leslie10646

The Train is especially good, worth endless rewatches. Obviously The First Great Train Robbery (aka 1GTR) is a must for Irish enthusiasts, the book is a good read of a clever plot by Michael Crichton Train of Events is wonderful for its LMS scenes, lots of them, as one of the heroes (Jack Warner, aka Dixon of Dock Green) is a Top link driver. Closely Watched Trains (1966), is set in Czechoslavia during WW2, but is more about Sex than Steam! It won the Oscar for foreign film the year it came out. If you're into French steam and like Emile Zola then La Bete Humaine is for you - again the hero cum villain is a Top Link driver - see on YouTube - makes the 1GTR look tame! Put the following into your browser: Driving the État 231-592 in 1938: La Bête Humaine / The Human Beast Highlights Cab Ride Thanks, @Metrovik you've just used up another half hour of my life - so many mind-blowing snips on YouTube (this one's long and mesmerising!). Now, back to important Provincial wagons work.

@Branchline121 hit the nail on the head with No.207. A Woolwich mogul would have been very useful, but I understand they were rough to ride on which wouldn't sit well with modern crews. @GSR 800 makes a good point regarding the Midland 2-4-0s, but if we had one, it wouldn't be on the main line any more as she could not pull enough fast enough - like our two J15s. But she'd be perfect for Maam Cross. Jim - you could build a glass fibre "Flyaway Cab" lookalike and put an electric motor in it (with a smoke unit of course).......... Back to Boyne which is my "Win the Euromillions Jackpot" engine. Lord O'Neill would have bought her but was advised that she would be very restricted on route availability - which was true at the time. BUT with more modern track and heavier diesels the Game changed - No.85 with the same axle-loading has been almost everywhere! The saddest decision in Irish preservation history. Like everything else in the 1960s, we had no money to preserve anything. No.171 was RENTED for a decade or so. No.186 was a gift (Thank-you CIE). So was the Guinness engine - keep drinking the beer to say Thanks. No.4 was the Bargain of Bargains when we bought her - oh that we'd had the money to buy TWO!

The slide which you bought was probably taken by another of the group with Lance, hence the near identical photo - your "man" took his shot a few hundredths of a second after lance! Not eat position of the loc vis a vis the ground signal. They went on to the Cavan and Leitrim next day. By the way @Mol_PMB, thanks for the link to the Inchicore film. I'm recovering from the shock of seeing a well-known IRRS member when but a boy ....... But better still, when the film ended YouTube gave me a link to a super film about "The Elizabethan" - no interest to you, of course, seeing streamlines "kettles". By the way, can we have less offensive references made to the next most important invention after the wheel, please?

Just for the record, the article with john refers to is "CIE: First Diesel Programme" by JJ Leckey which you'll find in Journal No.86 pages 275 - 277. The same Journal has a substantial article by Dan Renehan on CIE's Sulzer locos

Ah, @jhb171achill - I have - see below! Lance King's photo at Portarlington in 1958. Copyright IRRS

Yes, I am - more, more!

Bank holiday at Didcot! Actually parked at Goring and took Class 387 to Didcot - just 99mph max. Where i found another Accurascale Benefit in form of a bunch of Class 66s - including the Class leader 66.001 The GW Society were celebrating the return to steam of 1466 (0-4-2T) which was running on the "Main Line" with an auto trailer, at the preservation site. I rode behind this engine 15 April 1968 on the Wallingford Branch when a local group took over the then BR line for the day! IMG_3088.MOV I was really there for the South Eastern and Chatham Railway Class O1 No.65, which was a "new engine" for haulage - no speed over 16mph! There were THREE engines in steam, the other was another "Auto Tank" No.1450 (now at Severn Valley). I'm pretty sure I've had her before, possibly on the Dart Valley. A good time was had by all, in record Bank Holiday heat! .......

Awaiting shots of her on her last run, for now.

Alan, for a narrow gauge, industrial (both railways I have little time for) layout yours looks top drawer. Well done!

Thanks @Tullygrainey for the great pictures which do, indeed, show some fine modelling. I see that William Redpath has got a QGT for "Portadown"? Every time I see William's great depiction of that roundhouse, I curse my inability to model - third attempt coming up this winter!

Clan Line on the fast lines at Goring tonight, after dark. Not great, rather quiet at speed (I can hear the "music" at the Reading festival more clearly - I have no idea what the little green dots are! IMG_3079.MOV

I know the feeling, John, I've been selling off my King and Country vehicles and soldiers because the family won't want them and I'm now convinced that WW2 should not have happened (or WW1, for that matter). At a 50% profit usually and I've had ten year's looking at them. Principally, to make room for more locomotives in my display case - mainly Modern European ones I like and have travelled behind, bought from eBay at "a good price". Like you, I admire "The Lads" efforts but when all's said and done, I'm in my eightieth year. So no "800" (a crazy choice in my book, but will sell for folk who want another glass cabinet model) or ICR - fine units that they are - and the models will be - they have no place on a fifties layout. All that said, there are three Irish locos on order, as I subscribe quite heavily to @Old Blarney's excellent dictum -"It's my layout and I'll run what I like on it! Very astute philosopher, is our Mr White!

Good luck with the Show! I had planned to attend as I was to be over for the RPSI steam on Sunday, but I returned from Austria barely able to walk, so I'm still in England.

Three Month Interrail Ticket Part Two: I'll do Part One some other time (nearly three weeks in Switzerland). Not having been to the Austro-Hungarian Empire for two years, it was off to Jenbach in the Tirol for ten days in August - I had to pay for Eurostar, but otherwise the travel was free and there was plenty of it. We arrived on Wednesday 6 August and next morning got going slowly, so that it was 11 o'clock when we got to the station to find that OBB are going to use "VECTRONS" on the through trains from Munich to Italy via Innsbruck. Then to posh Kitzbuhel using a Railjet to Worgl (11m48s, max a steady 100mph) then a CityJet electric unit. The plan was to catch the Westbound Eurocity which is one of the few loco-hauled trains over this "Giselabahn" line which was celebrating 150 years. Great line with much curves, two hairpins etc etc - NOT for speed! So here is the EC entering Kitzbuhel town station (the cafe here does brilliant Gulaschsuppe with a roll for €6 - no need to eat for the rest of the day!). I video-ed most loco-hauled trains entering (no defensive driving here - they came in hard and stood on the brakes!) as it was the sure way to get the (pretty small) number - the First Class was often at the other end of a seven coach train and the train might be off again before I got the number on getting off! IMG_2886.MOV More later.

Nice one, Bob!!!!!! its would certainly storm up the Bleach Green bank with the 8.5pm Goods!