Galteemore

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.

Great stuff Ernie. And you were just down the road from me in west Oxfordshire !

Hope you have a long attention span

That’s quite arch of you Alan

Thanks so much Paul! I figured if anyone knew it would be you And having just looked, Allen has an I13 in his range….

Yes, I had wondered if that might be the case. Whatever happens I know more about GNRI carriages than I did 24 hours ago ….

Thanks Paul. It’s all a bit mysterious to me too, and I’ve asked Allen what he thinks it might be. The label on the etch says J4 but that it ain’t !

Live steam one available from Regner

Thanks Paul - makes perfect sense now! Hopefully one of the carriage gurus such as @Paul 34F will recognise what we have here, as it matches nothing I can see in photos.

After a bit of advice please. I have just received a Worsley etch for a GNRI J4 coach. I’m pretty sure this isn’t actually a J4 as I can’t see any evidence of a brake compartment. That I can live with. However, I’m flummoxed as to two main points. 1. What it actually is, and how it’s laid out internally. 2. What I actually do with it! I can’t work out what to do with the floor etch and where the footboards go. The coach body is a mystery as it seems to have a slit running right along the middle for some reason. This will obviously have to be backed or filled with something. Any ideas or tips welcome please !!

The bearded gent is Bob Symes, an Austrian aristocrat who fled the Nazis and had a remarkable life. His WW2 service for instance - courtesy of Wikipedia… After gaining the required letter of recommendation, due to his ability to speak German, French, Arabic and English, Symes was commissioned as a Lieutenant into the Royal Navy, operating Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs) in the Mediterranean while based in Alexandria.[2][3] Quickly rising to command his own boat, he broke anti-torpedo measures in a raid on Tripoli.[2][3] After rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander, he took part in protecting the landings that led to the liberation of Crete.[2][3]