leslie10646

No, you're wrong Paul. IRM are going to announce their Irish Steam loco on 25th December. This thing's ANOTHER diesel. To quote my favourite Christmas character from literature - "Bah, Humbug" But as it's the Season, the last words of the same Book. "God Bless us Everyone".

Journal No. 57, pages 149-158 is the article John refers to. The same Journal has an article on the then CIE Railcar Fleet! Useful having a bound set on the shelf above me! Containers and the Railway - C.J. Whalley 10/149-158 I've PM'd you.

Hi guys I got an e-mail from Rails yesterday encouraging me to vote for them in the annual Model Rail Model of the Year election, so I did and, of course Accurascale: https://www.model-rail.co.uk/magazine/latest-issues/model-of-the-year/?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_campaign=Model Rail MOTY Awards 2024 - Voting Open&utm_id=01JF85VRAHD9ZAKD79VE3AZ7F7&_kx=94TVSTwJKaw1u9s0VI6GSrlZad3yB7CBtaw17rSe4OjqnSFePN1n7xZw98DdvMB7.RXkVMS Your favourite manufacturer NEEDS YOU. So Vote!

Is Coach 24 one of your missing ones, Colin? Henry Casserley photographed it in 1932 and as I (The Syndicate) have both a Glass negative of it and a normal negative of it, I should be able to oblige. I don't seem to have scanned it yet. Let me know. Leslie

Glad to be of service!

Great story, Jim, thanks. Sorry to have missed it!

Yes, Darius, I'm also blown away by this layout - well done GSR800! Who wouldn't want to build this station with it s amazing refreshment room at the East end. Anyone here ancient enough to have had a cup of tea in it? I ask especially as there's a tea fixation about this thread, of late!

Rails of Sheffield are selling the Dapol GWR 14xx 0-4-2T for £109.50, an unbelievably low price for a lovely model see - https://railsofsheffield.com/blogs/news/bargain-dapol-o-gauge-steam-locos-advent-calendar-day-16 Anyone need an 0-4-2 chassis for a BCDR tank, perhaps? It would make a nice ornament for the wife's Christmas stocking - better (and cheaper) than many ornaments? Much nicer on the mantlepiece than endless family photos!

Lovely bright picture of the A Class at Youghal - a good buy on your behalf - pretty eye catching and an interesting set of coaching stock. I even notice one of my GSWR 10 ton brake vans in the background!

Obviously good news, but will it pull a scale "Day Mail"? Great work.

PM sent to you, William. The simple answer is come and re-create your Portadown in my loft! The track's down, but little else. Oh, trains run on my awful track! Leslie Thanks, Patrick. Fine fellow!

Hi William, if you're on here -- can you PM me - I need help! If any of you know his e-mail address, can you put him in touch. Thanks Leslie

I've just found this thread. As I showed quite a few slides of Macmine in 1960, I was intrigued. I hope that the layout is still giving you pleasure. Leslie

I wouldn't sit up nights worrying about it @Westcorkrailway, after all @jhb171achill is unlikely ever to see your coaches in the flesh (plastic, resin whatever). If photos of your coaches don't look right to him - blame the camera! Heed the words of that great prophet from Perthshire, late of Dublin @Old Blarney - "It's my railway and I'll run what I want on it"!

The Late Drew Donaldson had a very high opinion of the 500s, a view shared by others, so yes, you are right that more of them would have been good, but I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't have agreed with you about the 800s! They had the misfortune to be built just as war loomed (of course, there should never have been a war at all, but that's another issue) so never had a chance to show how good they were (or not). The Blessed Oliver put paid to any future they might have had by ordering the A Class in the mid-fifties. Of course, for a country with little steam-able coal, they were a nonesense as even in 1939 the yanks were proving that diesels offered a future? Now, having acted as an Agent provocateur, let me make another suggestion. Perhaps Ireland should have looked at electric traction? There's a long and well reasoned article in IRRS Journal Volume 1 on railway electrification - it concluded that it wasn't on then (1947/8) as it would have wolfed up masses of capital and a high proportion of the electricity then generated. It DID touch on battery power, which Dr Drumm had proved was workable and touched on partial electrification (like the "power islands" they're talking about today, to zap power into battery trains and which we will soon see - seventy years later). Another what if?