Galteemore

Thanks - wondered about that. So they fold up as a box and attach to coach floor?

After a very good day at the Gauge O Guild trade show yesterday- was good to see @Timosherry there - picked up a few bits for the coach so I can make a start. Just wondering what the circled bits are for - a reinforcement for the buffer beam? Any guidance much appreciated!

Lovely shot of a QL - possibly the Cinderella of the GN 4-4-0s classes. Interesting to see the tram before its blue and cream days

The irony is that 5T would probably have been better off staying in the USA. Her life since repatriation has been somewhat edgy!

See you soon hopefully Darius - thanks for all the inspiration delivered at speed!

I suspect the ‘wartime grey’ is a reference by the dealer (who has probably bought this in an estate sale and is gamely trying to work out what it is ) to the SECR wartime grey that the orginal Woolwich moguls bore, and which may have been the livery on the model used for this conversion. Looks like a WW1 SECR body stuck on a BR liveried chassis.

Must check out my Walter McGrath book…the only electric peat line I know of was Annaghmore.

Who knew the 800 class got to Portrush - painted black ?

This was fairly commonplace at the time. Irish track in the 80s could lead to a very exciting ride. The NCC main line was pretty notorious and the Larne line pretty archaic. All the same, I’m thankful that much of my school commute was done in 70 class DEMUs under somersault signals ….

Brilliant news. Exciting to see Downpatrick getting back on its feet slowly but surely. I’d thought about a trip back to NI in late summer..although the 450 gives me horrible flashbacks to my school commute….

Great stuff David - the Dundalk massive are looking forward to it - and the Manorhamilton crew are working on something with renewed effort ….

The actual quote is ‘positively brilliant’ Leslie But I agree. Brilliant concept which I used in anger yesterday to try and diagnose the SG’s ailment. Will have to make my own now.

Never say never @Mol_PMB!

Fabulous day at Railex yesterday. There was a GN presence, @leslie10646, although the JT was absent as it has some pickup issues I couldn’t fix in time. The SG2 developed a sudden and mysterious short which I still haven’t found. The PP did ok, barring a brief interlude when a motor lead needed re soldered. She found gainful employment on a train of CIE 6w stock, with David’s J26 doing pilot work. One of my ambitions since taking up 36.75 was to produce an engine which could fit on Belmullet or NPQ and do a day’s work. Delightful afternoon and as always David is very patient when I commit a shunting movement that’s not in the plan ….apologies for lots of pics of 74 below - was just so nice to see her stretching her legs a bit in such a lovely settting. Operating all Mr H’s Sligo stock was a treat as always. Although in disgrace, the SG posed for the camera at the end anyway.

Yes

Looking forward to it David. The locos will be getting prepped over next day or so …unfortunately the PP crew Andy Stadden painted for me got sent to wrong address so she’ll be running with an empty cab!

1 and 2 both survive. 1 was at Shane’s Castle and Giants causeway. 2 is at Cultra. If memory serves, 3s boiler was used in a stationary capacity for some time after.

Fascinating stuff Ernie! The PP looks so odd with that tender. Enniskillen has her old BP chimney - and was the last of the large tanks to retain it. She lost it in favour of a GN one c1950. Note too the faint remains of the lettering on her tanks.

I did think that if the new RPSI mogul gets finished then calling it Hugh O’Neill would be a fairly inclusive way of nodding to the old NCC naming pattern

The Orange Order have a rule that only the deceased may be commemorated on banners, after an unfortunate incident when a loyal brother ratted on the organisation after having been painted on a banner….

Could always find a compromise candidate for a border station eg ‘Doyle’ after Company Sergeant Major Doyle - who won the VC with the British Army and then became an IRA intelligence officer. Or ‘Despard-French’ after the Viceroy Lord French and his sister Charlotte Despard who was a Sinn Fein activist ! One of the delightful things about our history is that it’s so rarely black and white. In the dying days of the modern Troubles I taught at a school in west Belfast which had once been Protestant but turned Catholic in an overnight demographic change. The area (beside Ballymurphy) was solidly SF but a dusty portrait of the Queen remained under the stage as no-one could quite bring themselves to throw it out!

The logic was that the stations were the nearest significant location connected to the person commemorated. Thus Sligo is named after Sean McDermott, who lived in Co Leitrim. The SLNC station at Kilmakerrill was actually the closest railhead to his homestead but had shut by 1966. Casement station is named thus because Roger Casement, although from the opposite end of the island, was captured near Tralee after landing from a U-boat. And so on for the other stations

That’s a very good conversion.

Now that was comedy gold

Looks fabulous and authentic Alan.