Irishswissernie

Having missed seeing the Irish narrow gauge railways I tried to make up for that by several visits to the Isle of Man starting in 1970. I have also collected a fair number of views from the old days. This is the Collection of some 1200+ views. https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/collections/72157719627780099/

You can still do this by train if you go to the Isle of Man , that's Port Erin not Peel. Its a pity the line to Peel didn't survive as well then all the major centres on the island would have had a rail connection of some sort. The Peel line track bed however is now a footpath with some of the infrastructure still there including a rail mounted crane at Union Mills.

Did some tidying up today and had a look at Glengarriff which has taken a bit of a back seat whilst working on Four Masters Bridge. I actually ran a train very gingerly as nothing has ran for several months and some of the track in the fiddle yard has been re-arranged to connect the new sections. Ran a gypsum as per the Kingscourt trips/speeds and took a video to check what needs sorting. The back drop needs a good sprucing up! 376691376_2021-07-31GlengarriffGypsum.m4v

Mine was advised by New Zealand Mail to the Royal Mail and they provided full tracking once it reached the UK. It will probably depend on the delivery address Country as to whether their individual Mail Systems offer the same facility.

Well if Madame ever finds out how much the items in the loft cost the temperature would be over 100C . Mind you hopefully this will be after I have 'gone below' so I will be enduring temperatures way above even that!

Van has arrived and road er rail tested on Glengarriff - looks great. More views on the Glengarriff topic.

New JM Design Brake Van arrived from New Zealand today. Looks great, no extra charges from Customs etc and only took 2 weeks to get here.

This L&LSR trespass sign was still in situ at Letterkenny 27 June 1968. The company was still running bus services then . Is that the paint scheme in use during the railway era.

Correction Britain from Above https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/XAW027080

Thanks for confirmation of where I thought it was

My Brake Van according to the Tracking has now reached Qatar so hopefully depending on the customs at Heathrow it should be arriving here soon. At least it will be acclimatised to the weather, it was 32 Centigrade in the loft yesterday slightly more than the 30 degrees in Qatar er oh that was in the middle of the night though.

Negatives etc continue to be added to the collection. I quite like this John G Dewing image of an Up express at Cork. I had an email yesterday from Alan Godfrey Maps who do reprints of the old 25" to the Mile Maps reduced to approx 15" to the mile. They have released 2 of Enniskillen for 1936. https://www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk/fm2209.htm The east one covers the GNRI and SLNC station.

There is a photo on page 74 of Pattersons revised book published by Colourpoint looking from the outside of the cab on No 12 and the details all fit. I can't find anything on the maps of a possible definite location. Definitely no 12 or 11. The mountain faintly visible looks like Errigal.

Its a tender engine (no evidence of side tanks) with a Belpaire firebox and a large smokebox wrapper which would fit in with Lough Swilly 4-8-0 No 12 somewhere on the Burtonport extension. That could be a ballast siding off to the left. Will see if its on any of the old 25" maps but coverage of the Burtonport line was patchy. I think I have seen a photo somewhere in one of the books on the Swilly of a photo with the same aspect of No 12 derelict outside Letterkenny shed.

Mine works fine although its not done much running. It has the large washers behind the wheels, I don't know why the frames are set so close thus requiring the washer 'spacers'.

The scenery in the Tweed Valley near the Border with England is remarkably similar to that on the Sligo & Donegal! Some of the names are also identical.

Scenics at north end of the line at the Drowes River Bridge are now more or less finished. 127 + 192 posing for a few shots at 5 am this morning. Its getting to hot in the loft to do much for the next couple of months plus SWMBO is now on holiday for 6 weeks so not much will be happening although I am advised that a new locomotive is arriving today which will have to have its portrait taken. It is A ooops sorry a NER J27 one of my favourite locos! £94 from Oxford Rail.

Fertiliser extras ran on Four Masters today. The second train was video'd from by the river with the rumble of the waters as they flowed over the weir beneath the bridge. Actually we had a sudden heavy downpour which hammered off the loft roof as I filmed. Magic! 1949011290_2021-07-11DrowesRiverBridgeFertiliserextras.mp4

1 Brakevan purchased, looking forward to receiving it in due course.

I don't think my photo is the location, it is just another one of the general area, however I reckon the crane being used to load the bell photo is the same crane that is in the background of mine.

I have this one on my Flickr "Ernies Railway Archive" This is the north end of the long quayside shed with the curved roof. 23 August 1954

I would go for here just north of the City Goods Depots. Its another enlargment of a Britain from the Air photo

This is the site of the posed photo. The building behind the tower in the background of the posed photo still exists and if you look on Google the large building up the hill is also still there. Photo is another Britain from the Air Web site but not so good quality and rather cruel enlargment. Photo is farther down river towards the Graving Dock terminus. The building with the Tower was probably the Boating Club clubhouse, the road is called Boating Club lane and the large building is now the Magee University Music building. Godfrey Maps do a 1905 reprint of the old 25" to the Mile one which annoyingly just covers the boating club on its upper edge.

Just found this one in 'To Upload file" Shows quite well the effect of sunlight and shade on the green hue. A57 Limerick Junction 14 Sept 1960, 10.40am ex Dublin. The ' eu-de-nil' band shows as white but wasn't this a very pale yellow or did eu-de-nil mean that the paint didn't smell

XXXXXXX !!! The schools break up a week on friday so no doubt modelling will go out of the window for 6 weeks so cracking on a bit over the next few days. The Drowes River Mill received its coal via rail and rather than use the Mill siding the Mill had one of the rarer arrangements of being able to unload the coal via a shoot on the main line next to the old Warehouse. IT could then be barrowed or carted just a few yard to the Kilns and furnace. Back in the pre war days a horse drawn tramway led from the covered shed where the shoot terminated direct to the furnaces etc but due to an oversight (or perhaps because I just thought of it) I didn't cut grooves for the rails. So it closed. No 5 is returning the empty wagon to Four Masters yard