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Ye know, that B&I container looks really well in " real life" Its not really my era or the lines im going to model - never saw one in real life like the Bells and CIE ones.... But,but,but ......i might just have to acquire a few ...........this "collectors" streak has been awakened in me.....

Jaysis......any chance of some kind of IRM Clubcard scheme eh

Absolutely interested- wasnt on the scene when they first came out and now they are rare.. Would be interested in black and tan and cie supertrain livery - probably a couple of both...... However....late 2020 would be good for the finances with the A's and 121's arriving this year!

they are sold out now...........pretty much - 1 grey left...........just in the nick of time

Psssst........look what arrived today! Gave it the quick once over before carefully putting it back in its box and putting it safely away - hopefully next time to be seen hauling a mixed rake of cattle and open wagons out of Palace East! Ed

I'll take the cows - dead or alive ( as long as they're no more than 2cms tall!) As before - put me down for 10 definitely - may take more. ED

thanks for the encouragement GM - Im not completely hopeless in that department ( just spent the day fixing the lawnmower, changing the oil and brakes on the car and putting up shelves in the Garden shed) - but there is a degree of complexity and delicateness that i would fear in my hands!! - however - like 99.999% of things in life - its an experience thing and I might aswell take the plunge sooner................ Actually I had planned to buy a few kits off Leslie to start building up relevant rolling stock - open beet wagons and brake wagons - Sorry Leslie - you got gazumped by Roderick for the toy train budget for a few months - I will be back to you for wagon kits by the end of the summer! ( well if you want business sooner - just tell me you are down to your last few kits and you're never ever ever ever making them again and I'll drop the car off at the pawnshop ) Ed

Good Morning all Well .....after a couple of sleeepless nights , endless indecision and ruminating on the issue for days - I have placed an order last night for one of these lovely locos. I thought about it long and hard and the following came to mind: a) Im going to model the old GWSR Carlow/Wexford line ( Bagnalstown and Palace East Stations , Borris Halt and a bit of Rural in between) circa 1955-1965 - ie as it closed - its J15 country - Beet and cattle specials on an essentially dormant line - I believe the only time a diesel ran down it was at the end - an A class to collect wagons and a C Class on the lifting train - I need a J15 b) the IRM fellas are realistically going to concentrate on the diesel scene in the foreseeable future ( now Sods law...............) c) Brass kits etc etc - with the best will in the world - there is more chance of me working on the next Lunar Landing module than bringing one of those kits to a successful conclusion - total novice on kits d) They looked great and ye guys are raving about them and 00 Works - that does count when Im handing over essentially my car insurance premium for one loco! So I came to the conclusion that I simply "had" to have one..................Jeez I'm getting in deep to this model railway stuff now!! So there we go and the waiting starts! - I have redirected it to a secure location for collection - if her indoors gets wind of this I'll be measuring for baseboards in the kennel! Ed

They are the business - look fantastic - just out of my league price wise at the moment......

I 'd be in the market for 6 min - probably double that - they were everywhere.

Like a child on christmas morning I am - to the bemusement of wife, mother in law and cat! Probably not chronologically correct -but who cares ! - looks great! thanks guys - I hope to get cracking on a more suitable surface for them to grace than the kitchen table. Ed

If only ......... I casually mentioned last year that i could so with some extra room for a layout( ie one of the sparish rooms we have filled with "stuff"....)...now we've just got planning permission for an extension and i spent 5 hours of life that i will never get back in the IKEA kitchen planning dept yesterday.......this model railway craic is turning fierce expensive and i havent laid a centimetre of track or spun a bogie with intent yet!!!

Just got the email - they're on the way..................now to hopefully evade the customs at Chez Edo " what!!!....more bubbles.....etc etc etc."..........keep telling her it could be far worse...

Lovely thread. Some great memories and trips there. Being one of the "spring chickens" on this forum - ie born after 1970 - most of the damage was done before I arrived or was old enough to travel around. My first train trip was from Bagnalstown to Dublin to go to the Zoo when I was 4 - while the yard has changed a lot - the line is very much still there! the only closed line now that I've ever been on is the Waterford to Rosslare Strand. of the soon to be closed lines ( ie next financial downturn - coming up soon folks), I have travelled the Ballybrophy to Limerick and Waterford to Limerick Junction. I've cycled parts of the old North Kerry Line - likewise the the Waterford Greenway (fantastic) and I've walked from Westport to Achill on the Brilliant old Line there. I played as a kid in Youghal Station before it was closed off and my uncle used to live at the level crossing out of Athy on the old Ballylinan Line and we used to walk along the sleepers down to the factory junction and onto the bridge over the barrow back in the day. I was also lucky enough to walk the entire trackbed and route from Bagnalstown to Palace East and onwards to both Macmine junction and New Ross about 20 years now - even onto the old Barrow Bridge...............its amazing how having a relatively famous "celebrity" Aunt with her TV crew filming a documentary for the BBC opened so many doors, gates and fields along the way!.............will always be thankful I had the opportunity to do it as so much more of the alignment has gone in the years since........... BTW - I was in Borris about a month ago on a lovely Sunny Saturday afternoon and I stopped by the Old Viaduct and cutting entrance for a bit of a wander out on to the viaduct and sat under Kilcoltrim Bridge and day dreamed of a Mixed Goods meandering down the line.........................

