Irishswissernie

I recently acquired a set of Railway World Magazines for 1959 primarily to obtain a copy of an article on the SLNCR Auction at Enniskillen in 1958 but on glancing through the articles in the other 11 issues my eye was caught an article in the April 1959 issue entitled 'The case of the Vanished Engines' This actually covered the fate of 22 withdrawn steam locos 19 tenders and 20 spare boilers etc sold at auction by CIE and subsequently exported from Dublin Docks to Spain. The author J H Price determined to find the actual fate of the locos and if they had been exported for re-building for further service ( Spanish railways had a history of importing old locos for further service although the gauge of the Irish locos would have entailed extensive rebuilding) Sadly whilst some Tunisian metre gauge locos imported by the purchasing company were re-conditioned at the same time, the Irish locos all met their fate in the blast furnaces of the Ensidesa Steelworks. Ex GNRI 25 below thus met her end a long way from her homeland some 10 years after this view on 19 April 1948 at Derry shed.

My copy has finally arrived in the UK; it was posted on the 4th Feb and has just appeared on the Parcelforce tracking as awaiting customs clearance! I purchased 4 packs of Gypsum wagons on the 10th on the IRM UK site and Parcelforce have not yet confirmed that they are in the UK (I presume the stock is actually held in Dublin) or can give any info on the tracking! Ah Well at least I can continue scanning and cleaning 60 Irish slides from 1978 - er that's when they were took not when they were posted!

Here's a 'plug' for a model C Class today. C221 on the return Banagher Goods 8 June 1961

I have finally tracked down a copy, it was a 6.5 page article in the Railway World June 1959 covering the Auction on 1 October 1958, 4 photographs and a detailed plan of the station annotated with the wagon numbers of ones stored on the various sidings. A very interesting (if sad) article on the disposal of the railways assets with a description of many of the Lots and the prices achieved.

Yes it is Broadstone looking towards Liffey Junc.

Picked up this neg recently.

Some more CIE Green on flickr Limerick ex SLNCR 2509 14 sept 1960 Mallow C217 13 sept 1960 Cork, Albert Quay 12 Sept 1960. Did this lengthy coach with its 6 wheel bogies actually travel over the Bandon system? I think it would have given that it would have been transferred via the Cork City Railway and it could have been stored easily elsewhere without that hassle.

Not North enough! needs to be further north of Haltwhistle (Centre of Britain) or at least the same latitude!

Spot on! First bridge carries the North Circular Road . The former M&GWR exit from Broadstone now converted to LUAS. Taken in 1960 Here are 3 more Cork & Limerick Junction 1960 or 1961. Not captioned up yet.

I have acquired 60 odd original Irish colour slides and have just captioned them today. Here is a poser! Where do you think this semi rural scene is? No doubt familiar to our more senior members.

I think he liked going into the backend of nowhere for a bit of a change. I also have the negs from a trip he did from Kyle of Lochalsh to Dingwall in April 1952 behind a Clan Goods which I have started uploading to Flickr today. I stuck living in Limehouse in London for for 6 years in the 1970's renting the bank flat at 660 Commercial Road near the Londoner Pub. It was like living in a lighthouse looking down on the seething masses. The flat had a large patio at the rear about 30 feet square and about 100 feet above the ground. You could sit out there and look out on Sir Christopher Wren's Limehouse church surrounded by trees and imagine I was back home in Darras Hall, Geordieland for a few minutes. I'm pretty glad I am sitting in Haltwhistle, Centre of Britain during my current 10 days of Isolation rather than down there! I am allowed out on tuesday! meanwhile here is another Casserley gem of No 12 at Creeslough on his journey in 1937

posted in error

I deciphered the date for this one from Dewing records - 28 June 1961

THis one Jim

Tommy Brady (aka Helix on E Bay) and Irish Freight Models has a 'store' page on Facebook which I have just checked and everything is shown as 'Out of Stock' Ignore the Web site address on facebook as he says this was hacked many years ago and if you click on it there is just a load of unrelated stuff - nowt to do with railways. Ernie

