leslie10646

David Thanks for bringing us this good news. I had it on my 70th birthday pressie list, but now it'll have to be for my 73rd! This one has to be with sound - I still remember standing on Portadown platform in the 1960s and watching one accelerate away towards Belfast on the CIE Enterprise. The "vroom, vroom" as it accelerated away from the permanent restriction is as indelibly in my head as Sir Mick singing "I can't get no" - I'll be satisfied now.

Jon I think we're (you are?) talking at cross purposes. The idea was to link Kingscourt to Carrickmacross - a very short distance. Of course, then Inniskeen would have sensibly have been relaid as a triangular junction to aid access to the North via Castleblaney and Keady (roundabout and a pig to work, I would think) but in wartime, needs must. After all, in WW1, the coal for the Grand Fleet came from South Wales over such exotic lines as the Manchester and Milford in central Wales to gain routes North to Scotland and Scapa Flow. I wonder what they did during the weeks the Fleet was in Lough Swilly?

Obviously some of you guys have never made it plain to the partners in your lives just where they stood in the pecking order. Before I got married, I took The Boss on a Portrush Flyer, then didn't sit with her so that I could get a milepost seat. The honeymoon was two weeks behind the Iron Curtain bashing very obscure steam, followed by a week in Vienna so that she could visit her many friends there (and I could bash Austrian steam while she was with them). It wasn't my fault if she hadn't got the message by then? Getting back to paying for the locos and the stuff I'm producing this year (just a hint, you realise!). The Church had a solution - join the Total Abstinence guys (The Pioneers?) or become a Methodist! Either way, NOT drinking 3/4 pints a week will pay for everything that comes out this year! Just remembered, Lent's starting - give up booze for Lent and that'd pay for an A Class, at least. Get your partner to give up chocolate for Lent and you can have a rake of Ferts as well? No charge for the advice!

John remarked on the MGWR intentions re Northward expansion and the GNR answer by building the line to Carrickmacross. In 1940, or 1941, there was a distinct danger of the little Austrian invading the UK via the Free State. In such a situation, the Brits expected to be invited to help repel the Wehrmacht. They realised that with just the GN mainline, plus possibly the Cavan lines and the SLNCR, they were in danger of having their line of logistics cut off. So two young engineering officers were told to put on civvies and do a preliminary survey to estimate how long it would take to extend the line North to Carrick and so produce a further supply line. They duly did this and one of them, later the UK Inspecting Officer of Railways, Lt Colonel McNaughton, told the IRRS London Area that they reckoned to be able to put in a basic link in a couple of weeks. War does concentrate the mind?

Not at all, Noel, try them behind a grey J15! Well done Railer for finding that one - the equivalent of an original C Class pulling the fertiliser. I'm quite surprised that it moved them!

Jon Why stop at something like that when you could model Keady, complete with the Connaught narrow gauge going underneath the GN by the tunnel WHICH IS STILL THERE! In fact, why stop at that, pretend partition never happened, the Keady line stayed open, so you could have CIE diesels on the broad gauge and West Clare type F Class diesels on the Connaught Express on the narrow gauge? Use your imagination Man! What's this stuff in my glass - I must stop drinking Black Bush at night!

Ah, Mike, 100 Billion? Just don't build the next two aircraft carriers? Oh, that's wrong too - they're less than ten billion a throw. Getting back to Peter Smyth - he's certainly on top of the Game with interesting ideas for IE's future trains.

When Peter Smyth spoke to the London Area of the IRRS recently, he specifically mentioned the Class 185s as possible leased stock. David, when you asked about a model, I thought - "but it's a Desiro and there's a couple of models on the market". Ah no, never trust a steam man talking about Diseasals - the 185s are a Desiro with a "Face"! The models might do for the intermediate cars, but not the driving trailers! However, we've got some nice uncomfortable new electrics on the GWR - you can have them cheap - they already have diesel engines in them as they are "electric" trains, designed to run on an un-electrified railway. You couldn't make it up! No-one would believe that the Brits more or less invented railways and look at the place now! I must fill in my passport form. Bring back the HSTs! Hey, you could have a few of those - lovely trains even though they're forty years old!

Thanks, Eoin, for doing that research - the old maps can be a mine of information. Ernie, thanks for the shot of 137. Not for the loco, but it's the first view I think I have seen of the format of the rear wall of the Broadstone roundhouse. Now, who's going to build a model of Broadstone in MGWR days? - The buildings are still there to work off and now we have a bit more info on the loco shed.

Richie, You certainly left me scratching my head when I read this post, so I'd be interested to hear the "evidence". Oddly enough, the GNR history (both Patterson and Murray) make little comment on the Company's loco sheds. A scan of the IRRS Journal index proved fruitless as well. Ah, I thought, take a look at Norman Johnson's GN loco book - nope! It did yield a photo of the shed we now know as Amiens Street Shed which was taken at least a hundred years ago and it clearly is today's structure. So, cough up the info, young man! It is strange that while British sheds have been the subject of several dozen books on sheds - I think at least fifty - no-one seems to have written any kind of treatise on them for Ireland. Well done, Ernie - it's appalling that I forgot the Guinness roundhouse, having scanned slides of it recently!

Hi Dave You are right about Broadstone. Part of it, roofless, remained into the 1950s, at least. Loads of photos of steam locos in front of the remains at that time. To it you can add Clones and Portadown which were copies of each other and built in the late 1920s in Ferro-concrete. The one at Clones is still there in industrial use. As for models - well, the Portadown one has been modelled by William Redpath and was on show at Cultra last November - see the thread under "What's On on this site. He's done a super job. I'm as jealous as can be, for the same set-up, without the actual roundhouse is in my left, for my railway is based around "Portadown Jct". Time to concentrate on the layout before it's too late?

