leslie10646

Patrick, I'm pretty sure that if you have a nose around in Ballyclare town you'll find a couple of buildings from the former station - my sister lives there and I went with my Bro in Law to have a tyre changed and realised I was in the station yard! Keep well so that you can get there in a few months! When I did my "Venturer" hike for the Scout badge of the same name - with Jim Neilly of BBC fame, as it happens - it was in the Ballyclare area and followed the narrow gauge line quite closely. I put a double page sketch map of the line in my hike report, which went down well with the examiner!

Not beating the Drum, but note the present IRRS headquarters top left of the Kingsbridge picture! The Drumms were an fine concept, based on Dr Drumm's new type of rechargeable batteries. There are good articles on-line - the Independent blamed Dev's new government for the non-development of the concept; while The Irish Times is a bit more factual as to why Dev may not have been so enthusiastic. Worth a look. Like many things in railway history, they have resurfaced and everyone thinks the new idea is novel - wrong - been there before! Battery powered trains are the rage today - but they were there and close to success 90 years ago. Seen the new Swiss-built FLIRTs in East Anglia? Hailed as a huge leap forward. But they're familiar to Irish eyes - the motors are in a little unit in the middle - now where have I seen that before - oh yes - the GNR(I)'s articulated railcars. Don't start me on raillbuses - when the British Railways Board went to see the Leyland thing being built, someone asked if they had studied the subject as previously evolved in Ireland - he was met with stony looks and silence. Keep it coming JHB, keeps the brain working!

Hi JHB Hated the pics of little diseasles, of course, but there were bits of PalVans - much nicer. Can you send me copies to my e-mail, as I'm just about to innundate the manufacturer of my wagons. Thanks Leslie

Looks like a SG or SG2 - certainly a 0-6-0. With the Zoom feature, you can see one of my Loco Coal wagons in a siding! Much more tantilising is the apparent lettering on some of the wagons - the "GN" one are obvious enough, but others appear to be lettered as a private owner wagon would have been. Are we looking at Lockington wagons, fully lettered - I've never seen a pic of one (or I'd have done a model!). I think it's Charles Friel's book on Dundalk which will show you quite about the sidings.

Yes, I'm sure Mr R is right and it is Carrick - he should know! JHB, the VS (at GV Street, in case you hadn't worked that out) is probably No.206 "Liffey" - the smoke deflectors are the clue. I used to think she was the only one with these extended ones, but another VS had them too, "Foyle" so it's just "probably". I much preferred the smaller variety carried by "Lagan, "Boyne" and "Erne". By a strange coincidence, I never actually saw the large deflectored version, as the UTA got "Lagan" and "Erne". The CIE pair with large deflectors did not last into the 1960s as "runners". Nice handbills, Mr Lambeg. Seeing the one for The Glens playing Pordiedown, reminded me of the most unusual place where I saw a Glentoran supporter's scarf - Tirano in Italy! I was walking from the Rhaetian Railway's station to the Basilica when I espied a shop window full of footie scarves and there it was. Another connection with your handbill - I was with a lady who had studied at Portadown College. Small World (not small enough, on current experience!).

The Larne photo is interesting - I haven't seen many (any?) quite like it - have you the negative? The crane shot - in theory, it may be possible to identify it from the existence of TWO NCC-style sheds in line behind the wagons - there can't be many such examples?

Well, I stopped to have lunch while replying and others got in! I was going to say - It's a Muck Train - Spoil Train to non-Ulstermen. Taken from the rear Class WT 2-6-4T of the train - I say that because the smoke APPEARS to be blowing towards the photographer. Certainly on the EAST side, as the unloading shutes are visible. Not working very hard, so probably , the train is between Magheramorne and Whitehead on a loaded working - I say that because of the fields. If it was climbing the MOunt Bank (the other place on the line with fields) I'd have thought that the loco would be working much harder? Also, isn't there a footpath alongside the line from Carrick to Whiteabbey and that's not visible. It's still possible to recreate the scene in model form thanks to a certain person's kits of spoil wagons!

JHB Interesting pic of Tooban - pretty remarkable for an impecunious narrow gauge affair. Looking at those signals, it's as well the Swilly didn't run too many trains at night (mad thoughts of the 11pm Derry to Burtonport Sleeping Car Express?).

Well done, Porky, the camera doesn't lie - but Miss Walker seems to have been charged more! Ah, Jon, I have to careful on this one. I buy the DM on Saturday's for the Giant Crossword. Also a huge number of Great Rail Journeys clients read it and they pay me (when I work for them - obviously nothing at the moment!). All that said - I refer to the Daily Mail as the Volkisher Beobachter (which was the Nazi Party's official Organ); the Guardian as "Pravda" (Communist Party's organ - most of the Guardian's writers today would have been sent to Siberia, or shot, if under the Soviet Regime, as far too revolutionary). I have no idea where you can read balanced sense, especially common sense! But if you know - let me / us know. Greetings from a God-given day in sunny Surrey. Just off to loft to dig out an order for a customer (NOT made in China!).

