leslie10646

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.