Galteemore

Excellent. Good views of the famous MGW brake used on the Foynes line.

Textbook stuff on how to do research. All part of the discipline of trying to recreate the past and shows what a variety of avenues may be involved. It also shows the leaps of imagination required to envisage an Ireland without the internal combustion engine and modern supply chains, and what that meant in how people lived- hence your victuallers. This aspect is not always well recorded in books, and I had no real idea of how crucial rail freight had been just up until before I was born in 1971. Growing up in NI, I saw no real freight traffic and so was staggered to read in a chance article the sheer variety of goods that passed in and out of Dromahair in the 1950s - simply because there was no other way of getting stuff there. I think this info was originally in Michael Hamilton’s SLNC book but is cited here…https://dromahairheritage.wordpress.com/2018/04/27/s-l-n-c-r-and-dromahair-station/ It’s a long quote but gives an idea what rural freight flow could be…. Egg export was a big trade on the railway in those years too, both from Manorhamilton and Dromahair. Stuart J. Gilmore ‘s were egg shippers as was John Beirne of Drumkeeran. The latter shipped three wagons every week to Sinclairs of Glasgow. In the pre-Christmas period turkeys travelled in large numbers. They were unloaded, plucked and re-packed in Belcoo. There was always a rush at that station for the wagon with the hen turkeys. Pluckers got 3d for plucking a hen and 4d for the harder job of plucking a cock. Another item of interest leaving Dromahair station was eels. These were caught in early Summer on Lough Gill and surrounding lakes by Fermanagh fishermen. Every morning six large wooden cases of eels packed in ice and weighing a cwt. were sent to Billingsgate Market in England. During the war years, 50 wagons of turf left the station every week for Fuel Importers Ltd.,Barrack Street, Drogheda. The turf was cut at Greaghnafarna, Tullynascreena, Corglancy and Raemore and brought to the station by S.L & N.C.R and C.I.E. lorries. Leitrim Co. Council workers were responsible for loading the turf into the wagons. The lorry drivers were Tom Corcoran and Paddy Conway for C.I.E. and Stephen Murphy, John Roche and Frank Lee for the S.L & N.C.R. Inward Goods. For many years grocery and hardware supplies for Dromahair, its hinterland and surrounding towns came by rail –sugar from Tuam, bread from Derry, flour from Pollexfens of Ballisodare, biscuits from Jacobs of Dublin, cigarettes from Carrols of Dundalk and the list goes on. One item in particular was of special interest to the children. On Friday evenings in Summer, Paddy Downey of the Post Office collected an insulated container of ice-cream from Kevinsfort Dairies in Sligo. Mrs. Downey sold it in the Post Office and many, then children and now in their twilight years, can still remember the joy of a twopenny ! The shopkeepers nearest to the station were Pat Mc Goldrick, John Ward, Marie Travers, James Latten and William Parkes. Larger consignments arrived at the station too. Cement from Drogheda Came in 12 ton wagons for Gilmores and O Haras and for Frank Dolan of Drumkeeran . Sheets of tin in ½ ton consignments came from Thomas Henshaw & Co. Dublin for Gilmores and Robinsons. Indian corn was railed from Dublin every month—12 wagons each carrying 12 tons. Whiskey, beer, cider and Guinness arrived for the local pubs The largest licenced premises was Jeiters. Looking up the Jeiter family shows an amazing story for a small place like Dromahair…who knows what you might find out in your project?! .Joseph Jeiter, father of Paul, died in 1915. He came from Saarbrücken in Germany, a qualified baker, and arrived in Manorhamilton in 1880. His first business was in Manorhamilton, where he married Mary Doud from Cavan. They bought the Abbey, with a thatched roof, in 1895 and rebuilt the front combining English and German architectural styles. His widow and Paul’s brother Frank managed the business, until Paul eventually took over. Frank worked as a cook in New York’s famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel for a couple of years before returning in 1930 to help the family business. His cooking had a good reputation. Many wedding receptions were hosted by the hotel. Paul Jeiter also worked, as an engineer, in New York, where he did some maintenance jobs on the Brooklyn bridge and tunnel construction under the Hudson River, and he too returned in 1930. His business acumen and technical innovations were widely admired

Top class stuff, excellent work. Would be clear where it was even with no stock. Having the loco and stock really makes it though! One thing that’s especially good is the sense of space: too many layouts pile too much scenery and buildings into available space. This has the sparse look that characterises many an Irish station. Nicely captures the CBSC atmosphere - although on soft day it’s more of a miasma…

There are some great books out there on this. Paul Bambrick’s one…https://www.amazon.co.uk/Creating-Backscene-Railway-Modelling-Companion/dp/0711038422 and John Ahern’s is old but useful https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/miniature-landscape-modelling/author/john-h-ahern/

Probably looking at something like a diesel motor bogie ?

