ttc0169

Nice one Eamonn-stick up a video please at some stage of the loco in action on Ballyhyland.

Ahh Sean....well it would have been nice...and who knows maybe someone will donate €10.000 to repaint one in the future....

Well done Eamonn-looking great,semaphore signals,level crossing gates,071s and cement and passenger-a typical DSER scene, Hope you have many hours of fun operating all that variety.

Thanks lads,it's great to have the 071s and the BELL containers

Great to see 077 let loose on trial, Thanks to Wanderer,GM233 and Mr Church for the exclusive pictures, It's only a matter of time before 071 and 078 will join 077 on the trial run.

Great picture there Noel where would the signal box have been situated in that photo. What was throwing me off was I've been looking at photos of Ballina with its one platform. Would both platforms be the same length or one short one long The signal box is located on the loop platform to the right of the footbridge-and before the platform extentions took place as part of the Mini CTC-both platforms were about 90m in length, Check out page 103 of"Rails to the West"for a photo of the former down platform and footbridge at Ballina taken in 1974-before it was remodelled the following year.

. What I would like to know from you guys is a typical Irish Station with a passing loop would it have one or two platforms. The track closest the camera is the passing line also would the signal box be near the station and would there be more than one signal box considering there is also a freight yard one box for the yard and one for the mainline/passing loop Nice work Anthony-would this photo be of any help to you? It's a typical West of Ireland station before the Mini CTC was introduced.

An A class in Supertrain livery with working headlights and marker lights along with four Park royal coaches fitted with interior lighting would be top of my wish list, As for some freight wagons then the bogie fertiliser wagons and the Ballina-Foynes coal and oil two axle wagons would also be great, They would all look great behind the A class.

On average between 18-22 lorry loads of timber come into either Ballina or Westport stations on a day that a timber train is being loaded,but bear in mind that some of the timber is stockpiled beside the train while some others are loaded directly onto the train so an accurate figure for truck load directly to train can't be given, It also depends on the distance the truck has to travel from the forestry to the railhead-e.g cut logs in Connemara travels to Westport while north Sligo/Leitrim has gone to Ballina. As of this evening there is a large stockpile of timber at Westport station which would probably fill five wagons, The first of the trucks will start to arrive from 06:00 tomorrow and may finish up to 23:00 tomorrow evening.

Anthony,076 along with 078 were the only 071s to have the small IE logo applied on the bodyside, If you have the excellent book-"Irish railways traction and travel-third edition" by the ITG-go to page 66 where you will see a colour photo of 076 with the small logo on the bodyside It's coupled to a beet train at Carrick on Suir taken in October 1994

This article should be well worth a read as it was done by John Heaton involving timing the 201 hauled Northwall-Ballina IWT liner,the 2800 working the Ballina branch,and the Westport-Waterford laden timber train.

Well done to Donal for another excellent exhibition,It was great to meet up with the lads again-(the after party in the hotel was good too),, It was also great to finally meet Walter who had a nice selection of items on show-the fine backscences took my eye along with many others, Congrats and well done to all the winners,all the layouts were looking-and sounding well, Looking forward to next year.

Looks great Tom-a lot of work put in to it,I'll be in touch when you finalise the price etc..

Evening gents, After attending a very successful Wexford model rail exhibition,well done Donal, I came away with locos 073 and 080,which again are very impressive models, After fitting a DCC chip into them and detailing the front of the locos,it was time to put them to work, 080 is seen here ex works with an empty timber train while a suitably weathered 073 works the bogie bulk cement and finally 086 operated light engine and 088 is the carriage pilot loco. 080 073 080 and 088 080,086 and 088.

Nice one Kieran-well done.

Great job Anthony,I like 078-really effective weathering.

Great videos Sean.

Thanks lads, Another recently refurbished wagon is 30235 which is a 47'wagon-seen here in Claremorris yesterday-loco 222 was the motive power, The standard of refurbished wagons being turned out at Limerick wagon works has improved a lot. 30235.

234 was observed shunting the timber train into position for loading of the rear wagons at Westport station this morning, In the formation was recently refurbished timber wagon 30522. 234. 30522.

UICs only Fran.

Fran-the refurbished locos won't have any grab irons fitted-what you see is what your getting......

Thanks Sean, Here is a video