/3093924

[heirflick]

thanks for the info there eiretrains, i found the pic on my old laptop and i hadnt a clue where it came from! have been flicking through some of the pics on the site and they are fantastic - well worth a look by all:tumbsup: the pictures dont appear to be copyright either..thank god!

[jhb171achill]

I was on that trip and I recognise one or two people in that photo!

[heirflick]

I was on that trip and I recognise one or two people in that photo!

 

so was it you that turned the horn?

[enniscorthyman]

054 had a wonky horn in her final days too.

Edited March 24, 2013 by enniscorthyman

[RedRich]

That's a great photo Eamonn. I don't recall ever seeing one of those wagons in a Bauxite livery, only Grey or a very heavily weathered condition.

 

Rich,

[Mayner]

I was on that trip and I recognise one or two people in that photo!

 

Its a small world I was on that trip too, the line went out with a bang although the freights had alreaady finished there were three passenger workings into Ballinacourty on that day with a Quigley Magnesite staff excursion behind a pair of small GMs and aassociated Ecs workings.

 

Railtours in Waterford seem to bring out the protestors an IRRS excursion to New Ross and Kilmacthomas was blocked at Fiddown for about an hour by people protesting over the state of the Fiddown Toll bridge. On that day we enjoyed the novelty of a non-stop run from Waterford Check to Abbey Junction

[heirflick]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6398[/ATTACH]

 

now she would look good as a model on a scrap line!

[minister_for_hardship]

That's a great photo Eamonn. I don't recall ever seeing one of those wagons in a Bauxite livery, only Grey or a very heavily weathered condition.

 

Rich,

 

I think that might be the 'internal user' fitted Bulleid open for drawing stuff around the Works.

AFAIK it's still there.

[RedRich]

I think that might be the 'internal user' fitted Bulleid open for drawing stuff around the Works.

AFAIK it's still there.

 

Thanks for that Minister. I've been to Inchicore on a few occasions and I have never seen it. I was too distracted by locos and coaches.

 

Rich,

[heirflick]

heres 2 more excelent shots fron of the scrap line in mullingar from the gerograph website...

 

 

sad times....

 

 

this has got to be one of the most beautiful liveries of any railcar!

[minister_for_hardship]

heres 2 more excelent shots fron of the scrap line in mullingar from the gerograph website...

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6402[/ATTACH]

 

this has got to be one of the most beautiful liveries of any railcar!

 

Is that UTA red/cream? How did CIE end up scrapping it?

[Garfield]

so was it you that turned the horn?

 

Seamus, if you look through photos of Metro-Vicks down through the years, you'll see many of them had 'wonky' horns at one point or another... seems to have been pretty common. I'm not sure whether it was done on purpose or if it was a case of the horns being loosely fitted.

[heirflick]

Is that UTA red/cream? How did CIE end up scrapping it?

 

it is indeed an nir railcar, maybe they were leased to cie like they did with the class 80's...

 

wheres JHB when you need him?

[Eiretrains]

That AEC railcar in Mullingar is one of the ex GNR vehicles, it's in the early 1970s NIR maroon and grey livery, you can see the NIR logo on its side. I think some of these ended up in Mullingar, being the only suitable site to dispose of them after NIR were pulled up for dumping similar asbestos ridden railcars and stock into Crumlin Quarry in Co.Antrim, as well being handy for CIE to re-use parts in their ageing AEC fleet.

[minister_for_hardship]

Seamus, if you look through photos of Metro-Vicks down through the years, you'll see many of them had 'wonky' horns at one point or another... seems to have been pretty common. I'm not sure whether it was done on purpose or if it was a case of the horns being loosely fitted.

 

Happened esp. when a loco ventured down places that hadn't seen traffic for a while, a horn would get a battering from overhanging branches.

Ballast and other debris could hit them too.

 

Have seen a horn, allegedly removed from an A Class, still had layers of silver/black and orange paint and was of Swedish manufacture. The last 4'' or so of the copper 'trumpet' was pared back and replaced rather crudely with mild steel braised onto it. Plenty of bashes and bumps on it.

[Glenderg]

Photos of the railcars in better shape, and with her skirt attached.

 

"GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY (IRELAND) - 600 - 20 AEC railcars numbered 600 - 619, based on pre-war GWR units. With a power car at each end and two intermediate trailers, they were put on Dublin - Belfast services - 04/06/1950 - 60 units of the CIE 2600 Class followed a few months later."

http://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/5736835540/in/set-72157626756740602/lightbox/

 

[Garfield]

Photos of the railcars in better shape, and with her skirt attached.

