leslie10646

1 hour ago, Galteemore said:

If ever there was a case for building a replica wagon for a museum, the Irish cattle wagon has to be up there. One railway company above all, of course….

Available as a kit, like two other wagons mentioned above from a well-known maker of Fine Wagon Kits...........

Ah, we've got a series of wires crossed - I didn't find mty photo quickly enough!

For some strange reason, I couldn't find any reference to these wagons being built in the "Recent Developments" of the 1950s IRRS Journals (or in my index). Well done IRN for providing the answer!

1 hour ago, bufferstop said:

The beet wagons, in the 40's in Inchicore were being created and finished at 12 a day, and 6 on a Saturday, because it was a half day. 

Ended up at nearly 1200 in total, a fixture in nearly every station down through the decades. 

So universal, that they nearly fell through the cracks, like the one or two H vans or the absolute shameful lack of preservation of a cattle wagon. The most humble of wagons, but you cannot tell the history of Irish Railways without it.  

Well, we can't revisit the past, but maybe we can hold on to what's left.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "beet wagons", but if you mean the corrugated sided opens, they date from 1956 and the first batch was built at Limerick. My source is Irish Railfans' News for April 1956. The series began with No.12000. 

I think that you are referring to a statement in "Locomotives and Rolling Stock of CIE and NIR" which DOES refer to a 1945 start date for the open wagon series 11817 - 14672. The statement is confusing as it seems to cover all opens, both the traditionally built ones and the later opens with their unique corrugated sides and triangulated chassis.

Some of the surviving corrugateds were double-stacked on redundant 4 wheel container flats in 1985 to make the iconic "Double beets" - also at Limerick Works!

Oh and I may have news for you.

One of the corrugateds does survive at Dunsandle (in 2014 anyway).

I think it may be there in a "private" capacity, but someone here will put me right on that! I used Robert Drysdale's photos of it extensively in producing our kit - yes, we really did research it!

More from Jim Edgar:

They might have worked them up as two laden trains or split in two
between Ballymena and Ballymoney in the Down direction.

I am pretty sure that there are 9 wagons on the train in my photo, but I
would need to dig out the DVD to check. 8 was the normal load.

The question was how likely it was to get that weight up and over
Ballyboyland given the state of the rails etc.

NIR sometimes sent out a Hunslet with an MV coupled in front plus a
driver in each one. Once they reached Ballymoney they took the MV off
and sent it back light engine. It recalled for me all those Sunday
School runs to Portrush when the second Jeep came off at Kingsbog.
Proper railway working I suppose.

I was astounded to find out that in the days of the overnight goods CIE
paid for the third shift in every signalcabin from Dundalk to Lisburn
and then all the way to Derry, the full cost of maintenance of Lisburn
to Antrim, the cost of shunting and clerical staff at Derry, and of
course CIE maintained their depot for County Donegal at Stranorlar.

Denis Grimshaw said once that in the end CIE had no problem with paying
the money, but they needed to add the general container traffic to the
Sligo goods to keep it running. Thus only the fertiliser trains ran on
with just those costs still covered by CIE on a trainload basis. Later
there was bulk timber too.

Maybe I will slip a photo of the Derry goods into my slideshow at this
last minute ...

Alas, Darren, I must disappoint you. The Amiens Street set which the IRRS has uncovered to date  does not include the cabin.

We can provide plans of Jim Meade's office in the building (well as it was in GN days), but not the cabin.

If we find it .....

There are lots of photos........

I asked Jim Edgar, of Markle Videos (incidentally giving a talk at London IRRS next week).

He replied:
There were occasional bulk fertiliser trains from the mid 1970s until at
least 1990. The traffic was for County Donegal, and was seasonal
depending on the demand for fertiliser. There do not seem to be exact
dates and the trains ran as required.
Fertiliser for Donegal via Derry ran sporadically as a block train of
bogie wagons (usually 8), and only when demand was really high. I think
that is what we mean here, though there might have been the odd wagon on
the general freight service for Donegal which ran via Lisburn and Derry
between 1965 and around 1980.
Yes these bulk trains were fairly rare but there are plenty of dated
photographs of them, so not so unusual as some suggest.
At times a CIÉ loco worked through. There is a photo of one train in
Derry on 19 October 1976 in J M Allen's book on NIR, with CIE loco 171
in charge.
Here are some photos of it in 1985.
> https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3025809
> https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/503775
I photographed it on 22 April 1987 behind 111. You can check this out on
the Markle DVD (still available!).
Also in Jonathan Allen's book is a photo of it hauled by 112 on 21 July
1990 <ACTUALLY TEN FERTS>.

He also included a photo taken by Denis Grimshaw on 11 April 1981of it hauled by a pair of Hunslet locos.
A model with a Murphy 111 class and up to 8 IRM wagons would be pretty <on the evidence, even TEN Ferts - LM>
close to what I saw.
Hope this helps.

Jim

Darren

You will be a most welcome addition to our ranks.

I could answer your query re the Amiens Street cabin straightaway, but "Mr Drawings" aka Richard McLachlan - who is staying with us this week - IS BACK IN DUBLIN  for the night for a IRRS Board event. As soon as he's back, I'll put the question to him.

Watch this space!

Like Fran, our thanks to the guys (and gals?) of the MRSI for arranging last weekend’s exhibition.

A lot of hard work by a faithful few before, during and after. We exhibitors were very well looked after and a further thanks to the ladies who provided lunch and kept us all fed and watered.

Talking of being fed and watered, the Exhibition dinner was in another League to any I’ve attended before – great food, friendly service and good craic.

From The Few, to The Many.

