leslie10646

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!).

Nelson - you're dead right! Nearly all the "tons" that have been recorded with steam have been down serious hills. Flying Scotsman doing 99 (according Cecil J Allen), Papyrus doing the first really solid "ton" (actually 108 mph), Mallard doing 125 (as claimed at the time - the 126 was a wartime re-writing of history to cock a snook at the Germans) were all done down Stoke Bank. Last night, Tornado seems to have done the ton on near level track, for most of Newcastle to York is pretty flat (yes, there are one or two nasty hills, but nothing to fly down) - and that is serious stuff for a steam loco. In the last days of the Bulleid pacifics, they did the ton several times down the racetrack a mile for where I'm sitting at the moment - again fairly level track - marginally downhill. The TRUE World Record holder - the German 05 Class 4-6-4 did 125 on almost level track in 1936. That said, the A4 was an amazing machine, for as well as its ability to do the ton, they could really pull a big heavy train - the 05 was seldom put to that kind of test. As the only "timer" of steam trains on this site - Boy do I wish I'd been there! I have done the ton - with the East German Pacific 18.201 - down a near vertical hill near Gloggnitz in Austria - thirty years ago - not fifty as this film suggests! Thanks Broithe for putting this up - none of my timing friends has commented to me yet - do they even know? Leslie PS I'm off to book the first 90mph run!

Dear John A CIE period one for me, please. After all, the Cavan branch had an end-on junction with the GN and from there it was a mere few hours puffing for one of these on a GAA special!!!! Thanks. Leslie

I think I support this idea of a simple "behind the scenes" oval - make it removable as you're obviously short of space - OR MOVE INTO THE ATTIC! Personally, I thought your layout a clever idea. I've seen several similar layouts on the exhibition circuit over here - where the station is only modelled in part, but trains can "run" nonetheless. Usually they have a fiddle yard (which, of course could also be removable as another correspondent has said) - sometimes one at each end!!! The Southampton MRC has a brilliant layout based on a tiny part of one of the stations on the North Road / Millbay line to the docks at Plymouth. All you see is a shunting area and the ends of the platforms, just like Omagh North. The line loops around at each end to form an oval - which does, admittedly, have a series of loops to store stock (and a gang of guys to shuffle the trains - they put their attractive lady secretary out in front to run the station area - very clever to attract the punters in a male dominated hobby!). On this line, they run all manner of full length trains, including the famous Ocean Liner trains, goods, you name it and to keep people amused, there is always the shunting in the small yard. It's one of the best, small area, exhibition layouts I have ever seen. You could use cassettes as someone has suggested here to load / unload trains and so run a sequence of trains. A oval is useful for giving your locos a RUN! With your skills (and facilities) you could know up a removable oval in a weekend!!! Keep it up - puts me to shame. Leslie

I have been building up stock for Bangor since Christmas and the Isle of Wight ferry has been busy shipping wagons to the Mainland. That said, I've had three orders for a dozen or more double beets and others, so the stock is going down. If I may be so bold, if you want to collect kits from me at Bangor, please let me know and I'll "put your name on it". Either by PM, lesliemcallister@aol.com or via my website. Thanks. Leslie

The "U" class was also a common one on passenger trains from Derry through Omagh towards Enniskillen, though I don't think they'd have figured so much in the area after the 1957 closures. John I'm sure you're right that the U Class would not have seen too much use on the Derry Road after 1957, but I DID time No.201 on the 10.15 ex Derry on 6 August 1964. I only joined the train at Portadown, but usually the same engine worked right through from Derry. The 10.15's engine was usually the one which worked out on the previous day's 3pm ex Belfast to Derry. Still, One Swallow doesn't make a summer …….

Actually, John, as I scan Lance King's slides, I was most impressed by the very clean appearance of a lot of the Dublin engines after dieselisation. I guess many were still getting some use on the Bray suburbans and to my amazement - I have scanned a slide of a MGWR "Cattle Engine" that looks as if it had rolled out of Broadstone Works the day before! Mind you, the photo was taken in 1959 - a couple of years later, they were looking very woebegone rusting in sidings!

That is the Question … Friends (Romans, Countrymen) After being asked by half the population of Northern Ireland when I am going to produce a "Brown Van", I am about to act! But is there really a demand, I ask myself? So, before I waste money and effort, can I ask for expressions of interest, please? You folk will be aware that there were two types of the van - Class V7, built by the LMSNCC and Class V15 built by the UTA on a chassis produced by Harland and Wolff. My intent would be to do both. But I need to have an idea of the demand, so if you want one, now is the time to speak up. An idea of how many would be nice! If you know of others not on this forum who are interested, you can answer for them, if they are interested. I don't need to say that the van would be up to the standard Provincial Wagons has tried to maintain with a correct chassis, a decent level of detailing etc. Thanks. Leslie

Just to wind you up, John. I noted No.49, after being outshopped, shunting at Belfast York on 31 January 1964 and a week later on 7 February, I actually footplated her banking the 8.05pm Derry Goods up to Ballyclare Jct. You bet she was gleaming with her new paintwork - the UTA black, lined livery suited her very well.

At the risk of being pushy - The Transport Collector's Market at Chiswick Town Hall is this Saturday from 11am. I'm happily loading up a second car full off books - loads of IRISH ones! You'll find me on the Stage, so do call and say "Hi" if you can make it. Leslie