leslie10646

If IE had been daft enough to buy Hitachi 800s, then they'd be delighted to have them when the cracks in the bogies appeared............ It's not just IE and NIR who run suburban units on express trains - GWR has used the Class 387s to Bristol - arguably a more comfortable ride than the 800s they replaced. Keep safe Cynic of Surrey

I certainly agree, Simon very kindly let me have a good look at his Dromod building when I delivered some of my kits - my jaw hit the floor - stupendous modelling. If you can get a copy of MRJ you'll get a very good idea of just how good it is as their photography is usually spot-on. Saves you a journey to England to see it!

Well, of course, he is - MUCH better locos - Class 37s still flying past my local station taking younger electric friends off to be scrapped!

I've had my grey 121 for quite a while, but didn't trust myself to put the sound chip in (shakey hand after breaking my arm). So, I took a trip to Kernow's in Guildford (they've got 'em on sale there) and the senior assistant put the chip in there and then. Having done that he said - "Have you got a bit of time, I'd like to have a closer look...." He had a jolly good play and pronounced it just brilliant. When I got it home, I was delighted with my 70th Birthday Present (in time for my 75th, but what the heck - well worth waiting for). So, indeed, thanks, Paddy, just unbelievably good!

To help my pal John out, even the Ivory-liveried Cement Bubbles ran with a brake van - NOT John's one, but one of the steel ones - but at a distance........ This one has a Wheel and stripey lookout, so his Version 2 is nearest. Maybe I need two? (that is V1 and V2)? B163 on Cement train at Connolly on Sunday 29 September 1968 when Lance King was in Ireland for an IRRS Special to Kilkenny using the RPSI's No.186 Copyright IRRS Lance King Collection

There are no shortage of real German steam locos in Germany for the film-makers to use - even a streamlined Pacific, dozens of Class 50 2-10-0s like the one shown above (in Austria too) but when realism is low on the list and saving money is more important, a 9F on the NYMR who can let you use the whole railway looks very attractive - good news for NYMR as well, of course! At least the RPSI restored 184 to look the part for Mr Connolly, who DID do his own stuns!

Now, Jon, to be nice to you - Of all the Provincial Wagons kits I have commissioned, virtually everything would been hauled by Silver, Green and the earliest black liveried A Class. I agree that the UTA Brown Van would not have been. Likewise the Spoil wagon (OK with a blue NIR "C Class", of course). I think that the type of van which UTA 2459 is meant to represent regularly worked over the border in UTA days, so would have been hauled by an A Class. The SLNCR types are unlikely to have had "the honour' of such haulage, but I bet someone can produce a pic of one being shunted by an A Class at Sligo, because it happened to be in the way! The Loco Coal wagon and the bread containers were also unlikely to see CIE diesel haulage - the latter because they seldom crossed the border. Maybe I ought to do another run of the GNR bagged cement van? They lasted forever and probably were hauled by every diesel CIE ever had except the "201"s? When the boys do their C Class, the same very much applies - the C Class found their way to Cavan, so most things GNR (I do a lot of those for some reason) would have seen C Class haulage. All available as kits (not too hard to build - plenty of successful builders on this site) and you have the satisfaction of saying "I MADE THAT!!!" Finally, three of Roderick's 00 Works locos would have hauled most of my wagons. (Still open for business) Leslie

Beaumont, I can't believe that you posted this. A "101" is a steam locomotive - just 111 of them (eight numbers were reused, so you could claim 119). This THING (only kidding) is a "Sulzer".

