leslie10646

Colin I'll leave a "Southern" expert to answer regarding the oil traffic. There WAS a notable oil train which went to a halt on the Bangor line, right up to the 1960s - Tillysburn rings a bell - for Shorts' aircraft testing needs? General oil traffic was sparse in the North. I think I am right when I say that tankers were never used (as they were in GB) for the bulk carriage of milk. That said, many "Creameries" had sidings, North and South, but I suspect mainly for the export of butter, cheese etc, rather than the milk coming in. My Northern farmer cousins sent their milk away in churns - lorries, of course, in the Black North! I must have a look at the appendices to see if I can get clues re milk traffic! Thanks for provoking some thought on WHY a train ran at all! Leslie

Colin You can do little better than to peruse the books which have photos of goods trains - the trouble is, few enough books have! As you say, it depended on the line. The GNR's Night Goods to Derry by the Derry Road could be sixty wagons with a 0-6-0 hauling it. There were two around 8pm ex Belfast and BOTH had anything up to ten flats with bread containers on them! However, the greater part of the train would have been vans - Ireland's weather didn't encourage the use of opens - not to say that there were none. The GN main line goods "over the Bank" to Dundalk were not quite as heavy, were mainly vans, no bread containers - they were a Northern Ireland peculiarity. Mineral traffic was very much less than Britain, except for loco coal going to outlying sheds. You didn't get the British situation of local coal merchants with offices in station yards (and even their own wagons). There were a FEW, of course. East Downshire Steamship Co. on the BCDR was a case in point. As you say, cattle specials were a massive business for the Railway - especially CIE - I saw one weekly notice of 120 pages where the first FORTY was entirely fairs specials! Of course, the smaller branch lines would have had short goods with a mix of vans, opens and cattle wagons. Well wagons were uncommon. If you're modelling the Great Northern, the IRRS reprint of the GN Wagon book might prove useful. I'm sure Jon will add massively to this, but it will get the ball rolling. Good sources of photos would be his books on the Western Corridor and the recent North Kerry book. For the GN, Charlie Friel's "Fermanagh's Railways would give you a steer. I've ignored beet traffic, which were in effect block trains, seasonal, but not a typical goods train! Hope this helps Leslie PS If you need wagons of this period, I know someone who sells kits of them ........

The Class N were the 5ft 6in driver SECR locos which were finished in Ireland as the 372 Class - Class K1. The Class U were the six foot driver version, of which Ireland had six - Class 393 - Class K1a. If memory serves, they had a tiny splasher, which made them easily identifiable from their "smaller" sisters. You can get the full low down in Michael McMahon and Jeremy Cleminson's excellent tome on GSR locos. Leslie PS my copy was upstairs, so I looked up a certain on-line encyclopaedia!

I think that this is what you're looking for? http://www.provincialwagons.com The Bell container isn't the DC kits / C Rails one, but an earlier MIR one. I assure you that it carries the later container just as well - I just didn't have one of mine to hand when I took the photo! Our kit is of the 27000 series, 1970-built skeleton flat. The earlier 1966 flat had a steel floor. If you want a rake, e-mail me and I'll "do you a price" - Her Majesty's postage on single kits to Euroland is criminal, but you can send several for much the same cost. Or, you can wait to the Blackrock exhibition in the Autumn, when postage won't be an issue and I'll price it accordingly for the exhibition. Leslie PS, I don't think anyone will have too much trouble with the kit - about a dozen parts!

Tony While not on the web, the IRRS, through Richard McLachlan, has digitised the drawings for at least eight GNR loco types, a CDRJC one and a SLNCR one. These are available both as books and digitally.I might say there is enough top build a full scale loco, so if anyone wants to help me put together a million plus to build a VS Class - get in touch! He has also produced books of GN carriage drawings, railcar drawings and the wagon book (which I believe you have?). There are GA drawing books of selected GSR coaches and MGWR coaches and wagons. The list is considerable. When I find a moment, I'll scan it and put it up here. I believe that you can see some of these books at IRRS Library Nights in Dublin and Richard will be displaying and showing them at the SDMRC exhibition in the Autumn. Leslie

Jon HEAR, HEAR! The number of times I've heard people say "wouldn't it be great to get No.800 out of the museum". But ask them for a a few Euros towards it and ……….

B&B? - a perfect ancestral home with room for we oldies, the boys plus their families, each in their own demesne!! Pity I'd have to murder the Boss, as she'd never move to Ireland! No good having a LGB garden railway - only a 12 inches to the fut job would do - maybe the RPSI could loan the buyer a 101 Class? No - thinking out of the box - if you could afford that place, you could probably afford to have a replica BCDR tank built and a train of their six wheelers.

David Humphries and a group of friends resident around Dundalk are modelling part of the DNGR. To that end they have been doing superb work in restoring drawings of the route and buildings I'll see if I can get you a contact. Leslie

I see that three of my wagons are on eBay at present, having come down from their stratospheric original price. The flat with the Guinness containers is close to the price I last charged for them - the flats are sold out, plenty of Guinness though. The other two strike me as very dear - the open was about £11 when I sold them, the furniture container was under £15. Caveat emptor! Leslie

Tony et al They DID exist and were small, I think wheeled containers - a fraction the size of my bread containers. I have a note somewhere as Michael and I being lovers of Fig Rolls (I"m lying!) were tempted! I'll get back on this one. Leslie

I have to agree with the guy who commented that putting so much stuff up at once would keep the prices down - just £3,000 for a S Class nameplate? Interesting to see the variation in price - but if you lived virtually anywhere in Ireland you could pick up something with your local station name on it - obviously, in some cases there were two folk chasing (very hard) for the same thing. Dave, I'm glad Malahide ended up with a "Local Boy" - all right and proper. 184's numberplate is the original -I understand that the ones on the engine are copies. Old John's estate has certainly had a boost! Leslie

