leslie10646

Richard McLachlan and I will be manning (personning in these PC days?) a Irish Railway Record Society stand at Wakefield this weekend. So, if you live "up North" in the Big Island, you might come along and have a look. Focus will be on Richard's superb books of drawings - everything from Irish track standards, through buildings, wagons, coaches to enough information to build a 12 inches to the foot model of quite a few Irish locos. All carefully digitised from the Society's archive in Dublin. We always have a screen going with photographs from the Society's collections - presently from the late Lance King and John Dewing and the very much alive Conrad Natzio. I will have a selection of Provincial Wagons kits in a box "under the table" in case you can be tempted! Hope to see a few of you hardy Northerners there. Fuller details of the Show here - https://www.scalefour.org/scalefournorth/2019/ Leslie

Oh dear, very embarrassing - I was on the train! The St Ciaran was the first ever RPSI Two Day tour - now known as the International Tour. Give me time to find the 1968 logbooks and I'll give you the exact time!

Ernie You've set a good puzzle here with your post of 22 March. Just to prove that I'm Irish, I'll try and identify them in reverse order! The last photo of the five (J15 139) is definitely Kenmare, looking from the end of the line - the signal cabin at the far end with the little hut in front is the giveaway. It appears in a photo by the late Lance King with No.133. The other photo of 139 is almost certainly at one of the stations on the Kenmare branch, but which one? The third photo of an ex MGWR L(m?) Class 0-6-0 is NOT at Loughrea (which has a similar building), or Ballaghdareen, or Ballina, or Edenderry - all of which had very different station buildings - which, I think, leaves Ballinrobe? So, find my copy of The Baronial Lines and Hey Presto - several photos which show that distinctive station building behind the train, which has just arrived from Claremorris. The small building on the right of the photo in the distance is the signal box. Now, the photo of No.186 in 1968 - that was a puzzle as in those days I did every RPSI tour - but I didn't remember her going down the Cork line - which is where I thought this photo was taken. The answer is that this is the IRRS special, hauled by 186 on 29.9.68 when she ran Kingsbridge to Kilkenny. Believe it or not, she was deputising for 184 which was still on CIE's books, and had been used in the making of Darlin' Lily that year, but simply was in no condition to pull a train! She had to wait for her full restoration for the making of The First Great Train Robbery before she could do that (and how!). Can't help much further than that - I can't match the station building in the background with any station on the main line (the tour stopped at Sallins and Kildare), so it may be down the Carlow line? From Lance King's notebooks, I see that he took photos at Athy (not there), Mageney, Carlow, Muine Bheag, Gowran, on the way to Kilkenny; Milford and Carlow Beet siding on the return. I'm sure Mr Beaumont will have the answer! Finally - the photo of No.161 certainly looks like Patrickswell - there's a photo of the restored station building on the Net and it looks exactly like the building in the photo. Heavens - that's two hours gone - but an enjoyable bit of ferreting - I have six books open beside me now! Great collection, Ernie - keep spending money buying them! Leslie

Hi Phil and Andy Great to see Arigna getting new traffic. Sorry I wasn't there to see it - I was one of the specks in the helicopter shot of the Million marching to protest about this insane Brexit thing. Very good-humoured - interesting to see the Union Jack and the Green, White and Orange on the same flagpole carried by one marcher! If you guys who favour Europe and are UK voters haven't done so - sign the petition - over five million signatures, up one and a half million since i signed it on Friday. We gotta stay together!

Congratulations, Sean, that is truly remarkable - I wish that the late Drew Donaldson (who modelled CIE, but WITHOUT scenery) could see it. Of course, he would not be keen on the line of Paddy diesels in Glanmire shed. You'll have to get a gang of your mates on this site to bring their J15s, Woolwiches, CBSCR 4-6-0Ts and 800s (there are a few around?) to fill the shed throat with steam locos for an unrepeatable model photo shoot! Completely recreates a very well-known scene.

Well done. Nice to see one of Roger's kits built. As for the Black - well, White's Law applies - ie it's your layout and you run what you want on it!

No new Generator vans immediately - the single-ended Yankees pulled the little four wheel generator vans around for a while. Those converted Mk3 generator vans are a pretty recent addition to the Enterprise sets - within the last five years? After the four wheelers came the "Dutch" heating vans, built by both Verkspoor in the Netherlands and some by CIE themselves and then the BR Mark 1 full brakes converted into generator vans (the RPSI has one). The wheel has turned full circle, because in GB, steam engines on the main line trail a gennie van (often a Brake / 2nd) to provide heating etc. Health and Safety would not allow anything as dangerous as the steam loco providing heating steam itself via the steam pipes in the coaches - as it had done perfectly well for 150 years. Of course, on the preserved lines, we still have "proper" steam heating and the loco fireman couples up the steam pipe when he is attaching the vacuum brake bag. On the Bluebell Railway, we used to cease steam heating on 31 April and restart it on 1 October. If your Missus says she's cold in May - September - you now have the "official line" - NO heating in "Summer" - another way to save up for your new locos this year! Leslie

Six years (1961 - 67) would seem like an eternity on today's GB railways. I'm also delighted to see that 134 will be in the "as delivered" livery which I thought looked well. Noel is, of course, quite right about the awful British diesels delivered in the 1950s - look at some of the stuff created for the 1955 BR "Modernisation" Plan. However, if my memory serves me right the British electric motors were left in place on the A and C Class with the Yankee diesel engines acting as the generators?

Report post Posted 16 hours ago I think the plan was to extend from Kingscourt to ultimately reach Cookstown, if I'm not mistaken? Yes, that would seem logical - the old Derry Central seemed to have little sidings to military establishments all over the place - like those strange little lines which branch off Swiss main lines today and promptly disappear into a mountain! Think of it - if the Wee Man from near Salzburg had invaded Home, we could have had Woolwich moguls pulling trains of British tanks on low loaders on both sides of the Irish Sea. Gives a whole new meaning to Second Front?

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.