Folks I know you can get around a lot more now, but if you missed the previous talk to Dublin, I'm doing it again next Tuesday evening by Zoom. Although a Club meeting, you should be able to register and attend as a visitor. Details follow. Leslie ---------------- LCGB Bedford Branch Zoom Meeting Tuesday 1st June 7.30pm With Lance King in Ireland – 1958 – 1963” by Leslie McAllister Leslie McAllister offers a first selection of colour photographs taken by the late Lance King in the Republic of Ireland in the last years of steam. Lance was a skilled photographer and left a fine record of steam in the Dublin area and on the fondly remembered branches such as Kenmare, Loughrea, Ballaghadereen, Edenderry, Tullow, Clara and Youghal, Steam and diesel in daily service on the Cork Bandon and South Coast Railway feature, as does the memorable railtour with the last “Bandon tank”. The early days of silver and “black and tan” liveried diesels can be glimpsed along the way. A time of great change You are invited to a Bedford Branch Zoom meeting. When: Jun 1, 2021 07:30 PM London Register in advance for this meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUvcO6orj8sGNVqXbaHwwdGmO67dN3DtbBQ After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Yes, the OHLE makes "photography" tricky, hence all these videos at stations. Just lovely to hear the Bulleid "chatter" as she went by. When Jarvis rebuilt them, the one thing I think he didn't touch was the brilliant Bulleid boiler - a pal of mine maintained that any fool could make a Bulleid steam! Now, how much would it cost to regauge one? Noel, Rob and Ken would make one of these fly!

There is no doubt that they are handsome engines, as rebuilt. That said, the originals, as the Blessed Oliver first built them were quite brilliant locos, but at quite a cost in fuel and maintainence. The slipping reputation has a lot to do with the fact that several starts were on curves (Waterloo, Bournemouth (going East) and Salisbury (also East), that plus the pull-out regulator meant they needed skilled handling. I must admit to a very personal interest in this one - 97mph at Winchfield in 1967. The smaller West Countries were fleet of foot also and quite remarkable hill-climbers - when you've done 75mph up 1 in 250 with eleven coaches, you know that they were Premiership material. Wonderful t see her out again.

STEAM IN THE SUN today! We are having a very wet and windy May here, but today, the sun came out and steam flew past on the FAST lines, to boot, at Goring. 35028 Clan Line aka Merchant 28, was out on the Belmonds (we've still got'em here) to Bristol, via the GWR Main line. Excuse Linda's enthusiasm, they didn't see steam engines of any description in the Irish village she was born in! MAQ03775.m4v The loco even made Page 2 of the UK's Daily Telegraph today.

Usually up to 2 hours. Joining later than 1930, you may wait a moment until you're "let in". Hope you can make it! Leslie

