h gricer

I could spend hours trawling through the photos, Michael Costelloe colour slides of the Valencia line finally scanned, I remember Michael Costelloe giving a slide show of these colour slides of the Valencia line many years ago, Ciarán has done a nice job enhancing them, photos of that beautiful scenic line that should never have been closed. Yes I did notice that appearance Flange at Youghal and photo bombing me in the process LOL, the photos with lots of people in them we only appreciate them now, so many have passed on, hg

I vaguely remember that, my good friend the late Davy Boyle gave me spare slides he had of that filming in Enniscorthy, the semaphore signals were converted to German semaphores for the filming, a Maybach E class locomotive was disguised as a German shunter, Davy and some other gricers, maybe the late Tony Price and of course the late Joe StLeger, I'd be surprised if Joe wasn't there, went to Enniscorthy for the filming. Another film which I do remember, back in 1992 outside the Phoenix Park Tunnel, filmed early on a Sunday morning ''Into The West'' with Gabriel Byrne, Frank Kelly and Brendan Gleeson as the heartless Garda inspector, the train scene at the Tunnel with the 2 lads and white horse inside a fertiliser wagon, a made up goods trains, I think the locomotive was 165 or 185, not sure, I'II have to look at the movie again.

Indeed, Jim O'Dea was a traveling salesman and travel the length and breadth of the country in his Morris Minor 850, he travel on the last train from Valentia to Farranfore in January 1960, he gave many slide shows of his travels, photographing the interior of signal cabins and diagrams, his favorite signal cabin I recall was Enfield on the Sligo line, I met him there in 1987, the signalman in Enfield the late Colm Pender??? I think his name was, a real friendly gent and was always welcoming to enthusiasts, he loved O'Dea for his knowledge and sometimes would bring him a surprise photo, it's one thing I do miss on the modern railway, the mechanical signal cabins and of course the friendly signalmen.

Carlow Kilkenny regularly got bag cement, I remember one particular Saturday 29th April 1995, driver Tony Cook arrived into Kilkenny on the 15.00 passenger from Heuston with 076, driver and guard proceeded to the yard and started up 072 in clouds of blue smoke which was attached to 10 bag cement wagons, on route back to North Wall they attached another 10 wagons at Carlow, interesting too, in the whole 20 wagon rake there was only 5 ''curtain siders'' the other 15 wagons were made up of the old type, chains and wheels, a nightmare for depot men, a pub quiz question back in the day, ''how many wheels on a bag cement wagon'' answer 18 wheels, 14 used for opening the doors, them chains pull the arms off ya. Back to Saturday 29th April 1995, a very busy day for Bell Ferry liners, the Aclass locomotives had just been withdrawn, 078 and 082 worked the Bell liners, and everything went into Kilkenny as the Lavistown Loop was under construction at the time, but that another story.

There was 4 of these stored in Dardinell sidings North Wall for many years 113 115 116 118, they were loose coupled and dated back to 1925 according to the plates on them, I remember taking photos of them at the Stonebank there week they were removed in October 1997, that's an interesting photo of 114 at Inchicore, the 4 in North Wall were sold to a farmer I recall.

Just over a month after 201 arrived at Dublin Airport in June 1994, 202 and 203 arrived at the Ocean Pier 21st July 1994, 183 haul 203 up Alexandra Rd to North Wall and Aclass 036 hauled 202 to North Wall, these were the only 2 201class locomotives to arrived at the Ocean Pier, the rest arrived at North Wall Quay Extension. 204 205 210 211 arrived at North Wall Quay Extension 20th September 1994 on board the ship Stellamare, 182 hauled them from the quayside. The Stellamare came to a sad end when it capsized in the Hudson River in 2003. 162+182 hauled 205 211 to Inchicore, 162+182 hauled 204 210 to Inchicore. 6th October 1994 212 213 214 arrived at North Wall Quay Extension on board the ship Plitvice, they were unload and sat on the quayside overnight and hauled to Inchicore the following day. 31st January 1995 the ship Stellanova arrived with 223, 149 hauled it from the quayside, the above are from my photographic notes., March 24th 25th deliveries are documented in the 208 and 209 thread. Regards hg

Yes wing mirrors were installed on 212 as seen here https://www.facebook.com/groups/1749560248594378/permalink/2591484944401900/

While looking for something else earlier Josefstadt I found the slides I took on this trip, it was Saturday 7th July 1984, our train from Cork to Cobh and back to Cork was Aclass 005 5 coaches and small van, our train back home was 076 17.30 Cork Heuston with newly introduce MK3 coaches, I remember when we were out at Haulbowline the guy proudly telling us ''this was the only 4'8'' gauge railway in the whole of Ireland at the time.