Referring back to Derailed's invoice above - how much was a single copy of the Daily Mail?? Competition open only to those under forty! It was obviously in the days before the Mail on Sunday!

At last found time to scan the following: I can't remember how I came to have it, but it is like new! Anyway, and especially for David's benefit, the Derry Central pages show that those lines had as good a service from Belfast as Sligo, Westport, or even possibly Galway had from Dublin in the 1950s/ early 60s? Of course, to achieve three Belfast to Coleraine services, you did have to change trains! Note that you could even travel by NCC railcar to Randalstown. On Saturdays, the service was nearly as "busy" ...... None of the trains appear to worked through to Portrush, but you could travel on to the resort half an hour after your arrival at Coleraine. The Up direction was just as interesting....... And the Saturday service ....... It's no wonder that Ken Gillen modelled Cookstown Jct - it was a pretty busy place with a serious variety of activity? The Northerners among you can work out lots of different ways to spend a day travelling on these lines - I wonder how many miles you could do in a day? Answers on a postcard .........

Just repeating a post on another topic which has got impressively off subject. Midland Man remembered a Horse-worked tramway in Co Cork and in my reply, I mention the Allman's distillery siding / branch. Roderick's new little loco would have been a good candidate for use on the little branch. I presume the Hard Stuff for All Men is no longer around - is anyone old enough to have tried it? It might have been just the thing when one is locked up (down?). 3 hours ago, Midland Man said: Wow great pics I remember hearing about a branch in Cork that was horse oporated. Like on the Fintona The horses only carried one name. Insted of Dick like on the Fintona branch they were all called Paddy. Yes, MM, the siding to the Bennett flour mill at Shannonvale (from the Clonakilty line of the CBSCR) was ALWAYS horse worked - I believe that Colm Creedon in his little history of the line stated that the horse pulled wagons up to the main line, but gravity "hauled" them in the other direction! There is a photo of the (white) horse with a "H" Van at the mill in Ernie Shepherd's later book. Ah, well done Mr R - beat me to it! At first I thought it was the Allman's Distillery branch, but that was always loco-worked.

Yes, MM, the siding to the Bennett flour mill at Shannonvale (from the Clonakilty line of the CBSCR) was ALWAYS horse worked - I believe that Colm Creedon in his little history of the line stated that the horse pulled wagons up to the main line, but gravity "hauled" them in the other direction! There is a photo of the (white) horse with a "H" Van at the mill in Ernie Shepherd's later book. Ah, well done Mr R - beat me to it! At first I thought it was the Allman's Distillery branch, but that was always loco-worked.

Agreed, Patrick! That most be the rarest haulage / rolling stock / track combo ever! The only way to cover the Fintona branch BY STEAM would have been to hitch an illegal ride on the goods, which was, of course, steam - but to ride the branch in the tram, steam hauled was really serious stuff! For the young among you, we "oldies" only count track if we've been over it behind steam and secondly, being a 'timer' I usually only "time" steam hauled trains - no use making the hobby too easy? Despite that stringent rule, I have travelled by steam from my home station were I was born and my present home in Surrey to VLADIVOSTOK - over a third of the way around the earth - of course, I had to cross the Irish Sea (steamship) and the North Sea (likewise). There IS a gap - 17kms outside Minsk when the (blank) engine ran out of water and was rescued by one of Dr Diesel's machines. Of course, the route across Germany is a bit circuitous, but is all joined up over thirty years.

No.31 wasn't a "V" Class, but a much earlier beast - a "K" Class 0-6-0 built in 1878 and rebuilt a couple of times before being withdrawn (as seen in Jon's photo) in 1947. But yes, the NCC ran some really archaeic tenders behind locos even after the locos themselves had had life-changing surgery which made them look much more modern.

First, I can attest to the beauty of the "Whippet" model referred to above. When Jim unveiled it on the IRRS stand at Warley a few years ago, everything stopped for an hour while we drooled over it! Just to underline what was around at York Road in 1961 when I first visited it with the late (Lord) John Laird - I quote from my 1961 account of railway activity - "Early observations included the usual Class WTs, behind which I was to cover many thousands of miles, indeed behind every member of the Class. Less usual, even then, was the sight of Class W 2-6-0 No.99 “King George VI” shunting and then acting as banker to the “Eight-Five” Goods (the 8.05pm goods to Londonderry). This was the normal running-in turn for a locomotive just out of the York Road shops. I assume that No.99 returned to the Great Northern within the week. Also there in a siding and by now out of use, was No.80 “Dunseverick Castle”, the last active Class U2 “Scotch Engine”. She was in lined UTA black. Her sister, No.74 “Dunluce Castle” was already marked for preservation in the new Belfast Transport Museum at Witham Street and I have a later note of seeing her at York Road. From time to time, one would also note another early NCC survivor in the form of 0-6-0 No.13, which often shunted the yard, except when there was a newly-outshopped loco to use. The final steam locomotive to be mentioned here was No.19, a re-gauged LMS “Jinty” Class 3F 0-6-0 tank, formerly LMS 7553. She and her sister (No.18, formerly LMS 7456) were sent over by the parent LMS to replace locomotives lost in the Belfast Blitz. I saw her frequently during these early visits when she was often in use as a pilot engine.

