Galteemore

Something along these lines I think ...https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamping_machine

In which case he could have a few customers. I have been trying to arrange this too. Can you please let me know how it goes? I’d be most interested! David

Ernie - those are indeed the Courtaulds tank locos Wilfred and Patricia, and the photo is taken at Courtaulds factory in Carrickfergus. Belfast Telegraph archives have some similar at a slightly different angle, taken when the pair were moved to a Belfast scrapyard. The GN photos, I initially thought, may be at Maysfields, as the buildings look rather like the electric generating station there, although the tree puzzles me. I have asked my father, who was taking his own photos round these parts at that time! He thinks it’s one end of Grosvenor Road goods yard, where an SG3 and a UG class lasted for some time after the main GN fleet had gone to the flames. According to Norman Johnston’s book, the pair made it to 1968 (the UG) whilst the pictured SG3 no 37 got to 1969, although withdrawn c1965.

Is this the painting in question? If it is I know that the artist - Raymond Piper - was given strict instructions by the commissioner of the artwork as to the exact composition of the train and toured Ulster in the early 50s sketching the individual vehicles and then composing the painting. I am fortunate enough to have one of the sketches (of the loco, drawn at Newry shed) on my office wall. The painting was commissioned by Sir John Harcourt, Lord Mayor of Belfast, for presentation to British Railways. Sir John had a soft spot for the old Belfast-London via Greenore route, having used it pre WW1. Sir John died c 1967 but his son is happily still with us, indeed he was the first chairman of the RPSI in 1964! The painting hung at Euston but is now in the NRM collection, York.

Those are 45mm gauge I think, JHB. John Campbell is a well known builder in that scale.

Tim Horn (no connection except as satisfied customer) is a top bloke who does great stuff and is very helpful. Search for Tim Horn baseboards.

Yes Noel, it’s in daily use (for trains rather than lifting). Keep going down the Bann a few miles and you’ll cross over another Bann railway bridge now lying in the depths of the river at Macfin. Image from NI Greenways. D

Another pioneering Irish contribution, like the eco-friendly hydro-electric Giants Causeway tram, and the Drumm system. Unfortunately the major Irish contribution to steam power was maritime rather than railway related! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbinia

Never thought that for one moment and in any case a forum is a good place to learn how to up my game! No need to apologise at all ....one of the occupational hazards of being a railway enthusiast is that one can find an unfortunate intensity of focus catching one rather unawares and displacing humour in the process. In a recent wagon build I was literally counting the rivets myself....

It still is !

In fairness I did wonder how serious a post it was.....having spent more time than I care to think of studying photographs of the class for my build of 42 — yet noticing errors on its completion- my humour antennae in this area are probably a bit blunted! The large plate patches are common across the class for some reason - probably added when the waisted smokeboxes were replaced, and the numberplates removed.

That national anthem footage is pure gold. As you say, it’s almost Celtic Communism. All that’s missing is a smiling Dev patting a small child on the head

The 3 on the loco is painted on steel plate (welded over the hole where the original GSWR cast plate was) so not really a temptation for the light fingered. A quick glance at post 1950 pics shows that the yellow numbers were often hard to make out. A photo of 33 by Colin Boocock at Rocksavage - c1956 -shows her quite shiny, and numbers clearly visible.

Hope you don’t mind, Ernie but was inspired to put my F6 in similar pose!

Wonderful period pieces in different ways. Lovely view of the F6 2-4-2T as well.

Thanks everyone ! As you can imagine, David, your build a few years ago has provided more than a few pointers !

Drew’s system was clockwork (spring drive was his preferred term) and I think these are 3-rail electric. Drew referred to those who chose such propulsion methods as ‘sparksmen’. Drew’s eclectic - and strongly phrased - views on livery may have influenced Fry though.