Friday 24th March 1995 228 229 230 231 were unloaded on North Wall Quay Extension, 231, 229 were hauled to Inchicore by 157, 228 230 were hauled by 143 to Inchicore. Saturday 25th March 1995 the 4 Enterprise locomotives 206 207 208 209 were unloaded, when 209 was unloaded it a broken window and unfortunately wasn't uncovered much to the disappointment for a small number of enthusiasts that showed up including myself, it was hauled to Inchicore with 206 by 187, 207 was unloaded and lastly 208, a number of officials from NIR waited patiently for the unveiling, what were we going to see, the blue cover, which all the 201s had was slowly removed with ropes, the NIR officials supervising the entire operation, and there it was, a beautiful 201 class locomotive in this deep blue with large letters NIR on both sides, it was hauled from the quayside by 187, 207 was the last hauled from the quayside, 187 hauled 207 and 208 to Inchicore with a brake van on the rear, I was there both days, 208 209 didn't last long in blue, 209 was painted in Enterprise De Dietrich livery in March 1997 and 208 in June/July 1997.

It's one of them anomalies on the railway, Kingscourt just over the County Cavan border and actually in Co Cavan, so the last locomotive to worked there was GM 141class 175 Co Cavan, veteran rail enthusiast Norman Foster actually travel on the train (weedsprayer) so he obviously appreciated the significance of the occasion

I was referring to ''Irish'' GMs 121s 141s 181s as in airfixfan's quote, they would have worked to Kingscourt, the Metrovicks (Crossleys) of course did work to Cavan but they wouldn't have been classed as ''GMs'' at that stage.

They certainly worked to Kingscourt on the gypsum, Kingscourt is in County Cavan.

On Wednesday morning 9th April 2003 215 was involved in a spectacular derailment at Islandbridge outside Heuston Station while shunting the A/B MK2s, by 11.00 the loco was leaning at a 45degree angle, 2 enormous Mc Nally's road cranes were brought in to stabilize the situation and prevent the locomotive from toppling over, when the H&S crowd arrived they requested ''sightseers and press photographers'' to leave the scene, not before photos appearing in the following morning's tabloid newspapers.

Yes there was a whole discussion thread on this, when a photo was produced some posters mentioned ''photoshopping'' which was totally ridiculous, locomotive 086 most certainly did get this treatment way back in the summer of 1990, when it was eventually painted in the full IR livery it still stood out as the IR was so big and out of place, it stood out from the rest, the IR was taken off a push/pull and stuck on to 086. Regards hg

I received my copy, it may sound crazy but I would actually pay €50euro for this book, it's a hard back high quality publication, the photos are probably the best reproduced steam photos I've ever seen in a book and I've purchased a lot of books in my time, the reproduction quality is just outstanding, the restoration of some of the older photos particularly the John Macartney Robbins photos is just incredible, the guy is dead nearly 70 years and in a strange irony his photos are coming back to life, like all books you get what you pay for, I can see this book being flogged on eBay for crazy price, a diesel book is in the pipeline with similar quality I hear, I can't wait. Regards hg

I received my copy of this book yesterday and it's superb, infact when ttc0169 posted up about this book I couldn't believe it and I didn't have to think about it, a book by Jim Edgar has to be good and it is, his films down the years are excellent and the photos in this book are even better, what I really like about this book is the text under the photos are all written by the photographer himself, so you do get a first hand account, in Jim's text he really brings the photos to life, photos no40 and 41 in the book, Charlestown and Swinford on the Claremorris to Collooney line (Burma Rd) in the final months of operation, he really captures the atmosphere, and proof read by Noel Enright, well it doesn't get better than that, Noel's knowledge and particular west of Ireland, you won't find many errors. This book is a steal, very reasonable price for some great photos and very informative text making it a great book and this is only VOLUME1, I'm really looking forward to VOLUME2 and 3 etc etc. Regards hgricer

The exact date was Saturday 1st June 1996, it was the June Bank Holiday weekend and was indeed the 50th Anniversary IRRS special to Derry, the 50th heading is clearly displayed on front of the locomotive. Regards hg

