leslie10646

Lots of the new Brown Van kit on my stand! Good oul' Des has produced the transfers for me as you can see. However, Michael did most of it with this lovely detail, right down to the little struts which supported that huge body. See just how big it is on Saturday! I look forward to seeing some of you "up North". Leslie (posted from Dublin - I'm on the way!)

Thanks for those of you who bought kits from Anthony at the weekend. Thanks, too, to those on the site who kindly posted piccies which shows that I missed a good show. Well done Wexford. Leslie (Provincial wagons)

The kit is now in production and I should have about fifty with me at Bangor. However, as I have over fifty "expressions of interest" on file, please let me know if you hope to pick one up at the Show and I'll reserve it for you. Same goes for any other kit you want - especially CIE wagons as I don't stock up on those for the Northerners! Please e-mail me via my website or at lesliemcallister@aol.com Thanks Leslie

Great info as always snapper. Will we see 131 south of Heuston this year? Never mind Heuston - it would be nice to see her go to Greystones and back - my only Q Class run was to there in the early 1960s, with sister 132. 131 will be my second Q Class "for haulage" in May, (DV). One friend has already notched up 200 miles with her! Happy Days!

Just an extra note to say that the van kit is now in production and I should have about fifty kits at Bangor on 21/22 April. As I have over fifty "statements of interest", if you plan to pick one up at Bangor, please send me a message through my website and I will reserve one for you. The van kit, is priced at £29 and comes complete with transfers offering several different numbers - these will be the original numbers which they carried - there was a re-numbering. Leslie

John Despite the website entry only showing the old MRN article, the Madder Valley is at Pendon in all it's glory - a whole room given up to it. I'm not sure if they ever operate it - when I saw it yesterday (yes, it was wet in Oxfordshire too) it had trains positioned in stations etc, but no sign that they use it any more. I got to chatting with one of the volunteers and guess what (Andy), he's just starting to model Courtmacsheery in 7mm! So, another correct guage layout is on the way. I can't recommend Pendon too much - friendly guides who make sure you miss nothing, and who will search out things for you if you ask "have you got an example of…..?". Add to that an impossibly good standard of scenic and buildings work - interiors to houses, for Pete's sake! To make sure you don't miss these, they turn the lights off, so that all you can see are the lighted windows of the thatched cottages, farms , barns etc. Right down to wallpaper, pictures hanging ……. If you plan a visit, make sure your satnav is working - it's not easy to find!

You'll find a Provincial Wagons stand at the Show but regrettably not me. Easter is a three-line whip in the family as I have to organise the Easter Egg Hunt (for my forty year kids!) in the garden of "Pettigo Fair" on Easter Sunday (after getting up for the 6.30am SONrise service, held on the banks of the Thames and then in a church that's mentioned in the Doomsday Book). Having seen the list of layouts - well done Wexford - I know where I'd prefer to be! Anthony McDonald will have a good selection of my kits with him, with an emphasis on CIE wagons. You'll have to wait for Raheny for my next new "CIE" wagon. Best wishes to everyone for an enjoyable and successful exhibition. Leslie

Tony Surely there would have been three men in each cabin covering the 24 hours? I must have a look at my 1964 WTT and check the hours of opening for the cabins. It's a valuable lesson to look at the WTTs to see how much DID go on in the wee small hours. I have to do this research for Portadown to work out a running sequence. Being a major junction with three lines through it, it can seldom have been very quiet and I pity local residents who may have had shunting going on at unearthly hours! I'm sure you have the WTT for your period, but if not, contact me. As I have several years of GNR (1950s) and UTA - certainly 1964, I'm happy to help you or any other friend modelling the GN. The things you pick up over the years and keep in boxes! Leslie

Nice picture, Tony. Very evocative with the Post Office van in front! In the days running up to Christmas 1964, I was travelling on a Runabout ticket to get as many miles as possible of steam haulage on the Derry Road before it was gone forever. One evening, I was in the signal cabin at Omagh and I asked the signalman when he finished work for the day - "In an hour or so", he answered, "and then I'll do some overtime on the platform helping with the post!" Of course, in those days, there was mountains of it. Brought it all back. Thanks. Leslie

Paul (and others) The book in question is McCutcheon's "Industrial Archaeology of the North of Ireland" (only). Amazing stuff on old mills, canals etc as well as railways. A useful reference work. As you say, long out of print, but there is a copy in this house and if someone has a particular query, or wants a scan - just ask. My secondhand copy came back across The Pond from the USA. "Slasher" McCutcheon taught me at school! Leslie

John, Thanks for that feedback. I have no doubt the disruption would be horrendous, but it seemed that the recent Luas building work to get across the Liffey was just as bad? The beauty of such a method, if practical, is that once it's down (and covered over) the trams run down the centre of the street, but without disrupting the traffic. The public just drop down an escalator and jump on a speedy public transport system. As I said, the one in Strasbourg is terrific and now that I've sussed it, when I lead tours through there, I save my elderly clients a long walk from our hotel near the station to the Cathedral etc by hopping on a tram for a few stops.

