Mol_PMB

Inspired by some recent uploads to the IRRS Flickr archive, I thought I'd take another look at the summer Sunday excursion trains to Fenit. Normal passenger services had ceased between the wars and the branch was on the verge of total closure in the 1940s. But after the pier and freight services saw a resurgence in the 1950s, the passenger services came back, with the first one running on 21 June 1959. On busy days (fine weather for the beach) there could be three round trips daily. They only ran on summer Sundays and ceased around 1973. Still, that's a 15-year period of regular, if infrequent, passenger traffic. The 1967 working timetable (the oldest one I have) shows a 1015 Cork-Fenit arriving at 1330, then returning at 1815 to be back in Cork at 2135. This ran on Sundays from 18th June until 3rd September. I'll think about the railtours later - there were at least four. The photos of the 'green era' Sunday services I've found so far are as follows: 1959: Alan O'Rourke's book 'The North Kerry Line' p.241 shows an AEC set headed by 2606 on the Fenit branch in summer 1959 21 August 1960: At least two excursion trains came to Fenit, and the station was quite congested! One was a 6-piece AEC railcar set including 2601 from Castleisland. The other train from Cork was formed of C212 hauling 4 bogie coaches and a 6-wheel van. Fortunately a couple of IRRS members were there (on the train from Castleisland) to record the occasion and the shunt moves: http://www.mainevalleypost.com/2021/02/12/castleisland-railway-reminescenses-from-august-21-1960/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54253392935/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54253392940/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54252110532/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54252073152/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54253211714/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54253198678/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54253198698/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54252110497/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54253391920/ 22nd July 1962: C232 hauled the train from Cork with a tin van and 3 bogie coaches: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419865335 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419669699 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54418615712 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54256976078/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54257001693 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419722693 I don't know the date of this one but it's likely to be early 1960s as well. A train of 4 bogies and 2 tin vans: Each of the loco-hauled trains includes at least one old panelled coach among CIE stock and Park Royals, plus some sort of brake van. That's all I've got for the green era, but I think it's enough to give a flavour of the trains; I'll do another post for the black and tan era.

Decals arrived today, and are already applied and varnished over. From John Peck of Precision decals this little custom sheet cost £4 including postage. Bargain! I thought while I was getting green decals I'd have some done for a Deutz as well. That was before Ciaran posted this photo and I realised that I've got the colouring of the diamond wrong. I based it on the black livery as until yesterday I didn't have a closeup photo of the cab back of a silver G. Doh! No-one but me will notice I'm sure... https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419865730

But are they full of Accurascale products? How many packs of wagons did you buy?

You're right, an astute observation that such photos are unusual. Super to see the trains in the landscape rather than just close-up! It's great to see the whole train formation rather than just the loco (even if in some cases it is just a loco or loco+van). The 10-12 coach trains are impressive, some with lots of livery variation and others remarkably consistent. A few more nice ones: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54418626352 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419733333 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419680904 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419680949 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419680914 There's even a nice 'train in landscape' shot on the Fenit branch, with a typical Sunday excursion train in the early 1960s - a C class with a tin van and 3 assorted gangwayed bogie coaches: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419865335 I think the normal Cork-Tralee sets were used through to Fenit. They only ran in the summer so no need for a heating van. Very modellable...

Indeed. There are about 50 photos in and around Portadown in the latest upload, including this nice AEC set passing some of your GN vans (vac fitted versions): NMA_GNR_AEC_Portadown_04_Mar_1961 | [Photographer: Norman Mc… | Flickr

A question that's only marginally related to the tour, as I'm just looking at other things to do on my visit and wondering if I can fit in some loco haulage: Are all the Dublin-Cork direct services booked for 201+Mk4 or are some worked by ICRs? If it's a mix, is there any way to work out which is which from the timetables?

A few more unusual items of wagonry in the new upload: Behind the rusty old kettle, a much more interesting LMA van: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419691789 A rake of 4 CIE furniture containers on flat wagons (which itself is quite unusual). All containers in green livery, 3 with diagonal 'eau de nil' stripe and one with a horizontal stripe: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419744938 Another green H van, with the usual black ends: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419684984 Bell tank container in full blue/petunia scheme, 3 Manchester Liners and some CIE bulk grain boxes behind: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419646114

Hi Colin, you'll need to be an IRRS member to view the Flickr links. It's a set of photos at a loco shed showing a group of three steam loco types including an 800, and two other widely-requested classes.