 

"GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY (IRELAND) - 600 - 20 AEC railcars numbered 600 - 619, based on pre-war GWR units. With a power car at each end and two intermediate trailers, they were put on Dublin - Belfast services - 04/06/1950 - 60 units of the CIE 2600 Class followed a few months later."

http://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/5736835540/in/set-72157626756740602/lightbox/

 

 

 

 

Love those old AECs!

[enniscorthyman]

now she would look good as a model on a scrap line!

Or you could model a scrap line like this.

Its a pity 001 was not saved as the ITG had intended because of 001 being

class leader,however she had a split fuel tank and would cost too much

to fix.Nearly all the the class leaders did not survive,121 fire damage,

201 C class bombed,181 scrapped,b101 scrapped,however 141 is still

with us.

Edited March 26, 2013 by enniscorthyman

[heirflick]

That AEC railcar in Mullingar is one of the ex GNR vehicles, it's in the early 1970s NIR maroon and grey livery, you can see the NIR logo on its side. I think some of these ended up in Mullingar, being the only suitable site to dispose of them after NIR were pulled up for dumping similar asbestos ridden railcars and stock into Crumlin Quarry in Co.Antrim, as well being handy for CIE to re-use parts in their ageing AEC fleet.

 

thanks for that info eire, do you know where in the cars the aspestos was?

[Hunslet 102]

That AEC railcar in Mullingar is one of the ex GNR vehicles, it's in the early 1970s NIR maroon and grey livery, you can see the NIR logo on its side. I think some of these ended up in Mullingar, being the only suitable site to dispose of them after NIR were pulled up for dumping similar asbestos ridden railcars and stock into Crumlin Quarry in Co.Antrim, as well being handy for CIE to re-use parts in their ageing AEC fleet.

 

Both NIR (UTA)and CIE split the GNR AEC railcars in half at the demise of the GNR in 1958,both receiving 10 cars each.All of NIRs AEC railcars were withdrawn by 1973,2 of which were bought by CIE for parts.2were converted to parcels cars and the other 6 were scrapped.I think the only AEC railcars that might have went to Crosshill quarry were the 2 that had been converted to parcels traffic.All of the 70 class railcars went to Crosshill along with some MPDs,MEDs and the last of the BUTs which had been converted to hauled coaching stock.

 

The asbestos was used in the lagging of the coaches

[jhb171achill]

That was the standard NIR livery (maroon & grey) introduced in late 1967, an amended version of a recently introduced UTA livery applied to the then-new 70 class sets. NIR applied it to these ex-GNR AEC cars, ex-GNR BUT cars, MEDs and MPDs on the Bangor line and NCC, as well as the 70 class. This remained NIR's standard livery for railcars until the advent of first of two batches of 80 class sets in 1974, which were delivered in the dark aquamarine blue and maroon, with 1 inch white line separating them. This blue and maroon livery had itself appeared in 1970 on the then-new "Enterprise" Mk 2's, but was not applied to anything else at the time. Once the 80s (which were never maroon and grey) were operating, the maroon and dark blue spread to the 70 class and some MPD cars, though most ended their careers in maroon and grey. No MED cars were ever repainted maroon and blue and all ended their lives in the early 80s still in maroon and grey. Most 70 class vehicles became maroon and blue though some centre cars passed into the 80s still in maroon and grey; former NCC coach 526 being one.

 

This is all railcar talk. In the NIR era, loco hauled stock had its own story livery wise. Such former steam stock as was retained had an all over maroon livery with the one inch waist line as on (later) maroon and blue coaches. Thus, new railcars and carriage stock were maroon above the waist and had the white line, but while railcars were blue below, carriages were the same maroon. (if that makes sense!). By 1974, few loco hailed carriages were left, and a small number of former railcars were repainted in the maroon "carriage livery", de-engined, and used as loco hauled stock for a very short time. The discovery of asbestos and the 1978 second batch of 80 class sets saw to their demise, as did the lack of locos, as NIR's only three locos (the Hunslets) were becoming increasingly unreliable, especially 103. By this stage, all 80s and almost all 70s were maroon / blue along with a few MPDs, while the other MPDs and all MEDs were maroon and grey. Enterprise stock, by now comprising al loco hauled stock, were maroon / blue.

