Irishswissernie

Portadown shed T2 143 10 July 1955. Banteer 5 June 1961. Railcar for Mallow waits to cross the IRRS Special (No mistaking that horrible but handy for identifying headboard!). I am also uploading to Flickr at the moment (at the rate of 2 or 3 a day) Isle of Man Railways in 1960, ex Highland & Great North of Scotland 1980's, North Eastern Railway infrastructure 1970's. Approx 5000 images so about 5 years work!

Moving on to the Quarry Workshops now. The Scenecraft Portmadoc 'Bog' block is being adapted to form the Offices and Watchmans cottage and the Boiler House and Wagon shop are being constructed form Plasticard and various bits lefi over from other projects.

Galway G2, 656 5 July 1955. CDRJC Stranorlar 12 May 1959 JGD & a view of the Works etc ca1959

Another JG Dewing slide of the 17 March 1961 IRRS Special near Bandon. Clonmel with another Special recorded as 17 March 1967 on the slide.

NCC Belfast York Road WT 10 ca1960. SLNCR Manorhamilton 'Lissadell' June 1957.

Dun Laoghaire, C3 460 May 1959 JGD. Strabane, 8 May 1958 JGD. New Ross B107 16 March 1967.

The stream and surrounding area are now more or less done; next is the slate tip and quarry workshop area. I am sticking with the corrugated cardboard packing for the landforming. Son Alan gave me a polystyrene block to carve but it made one h*ll of a mess which didn't go down well with the Missus.

Oops ! Amended Jim, thanks.

A couple of recently acquired glass negatives taken CA 1935, I do not know who the photographer was but he was probably from the UK mainland as there were a lot of English/Scottish glass negatives for sale with these 2. The only clue on the negative sleeves is the letters WD before the ref numbers. The first image is of ex D&SER F2 432 at Grand Canal Street. This was rebuilt with a Belpaire Type T boiler in 1939 . The second view is of GNRI BT 119 probably at Dundalk after withdrawal in 1935. This loco was the first engine built at the GNRI Works, completed in June 1887 as a 4-4-0T and initially numbered 100 but then immediately re-numbered as No 1 (Norman Johnston locos of the GNRI). The 13 locos in the class were found to be too small for suburban traffic and the other 12 were withdrawn 1920-1921 however No 1 was rebuilt as a 0-6-0T and re-numbered 119. It then worked as the Londonderry shunter until withdrawal in 1935 . I think the view is after withdrawal and at Dundalk Works as its sandwiched between 2 tenders, the left hand one being the wrong way round.

Drimoleague , 17 March 1961. Waterford shed , J9 351 ca 1960.

Work continues, Undergrowth now underway, trees etc to follow.

W E Shepherd's history has quite comprehensive coach lists but there appear to have been numerous re-numberings. It was a case of 'If at first you don't succeed - Give Up!' Sods Law says that I probably have a photo on Flickr.

Clonsilla, 372 10 Sept 1953, poor neg. Lismore 18 March 1967.

Killiney, 2603 12 May 1959.

Only the rail sides are painted, the top is still bare metal although it doesn't look like it on the photo!

The IRRS Special on the Bandon after arrival at Baltimore 17 March 1961 JG Dewing. This undated view below is interesting despite its poor quality/scratches.; 671 at I think Dublin Amiens Street. Its the coach D22 which is probably an ex D&SER Passenger van but in again possibly the short lived GSR Brown and Cream Livery or maybe still D&SER livery. The loco was built in 1933. Over to the Experts!

2 More JG Dewing slides. I don't have the exact date as whilst I have scans of his note books, they were a bit sketchy by the 1960's Whitehead WT53 on a spoil train with Brake Van, July 1967. Portrush, a fine set of Buffers! CA1967.

The slide caption is rather difficult to read but I think it means that it is JG Dewing on the cycle being chased by a dog.

9 Jim , you might like this one! Convoy Goods Yard 12 May 1959. If that container is for the farmer on the tractor he was certainly into his biscuits! JGD also managed to get a photo of the IRRS special on the Chetwynd viaduct 17 March 1961.

Quite a bit out of my depth here but I believe the CIE Class D /J1A diesel shunting locos Nos 1000 to 1004 later D301 to D305 were quite similar to the UK Class 10 and later Class 08 so would that be a possibility?

Progress! Some basic colour has been added just to give me an idea of the overall effect.

A few days ago an envelope arrived with more slides taken by the late JG Dewing for sorting out. Mr Dewing started taking negatives and slides of Irish railways before WWII until the end of the 20th Century and for a number of years duplicates of some of his slides were sold by Colourail. He was given a duplicate to hold while his originals were being used by them and the originals were returned on his death. Unfortunately as 'Anno Domini' and later dementia took its toll he began to re-mount the card originals in second hand plastic mounts and even cut or glued card over part of the originals to re-compose the image so that the only way you can now determine whether a slide is a duplicate or an original is to cut open the mount and examine the film. Of the 60 slides received this week 35 are originals. 7 are scenic images but interesting in their own way because they record in colour the Ireland of nearly 70 years ago. Not all of his slides were available as duplicates or appeared in books etc and there are some 8 views taken on the 'Bandon' during the running of the IRRS Special on 17 March 1961 which I havn't seen before. He didn't travel on the train and he had a fascination of 'Running In' boards but this one is attractive. ON 12 May 1959 he was at Derry, Waterside and took the view below. Lastly a scenic view of a cottage in Donegal 10 May 1959. I need to model this!

It took me a couple of days to work out where it was as there is no info on the file

A couple of West Clare slides today. Kilrush, and Cappagh Pier.5 November 1960

Thanks Jim, I thought it was but the latest batch of negatives have no information on them.