Horsetan

That really is quite something.

The ones I looked at appeared to be very black. As black as a priest's socks (which should be really black, and not actually just a very very very very very very very very very very dark blue).

Album updated

Stumbled across a huuuuuuge collection of colour photos on Flickr, posted by the intriguingly-named "MajorCalloway". Amongst them are a small, but significant number of railway photos, including a gloomy platform shot inside Kingsbridge Station, circa 1961. Also this one at Dun Laoghaire.

They are mostly from the 1960s and 1970s, but there are some late '50s pics in there as well.

Click here to view the album

Kindly note that I accept no responsibility for wallowing in nostalgia

Now all it needs is the Irish talent for improvisation.....

There was a copy of this for sale at the IRRS meeting last night, oddly enough.

More photos to follow, so do keep checking the album - I think I took about thirty pics or so.

Get Des to stick the commission cheque in the post!

I'll quite happily settle for a *kof*"V", "800" or "J15" kit *kof* in lieu

`

 

Ivan,

 

I very much appreciate that

 

Thanks a million,

 

Regards

Des

SSM needs more exposure.

I was able to give SSM's contact details out, as a couple of people showed interest in the "S" class and SSM kits in general.

Photos of anything interesting please!

I have opened up a new album here, and have started to upload some of the many photos that I was allowed to take during the course of the evening.

IRRS London area meetings now take place on the first floor (known as The Cellar ) of The Exmouth Arms pub, at 1 Starcross Street NW1, virtually next door to the old British Rail Collectors Corner premises, and a brick's throw away from Euston Station. As one of three non-members present, we were made very welcome, and membership forms came as part of the experience!!

The evening was a talk led by Leslie McAllister (with Richard McLachlan - the Inchicore drawings man - on PowerPoint) on how far Irish railway modelling has come - some of the slides showing what had previously been available to the average Tom, Dick and Declan were a bit like reading "Humanae Vitae"! Leslie's presentation covered everything from the days of C.B. Fry and Drew Donaldson, and the late 1940s "O" gauge show layouts commissioned by CIE and the former NCC/UTA respectively. The late Tony Miles and his peerless "Adavoyle Junction" got a mention - it seems that the lads at South Dublin MRC still haven't fully worked out what the layout can do! The involvement of Hornby, Lima and then Bachmann into Irish waters, plus all the many kits, leading to Paddy Murphy's ongoing investment in specifically Irish RTR models - an investment which must run into the hundreds of thousands of pounds since tooling up for a new model is never cheap.

One amusing point about the talk was the very tight timing in the best traditions of the Belfast-Dublin Enterprise - at one point it was reckoned Leslie was a whole two minutes behind schedule, so he "notched up" and finished two minutes early!

A selection of models had been brought along, Leslie appearing to struggle to get his DCC controls underway, and marvelling at the sounds emitted by his own NIR-liveried diesel. He says it was bought to keep his grandson amused, but I do wonder - and two of Richard Chown's "O" gauge engines were also present, as was the man himself.

A fairly lively AGM then followed after the break.

I thought the whole thing was convivial, especially under the influence of Guinness. You could even buy a selection of books, so I took home a copy of "Steaming In Three Centuries"....which happens to have been co-written by Leslie.

Quite a few photos....

Here I am, at the meeting. Highly entertaining. My "S" class is also in attendance! Although not a member of the IRRS, I have been allowed to hover in the background whilst the AGM is underway.

The great thing about "N" is the sheer volume and area that you can cram into a given space.

How will you be recreating the signalling?

..... anyone know did anything like her ever run over here, north or south?

Not North, but I'd be inclined to think along MGWR or GSWR lines....

Leaving aside problems actually getting the €9.99 fare for the moment, has anyone else noticed in Irish Rail's current TV advert that the last announcement is for 'the 9.99 train to Dublin is leaving from platform 6'. Which station outside of Dublin has a platform 6?

Isn't this all meant to be an impossibility?

...Wait and see what people think after Thursday - silence will tell you all you need to know!

 

Must get the talk finished!

Hope to drop in, with "S" class bits (if I remember).....

.... I think I would want to replace / recharge battery power with power from the rails. ....

That option already exists: it's called DC!!

Less of this talk of groupies, I'm in enough trouble with my wife!

'Cos ye're worth it?

Mr Clare, you will be most welcome in London, you'll be fleeced financially at the door! Theoretically it's a fiver for non-members, but as it's a AGM night and you only get a half evening, chuck a few quid in the pot. Just don't tell our chairman I told you that. We DO need the fiver on most evenings, as we have a lot of speakers over from Ireland.

Ryanair package deal.

I was trying to trace the route of the Clifden line from Galway Station up to the site of the Corrib Viaduct. It is impossible.

I think the number on the tank side reads "6 A", if indeed that is a number. The wheelbase resembles that of the old Stephenson "long boiler" class 1275(?) goods engine from the Stockton & Darlington.

What really confuses me are the pannier-like tanks, and what appear to be chopper couplings.

At the moment, I'm thinking it's from the Wrexham Mold and Connah's Quay Railway, which did run some very strange engines with wheelbases like that in the photo.....

If Leslie did a Tour, would he be expecting a Road Crew and .......Groupies?

The only thing that would get laid would be track.

So it can pull a rake of non-existant rtr beet wagons silly.

*facepalm*

....We'll have some models on display as well. ....

If allowed to "drop in", I might bring along the bits of the "S" class build

Why would you want your powered 121 to waste some of its haulage power in towing a dummy unit?

I wouldn't pay any attention to what the railway press has to say (with the possible exception of the Railway Magazine) .....

It was the Railway Magazine report I was referring to.

NBL, Hyde Park Works?