leslie10646

Congratulations, Ernie on the December haul. As Patrick said, the view at "The Junction" was most unusual and seldom photographed, was the angle taken at Ballyhaise. Then, a rare sighting of a Brewster's Bread container at Strabane - still available from a certain model wagon company - they seem to have been a chocolate brown colour! Or at least, MINE are. The other Derry bakery won the prize with their light blue containers and white lettering. Very colourful on a railway which was mostly a bit grey! Always a delight to see your collection, so thanks again.

Patrick, I am sure that my videos have the same issue, but once you let them play through (with stops while the computer draws breath), I found that by restarting once it had downloaded they ran as one would hope they would! Yes, a painful process, but to see a good video ..... UPDATE. Tried again, NOTHING. I'm on a new iMac.

Yes and no. A load of smoke deflecting plates had to removed from footbridges (?) to get her under and she was towed, I think quite slowly. Now these have almost certainly have gone by now, but as the track has been fettled up, the track may have been raised, so that a tall loco would clobber bridges. A comparison of the heights of No.131 and 800 would answer this, of course, but I don't have my Locos of the GNR book to hand. Bearing in mind the colossal cost, why would anyone want to restore her to run on the Cork line for just a few runs a year? At least the GNR 4-4-0s can run almost anywhere? I know that Ken and Rob would love to take her for a spin down to Cork, but .........

On the fourth Day of Christmas, we got round to opening the pressies (after Family activity Days 1,2,3) So I gave my favourite train watcher: An Accurascale Rail Operations Group Class 37 - her favourite loco when train watching at never-boring Goring. Now, how do I get a scrap EMU set for it to pull ......... Note the locomotive is named after a lady in Greek mythology which is appropriate as the recipient is probably the only person on this forum, apart from @Galteemore who can read ancient Greek.

Wow, no new entries to this column. Some of you must have got a new trainset for Christmas! So here's mine! My Big Son kindly bought his Old Man this engine famous for its activities during The (second) Railway Race to the North (1895) Hattons do a suitable (ish) train. The Race train would have been bogies, but fairly like this! But I really got her to go with my LNWR corridor set (long after The Race) - see my entry of this set with a GNR Class PP masquerading as a DNGR Boat Train. MY REAL CHRISTMAS PRESENT HAS JUST ARRIVED AS I STOPPED TYPING THIS! The Postman has just delivered my new Three Year Driving Licence - you see I've got Glaucoma and just one eye, so Praise the Lord, I passed the eyesight test!

@Galteemore No use asking me, as a founder member of the RPSI, I still look on diesel preservation as for "other people" - that said, the generation who MAY keep the RPSI running after I'm gone remembers with affection the single ended Yankees etc, as do I, so some attention must be paid to that side. (A look in my display cabinet here shows a lot of unusual diesels!). That said, I'd like another run with No.171 before I discuss my sins with My Maker - plenty of OMMISSION as well as commision. @Blaine Sorry but you're wrong about "Sunday School Excursions on the Derry Road". The generation who founded the RPSI and ran it until recently were of the NCC Sunday School Brigade - in other words 2-6-4 tanks. I DID have one Sunday School excursion with a S Class which came over the GN Antrim Branch. Just as @Galteemore spend many wet afternoons in fields with his Dad raising money in what today are tiny quantities, I was attending similar events in England - the Syndicate did that for fifty years and is still raising a few bob now and again today. But back to your illustrious Dad - like it or not, his careful stewardship of the RPSI's finances in the early 1970s and the unending efforts to raise a few bob kept the money coming in in the days before mass market trains for the public offered more cashflow. In those days, it was the enthusiasts ("Derry Road excursionists"?) who paid for almost everything and with the Troubles reducing that market, it was my job to try and bring the odd couple of dozen extra passengers over from Britain. Without those efforts by John and his small band of fundraisers - no RPSI today and no preserved B134. It's over to you guys now, but let me have another few runs with "171"!

With Bangor looming, another of these vans seemed a good-ish idea? I promised another Broken Wheel, but I need some feedback. The wagon I planned to do was this one, without the IR "scrap this now" graffitti. The photo dates from 1977, so is usable on a layout up to mid 1970s? Now, it obviously has a simple white "Wheel". If you were going to buy one, which would you prefer - the prototypically correct all white, or the orange and white version - about a Euro dearer, but looks "nicer"? I expect the cost to be either €20 or €21, but as you'll be paying in "coins of the Realm" at Bangor , we're talking about £16/17. Over to you - I will, accept, "don't bother with more of them" ......

Nope! But an avid collector of model railways!

Ah yes, Patrick I sea what you mean! When Father John Brennan gave the Eulogy at memorial service for the famous photographer, Ivo Peters, he thanked the local C of E vicar for the use of his pulpit and explained that he (John) worked for a Large Multionational Company based in the South of Italy .......