 

The next change was to be the advent of the "Castle" class, as they were then inevitably called, rather than "450" class. These appeared in an all over cream livery with maroon and orange stripes. Following that, NIR went down the road of a mini-BR with "regions" (each one consisting of quite a few hundred metres of track)! Initially, an all over grey was adopted, with a broad maroon band below window level on 80 class railcars. Noother railcars were painted this way. At the same time the "Enterprise" stock was painted the same way, but with a light blue band. About the time CIE became IR / IE, and the "tippex" white stripes were added to the orange and black livery, NIR added similar white stripes either side of the blue on "Enterprise" coaches, but never on the railcars' maroon stripes. The 80 class sets hired to CIE (three sets initially) ended up coming back to NIR still in this grey-with-maroon-stripe livery, with IR "set-of-points" logo, long after thiis livery had been replaced by what comes next...This was an "inter city" livery of grey lower, blue upper, with white / black / white / yellow stripes below the window, and grey between the top of the windows and the roof, which was a much darker grey. The "suburban" livery was red and cream with an orange band under the window. There was an orange diamond on the ends and the red swept up at power car ends. Eventually this died out and the "inter city" version (also applied to the Enterprise) became standard. Later variations were that the blue extended to roof level, and about 1995 the three coloured lining below window level was replaced by a broad turquoise stripe, at the start of the Translink era. NIR symbols gradually gave way to translink ones, though some carriages carried none.

 

The six NIR locomotives had different liveries to the railcars. The Hunslets were delivered in maroon, with white-lined yellow V shaped panels at the ends, the exact shape of which varied with repainting (pretty much like any NIR diesel to date!). (Actually, there were several variations of the white V on the end of 80 class sets in maroon / blue). The Hunslets were later painted blue, the last (102) receiving a late repaint with black surrounds to the cab windows, a darker shade of blue, and different yellow markings; the other two of the class hav ing been withdrawn by that stage. NIR's three 071s (sorry, 111s or GMs, or I suppose 88888881111's) were initially a shade of blue slightly lighter than GNR blue, but in later repaints the darker (more GNR like) blue that they are now. Both they and the Hunslets initially had deep orange V shapes on the ends, but later yellow panels, the exact shape and size of which have varied on all three GMs with virtually every repaint. The "C" class locos bought from CIE by NIR had the lighter blue and the deep orange V's on the ends, but inverted.

 

The huge NIR logos on the sides of all three classes of NIR locos initially had squared or "sharp" corners and later on rounded ones as today on 888888111 / 2 / 3.

 

The ex-GNR railcars went to CIE for scrapping, but were never leased for traffic purposes, though rugby events saw them enter Lansdowne Road station on specials from the north....

[Mayner]

Just an add on to JHBs piece the UTA briefly divided its remaining lines into three more or less self contained regions, each with a main line and suburban colour scheme.

 

The basic scheme is similar to the original NIR red and cream scheme, with red on the NCC, blue on the GNR and light green on the Bangor Line. Each region had a suburban variant with the coach or railcar painted in the main livery colour with a narrower cream band around window level.

[josefstadt]

thanks for that info eire, do you know where in the cars the aspestos was?

 

It was used for insulation. I believe it was to be found in the walls and roof between the inside and oudside panelling and possibly also in the floor.

[jhb171achill]

Indeed Mayner... I remember seeing the GN section variant - it did remind me of the GNR livery though the UTA version had a shade of blue more like the GNR locos had been, not the darker (almost navy) blue of the railcars, buses and Fintona and Howth trams! The green version on the Bangor line just looked odd, especially those cars (not all of them) which had a painted-on red buffer beam - it clashed with the green and must have been a nightmare for anyone who was colour blind. It's worth noting that the UTA version differed in a few respects - the inclusion of the NIR logo being the most obvious - this was on everything. The original version was upright rathern than slanted, and was in gold, edged in white. It was applied to several steam engines, creating an NIR "livery" for steam engines which was simply the existing UTA black with their lining, but with the UTA crest painted out and the NIR emblem added. The now preserved No. 4 latterly had the UTA crest on the right hand tank (from the driver's view point) and the NIR symbol on the left. The NIR always used light grey rather than the cream used by the UTA on some variations.

 

Imagine what a Hunslet would have looked like in lined black, or a "Jeep" 2-6-4T in early NIR maroon! Now there's a photoshopping thought.

[heirflick]

thanks to all for the info!

[heirflick]

cant leave the section without asking about the front valance beneath the buffers on the railcars - when and why were they removed? i always prefer to see them in place....

 

[heirflick]

heres a better view of the front valance..