THE IRISH RAILWAY RECORD SOCIETY Dublin Digital Event 19:30, Thu 29 April 2021 “Bantry Branch (Drimoleague to Bantry Pier)” presented by Oliver Doyle. (Digital sign-in from 19:00) “Bantry Branch (Drimoleague to Bantry Pier)” by Oliver Doyle. On the 60th Anniversary of the closure, Oliver will recount early efforts to have a railway to Bantry. The initial station was high above the town and was not long open before an extension was proposed including a pier for a steamer service to Glengarriff & Castletownbeare. Cattle fairs were a big source of revenue, particularly those in Autumn. Many interesting excursions are recounted, a Sunday Bandon to Glengarriff outing with 500+ passengers changing at Bantry Pier. Two through excursions to Limerick to view the new Ardnacrusha Power Station the first of which ran through Aughaville Staton gates killing the gatekeeper. Two other fatalities on the line are recounted. The paper concludes with the demise of the West Cork system on 31 March 1961. This event will be presented online through Zoom. JOINING THE MEETING To join the meeting, use one of the two following options: a) PREFERRED click on the following link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85803985097?pwd=NEJac3ptMDcrWXZKc1U5aVh3dVRhQT09 We can accommodate up to 500 participants for this event. The event will not be available for subsequent viewing. b) ALTERNATIVE open the Zoom App already installed on your device and enter the following : Meeting ID: 858 0398 5097 Passcode: 085628 A short video on how to use Zoom as a participant will be found at https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362193-How-Do-I-Join-A-Meeting-. An audio only option is also available. Full details of this and other aspects of using Zoom are set out below. JOINING AND LEAVING THE MEETING Please note that you can join the meeting any time from 19:00 onwards. The meeting proper will start promptly at 19.30 so make sure you give yourself enough time to join before that. You may be able to join later, but you will miss part of the presentation. Once signed in, you can go away and do something else (including working on your device provided you do not close Zoom down) until 19:30. We are achieving unprecedented levels of attendance at these meetings and their continuing success depends on good Zoom etiquette being observed. Thus, your microphone and webcam will be turned off (by us) when you join. You will have control of both, but we ask that you leave them switched off unless there is a Q&A session after the presentation, in which case the procedure for contributing will be explained. We can terminate unwanted video or audio interruptions centrally, but this will not normally result in your being disconnected from the meeting. If your ID appears on screen as "iPad", "Phone", or "IrkyJu20" or other odd term, please change this to your normal name, so that we will know who you are. This is easily done in Zoom. For any Question and Answer session, we will need to know who you are. We cannot accept anonymous input, and derogatory or inappropriate observations are not acceptable, either by Chat or verbally. We emphasise also that the visual material shared at our events is protected by copyright. The taking of screen grabs or recording of our presentations is not permitted. Participants in breach of these prohibitions may be refused entry to future events. Finally, you may leave the meeting at any time and you do not need to notify us. For those remaining, the meeting will be digitally closed once any concluding remarks are completed. You will be automatically ejected from the meeting at that time. HOW TO GET ZOOM ON YOUR DEVICE We recommend downloading Zoom to your device in advance of the meeting, so that you can check that everything is OK. If you wait until you join the meeting, there is a risk that the download process will cause you to miss the start. If you do not already have Zoom installed on your device, we recommend that : (i) you download the Zoom App (the zoom icon shows a white camera on a blue background) to a tablet or smartphone from Google Play or the App Store. or (ii) download the Zoom installation package from the Zoom.us website and install on a laptop or PC. Download and use of Zoom is free for meeting participants. Downloading the App to a tablet or smartphone is fastest but downloading and installing Zoom on a PC or laptop is straightforward. Remember that as a meeting participant only, you do not need to register, set up a Zoom password etc.

A lot of interesting comment here re Hornby's (or the current iteration of Hornby) ethics - I expect nothing more (or less?) in the commercial world these days, I'm afraid. Getting back to model railways, "My Man" (ie the genius who makes my kits) says that the Hornby six wheelers are very good - he bought a sample Southern six wheeler on eBay, I believe, and was full of praise - even though he makes SR six wheelers as kits (but won't be any more!). like George, above, I'll be coughing up for unrebuilt Merchant Navy!

