StevieB

A September 1944 scene on the quayside at Wexford sees J15 Class 0-6-0 No 133 making its way to Wexford North with a mixed train of passenger and goods stock from Rosslare Harbour. All of the 6-wheel carriages are in the Great Southern Railway’s maroon livery and the first vehicle is a TPO van. Just visible beside No 133’s tender is a ground frame which controlled access to a parallel siding on the quay, enabling cargo to be transferred between ships and wagons. Apart from a donkey cart there is a distinct lack of road vehicles, unlike tiday.

The original is a John Macartney Robbins photo in Classic Irish Steam published by the IRRS. Stehen

I’ll watch progress with interest, your South Waterford line was inspirational. Stephen

Wow what a beauty. It’s a shame the market is not big enough to mass produce. Stephen

I assume that’s the November issue. Stephen

The middle photo featuring only the cattle wagons blew me away. Only the couplings give it away as not the real thing. Brilliant modelling. Stephen

With the imminent completion of the double tracking of the the line to Midleton, we’ll have to see how the case for re-opening of the line onwards to Youghal deals with the greenway currently occupying the alignment. The greenway should have been built to allow reinstatement of the line on half of the double track alignment but I doubt it. Stephen

Sligo had two platforms, one signalled for arrivals and the other for departures. Did this change later on or was it simply a mistake to say that, after running round, the train was propelled into the arrival platform? Mayner continues to be a mine of information. Stephen.

Paul’s rendition of the summer 1959 timetable was most interesting and enlightening. I did a similar exercise when the SLNCR was still running its freight and passenger trains to and from Enniskillen, even more train movements. Stephen

You continue to feed us lovely photos of the old Irish railway network. Long may it continue. Stephen

I have a couple of Silver Fox 101’s and I am very pleased with them. They are very heavy with excellent slow running. Stephen

Heljan, Accurascale’s recent acquisition, produce a model of the GWR diesel railcar, the forerunner to the GNR/CIE railcars. Bearing this in mind, maybe Heljan should be looking into the Irish variant. Stephen

Wasn’t the RPSI preserved 121 painted in this livery for a brief period of time? Stephen

The triple track west of Waterford was originally two tracks towards Limerick Junction and one towards Dublin. In later years there were three single lines towards Dublin, Limerick Junction and Mallow. The latter period would have been a lovely one to model to just watch trains go by. Stephen

A nice piece of fiction but very convincing. Stephen