Thanks, Barl, for the explanation of the LUAS consultation and why tunnelling would be difficult in Dublin. Can I ask a question, regarding cut and cover tunnelling in the centre? Would it have been possible (if expensive) to have made some use of a sub surface line in the City Centre (Yes - I know that the river would get in the way!) - what I'm thinking of is that LUAS pops undergorund to avoid the busy centre city road junctions and pops above ground again further up O'Connell Street? The Strasbourg trams do something like this (albeit the tunnel is deep enough to withstand a thermo-nuclear blast). Anthony McDonald gave a great presentation to the IRRS London on LUAS recently and included a speeded up film of the laying of some of those city centre road junctions - brilliant engineering.

Come on JB - pay attention - the meeting was last week - you'd need a Time Machine - not Captain Kirk's teleport! However, I have the job of reporting the meeting and this is what I posted on the London Area website - 15 March 2017 Michael Davies, who had just returned from his 132nd visit to Ireland, continued his account of his earliest travels in Ireland during the 1950s,. His talk attracted the largest attendance of the season to date, your writer noted visiting members from Scotland, Wales and Ireland! Michael set out to travel on as much of Ireland’s railway system as possible and he recounted how he largely achieved this goal by 1957 – only a very few branch lines eluded him! Like all young people, he had to be careful with his limited resources, but he was aided by the fact that rural Ireland then had many hotels offering Bed and Breakfast for ten shillings (50p). When a rail connection was not available he used buses and on many occasions hitched a lift with commercial travellers and on one occasion, a parish priest. While exploring the Cavan and Leitrim one Sunday, he obtained the loan of a bicycle, but a tyre succumbed to the rough roads. Nothing daunted, he discovered a cycle repair business in the next town, knocked on the door, only to discover that the proprietor was at Mass. The man’s wife fed young Michael, while he waited and when the owner returned and carried out the repair, he would not accept a payment. Michael’s ingenuity knew no bounds and to resolve difficult connections he would write in advance to station masters to ask them have a “Hackney Carriage” waiting when his train arrived - and they did. It was a different world! He illustrated his talk with photographs taken on his father’s “Box Brownie” camera and he acknowledged the skill shown by Area member Richard McLachlan in restoring the images and bringing them out in their full glory. Thus the audience was transported back to 1950s Letterkenny (by the Swilly and the Donegal), the length of the Cavan and Leitrim (clearly his favourite), the Midland Great Western from Inny Jct to Cavan and on to Clones by the Great Northern. Michael was also in time to travel several times on the Sligo Leitrim and Northern Counties before that singular railway closed. Along the way, Michael made many enduring friends among Irish railwaymen and he made more friends tonight with his entertaining account of travels over half a century ago. Next meeting is Charlie Friel - Thursday 19th April 2018 “The GNR(I) lines to Newcastle and Derry” by Charles Friel Archivist, historian and RPSI activist, Charles Friel pays us another visit. He starts with lines closed in 1956 – an illustrated journey along the busy Belfast to Banbridge line, the cross-country extension to meet the BCDR at Newcastle and the sleepy branch to Scarva. He will then present a recording of an evocative BBC NI television programme, largely based on the cine of the late Fred Cooper, made to mark the 50th anniversary of the closure of the fondly-remembered former GN route from Portadown to Londonderry (Foyle Road) in 1965. find details of this and all the Area's activities at - https://irrslondon.com

For those of you to whom the railways of the Black North are an anathema - my first job next week is to send a mass of photos and drawings to Michael for our next offering - aimed at being ready for Raheny. Now Richie - not a word!

To celebrate St Patrick's Day, a new wagon which could almost be seen from Slemish where the Saint "wrought a few". The Ulstermen (remember we've got him up there!) have been pestering me for years to do a "Brown Van" and today the prototype arrived from the Isle of Wight - Now that I have a couple of sides to send to Steve at Railtec, the next job is the transfers - not a lot, as it happens. The eagle-eyed among the NCC fans will realise that this is the UTA version built in the late 1940s after WW2. The earlier NCC version has a totally different chassis and wheelbase. I should have supplies for Bangor. Happy St Patrick's Day! Now, all of yez get on yer knees and pray all night that The Boys give the English a hammering tomorrow at Twickers!

No, I know, there's not a snowball's chance in hell of this happening. But otherwise, we will all end up in forty years time going round and round and round and round and round in the same discussion.... Ah, Jon, ye never know - when all the overseas companies leave London before and after Brexit, and take themselves to Dublin - Ireland could eventually find the end of the rainbow (how much Gold is in a Crock, anyway?). Noel did provoke a interesting thought in my mind when he talked of sticking LUAS in a tunnel and I thought - would a "Cut and Cover" tunnel in the City centre have caused any more disruption than building LUAS totally above ground? Like it or not underground railways cost an unholy amount of money these days. When London built hers Britain ruled half the World; Moscow's Metro (utterly wonderful) was built by a dictator who didn't give a hoot about cost, his people or anything - I could go on ......

