leslie10646

Hear, hear, Ernie, JB et al. I record the stuff I might want to watch and then watch them when it suits me. Then, when an ad break comes up, 4/5 clicks of the "Forward Arrow" and I've missed them all - "Simples" - (oh, Lord, I've admitted that I've watched THAT one! Spud's right, though. Derry Girls fills half an hour on terrestial TV, yet is 22 minutes an episode on Netflix - now I wonder how that happens

Hi JB Commiserations on the Burma experience - not surprised on any front - I've never been keen on narrow gauge, so I wouldn't expect much. I think that running tours in distant lands must be a nightmare for the tour operator. You should have come on one of my trips into China with the Hong Kong Railway Society (1997 and 1998). The second was to a ng line carrying coal. I'll look for a photie and post it! (So long ago you printed the things! The only digital thing I had was my stopwatch! At least your off-spring can give you accommodation near the second best narrow gauge railway in the World! The Ffestiniog takes some beating, but the Rhaetian Railway pips it for the top place! Jim, sorry that your experience was spoilt by NRs attempts at running the tracks over here! At least you should have enjoyed some serious noise from the Jubilee?

Hi Noel Three steam tours this summer, no diesel on the back, lots of 75mph running. It depends on the Promoting Company to some extent - Steam Dreams have a diesel on the back 90% of the time - usually to do with the route and the need to go off in the other direction (eg out of Weymouth where there's nowhere to turn). Fire risk is the other bugbear for we 100% steam men - some operating companies put a diesel on the train to reduce the possibility of sparks causing damage to vegetation - yet most locos have effective spark arrestors. Have a look on YouTube to see Leander roaring up the South Devon banks without aid.

MAQ03850.m4v The 800s, are sometimes equated to a Royal Scot - Well, if it is true, this is what one looks like at speed, the diesel is there for the airconditioning in the Mark 2ds. Great Scot at Goring? .......

Sorry, but the photo must have been taken after 1956/7 when the "Bulleid-bodied" AEC railcars were put into service (IRRS Journal No.20, Page 243 refers to their entering service). The REC, being Farnborough-based, with Mr Bulleid's pacifics racing past their door every hour of the day and night possibly requested the set specifically! After Mr B's fine coaches on the Southern Railway - they must have been a bit of a culture-shock!

The late Jimmy (?) O'Dea wrote an extended and valuable article in the IRRS Journal, Vol. 11, pages 127 - 139 and part 2 in the same Volume pages 170 -178. The article shows a G Class diesel at Clara on the Banagher Goods and a Sulzer B Class at Banagher itself.

Sorry, JB, I don't think it's Ardnacrusha - see attached Lance King's photo of the IRRS tour to there in 1962. PS, I thought that it was here as well, but the architecture is different! The REC is based two miles from my home, these days - principally a modelling club now - but important enough to have a "proper"sign on the main road! The photo could have been taken in Hampshire this year, it looks wet enough!

I must say that The Lads are doing this in style. If the container goes through Mongolia, it joins the Trans Siberian route at Ulan Ude, then running to the South of Lake Baikal, where there just happens to be a STEAM Shed at Slyudyanka: So your A Classes can be steam-hauled for part of their journey, just like the real thing ..... Splendid customer service!

Midland Man said - Love the front cover. It looks amazing it keeps the style of the original book [Rails to Achill] which I like quite a lot. Wait until you see the back cover! For UK only (sorry) £16.95 from The Syndicate, post paid. If Jim D will tell me how to send money to The Maam Cross Project - profits to them! Leslie

If you can't wait until Jonathan's launch - you can buy a copy from The Syndicate (supporting Irish railway preservation) for £15.95 plus a token £1 towards post and packing - UK only - sorry, postage to "Europe" is rather expensive from Brexitland! Either e-mail at lesliemcallister@aol.com; or drop me a PM. Great book, all congratulations to JB and his publishers for very good reproduction of a great book, which completes the story of a fascinating line - oh, for a Time Machine. Where did you get all those illustrations from, JB? Leslie

Kevin makes a very good point above. the Black 'n Tan era is of greater interest for the reason that the locos ran on a railway little changed from steam days - semaphore signals, freight trains with brake vans, , seldom two wagons on a train the same; still lots of sundries and mail traffic, which meant that passenger trains did not just cart people ......... Talks on the era always attract a good audience for that reason and thank heavens quite a few guys took great pictures which have recorded the scene - JB's books (with Barry Carse) are a case in point.

WARLEY OFF This won't surprise anyone? Warley 2020 (like the Olympics and Euros) was running a year late, but is now going to be two years late. I've just received an e-mail to say Warley in November has been cancelled. Now, do I leave my deposit in place until 2022?

Dear Jonathan, Squire of Achill Thon whitemetal kits ye ha' are nah tae do wi' me. Thon's yer man Jeremy Suter's. 9 ton van on order, expected soon - what's the address in Wales?

4 August 2021: Another Day, Another New Loco ….. (Or How I travelled behind a new Hungarian loco, built in USA – in Oxfordshire! The GW Society imported 6046, ex-USATC 2-8-0 for their Summer Gala on 31 July/1 August. The dates didn’t suit me, so I was delighted when the Society tipped off its members that they would be running her again today. So I took the opportunity to travel behind my 52nd Hungarian steam loco! Built in Philadelphia in 1945 by Baldwin, after service in France in WW2, 4046 was one of 500-odd ex-USATC locos purchased by the Hungarian State Railways (MAV). She became Hungarian (MAV) 411.144. I did see the class at work in Hungary on my visits in 1973 and 1975, but I certainly didn’t have a run with one – any I saw were shunting in goods yards! I must look out a photo, as I certainly photographed one in Kecskemet in 1973. As 411.144, she became a member of the Hungarian National Collection, but was mistakenly marked for scrap! It was then privately purchased and after a change of owner, was restored to working order on the Churnet Valley Railway. It has run on the NYMR, WSR and Nene Valley, where it suffered a damaged cylinder block, which has been replaced. Without a detailed check, I cannot be precise as to the changes made by her new owners, but the original loco would not have had that “BR Standard” look about her! A handsome machine. Appropriately hauling two 1940s GWR bogie coaches (7371 a brake composite - we sat in the luxurious First Class compartment and 536 a corridor third) she toddled up and down the GWR demo line: very slow reversing to Oxford Road in 3'25, 10mph max; 2'48 back to Eynsham, 15 max; second run yielded 3'18 to Oxford Road, max SIX mph and then 2'45 back 11max. Needless to say, that when I watched go by while we picniced, the new driver made a lot more noise and seemed to be going faster! I must seek her out on a proper preserved branch! I should add that MAV was not noted for steam speeds of more than 30mph or so!

I agree with Galteemore that the Park Railway is probably either the railway in the Prater Gardens in Vienna (where the Third Man "Big Wheel" is); or the famous railway in Dresden. As there are other Austrian scenes, the Prater seems more likely. I've travelled on both (actually, I've probably timed both!). JB, these are great pictures - I've pointed McLachlan to them, as he's in Spiez at present and can almost certainly give you chapter and Verse on the ones in Der Schweiz. I know someone who will go into orbit when they see the ancient "Innertkirchen Train" - possibly the last train Sherlock Holmes travelled on - getting off at Reichenbach to seek his foe Moriarty!