Galteemore

Are you using a CDU with the motors, Tony ?

It must have been one of the earliest examples of a railway company preserving one of its locos - few Victorian companies showed such sentimentality. I understand that it is largely held together by string and bits of wood inside! It is one of the few Irish locos to be publicly exhibited on the big island, making an appearance at the S and D centenary in 1925. Ironically, it was after this that it seems to have been most at risk, as photos at Inchicore show it looking very shabby and unloved in the open air. Arguably it would be best shown at Cultra beside 800, to give a nice comparison of the development of Irish steam.

Thanks Ernie. Hope you all manage to get through ok

Looks like 55, near Greenisland I think. Smoke looks like it’s pushing the rear of a spoil towards Magheramorne. Interesting track fitting on the up line.

Is a nice enamel type replica of the coat of arms. Such things were flogged by the RPSI sales team thirty years ago, as I well recall, being one of the hucksters…..Nice gift. You can see a big version of it on No 30’s cab

Nice, these really need a subtle weather like this to lift the detail.

Looks right at home Noel. Agreed - lovely livery

Dead right about offbeat pictures and their value. The late JJ Smith was another who did this. Two days before the SLNC closed he spent some 8 hours at Florencecourt photographing everything that came through. The station is literally in the middle of nowhere - not even a pub for refuge between trains! It was terribly wet that day but he persisted and even got very rare images of the cabin interior and its antiquated fittings - including the signalling diagram. So we all owe a debt of gratitude to those photographers who see beyond the usual !

I don’t like the look of those characters with the oxy-acetylene tanks …

Lovely stuff. The life size F3 was a bit of a bodge job anyway. Everyone knows that the real Tornado is a GR1 - or even better, GR4…..

Dundalk finally shut down by the very early 60s. An ex GNRI Q class was a bit of an occasional wanderer on CIE metals IIRC so you could certainly justify that.

Excellent. There’s lots of good stuff out there these days - especially in colour. The research is fascinating to do in its own right - even if, paradoxically, the more you learn, the more you end up realising how little you actually know! One of my lecturers thirty years ago said this was the sign of a true scholar so I live in hope….

Be very careful, Phil - this is arguably the most interesting epoch in Irish railway history and it will lure you in…an excellent place to build an overall awareness is Colin Boocock’s ‘Irish Railway Album’, a collection of photos taken from the late 50s to mid 60s. Published in 1968, it’s available quite reasonably https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30990910698&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-tile1&searchurl=ds%3D10%26kn%3DBoocock%2BIrish%2Brailway%2Balbum%26sortby%3D17

Would need to trawl the photo archives but wouldn’t be surprised eg Curragh trains

Just inertia really. It was not uncommon in these days for various mixes and matches to be seen. Quite apart from the GNR liveries, CIE was also changing its livery around this time. So it took a long time to achieve uniformity. The railways were also shrinking in size at this time - which would result in a long term need for less stock. So older and less useful vehicles which were likely to be culled would probably not be candidates for repainting. The blue and cream livery would also indicate that this GN coach had probably been repainted fairly recently anyway.

That’s the delight of it, JB - it’s designed to go up or down within two minutes….each baseboard can be lifted with one finger….

What I did in my Christmas holidays…..taking the proceeds of Rosses Point, I visited a local timber merchant and purchased a large quantity of ply, timber and Kingspan. Throw it all together and we get this….lightweight baseboards on folding trestles. Basic idea is a 50mm slab of Kingspan which sits on 2 girders of 4mm ply/12 by 33 timber. The girders were made by clamping/gluing a strip of 4mm ply to a length of 12 by 33 overnight. 4mm ply ends, braced with more 12 by 33 mounting blocks for the split hinges. Trestles are 21 by 44 with butt hinges. The centre board will have the cameo style proscenium arch eventually. A few more tweaks yet, such as adjustable feet and chains on the trestles. But so far it all seems to work…not the most exciting stuff to be doing but get this wrong and you’re just storing up trouble…...

Back in the day when PW crews had allocated lengths of track to maintain, originally a mile or two, but probably higher in sparsely trafficked areas, an annual prize was awarded for the best maintained length of track in the area.

Prototype for almost anything. S class locos weren’t meant to run to Enniskillen but photographs clearly indicate that they occasionally did so….

Bone question but are the wheels clean? Quick rub with cotton bud and IPA can reveal a lot….

If you mean electrical testing, Tony, a simple track tester like this is ideal….https://www.rkeducation.co.uk/rktt1-oo-gauge-track-testing-module-for-model-railway---constructed-2610-p.asp if it’s running testing you want, then arguably the U and UG are your best critics! One of the modern diesels like a 121 or an A class might be a good option for the days you want to just run trains.

Nice portrait of a Large Tank. The cleanliness of the WC loco, the lighting, and sparse surroundings have a real retro feel of a turn of the century Lawrence or Welch photo!

There’s definitely a family likeness to the big HC tank and tender locos. Almost as if HC took one of their Manchester Ship Canal loco designs and boil washed it to 3’ gauge size https://www.flickriver.com/photos/14581588@N05/48641741222/

https://www.world-railways.co.uk/general-photo-063 Could well be! I’m not an SME…

Nice to see a Ludmilla appearing here !