leslie10646

Well, I'm attending, so time to get your pre-orders in! If I may be so bold, remind me of anything I owe you and it will be put to one side for you to collect. Looking forward to it! Always a great show.

Yes, great to see the little known-about through carriage off the Express at NPQ - a Summers only arrangement in Leap Years, as I expect you all know. Bravo to David for having one of the most active layouts there today. Great to see The Two Davids, who will be starring for one night only on Zoom at IRRS London on Friday, 16 January 2026. Put it in your diaries and make sure that you tune in!!!!

Rhubarb! I'd sack the local shed master for turning out locomotives in such a filthy state. The crews obviously didn't view their locos as the Spoil Train men did in the late 1960s, when they often cleaned another bit of the engine between turns ..... Admonition over, @jhb171achill it shows it the way it (unhappily) was!

Well done @Signal Post for tuning in! For those who didn't - you missed one of the best "Railway / Modelling railways" talks which I have ever heard. Gordon gave a brilliant, well-researched account of how the town and harbour grew, the coming of the railway and then the remarkable lengths which he went to to get things just right on what is an almost brick-for-brick model of the station, harbour and surrounds. Gordon's attention to detail has no equal, in my experience. You won't be able to get near it at Blackrock, as people just stand and stare as they pick out the endless detail. Thanks, Gordon, for coming and entertaining us. I'm sorry that you weren't rewarded by a bigger in person audience - unhappily a feature of society meetings everywhere after Covid. If you don't attend your local railway society meetings, then think about doing so, otherwise it won't be there. The talks are a good listen and the craic afterwards is priceless.

DON'T FORGET TO TUNE IN ..... OR BETTER STILL TURN UP IN PERSON IF YOU'RE IN SE ENGLAND TO NIGHT AT 6PM. AN OPPORTUNITY TO HEAR ONE OF OUR OWN, GORDON HUNT DESCRIBE THE LINE TO DONAGHADEE AND HIS AMAZING MODEL OF IT. ATTENDING BY ZOOM To obtain a Zoom link for the meeting, please register by clicking https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0Is1DZSjQIqrpjAkogyj7Q Should you turn up, come by the book sales table and say "Hi"

Leslie McAllister pays a tribute to his late friend Lance King, with a selection of Lance’s colour photography taken in the North of Ireland in the last years of steam traction. Leslie witnessed much of what is included, as a schoolboy! The 1960s saw a halving of the Province’s railway mileage, but not before Lance faithfully recorded train working on the former Great Northern Railway lines. Both the main line from Dublin, the much-lamented route to Derry (which closed in 1965) and several branches will be covered. Steam hauled both passenger and goods trains and saw extensive use at holiday periods - all faithfully recorded. Even a glimpse of the Sligo Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway and the County Donegal narrow gauge lines. Lance did not ignore modern traction, which appears from time to time during the presentation. A heady mixture of nostalgia at a time of change! ----------------------------------------- WHERE? The talk is being given at Marlow & District Railway Society which holds its meetings in Eghams Hall at Bourne End Community Centre, Wakeman Road, Bourne End SL6 5SX, commencing at 7.30 pm. and finishing around 9.45 pm.

That scene looks very familiar .........

LIVE + ZOOM : 18.00 - 21.45 : Friday 10 October 2025 Gordon is an active member of the RPSI and the Ulster Model Railway Club. His special interest in Donaghadee stems from childhood and he has now built a highly acclaimed, award-winning model of Donaghadee station and its environs. In the context of a brief history of the BCDR, he will focus on the Donaghadee branch, the life and demise of the station, and the rail-connected harbour including its novel form of construction. And he will recall the highs and lows of building his superb model during the difficult Covid years. At The Gallery at Alan Baxter, 100m from Farringdon station, now the most accessible location in central London. Door opens at 17.30. The Gallery is a smart and spacious community space, ideal for our talks, and with stepfree access available. We hope as many as possible will be able to come along, see the speaker live, contribute directly to the discussion, meet the Committee and other members, and enjoy refreshment in a nearby pub afterwards. LIVE MEETINGS are at The Gallery at Alan Baxter, 77 Cowcross Street, Farringdon LONDON EC1M 6EL.

Well, I'm just off to Deutschland to celebrate the centenary of the German Class "01" Pacifics on a six day tour. As I leave kits are arriving to top up my stock ready for the Show, so it's a good time to speak up if there's any of my wagons which you need. I'll also be selling some of a huge collection of Irish Railway books given to the IRRS, London. I have almost everything published on the subject and in astonishingly almost mint condition. If there's a hard top fill gap in your library, just PM me and I'll have a look. Keep up the modelling while I'm playing with big trains - I want to have something to look at when I get back.

My hatred of the narrow gauge is renowned (too slow), but I salute you @Georgeconna for this Master Class in layout-building. In particular your patience and skill with the "knitting" which looks a job and a half. You say you've barely visited the place, but I recommend it. I usually spend ten days in the Tirol each year - like Switzerland it has mountains - but at half the price! I stay in the same hotel in Jenbach every year, but most years barely glance at either the Achenseebahn or the Zillertal. I probably do the steam train on the Zillertal about every other year - happily the Big railway still has lots of good stuff if you look hard enough. Keep it up, I'm sure that we are all learning from this thread.

They are a wonderful set of photos, Ernie. I particularly liked the human one of the queue at the booking office. I agree with Jim that the goods photo is wonderful, BUT: Were all those vans well-loaded, I think not. Probably a lot of air being moved around, for if i'm not mistaken, if there was a single bulky object for somewhere, it was loaded in a van and the van dropped off there. That was a big problem for the common carrier railway, lots of goods which did NOT pay its way. Jim Edgar's brilliantly-researched talk to the IRRS London Area on the demise of Ulster's railways really brought this unhappy point to the fore. Without the legal requirement to carry the goods, we might have had a lot of lines still there usefully carrying passengers and keeping cars off the roads!

All right and proper, @Galteemore, although it's sad that the closure of the mahogany and black railway caused the death of the little cousin?

Well, we all know who that will please? Or did you write it @David Holman or @Galteemore ????

This didn't sell and I forgot to bid, but my offer was accepted, so it's in Belfast waiting to be picked up en route to Blackrock. It's for my son who is named for the Blessed OLIVER, but if he doesn't want it, it will end up in the iRRS HQ in Dublin after I go to answer for my many sins.

Just wait, I have "plans" to replace everything on Portadown Jct with Southern Railway stuff - very little goods, but nice Bulleid era steam, diesel and electric.

What was the base material of the signal box, Darius. It really does look the part!

Yep. Rather nice looking bulky tank engines!

Just to say that my GNR vans ARE still available. I should have a supply at Blackrock in a month's time.

Thanks, but I really meant did you receive the book effortlessly and without An Post impounding it and sending you a bill! I will bring a stock of Michael's books over with me to Blackrock, as we have been "left" copies of Rolls 1 and 2 and might as well make up the set! No postage, face price.

Please let us know how you get on with this. I know another major publisher who won't export their truly wonderful books to Europe. Perha[ps Robin Fell at TT has found an easier way!

Wonderful coach, David and especially impressed with the passengers. However (and this is a wind-up) ....... The "timer", clearer holding a stopwatch and standing as timers did in the First Class corridor, would have stood a bit further down the corridor to get a clearer view of the mileposts as they whizzed by. Mind you he might have been avoiding the temptation to chat up the attractive lass standing a bi further along?

Wow, all this 21st Century technology and one of my vans in it! 1954 GNR meets Star Wars?

You missed the best bit - it's labelled Great Southern and Western Railway!

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!