Irishswissernie

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 I thought it might be 4-8-0 No 11 which was supposed to have been withdrawn and scrapped in 1928 but its more likely one of the Barclay 4-6-0t's which had the same style square front buffer beam .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.

Merry Christmas &^ a Happy New Year everyone! Here is a bumper bundle uploaded to Flickr today. Click on the photos to get the captions! Some old, some new, some maybe GNRI blue!

No I don't think so, different lighting conditions produced variations in the hue. Here are a couple of views at Limerick Junc of 123 and 129 taken within minutes of each other. EDIT I'm intrigued by the white lining on the cab end of 123 with a line of dirt down the middle and a bit ropey on the edges paint wise. Its possible the cab metalwork is a bit distorted I have quite a few views of locos missing the IR or IE logo on the bonnet sides.

Yes 110

I wasn't going to get a black n Tan 121 but thinking that in a couple of years time I will probably wish I had; thought better of it. This is the 'Insurance' shot. All locos arrived safely with only one loose coupling across the deliveries. I'm thinking that if I go the same way with the A Class I might have to rebuild Glengarriff as a Diesel depot. Well no! I prefer the countryside.

Email from Hattons saying 121''s now in stock, a bit late for most of us I guess.

Should have gone to Specsavers Jim if you are referring to the last one

Latest Casserley Lots are now being gradually uploaded to Flickr.

A few more which possibly havn't seen the light of day as the film has a serious fault across the sky which resembles a volcanic ash eruption but doesn't affect the actual scene. I have cut out most of the offending black cloud but the remainder is a useful area to put on a caption.

My interpretation of Casserley Records. Arrived at Enniskillen 17th from C&L via Clones and spent night. 18th EKN to Fintona Jc - Fintona then back to EKN. Railcar B on 1.45 special for group to Sligo and then on it back to EKN in evening for another overnight stay. 19th depart for Omagh, Strabane and Derry. I have the negs from EKN lunchtime after arrival back from Fintona. The records are on GWRA Auctions web site for the Casserley Auction and can be downloaded as a PDF The Trip is in the 7th PDF on first line and the neg numbers covering the Irish Tour are 72616 Page 89 to 73146 Page 105 https://www.gwra.co.uk/h-c-casserley-collection-of-negatives-auction.html This will enable one to work out RC Riley's Trip.

Yes my negs LOT covers EKN to Sligo on the 18th then back to EKN then Omagh & Strabane (GN& Donegal) & the Lough Swilly at Derry on the 19th

This is the SLS Group posed for HCC at Sligo. Given that this is 70 years ago there can't be many of the Group still with us. A bit different from the rail tours I did; only one participant without a tie. Back in the 1980's on the NERA Day Tours organised by the late Chris Wolstenholme he would be the only one wearing a tie!

All the latest Casserley acquisitions have now been scanned and captioned but still need cleaning up. There are 5 of Dromahair on 18 May 1950. Railcar B was working a special for HCC and the SLS Group.

I've spent the last few days scanning the Casserley negatives recently acquired. In a mixed batch of Scottish and midland medium negatives there are also 8 Cavan & Leitrim views from 7 June 1932. Re-painting wasn't a priority as the stock is still in Cavan & Leitrim lined livery. Also No 9 King Edward was still extant in Ballinamore Yard.

THanks, bought one off E Bay although the article seems familiar and I've probably got the book somewhere in the loft. Somewhere I also have an article about the auction sale at Enniskillen of the assets in Northern Ireland. It was in one of the old Railway World Magazines when that magazine was going through a bad patch finance wise (before Ian Allan bought it) and the issues were reduced to a 6" x 9" format. Scanned this one yesterday 26 June 1937

It does Jim , top of page 53. I can't scan it at the moment because the scanner is full of Londonderry & Lough Swilly negs from 1937. There are 16 views of Fintona branch in the GNRI album https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/albums/72157626756740602