over 20 years from the GFA - you would think they would have got around this..................mental Here is the link for "Norn Iron"......... Its actually very good - with more choice on maps than we have on OSI................stuff from the 30s to 60S aswell I wonder do the OSI have maps from the 30's,40's and 50's that they just haven't got around to digitalising yet - looking for those missing pieces like the South Wexford line , Waterford - New Ross and the Castlecomer and Wolfhill lines..........

Yep Claremorris from 1955 is - just checked.....Sligo? You could use the OSI's Geohive map layers - particular the 1888 - 1913 map - i find it pretty good for stations layout which in many cases were unchanged from then until the 60s and 70s when CIE started to destroy them all...

Im pretty sure that both plans were in the back of JHB's " Rails thru the West" pictorial on the limerick to Sligo rail line.......Claremorris definitely....

That J15 looks the business......time to start the J15 fund....

Thanks Guys - always appreciate the input. So a pair of Supertrains definitely - I would probably get away with one of each of the Greys and B&T's going by Ernie's fantastic photo collection............... Still - it'll be PCP financing at the rate stuff is being released this year...............

Evening Gents quick question on the 121 did the "doubling up" happen much before the IE era been looking thru photos over the weekend and I didn't see any Greys, or B& T's 121's working in Tandem? Just asking as Im trying to keep my 121 purchases as efficient as possible (Im looking at the Grey, B& T and Supertrain eras ) thanks Ed

I don't think this predicted wave of baby GMS being cashed in to pay for A's and 121's is going to happen..............Irish model railway gear is turning into the bitcoin for the model railway world. I'll be putting my order into the Marks in the near future for the 121s - I think they will be snapped up fairly fast being such an iconic loco. I have been looking around for a B&T 141 and 181 plus supertrain versions of both - probably should head to a show as the online prices plus postage etc etc are fairly tasty..........given these sky high prices - do you think Mr Murphy might contemplate another limited run of the 141/181's?