Not all the perway workings were listed in the WTT, but the 7.50 from Limerick to Inchicore or North Wall empty barytes was a regular Saturday working in the early 1990s, and even today in 2021 the 7.50 path is still used for the weekly wagon transfer from Limerick to Inchicore. When Silver Mines closed in November 1993, the Saturday 7.50 empty baryte from Limerick ceased as the wagons were transferred to North Wall, they were gradually refurbished permanently to spoil wagons with the exception of one 26703. When you be out on the lineside on Saturdays in the early 1990s, expecting to see the ammonia, cement or whatever and what regularly showed up the 7.50 from Limerick empty barytes, Limerick didn't care where they went, as long as they returned in time for Monday mornings working to Silver Mines for the baryte ore working to Foynes Port. Regards hg

Absolutely fantastic presentation Leslie, the quality of the photos was excellent, particular the Donegal railway in stunning sunny weather, loading sugar beet in the wilds of West Cork was very interesting, it's a great photographic record, Lance king seeming didn't just go on rail tours but recorded ordinary daily events on the railway, a great night to be had in these times. Regards hg

Wasn't too sure if this is the photo you were referring to, anyway I took this photo of Tuam signal cabin on Saturday 5th October 1985, 35 years ago, departing on the Éireann Counties Crusader pathfinder rail tour. Regards h.gricer

Yes I fully echo that too, Ciarán's photographic knowledge, skills and qualifications in photographic technology is just incredible, some of my own rejected slides that I had consigned to the recycle bin unable to scan were brought back to life by Ciarán's skills. The improved photographic quality in the IRRS journal, particularly photos from the late J. McCartney Robbins who is nearly 70 years dead, his priceless negatives in storage for decades and now being scanned, digitized and restored by Ciarán, sometimes spending hours restoring a single photo, maybe a damaged negative where the original image is so badly worn. McCartney Robbins and Bob Clements were friends, both born in 1910, but Clements outlived McCartney Robbins by 40 years, McCartney Robbins died at the young age of 42, but he squeezed a lot in his short life leaving a legacy of high quality historical photos. The workload just keeps increasing with more collections waiting on restoration, and the cine films is just another workload, the late Tom Dowling films have been restored and covers the early 1960s, another great photographer that recorded very historical workings and can be seen here.

Many thanks for posting the link, I spent about 2 hours this afternoon browsing through Clements photos and it's just incredible stuff, so much variety from wagons, coaches and all types of rolling stock, I thought we were spoiled by the George Mahon collection, Clements is equally outstanding, and his favorite company the Midland is well covered, photos taken at Broadstone in 1926, nearly one hundred years ago, it's just fantastic these photos are available now online particularly in the present times, to think the IRRS has existed since 1946 and it's only in the last 10 years since the present Photographic Archivist came into the position the photos are now digitized to a high quality and now available online, it must be very tedious work in all that scanning but you can see it in the results, such high quality and detail, hard to believe some of the photos nearly one hundred years old, rare and superb stuff, excellent. Regards hg

Very sad, Tuesday nights at the IRRS will be a quieter place, Anthony was very much into drawings and diagrams, he was delighted when I gave a set of De Dietrich coach drawings into the IRRS last year, one man's surplus is another man's treasure, hard work trying to keep one's photos in place, and no space for diagrams, a young man taken too soon. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dhilis. Regards hg

The first 9 tank ammonia trial ran on Sunday 23rd January 1994 with 071class 080, the 071s worked the ammonia intermittently till the 201class became firmly established on the workings, 072 075 and 082 were regulars. Regards h gricer

Sorry to take the topic back from the main point again here hopefully for the last time, Divecontroller thank you for your response but I may politely decline the PM as I feel what I am writing is in the interest of everyone here, my criticism is not directly aimed at you but are in reference to posts made elsewhere on this forum in which words such as squirreling collections, unhelpful etc.. was introduced by another member and which you have re-used to backup such claims, these posts which I refer to elsewhere fell far below the constructive criticism both you and I advocate and were nothing more than a 'cheap shot' at the IRRS and its hard working volunteers. Its not surprising this sort of negative rhetoric surfaced again when further misinformation was posted in this very thread about photo collections by those who clearly know nothing of the internal workings of this society and therefore gives a bad image of its voluntary endeavours. I note my post has received positive hits suggesting I'm not alone in feeling this way and theres maturity among some members here to neither engage or entertain these kind of slurs. To have this go on unchecked is unacceptable and I hope my final comments on this matter draws attention that those responsible should think carefully about posting before knowing the full facts. Kind Regards h.gricer