Irishswissernie

The Ballybrophy E Bay slides are by Graham Roose. I have acquired a few more of his . Here are some single coach + van ones. Ennis 24 Feb 1999 & Cloughjordan 11 April 1999

This Graham Roose slide of 082 on the Limerick City shuttle running round at the Junction 13 April 1995 is I think a rare duty for an 071 class. Probably either a loco shortage or failure.

A couple of 163 at Foynes 28 August 1953 After arriving with the branch train 163 appears to have been turned but has acquired an unusual addition to its chimney. Why? There was an oil store siding at Foynes so was it some kind of primitive spark arrester or was the loco having steaming problems and this was to help the draught through the tubes and get steam back up.

I think its this bit here, it might not actually fit on the axle so you don't need to prise off the rotating bit. There would only be one per loco. Looking at later photos of IE IR liveried locos it may have been changed to a different design. I could be completely (and probably am) wrong about this EDITED As usual I found a better view when searching for something else. It does fit on the axle as can be seen on my shot of 129 in May 2000, the wire from the speedo goes in a different direction than on the 126 shot though.

New arrival on Glengarriff, the little bag of extras etc even includes lamps. Close-ups show handrail needs clipping back in which is beyond my capabilities. Unfortunately my certified handrail re-locator has taken a week off with her husband and gone 'darn sarf' the only other resident here is even more visually challenged (eyesight wise) than me , further she does not know of the existence of this loco or of the other 8 on order and its probably best that it stays that way!

The Kiltulla-Bullan Road is the one going across the railway level crossing heading for the middle of the bottom of the map. The buildings would mainly be small farms. The new M6 road is probably built on top of part of the ballast siding where it curved away from the station to cross the road just after the one heading to the top right of the map. If you go on Google street view some of the older buildings will still be there though no doubt modernised but streetview will still give you some impression of the general scenery etc.

There is another larger old gravel pit in the top right hand corner on this map. The gravel pit sidings don't appear on any of the maps that are on-line. I have one view on flickr of the station in 1976 The old gravel pit next to the line is that depression over the wall to the right of the train. The siding to the ballast pit was opened in 1896 but was closed before the start of WW1 as the M&GWR was using stone rather than fine ballast/sand from its much larger Lecarrow operation. The lease was terminated in 1925. The signal box was closed 1925 or 1931 and dismantled (2 conflicting dates in "Baronial Lines of the MGWR") and the frame transfered nearer the crossing gates to simplify working. Ernie

I have managed to acquire some 75 Graham Roose original slides mostly from the 1990's with copyright which will keep me busy for the next few days in between hopefully commissioning 121's. The 1990's are the period Glengarriff is representing so these slides will come in very handy. A couple of samples

A JG Dewing view 20 May 1960 after closure of the CDRJC with some of their road services lorries at the transhipment shed. Road services continued until 1971 when I think CIE took over road working but I would imagine that most freight would be diverted to run through Eire via Ballyshannon

14 February 1965 Mike passed the negs to Dave Dunn , one of the Armstrong Trust Trustees and I actually scanned them for Dave and interpreted the records. According to Eric Challoner in his Farewell the Derry Road. THe goods service was officially withdrawn Sunday 4 January 1965 but such was the volume of goods traffic it proved necessary to work a number of trips post closure. Final special goods train to clear wagons ran Wednesday 17 February 1965. When I have been checking JG Dewings notes a fair number of the cross border goods workings ran Dundalk -Portadown so quite a bit of the loads etc would then run along the Derry line to Strabane for County Donegal locations. The CDRJC after closure of the railway still ran passenger and goods road services from Strabane and had to adapt the former Letterkenny line railway bridge to carry their vehicles as the adjacent highway bridge needed repairing and couldn't take heavy vehicular traffic. This would account for the vans from Eire in the transhipment siding. Note the amended notice covering the converted rail to road bridge.

For what its worth, I have one poor photo in my collection taken by Mike Shannon which shows some of the goods yard. Somewhere I have seen a photo of a 4-4-0 shunting the yard but I can't remember where!

This one ? 1956-05-16 SLNCR Thornhill No 9 Gatehouse signal protecting 8,9 & 10 crossings. JGD orig173

A copy of Trains, Coal & Turf landed on the door mat today and the method of un-loading is shown in Plate 1. The coach shown has a set of double doors no doubt part of a Guards compartment still 'openable' This is part of the photo. The photo credit is "courtesy of Gerry Beesley"

I get a bit worked sometimes by todays Health & Safety brigade which sometimes seems to result in people taking no responsibility for their actions no matter how gormless and with the result that todays railways appear to run through a corridor protected by 8 ft high fences or walls covered with hideous graffiti . However I am busy copying my Swiss video from 2000-to 2009 onto MP4 and came across this piece where possibly a bit more attention to Health and Safety etc should possibly have been undertaken. HENDSCHIKEN 30 March 2008. I wonder what its like today? EDIT Just checked Google Earth, Still the same although the 'bike' track markers have gone. Hendschiken.mp4

They must have been a b****r to unload especially as you got down to the dregs heaving the turds er turves up and over the sides but then men were men in those days not like today when the only exercise your muscles get is in the gym or changing gear.