Friends Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, you can be whisked from your fireside to London to hear our esteemed speaker, who just happens to be in County Louth! Details follow. You don't have to be a member of the IRRS to participate. Dear Member or Friend READ ABOUT - donations to the IRRS (London Area) - tomorrow’s meeting - copyright - Zoom access codes - joining the meeting For anyone unfamiliar with Zoom, I attach two documents : - Zoom download explains how to download Zoom to your device - Zoom advice is advice on how to use Zoom during a meeting END-OF-SEASON DONATIONS TO THE IRRS (LONDON AREA) Our online meetings are free of charge but we offer you the opportunity to make a voluntary end-of-season donation to support the IRRS (London Area). We are delighted to thank over 70 of you have already contributed. Individual Areas of the IRRS require to be self-funding and while the Parent Body is currently covering the direct costs of our online meetings, the London Area still needs to raise funds to cover inter alia the day-to-day running of the Area, our publicity, publishing Irish railway books, and safeguarding, referencing and digitising significant Irish railway collections given to us. Most other funding sources are currently denied to us due to Covid so if you have enjoyed our season of online meetings and would like to support our other activities, please do so by clicking on https://checkout.square.site/merchant/MLGDME0GSEQF4/checkout/DU7UQUJWLCZ2VCHCJBDU5OI4 This will be a voluntary donation. We would suggest £3/meeting but the exact sum is at your discretion. Payment is by GooglePay, credit or debit card. Please note that Square accepts payments in sterling only and as the IRRS is a Limited Liability Company, donations are not eligible for UK Gift Aid. Payments can be made from credit cards based in other currencies subject to the usual charges made by many card companies and banks for foreign transaction handling and currency conversion. Thank you if you can donate TONIGHT’S MEETING (ONLINE via ZOOM) 19.00 Thursday 22 Apr 2021 Last meeting of the season “Locomotives of the Great Southern & Western Railway” by Michael McMahon Michael McMahon, co-author of the recently published eponymous book, recounts the complex motive power story of the GSWR throughout the company’s existence from 1844 – 1924. This historic subject has never been comprehensively researched before and Michael and the team took 10 years to do it. Michael therefore covers, in depth, a huge part of early locomotive development in Ireland, mirroring the expansion and needs of GSWR operations. He unravels the convoluted loco numbering system and explains the construction, rebuilding and renewal of the large fleet (325 at the end) as it evolved over 80 years. A huge amount of new information is revealed. If you heard Michael’s similar talk to the RPSI in March, it will be well worthwhile listening in again. Michael has rewritten his talk and will be explaining much more context than was possible at the RPSI. Inter alia, he will be explaining the formation, growth and demise of the GS&WR, the key importance and influence of Inchicore (and its CME’s) within the whole locomotive industry of both Ireland and Great Britain, the GS&WR’s evolving strategy for developing its steam fleet and integrating locos acquired through acquisition of other companies, plus some interesting considerations of locomotive tenders. And, in my experience, it is always worth hearing a talk twice so that you can pick up on detail that you may not have absorbed or remembered first time round. COPYRIGHT Please note that all images in this presentation are subject to copyright and you are requested not to copy or record any part of it. Doing so could lead to an infringement of Copyright Law. The Society has, in the past, taken action to protect copyright. ZOOM ACCESS CODES To access the meeting, click on this link : https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81641748140?pwd=bmNRNFFGdWhNK1JIS3BvdDg3T2Vqdz09 or open the Zoom app on your device and enter : Meeting ID: 816 4174 8140 Passcode: 173879 Alternatively, you can join the meeting by telephone (audio only, no images) by dialling in on one of the following numbers and keying in the Meeting ID and Passcode when requested : UK +44 330 088 5830 +44 131 460 1196 +44 203 481 5237 +44 203 481 5240 +44 203 901 7895 +44 208 080 6591 +44 208 080 6592 Republic of Ireland +353 6 163 9031 +353 1 240 8941 +353 1 536 9320 +353 1 653 3895 +353 1 653 3897 +353 1 653 3898 In any other country, you can find a local dial-in number from : https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcBmbqZF8z Please note that if you dial-in, you will incur a normal call charge for the duration of the call. JOINING THE MEETING Joining - You can join the meeting any time from 18.30 onwards. On joining, you will be presented with images of Irish railways or other relevant information which will continue repeating until 19.00. Muting and Webcams - Your microphone and webcam will be turned off (by us) when you join. Do not unmute or open your webcam until instructed. Displaying your name in Zoom - Please display a recognisable name so that others know you are there. Zoom failure - If there is a software failure (not unknown) either before or during the meeting, I will e-mail everyone on our London Area e-mail list with an update – so keep an eye on your Inbox if the meeting does not start or fails part way through.

A lot to talk about here! Ernie, At the moment, the UG is on "No bids", so you could offer the starting price? I think you'll find a way to avoid the VAT - I'll PM you. WCR, it's not for me to spend your money, young man, but Roderick tends to do short runs - remember that this is a very short run, as the loco has an English version and a hundred or so is USUALLY his annual output. Thanks for the Heads-up Popeye, for when I looked at his advert, I saw other nice LSWR machines! AND, maybe I should support him and get a CBSCR version - it'll look nice as an "ornament" in my Ikea Glass case!

Record the match, Dave, and watch it later?

