Mol_PMB

In my notes I have 14 A class in green with waist line (including A46 in dark green), and 24 in plain green. For the C class, 8 green with waist line, and 12 in plain green. So the plain green was a bit more common, but not by much. There may have been a few more which I haven't found photos of in the relevant era. Some locos in each class never carried green, going straight from silver to black or black and tan. The more significant missing livery from the IRM A class models was black with roundel and small numbers at the base of the sides. Fortunately, not too hard to produce from the A55 model in the early plan black scheme.

Indeed - light green with waist line was one of the A class liveries that IRM didn't do, but was moderately common. Looks like it's hauling a block train of cement vans in that photo. A short container in an open wagon is just visible on the left too. Several photos show these loaded at one end of the wagon, which is what it looks like here.

I took the ship photo about 2 miles from home, just lucky with the weather. In the background is the unique swing aqueduct that carries the Bridgewater Canal over the Manchester Ship Canal. There’a also Barton Road swingbridge adjacent. Part of the MSC railway system ran under the swing bridges and along the bank where the trees are, on the left of the pic. ‘Deo Gloria’ is but a humble dredger.

Many thanks - good to know that a GNR 20t van was in Cork for a while. I expect they were a fair bit newer than the GSWR and CBSCR vans which were still around. The GNR opens and goods vans seem to have got everywhere (as one might expect). Somewhere I found a photo of a bogie Guinness grain van at Albert Quay.

Very good models indeed, and a nice match to Roger’s photo!

I always struggle to resist a 'bargain' even if it's not quite what I need. I've been offered an unbuilt SSM kit for a GNR brake van at a good price. I've built one already in NIR condition, but can I justify one in Cork or Kerry around 1960? Well there are plenty of photos of them in the 1960s in the Dublin area and on the former GNR lines, but very few elsewhere. I was sure I'd seen one photo in the south west. It had escaped being listed in my wagon image index. After about an hour of searching, I've found it again. So I thought I'd post it here as well as adding it to my index: This is from the Cork Digital Archive, the Dermot McCarthy collection. The location is Drimoleague and the date 30/11/1960. Ahead of a vintage CBSCR(?) van is a GNR van freshly repainted in CIE livery. https://corkdigitalarchive.ie/items/show/1918 Did these GNR brake vans get around on the GSWR routes post-1958 or is this a rarity? A couple of nice images of the GNR vans in the Dublin area for comparison, from Roger Joanes and Ernie on Flickr:

I don’t think either Sambo or Negro would be acceptable these days. The GSWR did choose some strange names for their locos.

Speaking of books, is Loughrea available yet?

184 seems to have had numerous paint jobs in green, I think these are mostly in chronological order... (photos from IRRS, Roger Joanes, Ernie, Jonathan Allen and hgricer, all linked from Flickr) CJG_GSWR_184_Goresbridge_9_July_1960 | [Photographer: Chris … | Flickr JPS_GSWR_184_Broadstone_18_Sept_1960 (4) | [Photographer: Jo… | Flickr PoB_GSWR_184_Inchicore_l1960s | [Photographer: Paddy O’Brien… | Flickr

Imagine number 4 like that but a slightly lighter shade of blue and different letters on the side. Doubt it would go down well at Whitehead though...

Hopefully we'll hear that whistle again before too long! Nice view of the brake van roof details, and the unpainted interior of an open wagon behind.

Dark skies and sunshine in autumn - I'll claim this is what I intended for Quartertown, rather than what I ended up with: (my pic)

I confess that the sky has come out a bit darker than I had intended - I'm now thinking of it as a threatening stormy sky. It is autumn on the model so a storm is plausible. However, lighting has a big influence - many of these photos are taken in rather gloomy artificial light. In due course I'm intending to install some lighting on the layout itself. Most of the building rooves along the backscene will be dark (black corrugated iron or dark slates). I'm hoping they will help to make the sky look a bit lighter in comparison. Too big a colour contrast there might be a bad thing. My big Swiss layout in the garage has a plain, very pale blue sky but sometimes there's too much contrast between the layout and the sky colour. I'm just making excuses really - I mixed too much black into the white paint!

I decided that one was too expensive to post here and risk the wrath of those in the Eurozone! The dark green ones seem scarcer secondhand than the light green, but more sought-after (despite being very much in the minority prototypically). Not one I'll be bidding on. There don't seem to be many Irish bargains around at this time of year. This might be of interest to some, the price isn't silly yet: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/366033351203

Yesterday I went to the O gauge show in Wigan, which was worth a visit for the number of small traders, and an opportunity to browse the Squires stall at leisure without a crowd. I stocked up on quite a lot of scenic items and a few tools. There were also some very nice small layouts, and I was able to take inspiration from the way they were presented. I particularly liked this one, which (albeit in O gauge) is similar in size and composition to my Quartertown Mill: Today I have made some progress on the layout backscene and the mill building. The layout now has some painted birch tree trunks (still awaiting foliage). In front of these will be some homemade sea moss trees (which I'm also working on) and then in the foreground I'll use the Primo trees. So there will be a gradual progression in quality. The old mill now has a roof and a few other details. It's nearly there now, still a few details to add and some more weathering. And of course the canopy which will mostly hide the lower (whitewashed) part. This building is going to be partly hidden behind others, perhaps I've put too much effort into it? But I've enjoyed making it. Here it is placed in situ:

Ah, a "Safe Place". I've made that mistake a few times too.

Very nice - an unusual prototype, very well modelled, and some imaginative photos too. I like this!

There's one of 74 at Omagh in the IRRS archive: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54252086027

Superb - I love the detailing especially the interior.

That's really looking the part. Nice job on the painting and weathering.

Thanks! It's a big project of mine, but a slow burner and I keep getting distracted onto different things. The model is Om scale, and there's a thread on it over on RMweb: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/184135-the-broc-branch-in-om-scale-an-ambitious-project-that-stalled-for-a-decade-but-is-now-reawakening/ The prototype is the Swiss line from Bulle to Broc-Fabrique (a chocolate factory), metre-gauge for most of its life, including the 1980s period I'm modelling, when it was operated by GFM. From the 1950s to the 1980s, transporter wagons were used for the freight. They then changed to transporter bogies, used until the 2010s. The line has now been regauged to standard and lost much of its character, and there's no longer any freight! I've got quite a few transporter wagons of different lengths, based on the mix of second-hand vehicles bought by the GFM in the 1950s and 1960s:

A little display of models at the IRRS Manchester Christmas meet: Mine in the background, Richard’s in the foreground. He’s got some lovely models!

Not much to report, a little more progress on assembling the mill building, and my tree order has arrived. this isn’t the final placing for the trees, indeed I may put one at the other end of the layout These professionally-made ones will be in the foreground, backed by a couple of homemade seamoss trees and then painted ones on the backscene. I’ll try to keep them all in a similar autumn colour palette.

Wow, super work. There’s no way I can keep up with your pace - I’ve been working on one building for a fortnight.