I have some time on my hands over the next (at least) 10 days thanks to the current Pandemic as my Son-in-Law has tested positive so I and the family are 'confined to Bracks er sorry barracks' The downside's to this are that he is isolating in the loft which means I can't access the Railway room with its secret store of jelly babies and Cadburys chocolate - oh and Glengarriff and most of my railway books. Also this means that Madame can't go to work so she is knitting scarves for Africa whilst watching irritating daytime TV and keeping a beady eye on me to ensure I do not go upstairs. Also a bit worrying is that the neighbours up the street are both in Hospital one on a ventilator and her husband with covid Pneumonia. They are both some 11 years younger than me. Ah well cheer up Boy! I do have access to my computer, scanner, negatives and slides. I have therefore started the massive task of getting some semblance of order into the negative and slide collection. Luckily some 200 'new' negs arrived so there is a mass of material for uploading to flickr in the pipeline - some 1,000 Irish and 300 Scottish images awaiting upload. Some boring Ernies Railway Archive Flickr statistics, Total Hits 41,800,431, Last years hits, total 7,734,166. Enough of this, here are some scans:

Lots of snow yesterday most of which has melted but the rest has frozen overnight so a couple of snowy scenes on flickr today. CDRJC No 6 at Donegal Town and A 'Woolwich' at Spencer Dock both sometime in the mid 1950's. These are part of a batch of 66 negs with no locations or dates received this week but all identified now. The photographer either had extremely poor eyesight or he just pointed the camera without looking through the viewfinder. Luckily the camera was a decent one as most of images are only part of the original neg. A further batch of 70 odd Irish negs from the early 1950,s plus some ex Highland Railway glass negs are diverting me from getting on with Four Masters Bridge (Sligo & Donegal Junction station Title finally decided)

An enlargment of a Casserley Medium Format neg of L&LSR No 12 at Burtonport 24 June 1937. On close examination another loco can be seen in the shed. I thought it might be 4-8-0 No 11 which was supposed to have been withdrawn and scrapped in 1928 but its more likely one of the Barclay 4-6-0t's which had the same style square front buffer beam . Other L&LSR locos appear to have had a cut out on the buffer beam ends. It would make sense to keep a spare loco at Burtonport in case the service loco failed.

Sent them to you Jim

I don't think I have uploaded this one but then again I might have. This is the Group shot at Sligo taken by Henry Casserley of the SLS Party which RC Riley was with in May 1950 unless HCC. found someone to take it with his camera. It would be interesting to see if anyone can identify any of the participants. I say chaps 2 of us havn't dressed correctly - no ties.

Hattons also have a range of 4whl and 6 whl coaches under development, I wonder if the Hornby ones are linked to these or an entirely separate batch of mouldings/models.

Sorry havn't got any of the road side but Ciarans site has a number of photos. There is a bricked up window under the vegetation on the north end http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/Railway Stations G/Gort/IrishRailwayStations.html#Gort_20080802_019_CC_JA.jpg Road side on Ciaran's site http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/Railway Stations G/Gort/IrishRailwayStations.html#Gort_20080326_013_CC_JA.jpg

Is it this side you are after?

I have been perusing the R N Clements photos on the IRRS Flickr site. There are some interesting photos of the ex DN&GR 0-6-0st's at Sutton awaiting scrapping on 10 May 1952. There are 3 intact locos with the first one identified as Number 6 plus 2 and 3, and one wheels & chassis only said to be No 5 The views also includes glimpses of the Hill of Howth Car shed and the locos are on a siding which was part of the former Power station complex being the 'kick-back' for the lines into the power station. The Sutton & Baldoyle running in board adjacent to the level crossing also appears in the background. If you are an IRRS member you can access the photos.

Where should the wagon number go? Well I wouldn't be too bothered about it.