leslie10646

IRRS Journal Vol 11, pages 82 to 95 carries an article on GSR Coaches by Brendan Pender and includes a stock list - it's Journal No.61 and may be still available form the Society. Only one photo, I think. Leslie (IRRS London hat on!)

Tony I DID think of being there with my Provincial Wagons hat on, but the cost of doing the event from the UK would not be worth it - even though it's always nice to put faces to names of customers! As for the price issue, we'll be selling it at cover price at Warley - in sterling. At least you know where the profit is going - we usually send our entire income (NOT just the profit) to the appeal - no expenses, not even the cost of the material we sell - most of which we paid for some while ago. I hope you guys have a great weekend at Raheny. Wish I was there ........ Leslie

You will be able to buy this new book (and lots of other Irish railway books) from the 171 Appeal stand at Warley. That way a fiver of your money goes to this excellent cause!! Visit us on stand F16. Leslie (for The Syndicate - aka 171 Appeal) PS we've sent about £5,000 to the Appeal already.

Thanks for that. I'm investigating the various options in hope that one will "fit the bill". Leslie

One of my aliases is that I am a member of an operation called The Syndicate - we have raised funds for Irish Railway Preservation for over forty years - truthfully, most of the money goes to the RPSI. At the moment, we are sending all funds raised to the 171 Appeal. A friend, Steve Rafferty, has produced this booklet based on the 1944 GNR Carriage book and we in The Syndicate have funded its publication, with proceeds going to The 171 Fund. Cover picture on next post - fornicating computers! This book is in two parts - the first a near exact reproduction of the internal list given to GNR staff giving details of the Company's rolling stock. The second part gives new builds after 1944; major rebuilds; coaches acquired from Britain; the post war railcars; alterations made to carriages; disposal and withdrawal dates. A mine of information and a must for any GNR modeller! 32 pages of A4 (the original was A5, so this is a lot easier to read!). Trivial Pursuit question - which coach was built in 1918, was burnt, rebuilt, later had BUT connections and worked with the Cork breakdown crane - it survives!!!! You can find a picture of the cover on my Provincial Wagons website and can obtain one through me there, using the usual methods. Yours for Fiver (UK) or €7.50 in the Eurozone (sorry, the postage from the UK is criminally dear!), post paid. It will be on sale from 171 Appeal Stand (F16) at Warley for a fiver sterling - so if you're coming order it for collection! Get those orders in!! Thanks for looking Leslie

The previous answer is quite correct - the steam stock was split pretty well 50/50. Of course, CIE, with its growing fleet of diesels, made fairly little use of them. There exist photos of GN 0-6-0s in some fairly strange places in CIE days, but the truth must be told, - they were little used after 1962 and of course, CIE sold three S Class and the VS No.207 to the UTA in the early sixties. "Merlin" (my proposed loco at the moment) went to CIE and saw some notable use on extra trains right up to the end of steam. She worked the Thursday (?) shoppers' train from Dublin to Belfast right up to 1964, if memory serves. The obvious loco to make for CIE use is a "101" (J15 if you want to use that name). Lots of us have considered repainting a Dean Goods and pretending its a 101. There must be a chassis which would allow a resin body to be made which would offer a 186 or a 184? Not for me, as I want GN 0-6-0s, but maybe someone with the expertise out there might take up this baton? Leslie

The real reason to have a Time Machine would be to buy a second tank, while we had the chance. AND, No.207, of course! However, we we're to know that hyper-inflation was three years away in 1970 and that any loan would have been easy to repay with devalued currency. Having the faith to keep 207 in 1966 would have been a longer bet, but, boy, am I sorry someone didn't find a way to do it! Not a day goes past without me thinking about her! (207 - not my wife!) Leslie

I have to agree with John on the railcar blue. The correct blue is Oxford Blue - a very dark, glossy blue, I seem to remember. Imagine my delight to be travelling around China fifteen years ago behind Oxford blue and cream diesels - see the Bachmann DF10 Co-Co to see what I mean! All that said, John has made a good effort and if you haven't got a handmade set, it's a good substitute and available without waiting for over a year for someone to build you one! At first glance, the UTA green railcar looked the part! Leslie