Hmm, that interior doesn't look Presbyterian, although it could be one of Charles W's places?

To reply to both the above. John, interesting wagon. It would have to be a new kit and that is no longer possible since Michael's retirement - or at least if I was to get him to do a new one, I'd be after a wagon with potentially better sales! Like a horsebox? That said, I can supply the chassis easily enough, if it is a 1948 cattle wagon. Mr Skinner. I presume that you are a member of the IRRS? I understood that the archive in question was for members only. If you are a member, then contact Ciaran Cooney to get a new link?

Errr, NO! Another run of the van ........

Don't tell me that, John, your address is hard enough already! By the way, I've just ordered another van for you!!!!

I leave Mr G More to reply to this fully and confirm the Greek origin - it's a bit (like 1900 years?) older and used in the original Greek New Testament. Our C of E vicar preached a fine sermon yesterday on Xmas versus Christmas. He then won the Prize by having "O Come O Come Emmanuel" as the Introit for last night's carol service .....

Yes, David, Bob's train looks very at home at The Point and those MGWR 2-4-0s were a piece of artistry. I suspect that the crews hated that cab? Or at least if they had to ever run tender first - come to think of it - I can't remember ever seeing one tender first.

Christmas Mail - 1: 7mm style, courtesy Galteemore and Northroader (don't look at the wheels, for the further side ones aren't on the track - 32mm meets 36.75mm gauge! With the run-up to Christmas, the posh folk of Rosses Point Manor are getting ready to visit their relatives in Dublin and get a little shopping done in Grafton Street. The mail is aboard, but they're waiting for the coach to appear! Eventually the through coach is brought to the platform. And the connection to the Up Day Mail is ready for the off!

Thanks, WCR, for bringing this interesting site to my attention. It hasn't got my first web page ( amonth earlier in October, 2007), but here is the December version, just before Christmas. I was "closing down for the festive season as I was busy with my work for Great Rail Journeys! You can read of the success of the first four wagons (listed at the side) - The evening I opened the site, I had so many orders for the GN van 21 that I was on the phone to Dapol next morning to DOUBLE the order to 200! Aargh, sixteen years ago when I was a spry 62 year old. Over 5,000 wagons since. Happy Christmas!

Yeah, not a patch on them ...... ????? There are significant differences in the paint job, but I'm not a LNWR expert to comment. You'll need to double click my image to see it at a decent size! Can't comment on the batteries, as mine are unlit, they're kept in the Portadown sidings for AOH and GAA specials.

Stepping back through PW history, I oreivously did the following wagons. The first is a BR conflat in an approximation of GNR lettering fro their flats (I've done a couple of variations). A Dapol commision, which I'm considering a rerun of. then later we did a flat with locators for the beer kegs - I have photos (not mine to show here) which show the type which seems to have been running in the early 1960s .

There's a photo of one at Liffey Jct in 1970 (IRRS Flickr), which shows no sign of new ownership at all. The one behind no.184 in John Dewing's famous photo at Islandbridge Jct appears to still have its "GN". We did this paint job on one for a customer some years ago and I would suggest that it largely fits the bill. CIE tended to slosh paint over the original owner's lettering and add a snail (no disrespect intended, it was a practical thing to do). They then added a small "N" after the number for ex-GN, "M" for ex MGWR, etc. Plenty of evidence of this done to other wagons. We didn't do that here, but I suspect that it SHOULD have been done. Hope that this helps - nice build, Patrick. No charge for the consultancy ...... Happy Christmas - off now to sort out getting my octagenarian wife back onto the road - the (deleted expletive) people at Nautical Insurance wrote off her perfectly roadworthy car. Insurance? Don't make me laugh!

Well done Niles for posting this. We always need a bit of evidence of what was done "at some time" in the past. It saves us saying "It's my railway and I'll do what I want on it!"

Yes, giving that serious consideration, but it would be a GN one, I think. Thanks to the guys posting the flats on goods - few (well a few) seem to be triangulated chassis. Most appeared to be flats like that below my double beets - which I sell separately!!!! The more photos I look at the more containers, and other goods on flats etc, I seem to discover. I hope that the Lads have checked if the BR container will fit inside their wee corrugated - there are plenty of pics around of two half containers in those wagons ......

Turns out, as Galteemore has observed, that both E and S Class shunting cars on that page ..... Did they build the 1959 version in Cork? Or do we have to hunt down models of the 1953 - 1959 version. Hold on, isn't this thread meant to about "Flats"? Are they sold out yet, Lads?

The wagons are now probably out by now. Does someone make that era Ford Anglia in 4mm? Yes, it IS Page 17 - an E Class by the way (easy mis-type).

Nice piece of social history, WCR. Now, I wonder what the three guys with the open newspaper are reading so avidly. Looks like the back pages, so maybe the Gee-Gee results?