Ps. Yes I know such modern image coaches seem an abomination side by side with my CIE golden era B&T stock but I have a soft spot for them due to my regulare use of the Cork train, especially because it is not a noisy ICR yo-yo roller skate. Not at all, Noel - to quote Lord White: "It's my railway and I'll run what I want on it!" A few years ago, one of the magazines highlighted a layout where the guy had two sets of stock for two different decades - twenty / thirty years apart. I thought it a brilliant idea - all you need is loads of shelves, as one Irish gent has in his railway room. No room for them in my loft, so the "Modern" (meaning after 1965, but not after 1980 -ish) stuff goes in Really Useful Boxes with foam inserts which take and protect coaches, locos and wagons. PS The "CAFs" look well and are a credit to Chris / David.

Just a Word to the Wise, emphasising what JHB said - there are folk out there who think people will pay any amount for anything! Where TICKETS are concerned - a few do make impressive prices at auction, but the Co Donegal and the Swilly (particularly) are pretty common - most are what the ticket men call "audits" - i.e. returned as unused. A Euro is probably a good price for a seller to get for them. USED tickets are a different kettle of fish. As for photos ..... That view of Stranorlar station is not hard to come by so asking thirty quid for it is just having a laugh.

Thanks for sharing this. Quite a variety! Liked the Swiss picture complete with Dampfschneesclauder (Self-propelled steam snow plough - I've probably spe Deutsch wrong!). Also the Woodhead line - only the second I can ever remember of this prototype.

First, may I, like Jonathan, heartily recommend the GSR locos book - a reference book for every Irish Enthusiast. Now, back to those tenders..... I suggest that if you take a look through the 101 book, which really has 101 different "101"s pictured in it; you'll be amazed by the variety of tenders behind these little engines. Yep, a hundred and one - it took me six years to find that number and recently, I think I found another one ...... Roderick could have spent the rest of his life doing variations.

Andy, if your diary's filling up, so's mine, as I try to keep up with you. I never get bored with your work. Now, what's all this Great Western Narrow Gauge? At least you won't be cheating and running Arigna, or Castlederg stuff to Llanfair! I'm trying to work out how many millimetres Two Foot Six is. What period, by the way - presumably NOT the preservation era?

Get on with it, Phil! Even a bit of the roadside tramway to Arigna will get you started and allow us to see Alan's Tralee tank! You've got quite a team there, so no excuses! Alan has sorted out the running of several of my locos. Good luck.

As promised a couple of pictures of Andy's Court Mac at the weekend. I took these with my digital SLR, but my Mickey Mouse camera took better pics at Warley. However, see if you can spot the difference from last November! Yes, trees grow quickly in West Cork. When my other half asked Andy about his trees, out came some multicore wire and gave a quick demo of how to make a tree armature (I think that's the word the experts use!), followed by instructions on foliating the thing. My Warley report did not show the actual station building - it's not St Pancras, but a nice piece of modelling? You can see how bad my photography is in that the name board is illegible and Andy appears to have a way to model ghostly passengers? Finally, Andy brought out his little G Class with some familiar looking wagons (actually three of my Corrugateds, two SSM six planks and a SSM GNR van - no, it's not one of mine!). That provoked another question from the Lady - "how do you do your hedges"? Andy ducked out of sight and came back with a block of horsehair and explained who he produces his hedgerow - when he started talking about hairspray, he had her full attention ........ If any of you do get to see one of Andy's notable Irish layouts, you will find him a very good teacher on many aspects of modelling and a very approachable guy. Exhibition Managers take note - you get a layout (with lots happening) AND a demonstrator for the price of one man!!!! Great to see you again, Andy. As ever, I learned something new! Now, where's Herself's hairspray canister?

David Have a good day on Sunday - Kent's off my radar, I'm afraid. Looking forward to hearing all about the new layout.

Just in case any of you live in the South of England and haven't seen Andy's superb layout, it's at the Southampton MR Exhibition this weekend. I'll post a piccie or two later (I was there today and Andy was on great form). Details here - https://southamptonmodelrailwaysociety.wordpress.com Some other pretty decent layouts. The exhibition is very good for its demos of "how to do ....". If you're into DCC the MERG group has a whole room to itself. Sorry that I only noticed that Andy would be there yesterday, otherwise I'd have given more warning. He'll be showing Castlederg at Romsey on 2/3 March. Leslie

Does anyone know if there will be an Irish layout at the 2019 Warley. My invite has just arrived and if there's Irish company, then I'll ask for a stand near it! Thanks. Leslie PS By the way, a few negative comments about attending this show, but I think they are not completely fair. Yes, the Saturday is usually frenetic, but the Sunday is invariably quiet and that's the time to come.

I wonder which one it is? I hope it wasn't No.10 the one which TWICE gave me 80mph - hence one of my models is her, complete with a model Driver Tommy Crymble in the cab. Oh to have had about £1,300 in 1970 to buy a second one for the RPSI!

Then Provincial brought in the GNR one - superb! But this is suitable for GNR, UTA and NIR, as very few of these ended up with CIE, and those that did were replaced very quickly,...... Dead right, Jon, but not before John Dewing took that wonderful photo of 184 in her green livery pulling a transfer freight over Islandbridge Jct, with a GNR van right behind the engine. Those GN vans had a working life akin to the BR Standard steam locos - a lot of them didn't survive to celebrate their 21st! Aargh.... that was fifty one years ago - GN steam had ended and the World was about to end.......... yet I'm still here (by the Grace of God) and I've packed an enormous amount of steam running into the time between (in over two dozen countries)

And - "Athbhliain faoi shéan is faoi mhaise duit" to you too Magpie!