Even the gift of 186 was the result of a chance intervention by the Chairman of Guinness - someone who must have had considerable clout back then! He chaffed the chair of CIE when Guinness handed a shunter over to the RPSI - ‘we have two steam locos and we gave them one. You have a lot more - why don’t you donate one?!’ Yep, Chapter and Verse, Mr R - it certainly saved us a bomb! As for the new VS, it'll really be a replica and be named after Ireland's Holy River - "Boyne".

"Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smokestack Butting up the Channel in the Mad March days With a cargo of Tyne Coal Road rails Pig iron Firewood, ironware and cheap tin trays" Super little ship, George and deserving of a nicer verse than John M's famous verse quoted above! If ye're in Lockdown, ye can get on wi' yon "Quinquireme of Nineveh"

However, the big issue for future steam is turntables and restricted speed for tender-first running. JHB, you're right about the turntables, No.4 seems to be overly restricted under the present regime's thinking - mind you, I've never timed a tank at more than 76mph bunker first (1960s, of course - the fabled Billy Steenson). The other Big Issue is coal, a little matter which is exercising the minds of the great and good of the HRA these days. Now, if I won the Euromillions...... First, I don't participate, so I'm safe from such bounty, but if I had the dough - it'd be another Class VS 4-4-0 (and use the change for a couple of turntables!!!! If I had a quid for every person who said how nice it would be to have No.800 out again - I'd have built No.211 years ago! Regrettably, a superb looking as 800 is, she's quite impractical due to her restriction due to height - couldn't even get up the GN mainline in 1964 with some surgery to footbridges. Now, No.27 and the two J15s / 101s - the RPSI should consider passing one of them to the DCDR. A final thought - if only we could have foreseen the inflation of the 1970s in 1970 when we bought No.4 for £1,275 - we would have risked a loan to buy a second one (like No.53?). I'm off to bed to see what else I can dream up!

Ref the Hunslets, while Jon is probably right that they'd have done just as well with a few 141s, but these locos were a shock to my steam-loco timer's system when I rode one to Portadown to see how fast they were. When we shot through Lisburn about 10 mph faster than I'd ever done with a steam loco and in my fastest time to that date, I nearly gave up timing. Sanity prevailed, of course, and now 130,000 steam miles later I have those logs to "write up" during my lock-down! Hah! I've just noticed that I have accumulated 424 "Likes" - The HUNGARIAN 424 Class 4-8-0s are one of my largest classes for haulage - 30 of them, top speed 53mph - Lord were they pedestrian! Another piece of useless info from yours truly!

Nothing on their website. I got the same e-mail, but almost all in lowercase - VERY unlike Rebecca. Is it a hoax? It wouldn't be my idea of a potentially good seller - but the four CBSCR modellers will be deliriously happy?

Getting back to the topic as raised by David ...... Mayner is right to point David at Mac's NCC Saga and JHB was on the button regarding the nature of Mac's work - you are told on the Title Page of the Saga - "Where the Enginemen were the Heroes and the Villain the Diesel Engine. Anyway, David, if you're tempted you can get a copy at a sensible price on ABE: see - https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-home-_-Results&an=&tn=ncc+saga&kn=&isbn= in fact The Syndicate may have a copy - I'll PM you. The "Crackerjack" book mentioned by BSGSV above is an interesting volume as it looks at the NCC's timetables over three separate periods in its history. Finally, David, the line did see some hefty trains from time to time. In the 1930s, the celebrated Malcolm Speir used to run FIREWORKS trains to Portrush on mid week evenings - for about half a crown return - if there were too many takers, one of the specials ran over the Derry Central from Macfin to Cookstown Jct to free paths on the mainline. Clever guy, old Malcolm, for I believe he set up the fireworks displays in POrtrush, probably underwritten by the LMS, and then ran the trains there to see them. Talk about making your own luck!

Don't worry, Jon, I'll send you the tapes from my security cameras and you'll be able to pick him out - mind you you'll have to remember WHEN you came, otherwise about 20 hours of viewing! Leslie

Well, I may use part of my three month lock-down to put Syndicate stuff on eBay and get a younger neighbour to post things for me. Over the years The Syndicate has raised tens of thousands for Irish Preservation. That's if I have any tine from trying to get back the money on a load of train travel in Europe planned over Easter! Still taking orders for Provincial Wagons - never a better time to try one of my kits! Keep well, folks. Leslie

I'm with Dave on this. Code 100 Peco, but probably because I had so much of it from pre-Code 75 days. Noel is right that the Setrak points give too big a gap between rails, but the Peco Setrak sure saves a lot of cutting of Flexible track lengths. They made a "Special Curve" to go with their Y Point - little thinking that I would have about 30 of them on the layout to save difficult joins on some of my curves. That said, the Proxxon tool with a cutting disc gets a lot of use. Time spent track-laying is well spent (finding the patience is another matter!), especially if like Noel and I you like running long trains effortlessly!