Folks This repeats a reply to Heirflick on the GNR DMU string - I thought it would be more visible here and encourage more replies! I should also have said that it would be a resin body on the Hornby chassis - the beauty of this approach is that you have a loco which should run well on a proven chassis! I'm still searching for a suitable 0-6-0 donor chassis for an Irish 0-6-0! Leslie ______________ Possible Provincial Wagons loco? Well, "My Man" recently suggested using the Hornby Railroad Midland Compound as the basis for a GNR Compound. I'm not to so sure for a few reasons - SSM have an excellent kit of it - albeit that it will put you back over £400 by the time you get it built and painted; It would encourage people to demand coaches from me; I would prefer a small GN 0-6-0 to pull my wagons! That said, he quotes me about £200 for a RTR loco in primer - giving people the option of fully lined (expensive) blue or 1930s black! I'm seeking a painter who could do the blue lined livery well, then it could be a "runner"! If it's of interest to any of you, then e-mail me via my website - if there's enough interest, it would be hard to resist! Over to you guys - silence means no interest! Leslie

leslie, can you give any indication what it may be please? Possible Provincial Wagons loco? Well, "My Man" recently suggested using the Hornby Railroad Midland Compound as the basis for a GNR Compound. I'm not to so sure for a few reasons - SSM have an excellent kit of it - albeit that it will put you back over £400 by the time you get it built and painted; It would encourage people to demand coaches from me; I would prefer a small GN 0-6-0 to pull my wagons! That said, he quotes me about £200 for a RTR loco in primer - giving people the option of fully lined (expensive) blue or 1930s black! I'm seeking a painter who could do the blue lined livery well, then it could be a "runner"! If it's of interest to any of you, then e-mail me via my website - if there's enough interest, it would be hard to resist! Over to you guys - silence means no interest! Leslie

I'm very sorry to hear of Des's rather sudden passing. I had a letter from him a couple of months ago. He really was a fount of knowledge on rolling stock and always generous with his time to provide info. Every time I did a GN wagon, I would consult him to find out where it ended up in the great rolling stock diaspora in 1958. He provided drawings for both of my BCDR coal wagons. A bad day, as Bernard Holden - he of Bluebell Railway fame - also passed on at just 104 years old. Leslie

My dear Kirley I've had a three cars et for ten years now - built for me by the estimable Ivor Hughes. Haven't I put pics up on the site at some time? If someone will tell me how, I'll make you jealous! His BUT was pretty good too! Still, I'm glad to see the AEC "available" - they really started true dieselisation off in Ireland - even if in the sixties we hated the things as they were the harbingers of doom for our beloved steam engines. Remember that it was an AEC set which took over the Dublin-based "Enterprise" and knocked an early nail into the VS's coffins. Dave, Old Boy, you're in normal expansive mode, I see. They wouldn't have moved at all with three K15s in a set! That said, is John doing the K15s separately? I may have a Provincial Wagons engine needing coaches in the Spring. Leslie

I agree that the Rotem looked very good in the orange. A pity IE don't realise that! If you attend exhibitions here in the South of England (that's the big place next door!) you may have seen an A4 in Virgin livery and a Spam Can in SWT livery! Nightmare! However, the Jinty ran "up North" so none of this repainting it in black and tan! Leslie

Charlie / Arran - your containers look excellent - well done. As for the 20 ft flats - Provincial Wagons plans a version of the 20ft skeleton flat that CIE built for this traffic. It isn't planned to be an absolute scale model, but an insert which will go into an existing Dapol chassis - we will supply them RTR, painted and numbered. I'll keep you all up to date with progress. However, I have "My Man" working hard on another two GNR wagons first - sorry but I can't see beyond 1958 where my own layout is concerned (mind you, I do have these Murphy diesels and need something for them to pull!). Charlie - the RPSI has a CIE "Orange" container out the back of the engine shed at Whitehead. They seem to have been everywhere in the '60s, so you know what to do to make a lot more guys happy! Keep up the good work. Leslie

