All Activity

Yes, the whole fleet did indeed end up with CIE, and were thereafter treated as a common fleet with their own "H" vans. An initial allocation to the UTA was on paper only and as you say, quickly altered - if, indeed, any sort of UTA allocation was ever actually made "official" at all. It may not even have been.

While there may have been a short intermediate period of ownership, I believe that they DID all end up in the "South". I must have a look in the GNR wagon book which shaded in some wagon numbers to indicate where they went - if my memory serves me. Des Coakham was the man to tell you these things and I'm pretty sure I checked in 2007.

GNRI action at Mullingar Broadstone also saw a great collection of former GNRI, MGWR, and GSWR locomotives between the closure of Inchicore's shed to steam in 1958(?) and Broadstone itself in 1961. Everything from the 400s to the GNRI's JT tanks made it to Broadstone.

IIRC the MGWR had a specific sleeping carriage for crews. It was avoided at all costs due to an infestation of lice! Don't let the bed bugs bite indeed...

In terms of making a model, details of one specific one would be needed, as they were generally converted from withdrawn passenger stock. There was at least one, I believe, which had been a horse box! (Probably only had maybe two bunk beds?). The one above is a former GSWR first class six-wheeler. The thing behind it - I think there were at least two of these. There were also at least two long-wheelbase vans, painted brown even in the grey'n'green era, which i think were originally cattle driver's vans. One was used on the lifting train that was to be seen in West Cork and also Valentia after they closed. Probably Kenmare too. I remember seeing one in the 1970s somewhere on the Midland, shoved up a siding somewhere, painted green with red ends, as many of those sort of things were. (Livery note; the red quickly faded to either an orangey colour, or a salmony pink). This vehicle was a six-wheeler of indeterminate origin - later research suggested MGWR, but it had the body shape of a GSWR vehicle, and was thus probably a GSR-era rebuild. It had only a few windows. I don't know what became of it.

Two AEC road freight flatbed trucks leave the Lakeview freight yard passing the superb IRM grain wagons.

An actual passenger sleeping car would be interesting. Cork-Waterford-Rosslare-Dublin-Belfast-Derry perhaps? It would require at least one line reopen but I'm sure it'd be worth it.

Probably 2 Compounds for an SG3! CIE seem to have found the 0-6-0s reasonably useful and of the passenger locos only the Us and Qs seem to have strayed much onto the wider CIE system

One of these, 234A has survived into preservation at a private location in West Cork.

I was wondering, has anyone researched the CIE sleeping cars, or built a model of one? I mean this kind of vehicle - the green one (photo from Ernie): I understand these were used as temporary staff accommodation which could be moved around to cattle fairs and other events where a normally quiet station would have a large influx of traffic and need more staff to deal with it. Most seem to have been converted from 6-wheel coaches, and carried numbers in the 2##A series. Also potentially of interest are the Permanent Way Department 'ballast vans' which again were staff accommodation, and one also appears in the photo above - the grey and red one. These were numbered in the 248xx or the 845x series and were less numerous, and looked less like carriages. Shall I have a look down this rabbit hole?

Leslie I understand that the UTA got half of the cement wagons on the dissolution of the GNR(B). They had no use for them, and they were exchanged for three BUT power cars which were a lot more use in their case. Not that CIÉ ever did much with the BUTs they kept. I guess it would have been impossible to do the same thing for loco classes. What the exchange rate would have been between a compound and an SG3 I wonder?

Pun-ishment will surely come. Spectacular work Kevin.

Don't worry Leslie - the transaction will have taken place in advance!

Same - twice, although I have two absolute crackpot stories coming soon on my layout threads and could well end up getting arrested for those.....

Thankfully the only time I was ever summoned to the Courthouse was for jury duty.

Equally gutted that I'm losing another good customer on the day! I hope that the Gig goes well!

The verdict is in - Kevin Sweeney you are found guilty of producing superb models!

Looking superb already!

My latest build is Cavan Courthouse. Built in 1824, in the 1980s the rear half of the building was demolished and rebuilt. The model will be as was originally built, not the modern version. While it's a pity they demolished half of the original building, the upside is I got plans of it on the planning portal. I'm going to include it in the upcoming exhibition in Cavan County Museum but unroofed, so visitors can see how the models are constructed. I'm using greyboard for this model, which is half the price of mountboard. The date for the exhibitions opening has been moved to Saturday the 26 of April, at 2 pm.

Totally gutted to be missing it this year - bloody work getting in the way.....but at least it pays for PW and IRM goodies!!!

Me too

A nice coat of GSR Grey if you went spotting on April 1st you were no fool! And yes. There is a few more floating around, however, moving them is slightly more uncertain

Decent of it to put on a nice suit for a funeral.

Not the last sets

I'm surprised that no-one associated with this exhibition has publicised it here - or did you all know about it already? As I'm wearing myself out getting stuff together for it, (and crossing the Irish Sea to attend) I want to see some customers!! Perhaps someone in NDMRC would provide the details to drum up business - I'm a mere "trader".