Mike Beckett

Hence the quotes! M’learned friend, Lord Beaumont of The University of Railway Life, is of course right as usual (most of the time). Speaking for DCDR and ITG, we won’t be offloading any locos any time soon. RB3 is another matter, anyone want it? Even for a greenhouse in the back garden…?

That scrappy C (‘202’) is not at Moyasta Junction. It’s also, literally, hollow, with nothing inside it other than graffiti, drinks cans and rubber johnnies. I wouldn’t get too excited about it…

JB I realise this is the time of goodwill to all men, but as someone heavily involved in one of the major societies, has been implicated with the modelling weirdos, and also rubs diesels for a hated traction group, what on earth are you wibbling about? Be specific, because that is damn offensive to a lot of people who invest a lot of their time and money in things that nobody else can be arsed lifting a finger for.

Some more details about this running day, from ye website. Tickets on sale here: https://www.downrail.co.uk/event/diesel-january/ Trains will be running on Saturday 7th January, with the day starting at 11am and expected to run until around 4pm. Tickets are £20. For ticket booking, visit the DCDR website here. Planned traction for the event is: A class A39R B class 146 G class shunter G617 450 class Railcar 458 Trains will use the North Line from Downpatrick to Inch Abbey, as the South Line is currently under engineering possession. This will not detract from the fun, as the North Line is where the thrash is at! The day should feature: At least one out and back run with each locomotive/railcar Some mix-ups and shunts to watch A loco start-up or two A demonstration ballast train with 146 and the ‘new’ Irish Rail ballast hoppers and plough van Hopefully we will offer brake van rides up and down the station platform (within our premises) Limited and strictly controlled lineside photo/video opportunities Cab rides are not currently available for purchase, though we may offer some or raffle some on the day.

Looks quite convincing to me, and I should know….! If you want any pointers on some details that could be tweaked, let me know.

Shameless plug time: NEW YEAR DIESEL MINI GALA We will be hosting a diesel running day on Saturday 7th January 2023 at Downpatrick and County Down Railway, to clag away the post-Christmas cobwebs. No mince pies or any other nonsense like that, just diesel fumes and excitement. Available traction is likely to be 146, A39R, G617 and the funny railcar thing with sliding doors, 458. More details will be announced as soon as we have them. We are working on some fun extras as well... let's hope it works out.

Laminates 1918 and 2419 do indeed survive at Downpatrick. https://www.downrail.co.uk/rolling-stock/cie-1918/ https://www.downrail.co.uk/rolling-stock/cie-2419/ Not currently in passenger service. We would like 1918 to be refurbed soon as the brake compartment makes it a Very Useful Carriage. Also there’s a C class, C231, from the same pre-DART memories.

The recording source for the DCC sound chips, the real A39R, burst into life on Saturday for the first time since before Covid: https://fb.watch/gbKuwc5sX7/ Mega fun!

Pat and the gang need to get the finger out and make a G class. No, not a Finger. A finger.

I saw a pair of Hunslets on the Derry fertilisers pass my school at least once back in my youth. Probably should have paid more attention to maths and less to the railway line.

Are you seriously saying they need help just as much as the people of Ukraine!? Much as I admire the project, I don’t think auld Jim is being shelled by Russia.

Yeah, and I wasn't being personal with my remark, I didn't mean you - just the ratio of do-ers to wibblers is way off in this country. It's heartbreaking sometimes. Though I really do want 124, it would go well with 146 & co...

So do I, but I’m too busy struggling with our existing locos. More people need to care and need to contribute if a difference is to be made. Opining on forums and Facebook doesn’t translate into contributions of time and money. If it did, we’d be sorted.

Hah. It’s a couple of different pway machines from NIR for us, but it’s probably not my place to mention moves for various other organisations.

It’s definitely it. I’ve got the full load schedule for the rail moves RSS are doing this fortnight, DCDR got the first delivery and MaamX gets the next ones. Two hoppers to follow tomorrow I think. Then… secrets.

MaamX are getting the other plough van and the hoppers Downpatrick didn’t get. The plough van looks a bit like ours, only a bit… scorched. So not flully restored. The photo is ours, arriving yesterday.

What a lovely sight... three new (to us) ballast hoppers and a plough van in 304.8mm:1ft scale at Downpatrick and County Down Railway. Pat and the crew have done a lovely job on these models, very convincing and with a fully working mechanism, though we can't find where to put the giant three feet wide DCC chip in the plough van. Thanks to Irish Railway Models and their customers this month for contributing towards the delivery costs, and thanks to the unnamed and clearly mad volunteer who paid for the wagons (though he didn't fancy paying postage & packing). There's more photos on our Facebook post here.

On your marks… get set…. GO!

Actually we somehow got three. Imagine.

Remarkably, one of them has gone to a organisation that can actually use it on an actual locomotive, rather than as a hipster bar display item… imagine!

I resent that implication that we are abnormal, JB!

I was slightly involved in this… from planning, contracts and operations, and yes, driving 458. Which is more fun than you’d think. We did discuss the realism with them early on, but we know not to fight it - comedy comes before absolute technical accuracy in a field most people don’t care about. Whitehead NIR was used as they needed an old style footbridge at a station, and that is the last one on the network. Waterside didn’t have two platforms either, so… so what, it was funny. The possibility of using the actual Waterside station was lost when filming stalled due to Covid. Even then there was only one platform. There were technical details about the train that weren’t quite right for the era (newer style DDA-type door controls etc., and some insufferable bores have complained) and clearly the 450s didn’t have tables or a buffet, but the overall look was perfect, much closer than a bog standard ex-Enterprise Mark 2 or a Park Royal or something, and after all the 450 were unfortunate regulars on the line for many years. Another point is that they would never, ever get the degree of flexibility on the mainline that they need for that level of filming, especially with today’s increased public trains 7 days a week. There were some compromises needed during filming (you’ll note the train wasn’t going that fast - 7mph was perfect and it worked well on screen the way it was framed) and we had to keep going back down the line as all filming had to be the same direction or it would look wrong, which was something we pointed out in advance. That was fun, I got a good bit of thrash and parp on those moves, pity nobody was around to capture them. There really is a balance to be struck between total technical accuracy to please the small number of train nerds like us in this world and the needs of the filming where it just needs it to be good enough. They were never going to get decent footage of a 450 on the Derry Line, and needed an iconic view, so a CAF at Downhill it was then. Wobbly camcorder footage of a 450 back in the day (even mine) was never going to meld well into the modern production. The biggest crime of all was the dubbed PARP sounds, how dare they. Don’t they know I am the master! There was a lot of very hard work from the small team at DCDR, and it is probably the most complex filming project we’ve ever had, and I can’t think of one equal or greater since perhaps the First Great Train Robbery back in the 1970s, and was very welcome income during our covid closure. Also we asked them to leave various NIR branding items on 458, whilst not quite prototypical they don’t harm the look. Fra the trolley fella was fairly realistic, to be fair…

Mean old nasty ITG. Such bad men. There's a reasonably nice photo of one of the locos in the present day in Sri Lanka on our website, here: https://www.irishtractiongroup.com/formerlocos

Quite. The ITG are not building a museum but are supportive of Jackie's efforts, he has faced many hurdles and does not get much support from any quarter, least of Internet and social media commentators, and souvenir hunters who trespass and break bits off our locos to take home or sell. As to the success or otherwise of his venture, I don't know. If someone else has a railway or a secure storage site that they can provide and pay for, we would be delighted to hear from you.