Galteemore

Got to be north of Ballymena or Whitehead if single track in 52. Signalling looks like a branch rather than just sidings running in from the left. Angle of approach doesn’t look quite right for Limavady Jct. I’m guessing Macfin but probably wrong !

Kerr Stuart built a considerable number of railmotors, before being wound up in the early 30s. Could it be that the coach was built using significant KS components acquired in the liquidation sale? Might explain the unusual length. Just before the firm collapsed, the GN did actually cross paths with KS. As engineering advisers, G T Glover and Dundalk had been loosely involved with KS in 1930 through the unsuccessful trials of a KS loco on the Castlederg and Victoria Bridge Rlwy….intriguingly, that loco still survives, the only Castlederg loco still with us. And, more notably, it’s the first Irish diesel locomotive…. The KS works were purchased by George Cohen and sons, and the goodwill acquired by Hunslet. Perhaps the chassis of a Railmotor went to Dundalk via either of them…Tom Rolt’s book ‘Landscape with Machines’ provides some background on the details of what happened to some KS assets.

The advent of 12mm gauge track freely available from Peco does make a 4mm scale 3’ system that bit more viable…..

As someone whose modelling is entirely scratch or kit based, that’s absolutely true - it’s not like purchasing off some of the big suppliers. Many of these operations are run on a shoestring in someone’s spare time. Not easy when you’re in Ireland, I know, but often the best way of acquiring stuff from smaller traders is going to a big show like Warley or Scaleforum once a year with a shopping list, and seeing the traders in person. I normally do Kettering Gauge O Guild show in March as my annual stocking up, with the Guildford O gauge group trade show in December as a top up!

Might they be the first multiple unit fleet in these islands ? I think the US had multiple unit railcar fleets from the mid 30s.

You’ve woven a lovely scene together Patrick - definitely not run of the mill.

From a toy to a model. Well done!

Those old 1960s FFTs are real gems, and Drew Donaldson is always worth reading. That issue even has a letter from @leslie10646! What always intrigued me for a preservation journal is the ‘Vaporaria’ section in the early issues, which showed how active working steam still was right up until 1970.

It was the European Passenger Services livery, which was derived from the BR Trainload freight standard triple-grey livery as the locos involved were, IIRC, part of the trainload freight sector, to identify UK locos involved with international operations and the tunnel in one way or another. The three metal segments are intended to represent the cross section of a tunnel receding into the distance. A quote discovered here: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/92009.46162/

SER Kits offer very nice 7mm versions of English prototypes which may also have been typically seen in Ireland in the mid Victorian era…..

I know these don’t count but they are fun….

Very capable locos, the Glover tanks, with bogie brakes unusual for Ireland - must have helped snappy stopping for suburban working. Regular runners on Antrim branch until its closure. Thankfully, after a 20 year gap, rails returned to that spot…… You can see the same building in both shots…..http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/2014/10/05/ni-railways-belfast/

Will IRM be releasing a wooden range in the next few years ? 21mm gauge of course…

Full brake

Lovely Ernie. Think it’s a vented van - you have a pic in your SLNC album of a similar one at Manorhamilton c1950

The quality of so much UK RTR until fairly recently was such that it was really only of use for running or butchering - it really wasn’t display case material. The advent of hi-fidelity finish means that UK RTR items are now objets d’art in their own right. I’m guessing that many of these locos are bought either as investments or layout candy, as very few prototypical layouts can justify one! I’m still holding out for a 7:20 Mixed set, with 0-6-4T, clerestory coach and wagons, with a set of Eire and NI customs officials…..

And are in any case lacking the most distinctively Irish feature of all - 5’3” between the wheels!

I really don’t want to like this but can’t help myself. Until these things arrived I travelled to school on 70s and 80s under somersault signals. These carbuncles appeared and the world changed…..lovely model though !

That’s what I used for 7mm MGW lining

The comments of Jim McGeown, who makes a similar range in 7mm, are always worth reading on this, emphasis mine: Although based on prototypes the concept of these coach kits is that they are very generic and represent typical coaches that were built by all the railway companies. These kits have been designed to provide the modeller with an economical coach that can be built in a reasonable weekend modeling session to a level of detail suitable for running on a layout. The modeller can then paint the coach in their chosen railways livery. By painting and lettering in say LNER brown livery a set of these coaches will capture the look and feel of a typical LNER rural branch line train made up of inherited pre grouping coaches. Your friends will probably make comments like "I see that you have modeled the coaches used on the Campbellwick Green branch in October 1936". You can then nod sagely and secretly smile to yourself knowing that the most distinguishing thing about coaches is their colour and lettering. Painted chocolate and cream they have the look of some of the South Wales railway companies coaches that were absorbed by the Great western and painted LMS maroon a Midland appearance and so on. The possibilities for these coaches is only limited by your imagination.

They are ‘generic’ coaches so not especially accurate to any company. However, they will make an extremely attractive consist and the quality finish will make them blend in with other Irish stock. Put it this way, they look more convincing than those old Lima Mk1s in orange and black …..

That’s terrific work. I can well imagine the hours of observation and planning that went in before any construction! Really pays off - lovely modelling of a place I know very well.

Thanks Ernie - nice to see ‘normal’ traffic. So many Warrenpoint photos, naturally enough, show the place clogged with excursion traffic.

Indeed it is, ‘ E C Trench’, one of the ‘Patriots’. Amazingly, the first few were actually rebuilds of the Claughtons like ‘Baltic’ above, although not much of the original loco survived……hopefully the new build Patriot will be on the rails soon…. The lower loco is a Beames 0-8-4T - one of the final LNW designs before amalgamation. Beames was educated in Monkstown.

https://uic.org/IMG/pdf/iea-uic_railway_handbook_2016.pdf