Galteemore

Thanks Alan. For some reason I prefer the B and W images the iPhone puts out! The old geezer is actually a model of John Betjeman apparently….he would have loved the SLNCR given his penchant for railways and oddities….

Yes, we lived in south Dublin from 1999 to 2002 and that little area could be an interesting part of town…..

Track ‘ballasted’ (Sligo bay trackage was apparently encased in mud judging from photos)…….and the goods siding sleepers did look less ‘embedded’ than the main running line in real life. DAS clay, with various treatments such as emulsion paint and pepper. The bay was laid with FB rail up until about 56/57 when it was relaid with bullhead and reasonably ballasted. This, of course, represents the earlier era as shown in @Irishswissernie’s image at very top of the thread.

Interesting that her sister also remains fairly closely located to Downpatrick…..http://preserved.railcar.co.uk/RB002.html

Lovely Patrick. Where did you get the lettering transfer on the van please ? I need a 7mm equivalent……. a set of vacuum pipes would set that lovely GN van off nicely, btw, seeing as it’s in ‘fitted’ livery

it had occurred to me that Manorhamilton would probably have hoovered up RB3 from BREL had the SLNC lasted until the 1980s so you’re not a million miles off….would have suited that Belcoo scheme nicely…,

Ask Roger at Alphagraphix, who has it in kit form. Both @leslie10646 and @David Holman have examples …..it’s a former MGW hearse van, with coffin turntable!

The issue of course is not simply the cash. It’s replicating 10s of thousands of hours volunteer labour, not to mention sourcing obsolete parts. These last two can’t be fixed by a bank transfer.

Lovely. Bet people will hoover these up.

I never bother with them, David, except on loco buffer beams. And they are a pain….

Agreed, although contemporary sci-fi was predicting large amounts of leisure time! I have often wondered how preservation will weather the passing of that generation, who could retire relatively early and relatively wealthy. I will certainly not be able to retire at the age my father did - and the time that I would happily spend volunteering will have to be spent in paid employment.

That’s actually the point I was trying to make JB - even in the home of preservation, no one expected too much to happen!

Intriguingly, one father figure of British preservation, LTC Rolt, felt that even GB was ill supplied with Peglers, Holcrofts and Boyds….he opined in the early 50s that the Festiniog project would founder -‘there is only room for one preserved railway in Britain’……and the demographic you mention, small though it is in this country, is certainly highly prominent in the history of Irish preservation…..

Yes, it’s interesting to see that enthusiast groups started in GB some fifty years before the IRRS was founded - and the British movie industry was already satirising enthusiast run railways as early as 1952…..you could have caught a Swilly or SLNC train to watch it….

Heavily subsidised by Scottish govt, which pays about £9.80 for each passenger journey. Although this is quite good value…..every passenger journey from Inverness to Wick is subsidised at £25!!!

Yes, I suspect Lifford was regarded as being an extension of Strabane yard for this purpose, and the vans trundled across loose coupled, with a shunter in the cab.

Government involvement in public transport arteries goes back to the canals of Babylon and Roman roads. And continues through things like General Wade’s roads in Scotland right up to HS2. It’s just a fact of life. Ireland was a significant military establishment for the Crown, vital to defending the western approaches and a convenient place to garrison and exercise troops. So railways were built to facilitate that, just as they were to Aldershot, Portsmouth and Salisbury Plain.

We have had a constant inflow of in-use railwayana into the home since Galteemore Junior began his career as a professional railwayman..not that I’m jealous or anything…..

Beautiful stuff. Black buffer shanks are easily overlooked, but an important little detail. SLNC loco livery, such as it was, specified this too

Looks very much like it’s enamel, screwed to a wooden background. Look carefully and you can see the - quite well done - attempt to fill in and conceal the screw heads on the front.

Excellent- this shot in particular conveys the layout atmosphere well

That’s really interesting. A few tweaks to the proportions of certain elements and it would look very convincing indeed.

There are some fascinating and (intentionally or unintentionally) funny threads out there on this…http://www.willys-mb.co.uk/rudloe.htm

First ever trip on the Bluebell Railway yesterday. Fabulous to see pre/Grouping liveried 01 and Terrier….

Interesting unusual view of QQ. Note the ancient ‘convertible’ wagon.