leslie10646

Ah, the two Davids missed my point but they did hit a sore point - that you can never find what you want to do an apparently simple task. I have an ex HMSO Index book on my desk marked "Where things SHOULD be" - a source of much merriment to one visitor. The reason for my shame which will be obvious when you watch the bit of video I'm about to put up - track down (VERY badly in some cases), absolutely no scenery, not even platforms or ballast! Turn the sound right down, or you'll be deafened - that's me talking behind the (shaky) camera Intro to the JUnction.m4v I forgot to mention what the other bit of double track was - so listen on - Armagh Line.m4v Finally (you'll be relieved to know) where the expensive stuff is kept - mainly hand made (by others) - and YES, it needs a building! Roundhouse.m4v Roundhouse.m4v

Proof that not only is a model railway never finished, but in this case - barely started! My model railway philosophy is exactly that of the late Drew Donaldson - have stock, run the trains to timetable and to heck with scenery. I like to run trains and over the last quarter century I have built up a considerable loco fleet (mainly steam, although I have supported others in their diesel activities), about twenty GNR mahogany coaches and (I have no idea really) about a hundred Irish goods wagons - the reason I started Provincial Wagons was that I needed goods stock. So, this is NOT for the lovers of layouts (believe me, I admire their work, but it's beyond me) - it's for running my trains! First its home - my loft - converted eight years ago - gives a whole new meaning to clutter (I still have hundreds of Star Wars figures belonging to my boys, endless suitcases, boxes of books I saved in case I ever got a chance to read them) and shows what a nightmare modern house roof beams are to the would-be modeller. At the far end you can see the original Richhill GNR(I) cabin diagram with the station below it - well - the correct track layout is there. Portadown station (again, more or less the correct track layout and nothing else - not even platforms) is to the right under the eaves. There is a bit of running line on the left side with loops off each line and the actual Junction, roundhouse, goods yard are behind me. You can see my desk in the middle of the floor - it should be for modelling, but apart from a couple of clamps, useful for cutting rail etc, that's the limit of activity there. The Provincial Wagons stock drawers just to the right of it. I put this up in shame, in the hope that if I live through this dreadful virus, some progress will have been made.

Hi MM No.184 is built from a SSM kit indeed. I bought her to resell, but having seen her and run her, I think she's here to stay until I am called to account ........ POrtadown got a lot of Gaelic specials from the Midlands in the 1950s, so it must have been a Sunday (?)

Ah, JHB, I only found out that a family member had worked on the railways when I looked up the enlistment papers of my Great Uncle, who died of wounds the day after the great Canadian attack on Vimy Ridge in April 1917. "Previous employment" was listed as locomotive fireman! I haven't managed to find out which railway, or for how long - he was forty years old and, of course, a volunteer with an Ontario regiment - so there would have been other jobs before that. Gabriel was probably born at "The Cavan" the name of the townland where the family cottage stood and from which I saw my first trains. My grandfather was stationed at the top of the lane from which you could see Richhill station - when a train set off towards Portadown - there would be a loud shout and the "little boy" would be brought out and held aloft to behold the Great Northern at work!

Rob asked: Just wondering what the best quality / most realistic Freight Containers (OO Gauge) 40ft or 20ft, that people think are out there? For 20ft ones - mine of course! See "News" Enterprise held up" Leslie

JHB Did the Go-Faster stripes make E421 run any faster, or did it break down before a GPS could register a speed?

MAQ03205.m4v BREAKING NEWS! Enterprise Express held up at Portadown Jct To allow CIE test train coming off the Cavan line to take precedence. Actually, it's old news, as it happened yesterday (news carries slowly). CIE was testing its new 20ft container skeleton (ultra light) to see how it ran in loaded conditions. Rather than risk tearing up a valuable mainline if there was a derailment, they used the old line through Inny Jct. Having just taken over the GNR, the new management didn't worry about an express taking Northerners home from a day's shopping in the Capital. Apologies for the vile video - the clicks aren't my brilliant rail joints - it's the SLR auto exposure doing its nut. Oh and DON'T look at the layout - I run trains, I don't do scenery! Full explanation later - this will do for today!

The prat in the middle is now in a Concentration Camp for giving his Heil with the wrong arm. Keeping happy in my Third Age.

You're right, it's the similarity of concept which amused me - as often happened - the Irish were there first

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.