It was wonderful to be back among Irish modellers who not only bought loads of my kits (I actually nearly sold out!), said nice things about them and encouraged me (at 76) to “keep it up”.

Well, if I’m spared and encouraged by this great exhibition, I intend to do just that.  New kits are in the pipeline.

An additional pleasure was to find that I had become (in)famous, thanks to the “ZOOMed” IRRS talks which I have given!

Early on Tuesday morning, The Ulysses cast Richard and I up on a Welsh  coast being lashed by torrential rain. After a tiring overnight journey, we were home by 7am and crashed gratefully into our beds - and stayed there! Still wrecked from what for us is a week-long Odyssey.

Thanks again, Dave, Tony, Ed and all at MRSI for having us and for a very successful exhibition. Thank you to all of you who visited us, even if only to say “Hi”.

Looking at the number of beet kits I sold, this year's season should be well looked after!

Dear White

I shall take pleasure in communicating with you after I've got this little event in Dublin behind me (if i make enough profit to cover the call).

I'll even let you know what my next wagon is - before this lot!

Yours faithfully

McAllister

Noel, thanks for the Advertorial!

As Tim says, a very nice bit of building (the spindly brake gear takes patience, but is worth the effort) and superb weathering - although we've come to expect that from you!

For the rest of you, I have a supply with me, so have a go at a true Irish Icon.

Noel, do come and say "Hi". We've yet to meet!

Anyone get any sleep last night?

47 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

Z, N, TT, H0 00, O, gauges 1, 2 & 3; 009, H0m, 10 1/4 inch gauge - all will be options. And I'm still thinking it's the DUTC tow-car or "Dick" of Fintona.

No, no, no

I was thinking of "0" Gauge next ........

16 hours ago, Old Blarney said:

Push-Pull to Maynooth.

I travelled on a Push-Pull train (Former AEC Railcars and a B201 Locomotive) from Connely to Maynooth to Connely.  My driver, that day, was to take-up duties on the Bray-Greystones-Bray shuttle the following week. I believe from memory; this was the commencement of the shuttle service between Bray and Greystones.

My dear David, YOU'RE ALIVE!   Great news.

In your posts above, you don't mention the date?

6 minutes ago, John-r said:

Bring some spoil ( muck ) wagons if you can Leslie. Sorry to deviate from topic, trying to take my mind off what's coming,  its not working.

My dear John, What a fine fellow you are!

I WAS going to leave them at home!

Going into the box now!

28 minutes ago, BosKonay said:

Lol. don't worry we're not treading on your toes Leslie

Probably not treading on my toes, maybe a good hack at my shins!

It's time Dave B opened the book on your announcements, proceeds to the Gardai Benevolent Society?

I wish they'd get on with it, then I'd know which kits to leave at home.

I thought young Des does the 0-6-4T and the Bandon tank?

Hhmmmm, time to retire?

On 19/10/2022 at 9:43 PM, jhb171achill said:

If John (an absolute gentleman, who I knew years ago) is still alive, but he's a good age. He deals only by letter. He and I used to write to each other regularly. I must look out his last letter - I THINK (but would need to check) that he has handed his entire collection over to someone / somewhere.

John is still with us. His collection was (in part at least) with the IRRS.

4 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

Do you know some trade secret about 22' flats that we don't?

No, DJ, my flats are 20ft. They're under my double beets, so if someone needs one, I remove the body from the double beet kit!

You can still buy my 20ft CIE containers - wink, wink.

18 hours ago, Horsetan said:

Might not be a good idea now that there's a Marcos back running the show. He'll be every bit his father's son. And his mother's still pulling the strings.

Can't be more autocratic than China .........

I am NOT getting a THIRD AEC set.

I was "outed" to my steam pals by a chap on this forum, with the initials LB.

No excuse that it was in the pub. Just as well I was in Hong Kong at the time.

Mind you, it was a great kit bash model, still running and the builder, Bless him, build me a load of GN Mahogany coaches.

50 minutes ago, Warbonnet said:

Hi everyone,

Some good guesses so far, but just to clarify; all these announcements are railway related, so no buses or other vehicles.

It's the only clue you are getting though!

Cheers!

Fran 

It IS the Digital Dray horse!!!! Wow.

More seriously, I've never understood why no manufacturer has set up in the Phillipines. Lovely people, hardworking, and English-speaking.

Robert, make sure that you call by C22 so that I see what one of my best customers looks like!

6 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

If none of them are B&I ferries, I'll be disappointed.

Probably two tone green Dublin buses, Roadliner trucks, 071 Class locos, 800 Class locos, 47' Flats, Mk4 coaches, Mk2A/B/C range expansion, loose coupled wagon three packs, 2600's, or who knows?

Maybe one of the lads has a baby on the way and that's one of the announcements.

Or maybe they're pre-empting sanctions on China and opening a plant in a low wage area much closer to home, one with a young, skilled, multi-lingual workforce, one that's less than four hours away, one that has blue skies most of the time, and one where palletwide containers are the norm, and that's one of the announcements.

Referring to the final paragraph - you mean the UK?

Just a thought, (Hallowe'en coming up) - having "Lit the Blue Touch Paper" the Management have indeed "withdrawn immediately" and let us speculate.

From the deafening silence from them, one of us has hit the nail on the head!

I'm pretty sure it's JB with his Fintona suggestion - a fully working horse could be used on British layouts, so could cross fertilise with the Accurascale brand. After all with their forthcoming GWR Manor Class, there is the obvious connection with the fact that the GWR used hundreds of horses.

AND, the same horse, reliveried could be used to pull Guinness drays.

And,

And,

What DID I put in this bedtime drink?