Well done lads! Now, I know I have a box of those somewhere under the building material on top of the layout ……...

Glenderg wrote: Dublin is built on a great big lump of granite. Not easy to core through. Cork is sandy, so too expensive to underpin. Limerick is the only place suited for an underground, but then you'd miss out on the most preserved, and at times beautiful, georgian city in Ireland... I don't have Richie's knowledge of geology, but for enthusiasts of underground railways, may I commend a track by The Johnstons "Tunnel Tigers" which is all about decent Irish lads "Digging a Tunnel through the London Clay". Of course, it was recorded before most of you were born and even I, who lived through the Sixties, only bought the CD about a month ago. Recommended.

Very sad to read these two posts. Personally, I think LUAS is super (a bit full, mind you - the perils of popularity?) and can't wait to have a ride on the former MGWR main line after the Broadstone stop. Underground railways are all very well, but you see B-all. That's why I often opt for the bus in London and enjoy looking at the brilliant buildings. Dublin, likewise, isn't exactly short of them either.

Leslie Romsey is on the 23/24th of June so you may have to wait until Warley,though the other 4 layouts are out before then,Andy. Excellent timing - now in diary. Hope to see the new creation there. Leslie

Glenderg asked - Were turntables not "IKEA" kits of their time - 60'. 70' and so on? Nope, Richie, they weren't. The GNR had them from 42ft (Banbridge was 42ft 3in!!!) to 60ft (Pordy-down, Omagh and Derry). Amazingly, the Amiens Street one was just 50ft in 1930 - memory is that it was made larger later, probably when the compounds came?

THURSDAY 15 MARCH 2018 IRRS London Area Meeting “Further Tales of Irish Railway Travel in the mid-1950s” by Michael Davies Michael Davies has made over 125 visits to Ireland. Tonight, he returns to recount further his early travels in Ireland, portraying just what it was like to be a young enthusiast in an unfamiliar land. He will dwell on his discovery of the SL&NCR in 1952 and his visits to the railways of Cork from 1956-62. This will be followed by reflections on his long fascination with the Cavan & Leitrim Railway, including reminiscences from some of its great characters. In Function Room, Calthorpe Arms, 252 Gray’s Inn Road, LONDON WC1X 8JR starting at 7pm sharp. Food is available in the pub from about 5.45pm.

Richie I plan to post our Irish Booklist on the London Area website in due course - on the To Do list - behind - motorise more points at Portadown Jct, build the platforms at Richhill so that your buildings look "at home", work out why No.53 won't even MOVE after chipping (the perils of DCC), look after the speaker at the next London Area meeting on Thursday (see next post) etc etc. But seriously, it's an important job and high on the list.

CELEBRATE SAINT PATRICK'S DAY IN LONDON The IRRS London runs an annual collectors' market at Chiswick Town Hall on 17 March 2018, starting at 11am. Mainly railway, but a fair bit of buses and London Transport. An excellent place to pick up photographs, postcards, DVDs and tickets. You'll find me on the Stage of the Main Hall selling books - we trade as The Syndicate (!) and specialise in books, both in and out of print. We like to think that we have almost everything published on Irish Railways. I also stock new books by Lightmoor, plus Pen and Sword - come and have a look. A colleague sells all manner of transport ephemera like old (British) working timetables, maps, transport leaflets etc etc. Our profits go to Irish Railway Preservation. This year's market happens to land on the National Saint's day, so if you haven't got a ticket for The Boys tackling The English up the road at Twickers, why not come along? In fact, you could pop in before the match? The event is open 11am to 3pm. Admission £3 (£1 after 1.30pm). Light refreshments available and we have a continuously running DVD Show to add to the entertainment. The wearing of something Green (I'll be in my Northern Ireland footie shirt!) is optional. The Town Hall is on Heathfield Terrace, W4 4JN. Nearest tube is Chiswick Park, or Gunnerbury. Buses 27, 237, 267, 391, 440 and H91 stop on Chiswick High Road - across the Green from the Town Hall. If you're in London, come along and support the local Area of Ireland's national railway society! Hope to see a few of you there - be sure to say "Hi" - I'll be wearing a badge, but you can usually hear my Belfast (via Surrey) accent at 100 metres! Leslie

Andy, the reason that you have 20% of the proper gauge railways is that you're the only one of us without a TV! The other man who does wonders with proper 5ft3in gets HIS modelling done while his Better Half watches the Soaps! What date for Romsey? - I hope it's the 2nd or 9th June, otherwise I'm away working. By the way, my comment about the schooners is equally proper to you - A Dennis Murray owned a Rhyl-built 99 ton schooner called Harry Herbert - mind you, built in 1860! The last mention I find of her was of her ashore (but refloated) in 1925 - so maybe a bit before your time? Keep up the great work!