Galteemore

Excellent. Nice sense of place and time - can really see Larne Harbour in that last pic. Being from 14 miles up the road, I did need Google Translate…..

Excellent Patrick. Having been through similar thought processes a few years ago, it’s all worth it in the end! Although my modelling heart lies in Leitrim, I was born a few miles away from the Antrim lines- and my father in law used to play with the trucks in Larne yard on a Sunday ! Look forward to seeing this develop.

Thanks John. I also came across that website a few years ago http://www.55ng.co.uk/index.php although the seed was possibly sown long ago: I saw Sam Carse’s layout when very young. A real scratchbuilder’s paradise in this scale. The association even offer a free printable scale ruler on their website!

No ridicule Patrick - great project. Have you considered 5.5mm scale though? You will get the correct scale/gauge ratio, but still with access to lots of handy chassis etc. Although I can see 7mm has a lot of advantages!

Just watch out for the goat hair counters at the first show you produce this at….

Yes, very distinctive. I’d say this was the Thursday tourist train which was 207’s regular diagram - but 29 May 64 was a Friday…..

Excellent David. A real local character!

How lovely John. Straight out of a W A Camwell photo. The PP class of the GN were described as ‘spidery’ but I think that epithet belongs better to these old GSWR 4-4-0s. Thanks to this being 00 and not 21mm there will be a fair choice of large layouts where it can really stretch its legs and show that grace which few alive can now remember.

Intriguingly George V’s visit seems to have gone down a storm, with cheering crowds, as you can see below ….This was actually quite a hopeful time for Irish Nationalists as Westminster was just about to pass the Parliament Act, which meant that Irish Home Rule was achievable without being blocked by the House of Lords.

According to Michael Hamilton, up to 5 specials a day could leave Collooney, each train of 20-24 wagons. On occasions the trains were half loaded the night before to speed up early departure. Each train had an empty wagon known as ‘the ambulance’ to accommodate animals injured en route. Sprinks comments that most trains were handed over to the GN in the afternoon, but also in early evening. At one time (prob pre partition) the GN had overnight cattle paths from Enniskillen to Dundalk, for the Greenore boat in all likelihood.

Is a nice photo in a recent New Irish Lines of a cattle train on the main near Moira.

Can’t see how else it could have happened. Possibly sea travel from Dublin to Cork but unlikely. Could probably check in local newspaper archives of the time.

Lovely Leslie but ‘interlopers’? I think you mean mainstay of traffic !

Interesting choice of motive power. A favourite of Drew’s. I understand there was some consternation among the pilgrims at Pettigo one day when Drew loudly announced his views on the impending train ‘(expletive) I’d love a P’……

Let’s be realistic here. What I think you want is an atmospheric Irish type layout which conveys an image - rather than being a dead scale replica. If you are using 16.5mm 00 track and adapted English stock then that is absolutely fine and a perfectly valid modelling posture. In that case, the 6w coaches could be a passable GSWR consist (not the 4w). Devote your skills to making an Irish setting with appropriate buildings and scenery and these coaches will look grand.

That’s really annoying Mark. Hopefully you will get something sorted.

Very sad. Almost lasted long enough to be saved. The UG in particular would have been a useful asset for current RPSI operating patterns in NI. Can still see the remnants of the white paint on 49 from her brief career as a celebrity railtour loco.

N Gauge Society did a Stove R which had a pretty good little 6w chassis. https://www.ngsjoin.com/stove-r-6-wheeled-brake-van-864-p.asp

Those ones are N gauge JHB, so not sure how much use to you !

The flying snails are indeed on the 111s too, but covered over with a York Road-installed plate.

At least he wasn’t throwing the snowballs that a few other Southern visitors got in 1967……over to the Irish Times…… In 2008 The Irish Times published a letter from renowned economist TK Whitaker who accompanied Taoiseach Jack Lynch on the visit. The late senior civil servant said the snowballs thrown by Mr Paisley were accompanied by shouts of “No Pope Here” which prompted the taoiseach to ask: “Which of us does he think is the Pope?”.

I spent hours in my childhood going through shoeboxes of photos just like that, which my dad had taken, mostly GN region from 59-65. Most of the ‘altitude’ images were taken from signal posts rather than trees though!

Lovely little scene in pic 3!

Prob worth joining the EM gauge society. I’m guessing many of their members will have carried out such conversions on Roderick’s English prototypes

Lovely work David. I imagine there’d be a scramble for the front seats on Railcar B to enjoy the lovely scenery !