leslie10646

Oddly enough, I'm with AClass007 on this - a "Supertrain" A class with a rake of air-conditioned coaches in the same livery is pretty striking - remember the superb CIE publicity shot on Bray Head? I'm very lucky in that I have a lot of what I want, having been collecting Irish for twenty years now, BUT.... A really good model of GNR(I) Class VS No.207, capable of going round my rather tight curves, and, more importantly, able to take ten mahogany coaches on an All-in Rugby Special or for the Horse Show in Dublin. I'm with "ttc" on the No.85 front. Patrick, Old Boy - dream on - you're one of the handful of people wanting to model the BCDR - but all power to your elbow - your suggestion re Queens Quay with the Golfers' Express departing is delectable.

Coach 47N was a GNR(I) Class J11, built as a Tri Composite Brake with two compartments - one of six First seats, the second of eight Second seats and finally thirty Third class seats in an open saloon. PLus TWO toilets (one at each end of the passenger section) and a brake compartment. Went to CIE at the dissolution of the GN and this was her last year in service, big withdrawn in 1970. By this time she was a First / Third compo, I suspect, so some lucky guys on the tour had First Class seats.

I have heard that the Casserley negatives were offered to an 'organisation' for £20,000 which sum was somewhat beyond their means, but it will give some idea of their expected Auction value. Yes, Ernie, I suspect that that would be a figure for "the lot". As he (they? for Richard was a prolific photographer also and as Jon has said, very helpful to authors) took double figures of thousands of non-Irish topics, the Irish element, if the collection was split, should be at a manageable price. Again as young Jon has said, they have been widely exposed in print and many people have prints from the collection - Henry certainly sold copies during his lifetime. Getting back to the possible figure for the total collection, I cannot think of any society with that sort of money to spend on a collection - most photographers leave their collections to a club they had been a member of.

My giddy aunt, John, it's not the foreground that made my jaw drop it was the neat "filing system" of drawers for this and that behind. I wouldn't DARE post a picture of my railway room, or the dining room table where I am typing this.

Spot on Lambeg re the Brain Boru visit to Limerick. A memorable tour (for a lot of wrong reasons). The tour was the first since No.171 was overhauled, but unhappily she blew a gland on the way to Dublin (although not without doing 70mph before that happened). So, No.4 (straight off working on the spoil trains) ran solo to Cork, where she contrived to derail her pony truck in the shed yard. 171 worked to Cobh and back, having run Dubin to Cork light engine. Next day, we returned via Limerick as already reported and guess what? No.4 lost her pony truck again in the shed yard - trapping No.171 inside. So there we were with no loco for the trip onwards to Dublin and Belfast. The Inspector, the late Paddy Gannon, simply asked our rail tours officer ( the late and estimable Drew Donaldson) - "What do you want to do"? Now Drew once famously threatened to lie down in front of an ailing 400 class on a tour, to ensure that the tour did not continue with a diesel loco, so not surprisingly asked Paddy to muster a team and rerail the offending truck. A bunch of local pw men did it in double quick time using the most modest tools (including a few sleepers!) and we were back in business after an hour. Well done the Limerick men! No.171 set off on her own, but very weakly, due to that blown gland. At Ballybrophy, while she took water, it was discovered that No.4 was right behind her on the block, so she came forward to pilot. What followed was a piece of folklore - for that meant driving her over a facing crossover from the down line (she had running bunker first because of the dodgy pony truck). The CIE driver declined to have the honour of taking No.4 over the crossover - who could blame him with the Sunday rush hour about to begin and the possibility of blocking both main lines? As it happened, the NIR inspector, Frank Dunlop, was on the train to advise the CIE guys on the handling of the tank. So he volunteered to edge her slowly over the points and in front of No.171. After that, it was relatively plain sailing - I've forgotten how late we were back into Belfast! Wouldn't have missed it!

Very nice job, Tony. Keep it up. You'll need an awful lot of wagons for that shed! Come to think of it, I know a guy .........

Nope!

Never a truer word, David. The Fleischmann stuff I bought for a German layout which was never finished would fetch VERY little these days - fortunately, most of it was bought in the days when the D-Mark was 4/5 to the pound! As Noel says, don't speculate, enjoy them. I have a glass case full of locos which have never / will never turn a wheel - but are happy mementos of trips in many a foreign land (anyone want a Hungarian Electric, or a Chinese one, come to think of it?)

Hi Ken He's been sent the link, but may be away from the Internet, having a real life away from railways! If he doesn't bite the "fly" quickly, I'll use a different bait! Leslie

To my shame, I must admit that this is the first time I've noticed this thread. Really terrific, skilled work Ken. To say "Well done" doesn't start to give you the credit due. Thanks for posting the photos of the locos and rolling stock in native brass - I have always thought it showed off a model really well. When I had a Class AL built from the Northstar kit recently, I particularly asked the modeller to photograph it for me in brass, before painting it - a bit like the "real" railway works who photographed their locos in "Workshop Grey". Great to see the DSER modelled - i'm only aware of one other person doing it - and I'm about to send him the link!

No, nor can I. As far as I know, Eoin doesn't put outside couplers on his sets (oops, sorry, that's the DART!!!!!).

IF No.85 is the only available loco, then I understand that she is too heavy for the Waterford - Limerick line.

I particularly liked Mayner's photo of the Celtic class coming out of Broadstone (am I right?) where Luas now runs!

Spot on, David, while the Class WT was called a "Jeep" by one of the shed foremen because of their go-anywhere, do anything nature; the name was not commonly used by railway staff. In the 1960s when I began timing trains (and travelling with your esteemed Dad), we always referred to the WTs as simply "Tanks" or the longer "Mogul Tank" - for that is what they were - a tank version of the LMSNCC 1932-built Moguls. Of course there was another very numerous class of tank (only a few by 1960) on the GNR(I), but they were usually referred to by enthusiasts, at least, as "Glover Tanks", after the CME who introduced them. I never heard of the GNR Class V being called anything but "the Compounds" either in speech or in the literature, nor had I heard of the LQGs being called anything but "LQGs". The SG3s, thanks to their prodigious power most certainly were always referred to as "Big Ds". The ENGLISH often erroneously) refer to the 800s as "Queens" but my understanding of Irish history is that they ladies honoured were simply ladies in Irish history, or mythology. I won't go on about "Whippets", "Woolwich's" (again Anglice "Woolworths"), Kerry Bogies (Jon Beaumont will tell you?), "Cattle Engines"; "Bandon Tanks" (self-explanatory); "Scotch Engines" ......... Now the diseasels - known by enthusiasts as "Bullets" because of the silvery livery. To this day, you occasionally hear an older enthusiast say that there is a Bullet on the front! Sorry, Jon, but "Lambeg Man" is right about the Class 70s - I remember them often being referred to as "Hampshire Units". The fun we had?

Hi Kevin (and friends) My colleague, Richard McLachlan, is soon to digitise the TRA book. However, he is of the view that if you want drawings suitable for modelling that it will be of only modest use to you. It does not include dimensions. The IRRS drawings catalogue includes several books on GSR (and GSWR) coaches. These DO include dimensions and are much more useful to the modeller. I can attest to their quality - even though I hate to say nice things about Richard! Well, not too nice. I suggest that you use the contacts referred to in the on-line catalogue which you will find at - http://irishrailarchives.ie/index.php/archives/maps_drawings/ For those of you in Dublin, you can see many of these books if you approach Anthony McDonald at a Tuesday IRRS "Library Night" in the former Good Manager's offices at Heuston. Leslie