I've been thinking about getting a Reach Stacker for Glengarriff but there isn't much roadway on the layout. Coincidentally I am converting my Swiss video to MP4 and this is one Swiss solution Basel 26 March 2008 Birsfelden Swiss Terminal birs_terminal.mp4

The later smoke box doors look just like the pattern used on the GNRI and as (I think) they undertook most of the heavier SLNCR repairs etc at Dundalk they would have used or made one of their style. This photo of Sir Henry had me puzzled for a minute or two as it looked as if the curved bit at the bottom of the smoke box next to the footplate was missing until I realised that its actually a hinged plate with a handrail on the front for pulling it out and its open . Think I might be pushing my luck if I ask Alan to re-produce a working replica on the 4mm model.

They are the original Beyer Peacock drawings, some 58 pages in all and the download costs about £60 from the IRRS. I have 2 extra weapons in my arsenal to keep Brack 'focussed' in that one of my grand daughters wants a dog but he doesn't so she has started regular weekly visits to play with my two muts and affords me the opportunity to keep me pressing him. HC Casserley took 4 views of Sir Henry at Manorhamilton on 22 April 1953 unfortunately for modellers thay are all from the same position!

I have now scanned the 416 prints acquired with copyright and as they are from 2 trips made in June and September 1956 plus a number from a trip in 1957 I think that they should be put on flickr in a separate album as this will give a snapshot of that time period. The photographer took the trouble to record the coach numbers for some of the views. Below is a sample of 3 views at Cork, Albert Quay. I have added the captions to the prints.

The train is one of the former HST sets in use for over 40 years since the mid 1970's (197 power cars) and formerly with either 7 or 8 coaches between the locos. These have been replaced on the Great Western in England and on the East Coast Main Line and Scotrail have taken over a number of the sets but reduced the coaches to four. The Driver controls both front and rear Power Cars. I am not sure if only the leading Power Car is under power on these revised sets but it would be perfectly feasible given the reduced formation. I think the leading power car must be down the embankment as the one visible in the photos looks relatively undamaged. It may be that the land slip occurred whilst the train was passing but this is pure conjecture. All very sad and in the circumstances the only saving is relief that the train is said to have only had 9 passengers and crew on board. If it had been the usual pre-Covid passenger loading the outcome would have been even more catastrophic.

Recent uploads to flickr include a couple of Lough Swilly views at Burtonport and Owencarrow viaduct An all action shot of the short lived Cork - Belfast Enterprise leaving Cork behind 401 181 at Malahide in May 1988 Finally another plug for membership of IRISH RAILWAY RECORD SOCIETY I notice today that their Photographic Archive now contains over 3000 images available for members only, to view. So don't delay JOIN TODAY Ernie

The last part of my videos from 2000-2006 have now been added to flickr. There are 150 odd 'episodes' arranged in date order (I hope) https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/albums/72157706536575014 I have about 1200 scans to upload including approx 500 prints acquired with copyright as the negatives no longer exist. The prints were all taken in 1956 and I think I will upload them in a separate album as they will give a snapshot of the railways at that date. They were in 3 albums together with a narrative of the photographers journey so I shall try to add this to the captions. This is in the pipeline. Meanwhile todays uploads to flickr include 655 at Ballaghadereen in May 1957 164 at Ballingrane July 1955

A couple of 121's and 6whl bogied coach 484A formerly 861 GS&WR 1st/3rd Brake compo now owned by RPSI from the latest batch of negatives. May 1965

I have been working through another newly acquired 160 odd negs, mainly 1965 -1967. Most of them are UTA/NIR but there are also some views at Pearse & Connolly. I am trying to date a fair number of Spoil train images, they are all 20 wagon rakes but some have a brake van included . Van numbers UT2034, 2035 and possibly 2032. Apparently when the trains first started running they were 10 wagon rakes plus brake van powered by a single WT. This soon progressed to the 20 wagon top n tailed WT's but there appears to be an interim when the brake van was still included. The guard travelled on the rear loco when the brake vans disappeared (no doubt there had to be some negotiation with the Unions and crews) Does anyone know the dates of when the 20 wagon+van sets started running and when the vans were dispensed with? A couple of 'tasters'

I have managed to decipher JG Dewings records and identified this view as Cullion, first station out of Derry, Victoria Road on the Strabane line taken on 24 August 1950. I Havn't seen many photos of this location.