Worth the wait! Top effort.

Nice. Can see what looks like remnants of a bell on 90’s cab roof.

I understand there is a sound chip option for the diner consisting of gricers talking. It plays on a one hour loop, and the volume/coherency of the discussion increase and decrease respectively over that time slot. Early trials of a smoke unit gently dispensing ‘eau de gricer’ were swiftly abandoned.

Excellent - good show which I was lucky enough to hit on a rare home visit to NI a few years ago. Great trade support especially.

The best analogy is probably with UK modellers who model the pregrouping scene eg LNW, SECR. For decades they have had to sort their own stuff and resort to kits or scratch build. Some fine RTR is coming on stream for them now but it will always be a small market. And there will never ever be a complete off the shelf LNW or whatever package. So you will have to buy what you can, when you can - and resign yourself to having to build or modify what the manufacturers aren’t supplying.

Welcome back Ernie. Glad my Nat Ins payments are being used for something worthwhile !

This is about as much Greek as I have left Leslie …it’s not an insult Btw just the the first Irish loco with a Greek name I could find!

Inspiring stuff. One of the best tests of a layout is how much you can tell about era and location without any stock present. No doubts about that here!

Just as I read this thread, passed by this in my local English supermarket. Is there no limit to Irish talent nowadays? Brilliant work IRM

Again not quite modelling, but Joe Brown was a loco fireman in his youth. Dvorak was also a spotter and was incensed when his son-in-law deputed for him one day at Prague station and took down the tender numbers instead!!! Honegger and Villa-Lobos also wrote railway themed compositions. And a regular staple of BBC radio was this… .

Oh dear. I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket - explains a lot about my modelling…. I have actually derived much pleasure from having music on in the background when modelling. Bach works well for precision and style. But in truth I think the Sligo Leitrim ran to the music of Carolan : listening to O’Riada I can almost see the 7:20 mixed rattling along near Manorhamilton, dark clouds of smoke emerging to each beat of the bodhran…..

That’s very nice. MGW house style shines through very clearly

Appropriate for the era of ‘earth tones’ as we called it then….

Interestingly, many 7mm modellers are now dropping DCC and heading to RC as a better option. If you like playing and tinkering with electronics then that’s fine - it’s got to be basic for me. We all have different approaches. I have found the real joy of modelling for me lies in researching and building stuff either from kits or raw materials. The basic mechanics of getting the end product moving I prefer to keep as simple as possible! But there are others that prefer opening a boxed model and then going to town with leds and speakers. Fair play to you- it’s a broad church and we can learn from each other. And like Mr H I have yet to hear a DCC steam loco that can coast convincingly and also turn up the amps with a heavy load on a gradient. Sound, like time, does not always ‘scale’ in the way that visual things do….

These are very good JHB - thank you !

Lovely work. Can see what inspired you ! http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/Railway Stations B/Ballywillan/IrishRailwayStations.html

Neilson, apparently. Much more attractive than some of their catalogue ….

I have asked my source, now home from school, and he says it still has Dublin Bus signage inside. Will add photos later if he can find them….

Excellent. Bizarrely, one of these ex Dublin Olympians, of the Leyland ilk, is still here in Buckinghamshire- my son was a regular traveller on his school route. As we pointed out, his mum and I might well have travelled on it ourselves when we lived in Rathgar 99-02!

At work so don’t have my books with me. Looks a bit like Allan valve gear - and the engine has a bit of a ‘Haydock Foundry’ look like ‘Bellerophon’. It’s also a little like a Prussian T3…. Will check later ….and that looks like a WLWR 0-6-0 at stage left….