Apologies, folks, I kept this one under my hat for the Bangor Show which is where Kieran got his. I will post it on my website when I get a further supply in, having cleared the first couple of dozen. As John says, it IS the same chassis from the Beet. BUT that kit does not have the skeleton, vacuum pipes etc, which are visible in this version. As usual Kieran has done a super job - indeed, I gave Nelson one to build, which he did at Bangor and presented me with it painted, recalled on the Sunday - that's the one I'll show on the website. I should explain, I didn't like the chocolate brown in which my prototype was painted! I hope to have them available again in about a month - Michael is on his hols in Malta for another week or so! They are £23 or €27.50 post paid. As always, if you buy more than one kit, I usually can knock about a quid off subsequent kits. NOW - We plan to do this "Flat" several ways - a) As Kieran has shown you - the pure "Skeleton" which is the 27xxx series 20ft container flat built around 1970; b) The same wagon, but without a skeleton interior for you to run WITH a container - after all, you can't see the detail - so save yourselves a bit by having this version if you're always going to have a container atop the chassis. In effect this IS the Beet chassis and such a kit will be a £1.50 (€2) cheaper than the present skeleton; c) finally, the 1966 20ft container flat WITH a Container included - this will be the same chassis but with a thin floor - the 1966 ones were like this (but Heaven knows what the floor actually looked like - if you have photo, please let me see it!!!!). By selling it with the container on top, I don't need to know that detail. The container will be a standard side door CIE Container of the period - "the orange ones" - I found a survivor, thanks to Anthony McDonald and we measured it up, photographed it within an inch of its life and it awaits Michael's return! So, Kieran having let the Cat out of the Bag - I have now totally spilt the beans and you know what will be around for Blackrock! Not finished yet - there was something interesting beside the old CIE job ……. Regards to you all and congrats Kieran on a typically nice job! Leslie

Yes, I remember seeing No.19 around from time to time during my evening visits to York Road with John (now Lord) Laird). I first went down in 1961 or 1962, but never saw No.18. Indeed by then only two Castle Class U2 4-4-0s were around - Dunluce and Dunseverick. Just to bore you with facts, they had been 7456 and 7553 on the LMS, becoming 18 and 19 respectively. Latterly, they bore a UTA "Red Hand" Coat of Arms. Leslie

Nil Desperandum. My list of would-be owners is growing, so I may yet persuade R&R to change their minds. But Guys, I need some more would be owners!!!! Send me a PM or preferably em,ail me at my well-known address lesliemcalister@aol.com Thanks Leslie

Thomas A pity I didn't pick this up last week. "Multyfarnham" asked for Banbridge info and Richard McLachlan and I dug out quite a roll of station drawings when in the Archive on Thursday. It's on the photography table at Heuston and will get done when Richard is next there. I'll get my local contact to look for Newry - it's not a five minute job, for even though the drawings are fairly well organised, they take a bit of finding in an archive which has everything from a pin to an anchor, as it were! Please understand that there is only a finite amount of effort to be put into this sort of work. Of course, if you're a member, you can always goo and visit on a Tuesday evening - Newry's only an hour away! Frankly, all the series modellers on this site should be members - we seem to have something about everything in our archive. Leslie

Well done, Kieran, it looks the part. Good to see you at the weekend and thanks again for the loan of the Brown vans - now coming to a siding near you ……… Leslie

Nice one, David - very bad construction of my sentence. My English teacher would have given me the slipper! As John says, we do tend to forget that most GN locos were, in fact, black. But even black ones, with mahogany coaches, look terrific. As for blue with mahogany - better than xxx!!!!! Leslie

I obviously didn't make myself clear. I WILL have mine on display. If someone has a convenient DC 00 layout, we can give it a run. Leslie

Good news. I have my receipt with me! By a coincidence, a couple of dozen of my next wagon kit arrived as I was packing the car two days ago! To find out just what, visit the Provincial Wagons stand! Hope to see lots of you there. At least come and say "Hi"! Leslie

Yes, super paintings. I particularly like the "Enniskillen today" one, with CAF, GM diesel and the top Irish steam driver, Noel, leaning against a wall! Wishful thinking! Leslie

Ah, Kevin, Guess what? - I will have my UG pulling my stock! See you guys there. Just about to drive up from Dublin after a fruitful day in The Archives and eyeing up my next project which was in the yard at Heuston! Leslie

Both kits and two more new ones available to buy in 36 hours time at Bangor. You can see Glenderg's take on painting it on my Stand! AND a nice clean version! Leslie

Super little engines, Patrick. As the Armagh trains often had them at the front, I've got TWO - built about fifteen years ago by an unknown English builder. I have resurrected mine by putting a Stay Alive chip in it and despite the short wheelbase, she now runs well, even on MY track. Believe it or not, I've still got to number her. I had a trip behind one back to Richhill from Portadown with my grandmother in the 1950s, but which one? Readers will be aware that the T Tank is in effect a U Class with tanks! Leslie

Norman (and David Houston) has timed 100mph through Andover (bottom of a good hill) with a Merchant Navy driven by the late Bill Hooker of Nine Elms. He was on the same train as me when I did 96mph with Clan Line early one Saturday morning in March 1967 near Winchfield. That determined where my ashes will go! I wound Weshty up nicely one afternoon when he rang me when I was on my favourite walk. I was standing on a bridge near here and was able to tell him that I'd been under it at 88mph with a steam loco.

Yes, Seamus - get WELL soon. Too many of my pals ill at the moment - the prayer list gets longer and longer (but the prayers are answered, otherwise it would be getting shorter!).