Galteemore

Nicely put. Another big issue in the mix - as well as Northern Ireland and its economy - was RIC pensions. For some unaccountable reason DeV objected to using Eire funds to pay ex-RIC men (inc my great grandfather)resident in the 26 counties… eventually Westminster agreed to pay. One worthy individual managed to accumulate pensions from Eire, the Dublin metropolitan police and MI5, who gallantly paid him despite him being an IRA double agent!

That railcar looks terrific

Yes. Apparently a trade deal on barter terms

No definitely deserves a wagon of its own with spotlights and a theme song. Beautifully done

He means the pic of No 90, JB. Is it a Sulzer?

Careful what you wish for! Making up that curved footplate was ‘interesting’

Only met him once but left an impression of a really decent man. Influential outside modelling too https://dublin.anglican.org/news/2026/06/30/death-of-david-j-wynne

Arguably you could start with a Bachmann J71 if you want a quick conversion. Better sized driving wheels and DCC ready https://railsofsheffield.com/products/bachmann-31-069-ner-e-j71-68260-br-black-early-emblem-steam-tank-locomotive

Absolutely. Easiest tank locos of all to to play around with are when the tanks and wheels align. When you have footplate splashers to accommodate it can get a bit messy. I think an expert could tweak the print to fit within reasonable limits. Some of my own scratch and kit locos contain all manner of cutting and shaping where it doesn’t show, simply to accommodate the mech

LNER J52 is better for wheel size, but wheelbase is about 4mm too long

Excellent. Nice sense of space

I believe so. One of the delightful aspects of SLNC history is that it had no fatal accidents. At least not fatal to humans. The bovine and ovine population of N Leitrim frequently paid a heavy price for trespass

Totally agree. We’ve been quite spoiled in many ways!

Could still cause mayhem at Downpatrick !

So there is! Only seems to have been one - presumably to satisfy statutory requirement for tail lamp when propelling

Might also be a practical reason. I don’t think the 101s had lamp irons

Red or light brown. I went with red !

Those are fabulous photos -full of life and atmosphere.

Wow wow wow. If that doesn’t make the case for an RTR WT nothing will - that scene deserves one

That’s interesting- thanks. I’d be interested to see how many are for display rather than running. A terminus layout based on something like Larne Harbour with space for a few rail cars would be fabulous but beyond my space! I was intrigued to see how on David Holman’s Northport Quay, which is designed for 6w and SLNC bogies, introducing a single standard length GNRI bogie carriage made an enormous visual and operational impact. The very first O gauge coach I bought was a Heljan mk1 which I had to send back as it would have completely overwhelmed the layout - prob explains why I have a thing for small coaches !

The most popular O gauge railcars tend to be single unit affairs. A typical 80 class consist of 3 cars would eat enormous amounts of space. There are O gauge layouts on the circuit smaller than a 3 car set !

Photos courtesy Science Museum. This BP/Vulcan design for India and then Pakistan is almost pure GNRI https://blog.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/pakistan-railways-sps-3157-part-one/

I suspect the easiest way to acquire the look is to take a random mix of LMS, Southern and GWR coaches, paint as required, and assemble into a rake. Assuming you don’t look too closely that will give you the ‘liquorice all sorts’ effect

The Australian K class have very close links to SLNC small tanks

Very nice. The Brazil 2-2-2 is how the MGWR ‘Elf’ class looked before rebuilding with saddle tanks