RichL

There are a few photos of Terenure in Aidan Cruise's book https://localstudies.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/the-dublin-and-blessington-steam-tram/ The quality of reproduction of the photos is rather poor though. You can see a track plan by browsing the Irish OS maps site and download a PDF if required. http://www.osi.ie In general there seem to be very few photos of any of the line - especially bearing in mind that it was close to Dublin and a real curiosity! Maybe it just closed too soon.

Thanks JHB I found the photo somewhere on the web a year or three ago. Sorry, but I can't remember where. Probably found it completely by accident, as I often do when looking for something totally different The photo is quite possibly taken on delivery as everything looks brand new.

I re-read the IRS Drewry book details on the D&B railcar. The specification given to Drewry included a requirement to carry 35 passengers. Was the seating capacity changed during construction of the body, or later I wonder?

Thanks for that additional information. I was guessing that the seating would originally have been wooden slatted reversible seats. Wrong again! This railcar must have seemed really luxurious compared with the double deck loco hauled trailers on the D&B! I was trying to work out how I could identify which end was which from photos. It is easy once the roof rack appears, but not before - except perhaps when the starting handle is visible. I eventually realised that the medium sized saloon windows are not the same size and are assembled in a different order on each side of the railcar. I worked it out by correcting the perspective in Photoshop. Basically window A is shorter than window B on this side of the car. On the other side of the car, windows A and B are the other way round - i.e the narrower pane (A) is on the right, next to the very narrow one. Window A plus the narrow window at the RHS plus the window frame width is the same length as one of the big panes. It shows most obviously with the toplights. I have double checked this with several photos and I am pretty confident I am right. I suppose the only way to prove it absolutely would be to measure the vehicle itself. The width of window B is about half way between between window A and the wider panes. I really ought to find something meaningful to do in life

Thanks for that JHB/Andy. I am puzzled by this car for several reasons. At first it all seemed quite simple, but the more I look into it the more questions I have! For instance, a friend showed me an interior drawing of one of the West Clare Drewrys which I thought would be all 2+2 seating with a central aisle, but it seems it was not all that way. There were bench seats at the ends facing into the car and two rows of double length seats just in from one of the doors were back to back, covering the engine. Ok this was a 4-wheel railcar built slightly later, but it makes you think! The D&B car also has an odd entrance arrangement with the recessed doors, which doesn't quite seem to fit with a regular 2+2 arrangement somehow. I guess the engine was at one end, between the driver and the passenger entrance, but I can't be sure. Why did they need a separate door for the driver? Was it because the engine was in the way? Was there a driver's door originally at both ends? It is so easy to make assumptions! There was a family of these 2-4-2 railcars, with one for the Kalka Simla railway and several for Tasmania. There were excellent large scale detailed drawings of the Kalka Simla car published in 'The Engineer', including a sectional plan of the chassis showing the controls and other details. This is a smaller vehicle than the D&B one and had a semi-open body supplied by Drewry, with seating right across the car and separate doors for each row of seats. The driver and engine were in a separate compartment at the front. The Tasmanian ones were all bodied in Tasmania, but they too had a quite large separate compartment for the driver and the engine. The D&B car had a smaller engine than the others. If the worst comes to the worst I will have to brainwash myself, or at least pretend I didn't find all these things out - that way I can model the railcar with all 2+2 seating with a clear conscience

I now have the CDR companion book on order, so at least I will get sight of one interior shot. Three versions sounds very good!

Hi I am really interested in whatever the original layout was, but any history of changes, or details of its later state might help. I guess the railcar was refurbished inside at one point, because the recent seating looks like it is out of a bus or something, from what I have been told.

I have now been told there is a photo in 'The County Donegal Railways Companion. I will get hold of a copy and see what I can find.

Unfortunately, I am the wrong side of the Irish Sea, but a visit there might yet be necessary. Thanks for your suggestion.

Hi there, Does anyone know the interior layout for this car, preferably before it became a trailer, please? With all that glass, the interior would be very obvious in a model. I want to get it right, if possible. Many thanks in anticipation. Rich

Thanks Andy. I was thinking that an EM version of Irish gauge would need to be sub-21mm though, as EM wheels are wider than prototype - rather like EM is 18.2mm instead of 18.83.

What if you don't feel confident about P4 standards - is there an Irish equivalent of EM standards that people use?

A rail tunnel from Ireland to the UK would boost rail freight, but not much chance of that I presume?

Maybe it was for some kind of crane. They came in all sorts of wide gauges.