Thanks a million JHB - I really appreciate it! the whole thread is brilliant. I'm looking out the window here just north of my adopted home of Limerick -watching Storm Hannah relentlessly strip away the blossoms and embryonic fruit off the Pear, plum and apple trees in the back garden....................they were doing so well up to now !! . If you are heading out tonight on the roads - be careful - this Hannah one won't be taking prisoners......... that said - with a gin and tonic in hand - Im not stirring for the night - and I'll be reading this thread as long as the electrics hold out! There is something near magical and massively evocative about all those timetables JHB - those early ones are works of art in themselves- I hope you have a designated good home for them when your time with them is done. It would be a terrible shame to see documents like that lost or in the hands of somebody who places no value on them. I guess what really hits me going down the lists of long closed stations on long closed lines is that its only the bones of 60 years since the majority of them closed for good - it might aswell be 360 years ago for all they matter or are remembered today. It's a view into a totally different way of life in a totally different Ireland than today - its an irony that the world of 1961 in Ireland would be have been far more familiar to my great grandfather who died in 1942 than to myself who was born 30 years after - this country has utterly transformed in the last 50 years and our railways and our attitude to them reflects that. The Railways were an intrinsic and vital part of daily life in lifetimes of my parents, grandparents and great grandparents. From tales of my Great grandfather smuggling guns from the Asgard down to the volunteers in Carlow and Kilkenny in the coal tender of the daily mixed goods from Kingsbridge in 1913, getting arrested at Palace East by the British Intelligence as he did a legger on Easter Monday 1916 ,and participating in a bit of auld "vandalism" to the Engine shed and points in Ballywilliam in the early 20's. My grandmother taking the daily train to Goresbridge from Borris for music lessons with the Nuns in the Convent there and my dad and his friends who used to bum lifts on the beet trains to Bagnalstown and Carlow for hurling games in the winter time. My mum was from Waterford - so we were constantly regaled with tales of the much loved Tramore train where she would go out to the resort, go on the amusements, go swimming, buy lots of ice cream and take the train back to the city and still have enough change out of two pence to buy a bag of chips on the way home!!!...............my childhood is filled with memories of tracing the track of the old line all the way down to New Ross in the back of the car,straining to see up to what remained of New Ross Station if we were stopped to let a fertilizer train pass at the bridge - dragging my Grandfather to the station in Waterford to watch the trains go by and standing transfixed in the garden of my aunty's house near Stradbally as the Dolomite trains passed by on their way to ballinacourty......................its all gone now - in the case of the Bagnalstown to Palace east - its like it never existed in the first place apart from the viaduct in Borris and some overgrown undisturbed cuttings here and there......for now For those of us who live outside Dublin, and to a lesser extent Cork and Belfast ........the railways have totally lost their relevance to our lives - its an era that has passed on. There is no big baddie to point the finger at - outside of the assassination of the GNR in the late 50's up north( that was just plain wrong ) the railways decline in rural Ireland is a result of the way the people of rural ireland have chosen to live their lives and carry out their business...better roads , better and more reliable automobiles along with containerisation etc etc played a big part in that - the railways just weren't needed anymore when you could just jump in your car and go anywhere at anytime - likewise when you can ship your goods from one destination to another in one go at any time that suits - why go through the whole rigmaroll of goods sheds and loading and unloading etc etc............Personally - its sad to see a way of life coming to an end like that - but the samething is happening in town and villages right across the country now as the shops close down as the discounters move in and online shopping takes precedence - everybody says its really sad and something must be done - but their spending habits would tell a different story..................the number of family businesses going to the wall for the chance to buy discounted chainsaws along with cheap avocados every 6 months will be a tale for ages in decades hence.......... Anyhoo - after that tangent into social history ( you'd know I was a history grad back in the day!) - back to choo-choos - What was a shame was the rapid selling off of the land and permanent way of all those closed down lines in the 60s and 70's - and the utterly derelict state of much of the infrastructure left behind. I know a lot of folks here take to the drink when the word "greenway" is mentioned around here. ......but lets have a reality check lads - the lines that are shut are never coming back - outside of the greater Dublin suburban area - there will be no new railway lines in Ireland again - the re-opening of Midleton and particularly Ennis to Athenry were Celtic Tiger Freak moments - never to be repeated - looking at the next 20 years - if the existing network minus Limerick junction to Waterford and Limerick to Ballybrophy, is retained - it will be some achievement - the 2 Tipp branch lines will be gone within 10 years - there might be an extension of the dunboyne line and more light railways in the Dublin area - and the Tipp branches will be put out to grass to pay for them -but thats it - the best the rest of the network can hope for is retention of what is there and maybe - with European funds - electricification of Dublin - Dundalk and Dublin - Cork. So how to keep the memories of the closed lines alive - Greenways would appear to be the answer - the Waterford Greenway is superb - its a real pity that the same didn't happen to all the closed lines in the 60's ..........Bagnalstown to Palace east thru the rolling valleys under the Blackstairs would have been a magificent route - likewise the Shillealagh line in Wicklow, the West Cork lines , the Kerry Lines , not to mention Connemeara and Clare ..........and the list goes on and on - the alignment preserved and the history held on to. When I was a kid - you could jump over a gate and go rambling thru the countryside and fields without a care in the world..........nowadays, in a time of insurance claims and rural hysteria over crime - you take your life in your hands doing the same - Greenways are popular because they are becoming part of the few places where us landless citizens can take a walk or cycle in the countryside without fear of being knocked down or accused of trespass...........and the tourists love them. The Trains that ran on them are never coming back - lets preserve their echoes as best we can. Im rambling on now - time for another drinkie, another peruse thru those magnificent timetables and dream again of beet wagons, Cattle wagons and how to replicate Limestone stonework in the 00 world!

Hi JHB any chance you would have Dublin - Waterford ( via Cherryville) and Waterford - Macmine Junction circa 1958-1962 approx..........? at your convenience - thanks a mill Ed

Mayner - thank you very much for taking the time to write such an informative post - much appreciated I would love to have seen Brian McCanns layout - sounds fantastic. Yeh - there will be a lot of scratch building , kit bashing and making do full stop on modelling this part and time of the railway world. Lots of food for thought there thanks again Ed

Thanks JHB. Apart from an IRRS Special which traversed the line just before it shut for good in the early 60's captured by James O'Dea - that is pretty much the only photo or image of a passenger train on that line so has nearly iconic status down South Carlow direction - there is a copy of it in all the pubs!. I'd love to recreate it - I did have a GWR tank with a couple of those little coaches straight off the pages of the Ivor the Engine or out of the Welsh valleys, as a kid, but to put together a prototypical set of some accuracy , as I suspected, will be quite difficult to do..........The GS&WR seems have had an amount of "similar but slightly different"rolling stock.....which makes it a serious challenge to model. thanks again Ed