Mol_PMB

Welcome to the forum and feel free to ask questions! I also have fond memories of the Limerick, Clare, Cork and Kerry areas, though from numerous holidays rather than living there. Here are a selection of books which are predominantly picture albums, and which include the area and time period that you mention: Some of these cover the whole island of Ireland, and the books covering the 1960s can over-represent the GNR and UTA/NIR because steam lasted longer there, so people took more photos. Nevertheless there are some nice southern photos in them too. Others cover specific lines - the 'Rails Through...' series is excellent (though can be hard to get hold of): the photos are mostly the 1970s-1990s period so some may be a bit late for you. The 'Railways in Ireland' series are a mix of text and pictures, rather than just a picture album. They're geographically focused though - there are 4 volumes in total. Of course there are also many superb books which are more focused on the history of each line, predominantly text and many of the pictures in them tend to be earlier than your preferred period. I haven't shown those, but if you're interested then Ernie Shepherd has written some nice ones including (in your area) those on the WL&WR and CB&SCR, while Alan O'Rourke wrote a book on the North Kerry. Most of these books are out of print but available secondhand online.

Good question, they're shown as 2025 Q2 on the status page, but not in transit yet, so I hope they have a fast ship! https://www.accurascale.com/pages/projects

Arguably they have been reopened - on the LUAS green line - and have been given variants of their old names. But a good thought. What was the logic for which stations were given 1916 names - they're not all termini, and not all termini were thus named. Maybe there are other stations that could gain a name?

Thanks Stephen, they do turn out nicely! The body and underframe (but not the W-irons) is a one-piece 3D printed part. This is superbly detailed inside and out, and with the best surface finish I've seen on a 3D print. The 'distressing' of some planks was done by me; the body as supplied is pristine. Then there are two sets of 3D printed W-iron rocking cradles, one for each wheelset, which can be fixed rigidly or pivoted in the middle on a piece of wire. They can be supplied for 21mm or 16.5mm gauge. As supplied they represented grease axleboxes, and I modified them to the newer oil lubricated type (including one with its cover missing). Smaller 3D printed parts include buffers and brake blocks, but I chose to replace those with castings. There is also an etch for the brake handles and guides. The door banger springs weren't included - I made them from nickel silver strip. When my next two arrive, I'll try to remember to photograph what's in the box before I start messing with it! The are currently 3 Irish wagons available in the Pre-Grouping Railways range and they can be bought in 4mm or 7mm scale. The proprietor intends to gradually widen the Irish range. His own Irish interests are primarily DNGR / GNR, but many of the GNR wagons were very similar to GSWR / MGWR / GSR vehicles so the kits can be used to represent southern wagons too. Of course the GNR wagons got everywhere too.

Thanks Jonathan, I hope you don't mind me re-linking it. As mentioned elsewhere, that relatively late date would explain the removal of the vac brake equipment although the signwriter hasn't yet updated the lettering.

I found this photo elsewhere on the forum but I have mislaid the original source I'm afraid. Anyway, it's an oddity of an H van. 18638 is one of the batch of vans apparently built vac-fitted, and the handwheel brake would support that. Although it says 'Vac Brake' on the side there is no sign of a vacuum brake cylinder or any vac pipes. It also seems to have had half its brake linkage removed; as a fitted van it would have had 8-shoe clasp brakes but in the photo it has 4-shoe brakes inboard of the wheels. This would have required some significant modifications to the brake linkage. Another possible variant that could be created from an IRM H van! It also appears to have extended buffers (like a former green H van) but it is not one of the vans allegedly painted green.

A bit more progress on the two wooden wagons. I've done most of the pre-painting, just a dirty wash still to do: Then I'll add the top coat of grey paint before taking most of it off again to reveal the tatty woodwork and rusty metalwork underneath! I've ordered two more of these Pre-Grouping Railways kits, another 6-plank and a 4-plank, which will be done as former GNR wagons rather than the GSR and MGWR variants seen here. There are only minor differences between the prototypes.

I can certainly recommend some books and I probably have over 200 Irish railway books in my collection to pick from! Have you a particular interest North/South, prefer colour images, etc? But first, have you explored the Irish Railway Record Society Flickr albums? They have nearly 30,000 Irish railway photos, many from the 1960s and 1970s. You have to be an IRRS member to view them, but the membership cost is perhaps the same as 2 or 3 books would cost, so in terms of price per photo you'll get a much better deal! Also on Flickr, and free, Ernie has some great Irish albums with a few thousand photos at least: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/albums

Many thanks John, that's most interesting. @Rob R has also been in touch with me and may be able to source a copy of a drawing. I was also looking at the HMRS drawing list including that GSWR 1917 van which sounds interesting but as you say it's not long enough. I did note that the HMRS have a good number of Irish drawings in their collection.

Maybe you need to arrange a midnight visit to Cultra with a guerrilla gang of painters and signwriters? I am plotting a visit to Northern Ireland in late August to hopefully visit Cultra, Whitehead and Downpatrick. I'll take a tape measure. I know that both John and Leslie are refocusing away from offering wagon kits, but Marc Dobson at Pre-Grouping Railways is considering increasing his range of Irish wagon kits and a 'Big Boy' might make a nice addition to his range without duplicating what's been produced before. I looked for 'Big Boy' vans in the Fry collection but didn't see any - he did make several other types of GSR and CIE vans. I enjoyed the welcome video Fry's liveries generally look more plausible that Cultra's, though the silver Park Royal coach was a surprise! Do you have an approximate date for the changeover between eau-de-nil and white lettering on the vans, or was it a bit random? Some pics of Fry's models of CIE goods vans, not 'Big Boys':

Agreed, it has a conventional underframe so it is probably one of the immediate predecessors of the H van introduced in 1946.

I wonder if the van preserved at Cultra is a variant of the ‘Big Boy’? Although the bodywork is quite different in style, it seems to have the same proportions. The underframe looks the same, unusually long compared to its wheelbase. Photo on Flickr by Adrian Roche: Perhaps I need to go to Cultra with a tape measure?

This photo from Ernie shows another 'Big Boy' van standing high over the adjacent H vans: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/51686535379 I'm still hoping to find a drawing or diagram for one of these, as I think they would make an interesting contrast to the IRM H vans and the other types available in kit form. The IRRS archive doesn't seem to include GSWR wagon diagrams though.

Yes, that’s the right mix for the mid 1970s. At the start of the 1970s grey would predominate and some wagons would still have flying snails, while by the end of the 1970s the traditional unfitted goods trains had ceased, apart from seasonal beet traffic and occasional engineers’ trains. If you have a mix of fitted and unfitted wagons, you might think that the fitted ones should be next to the loco so their vacuum brakes could be used, but in Irish practice they could be anywhere in the train, with the vac brakes usually not connected. Most traditional freight trains were marshalled to make shunting easier, rather than to maximise brake power.

Many thanks for the info and stories! Interesting to hear that smallish consignments of newspapers went as parcels too. In about 2001 I was travelling from Limerick to Cork and accidentally left one of my bags on the shuttle train at the junction. I realised as soon as I was on the Cork train, and spoke to the guard who contacted Limerick. When the shuttle got back there, they found the bag, and sent it by Fastrack to Cork, for me to collect a few hours later. All at no cost to me - excellent service! For some reason I kept the Fastrack label and I found it a couple of days ago amongst some other things. That prompted the question. Cheers, Mol