Long post tonight ....complete with a lengthy introduction...... On the first Friday of October 1957, the shed staff at Sligo turned out to a man as a train of wagons pulled off the goods branch, and stood in tribute as the Sligo Leitrim passed by into history. For this was the last steam working over the line, recovering the last oddments of stock on ‘foreign’ metals. As the last wagons passed slowly by, chalked on the brake van could be seen the words ‘The Very End. Goodbye‘. As the train gathered pace on the main line, the housewives of Treacy Avenue ran into their back gardens waving dishcloths in farewell. After a very brief halt at Dromahair, the sad cavalcade negotiated the treacherous check-railed s bend near Lisgorman for the last time. Given that it was October, there’s a fair chance my grandfather was out on the river, less than a mile away, fishing and would have heard the loco working hard ..... The loco in question was ‘Enniskillen’ - apparently the best loco mechanically at the end, having been given a major overhaul at Dundalk in 56. At journey’s end, she joined the two Lough class tanks in the GN shed at her namesake town. For a year the locos slumbered, growing a little dingier each month as the weeds grew up outside. As the world outside moved on - the microchip was invented, Pizza Hut was launched, and the Beatles (known as the Quarrymen then) made their first record, the ladies slept on. For the Lough tanks, a handsome prince in the (very) unlikely shape of the UTA came to the rescue. Not so ‘Enniskillen’. The bang of the auctioneer’s gavel had barely died away before she was hauled the bare few yards outside the shed and rapidly dismembered. JJ Smith was on hand to record the final moments.... ‘Get on with it!’, I hear you say. Very well. When I abandoned RTR modelling last year, and jumped into this, the phrase ‘build the 7:20 mixed’ advanced with ill deserved confidence into my consciousness. I have built a coach and some wagons towards that end but a large steamy object is also required. So for about a year I have been slowly accumulating the drawings, tools, and fittings to model this - in my opinion at least - archetypal SLNC loco. After many false starts and rending of garments, we have made sufficient progress to break cover. An early problem was the coupling rod issue. I thought I was being clever by asking a model engineering firm to make me a set. Despite my advice, they were made to dead scale, which will not work with finescale flanges (the spacing on SLNC rear drivers is such that you could clip your toenails with them). So I had to make my own. Each rod has ten separate parts of metal soldered together....I also had to learn how to use a piercing saw and a pillar drill. And lots more besides, not to mention making my own drawings. As another scratch builder put it, one is basically making up ones own kit as you go along. What has helped immensely is a chassis jig which basically uses the rods as a datum point for soldering the axle bearings. Pretty handy when you have six bearings and two chassis sides that need to be in perfect alignment with one another. Hopefully the jig will iron out builder error...and thankfully it seems to have done so. Tonight the chassis was assembled. Amazingly, it ran first time. Loads to do, and updates will have long gaps between them. But progress is being made. PS - the rods are red because SLNC rods were red when freshly shopped. And it means I don’t lose them in the pile of nickel silver offcuts on the bench!

Fascinating to see that mileage was calculated from Dundalk. Easy to think - as I always did - that the Derry Road was Portadown-Derry via Dungannon - in reality the line was properly Derry-Enniskillen-Dundalk, a blend of the Londonderry-EKN and EKN-Dundalk railways as the INWR.

No worries! He identified the electric light issue as an eliminating factor to rule out some similar locations which were gaslit by 1953. He spent much of his early banking career around INW territory - so knows the lines well- but unfortunately just after the system closed! He did manage a few runs on a lifting train though. He thinks it is C 1, 2,or 3 on a Clones- Enniskillen working , photo taken from EKN-Clones-Belfast train - he thinks it looks like a BUT set.

Maguiresbridge is his next guess....

My dad suggests Ballyhaise...

If not there should be I think!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CIE-Irish-Railway-s-Luggage-Van-/114289446755?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

Indeed, Eoin - good points there. If only Thomas the Tank engine had featured an Irish character for commercial exploitation....’Boyne the blue engine, Maedbh the bluey-green engine, Drumm the battery engine, Moin the aromatically smoky engine....’ Much as we all cringe at the Hornby GWR tank loco with a flying snail on it, it at least represented a branded ‘Irish’ introduction to the hobby at relatively low cost. Sorry JHB - I know this picture will just ruin your afternoon.