leslie10646

Dare I say it, Mr Davey, but I prefer the green livery with the stripe as you have above.

You've set me wondering if a green A Class ever ran over the Antrim Branch - Black 'n Tan B Class certainly did (albeit infrequently).

By the way, a very nice job with the point rodding.

Mr Dillane, I should have known that you would grow trees appropriate to the beet season.

2 hours ago, patrick said:

A55 on a short goods on the South Waterford line in the late sixties. Apart from the brake van which is scratch built all the wagons are Provincial Wagons kits. These kits are not at all difficult to build. Painting is even easier, all you need is rattle can of grey or brown paint. No masking required. 

 

Thanks, Patrick, the dollar bills are in the post! Actually, seeing the black A Class, makes me sorry I didn't opt for one - looks good on the goods!

As always, the layout looks great - very impressed by the autumnal colours in the trees - do you change them to suit the season?

Get your kits from Lorna at Wexford next Sunday (24th).

PS She ain't got cattle wagons (e-mail /PM me if you need some), but corrugateds, H vans, double beets and my delightful GSWR brake van are all in the Dublin stock.

My announcement regarding Provincial Wagons attendance above seems to have struck a cord, so an update.

First the Good News - I won't be there!

The better news is that I will represented by Lorna McDonald (and family!) who has a finite stock, which is reducing a little by folk e-mailing me with pre-orders.

As they say - "book early to avoid disappointment "  -

E-mail me (preferred) or PM me and I'll ask Lorna to set kits aside for you.

Thanks

Leslie (Provincial Wagons)

Hi Andy

Lucky I checked the details on UK Model Shops Directory - it's 13/14 NOVEMBER not this weekend!

See you then!!!

Leslie

It DOES move, by the way, the previous pilot engine is cowering in a siding 

Maybe I should digitise the Bavarian job? It runs well after twenty years in the box (you can tell that I've been tidying the under my boards! At least twenty "foreign" locos in boxes!

Back at Portadown (and its dodgy German turntable) .........

The shed foreman decided to get his new shunting engine out to rescue a damsel in distress

Sorry, I meant a broken-down Single-ended Yankee.

I hope that you've noted that this is a BLUE engine, in keeping with God's Northern Railway?

16 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Anyone know where to buy a decent turntable - needn't be very fancy - of just about enough length to turn a Woolwich (23cm)? The ones on sale mfrom normal suppliers seem to be built to turn an American "Big Boy"; they are prototypically FAR too big for almost all Irish applications, or else cost the price of a decent-sized family car or a holiday home in Kerry.

Thoughts?

Purely to wind you up, JB, I have my forty year old Fleischmann turntable at Portadown - TOTALLY WRONG, of course, but, hey, it works! i thought ttc's Peco turntable looked nice.

Nice wagons on your train, Patrick - oh, sorry, I'm meant to be admiring the diesel ........

Just had an e-mail threatening delivery of a Silver job.

You do know that we called these things BULLETS? i presume because of the colour .........

Sorry about the blank video - can someone tell me how to dispose of it?

Having "fun" with my new iMac which needless to say has a mind of its own!

After the Banana, we repaired to a nearby overbridge and just about viewed Clun Castle  coming round the curve from the main line and heading North towards Oxford and Birmingham.

For the diesel men, note the Brush 4 pristine in original 1960s livery on the rear.

When I discovered that the GWS's Flying Banana  was going to be running (a rare occurrence), we popped down to see what this fore-runner of Ireland's AEC cars was like to travel in - a shakey experience, but great to have a ride in it for a mile or so!

You're in control .....          

A pretty bumpy ride for the passengers and almost as smokey as an "A" Class!

To give you an idea of the exterior!

Hopefully, Wexford will offer you an opportunity to buy Provincial Wagons kits over the counter for the first time in two years - WITHOUT the obligatory weeks waiting while An Post decide how much to charge you.

More later!

Thanks, Broithe, for this. After enjoying the SNOW (brilliant editing and soundtrack!), found that the next video was the wonderful film of The Elizabethan. Nearly 400 miles of steam haulage and superbly filmed - always a joy to watch.

By a remarkable coincidence, the same engine (131) was out today (Saturday) on crew assessment with the RPSI's Mark 2s. I received by e-mail several very nice shots in bright sunshine. No doubt the RPSI will post some on its e-mail service.

While you're waiting for someone to do a RTR of a wagon / carriage you want - have a go at building a kit! (Mine even!).

WCR is talking about Ciaran Cooney's brilliant presentation of Leslie Hyland's Black and white images taken 1950 - 1965-ish. Briiliantly taken originally and full of detail modellers try to recreate.

Mr Hyland was a master of his craft and Ciaran has done a very fine job of researching the details of what we saw - nearly every county in Ireland was covered.

I might even get a green A Class ........

Kenny boy, I ain't gettin' rid of it - I'm still  paying for it on the Never, Never yet!

Hi Mike

If a lorry can burn gas, or indeed a bus (our local ones do) - why can't I use my Zero-emission NEW Gas boiler for the next thirty years?

Yeah, I know that you're neither the Energy Minister, or the PM (a Classicist, who knows nothing about science), but WHY NOT?

LM (Fellow sufferer in the Hades of BrexitLand)

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.

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? .......

6 hours ago, DERAILED said:

The date is 1950 and the weathering is just the poor photographic reproduction. It's not Ardnacrusha - what about the railcar?

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