Just to say that I will be there as well! I will have good supplies of my GNR 9 ton van and my new (Dapol) fitted conflat with beer tanks aboard. If you haven't seen my CIE version of the GNR 20 ton brake - that will be on show as well. Looking forward to seeing you there. As always, I take sterling or Euros (my wife seems to be able to spend the latter with ease!). Leslie

Sorry, I've no idea. A website suggests that the nickname refers to the aluminium kegs which replaced the wooden casks in the late 1950s. Keep the votes coming on the short versus long Guinness tub wagon, please - a lot of votes will convince me to do it sooner! Leslie

The longer chassis seems to be just as strong as the short one, so never fear on that score! Leslie

John (and everyone) Van about £26 (roughly €35) which includes postage in Europe and yes, it can be supplied unletetred! See my full reply in the Provincial Wagons section under manufacturers. Thanbks Leslie

John If you send me your e-mail address to lesliemcallister@aol.com - I'll send you a photo which may interest you of a certain private owner beer van. Anyone else interested can do the same - it's not on my website for fairly obvious reasons! My 9 ton van is NOT an IRCH van - this one is a rebuild the GNR did 1941 right up to the end of the railway in 1957 - using existing ironwork - there were about 600 such rebuilds. The IRCH van, if I am not mistaken, was a ten ton capacity van, built to Dundalk Diagram No.13 dated 1921. This is described in the wagon book as a "Standard" van, I think referring to the IRCH. The good news is that it is next on my list, as I like a bit of variety in my trains! "My Man" - that is my excellent modeller - tells me he can do one fairly easily. It's slightly longer at 16ft 11ins, whereas the 9 ton job is 15ft 2ins. As for doing them in different liveries - no problem, IF I can get some photographic evidence of how they were lettered! People simply didn't photograph goods trains or wagons and we are all in the debt of those who did! I buy every wagon photo I see at fairs etc - all evidence is of use! By the way, doing my existing van in CIE colours is easy - we just add a snail and lightly paint out the "GN" - thats' what CIE did. They didn't last long, I suspect, as CIE had been building better steel vans for five years or so when they took over Ireland's Premier Line - there is history that they got rid of all things GNR asap! Leslie

In reply to Dave's point about the chassis plus insert (for that is what they are) being used for other purposes - watch this space! We plan a skeleton flat as built by CIE and suitable for a standard 20ft container. I might even do a model of the orange CIE container to go on it - I photographed the "preserved" RPSI one out the back of Whitehead shed! This is all a bit of distraction and nothing to do with the GNR, which is what I really want! However, if enough of you guys want enough of them, I'll oblige - sales of my previous CIE wagons are not such as to encourage me away from the home interest, where I have no trouble selling a hundred wagons of any type, including my handmade brakevans. Before the tub wagon goes ahead, I need feedback on preferred length. To date, only Dave has commented. The longer version is nearer to the prototype, but the short one looks OK? Please tell me! Thanks Leslie (An Official Reply to a Provisional Question)

Price will not exceed £26, say €35 inclusive of postage, which is getting rather expensive - I'll probably sell them a little cheaper at exhibitions, if and when I attend them. Supplying folk with an unlettered version is no problem, if they want to letter them differently. I'm not sure that the MGWR would have such a "modern" - looking van, but you are right about the convertibles, with the half-open roof. Supplies are just coming on stream and I am about to send out the first examples. Let me know your needs and how many, then I can adjust the prices in line with postage costs - more wagons usually go cheaper! Leslie

Sorry, definitely two tubs to a flat! The GNR carried these tubs two to a flat (with drop sides) specially built for the traffic in 1952. I have a photograph taken in UTA days of a goods with a string of them at the front. My CIE flat is based on a few photos taken by Joyce Topley, a senior UTA operations manager, who photographed one of these off the tracks in the 1960s! There are clearly two tubs on the lfats involved and there is a little wlakway between them, hence the stretched prototype shown earlier.