Folks, I can't recommend this talk too much. The detailed story of Steam's Last Triumph. Joe was there when all this happened, knew the loco crews and can give you a taste of what a remarkable operation this was. He has given the talk before, but it will now be enhanced by colour slides taken by my late friend, Lance King, who took over a hundred brilliant slides in wonderful weather (honest). For you Game of Thrones fans, this was Steam's contribution to the building of the future Castle Black (Magheramorne Quarry). That's enough overselling - see you on Thursday! Leslie (for IRRS London) TOMORROW’S MEETING (ONLINE via Zoom) 19.00 Thursday 18 March 2021 "UTA/NIR Spoil Trains of 1966-70" by Joe Cassells The UTA/NIR Spoil Trains were the last great challenge for Irish steam. Over 3½ years, WT Class 2-6-4T locos operated 7600 trains carrying over 4m tons of spoil from Magheramorne to Greencastle. Lifetime recorder of the railway scene, Joe Cassells, keenly observed the operation but now using previously unavailable information, he has produced the definitive description of it - its conception, its planning, and day-to-day activity. There is a special focus on the locomotives and enginemen but through word and photos, Joe gives us a full insight to this impressively successful project. If you saw Joe’s similar presentation to the RPSI in February, it could be well worth watching again. This talk will be an enhanced version of the February presentation. It will include many more colour images (taken by Lance King). It will include additional information about the procurement of the wagons, industrial relations issues relating to the selection and rostering of loco crews and some alternative (somewhat “off the wall”) ideas put forward by the government in the early planning stages. And as ever, watching any talk a second time always reveals detail that you had already forgotten or not paid proper attention to first time round! COPYRIGHT Please note that all images in this presentation are subject to copyright and you are requested not to copy or record any part of it. Doing so could lead to an infringement of Copyright Law. The Society has, in the past, taken action to protect copyright. ZOOM ACCESS CODES To access the meeting, click on this link : https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84732855513?pwd=czVhQk1GMEhtYWF6NG1abk5Sa2I1dz09 or open the Zoom app on your device and enter : Meeting ID: 847 3285 5513 Passcode: 044302 Alternatively, you can join the meeting by telephone (audio only, no images) by dialling in on one of the following numbers and keying in the Meeting ID and Passcode when requested : UK +44 203 051 2874 +44 203 481 5237 +44 203 481 5240 +44 203 901 7895 +44 131 460 1196 Republic of Ireland +353 6 163 9031 +353 1 240 8941 +353 1 536 9320 +353 1 653 3895 +353 1 653 3897 +353 1 653 3898 In any other country, you can find a local dial-in number from : https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kd5yCuQA9D Please note that if you dial-in, you will incur a normal call charge for the duration of the call.

Well done Galteemore - the loco is available as a Hornby "Star" Class, of course - Hornby R3455 GWR 4-6-0 'Knight Of St Patrick' 4013 4000 Star Class However, SIXTY years ago exactly this Blessed Day (something for everyone - steam and diesel). - St Pat's Day tour 17 March 1961 Lance King Bequest, Copyright IRRS

Hear, Hear. God's blessing on you all today, of all days. My neighbour (Brendan) has his big Tricolour out on display in garden. Did you know that Reading is twinned with CLONMEL? If I had time to find it - I'd post a pic of NCC No.62 Slemish where the Saint did indeed "Mind my sheep".

GNR(I) Cement Hopper in 4mm Sorry, it's not PW's next wagon. If I could get my iPhone to send files to y Mac, I could show you it behind a GN loco. Obviously, next best thing - a scan. I have two built by a well-known member of this forum. They make a nice comparison with my earlier GN bagged cement wagons. Leslie

Shane, See: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Roco+model+coach+with+opening+doors&docid=608045586067423920&mid=10D5A2A14783BE42A13910D5A2A14783BE42A139&view=detail&FORM=VIRE NOT a Silver Fish set in this video but standard express set. I leave you to search further - good luck - German / Austrain / Swiss railways, real and model are great! Leslie

Roco did a demo model of a "Silver Fish" suburban coach set with lights and opening double doors, just like the real thing. I don't know if it ever went into production, but it was a very compelling model. Oh, and working pantographs have been around for about 40/50 years at least on HO models