More container photos in the latest IRRS upload: CIE furniture container in dark green with diagonal 'eau de nil' stripe, in a wagon: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419737288 BR container in a UTA wagon with a GNR loco: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419686089 CIE open container, with sheet, on a flat wagon: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419695864 Some rather grubby older insulated containers in the background: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54418642707 End view of an early CIE ISO box, note the white lettering which was less common: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54418642157 Some nice 1980s ISO container variety: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54418592342 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54418592257 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419646289

Silver composite in a mostly black'n'tan rake in 1963, just a couple of greens in there too: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419680764 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54418626222 Another mixed livery rake - 2 silver seconds and a van, with 3 green coaches and a van, black'n'tan loco, also in 1963: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419866190 Silver loco and tin van, with coaches in dark green, light green and black'n'tan, one of each! 1962: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419876190 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419876160

IRM future steam loco plans revealed? https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419692139 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419707569 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419692149

See, there's a good reason for the oversize IRM/AS boxes. Otherwise your H vans would arrive like this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419477691

A couple of additions to the green van album in the latest IRRS upload, but as usual they're teasers - partially obscured and incomplete views: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419513421 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419477691

Another bumper upload (must be over 1000) to the IRRS Flickr today, thanks Ciaran! The latest uploads are mostly GNR and Northern Ireland, so something for @leslie10646 to be sure, though they span many decades. https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419492341 But there are a lot from the South too, primarily 1960s railtours, and I was pleased to see some nice shots at Fenit, of two separate railtours and two different summer Sunday specials! https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54418615712 A few links here that caught my eye, but there are hundreds more to enjoy, even narrow gauge and industrial so something for everyone: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54418653362 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419502136 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419503006 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419696639 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419887730 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419685054 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419879670 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419738053 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419876190 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419670884 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54418626222 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419867040 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419453021 I'll have to trawl through this new lot looking for additions to my diesel loco livery matrix, also green vans (I've found two already) and interesting containers. There's just the one more silver E class: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419498891

Rail freight is more competitive over long distances. It may help that Ballina is a long way away?

I have been down a rabbit-hole looking at the rail-mounted cranes at Fenit, see the attached pdf: Fenit_cranes.pdf I also found this thread on a related subject from @David Holman which has a nice drawing of a typical crane: This website has a nice selection of photos and drawings of small rail-mounted steam cranes built by Smith of Rodley: https://tractors.fandom.com/wiki/Thomas_Smith_%26_Sons_(Rodley)_Ltd At first I thought the Fenit cranes might be by Smith of Rodley but after further study I think at least two of them were from Coles of Derby: http://uploads.worldlibrary.net/uploads/pdf/20150311065744coles_vintage_3t_steam_rail_crane_1879_10_03_15_sm_c.pdf https://tractors.fandom.com/wiki/Coles_Cranes Whilst searching I found these official documents giving the harbour charges (including craneage) for Fenit. The first one is dated 1954 when the pier had been newly refurbished, and the second one is some additional clauses dated 1970 when the new gantry crane had just been installed: https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1954/si/266/made/en/print http://www.legislation.ie/eli/1970/si/83/made/en/print

No need to apologise! I will do in future, and I expect that once painted in shades of brown-grey and ballasted it would be less obvious anyway. This is just a very quick plinth so I can safely bring the loco to Ireland next week, I don't need a perfect appearance for the track.

I have made some body armour for my Maybach... @DJ Dangerous may recognise the plinth and box from an IXO model. Added to that is a length of Rob R's track and a coat of black paint. I wondered about ballasting the track but decided that it might not travel well. A couple of long 12BA bolts are fitted up through the base and screwed into the Kadee coupler mount locations on the loco chassis. That should keep all your grubby fingers off my little toy train! Meanwhile on the body I'm in the final stages of fitting the LEDs.

A couple more Fenit photos I've come across recently. Firstly, posted in a couple of different Facebook sites byTralee Railway Terrace Reunion, here is "Paddy McMahon down Fenit Pier with the Deutz 1962"At this date it was most likely G617 but I can't be sure. Perhaps of more interest is this view from the Tralee & Dingle Railway Preservation Society on Facebook, entitled 'The DEUTZ shunting Fenit Pier, 1972' Most photos of rail activity on the pier are from the 1960s so this is a welcome later image. Again the loco is unidentified but it's in the black livery which narrows it down to G611, G615 or G616. It's not G611 or G615 because they had their roundels higher up, immediately below the cabside window. So it must be G616 which had the roundel lower down as seen here. I'll add that to my list of locos to model! Note that the modern gantry crane has been installed but there's still at least one steam crane in action unloading the ship, and a lengthy rake of wagons along the pier.

Which sort of 2600 are you thinking of? 1950s not 1990s for me!

I had hoped to use Railtec transfers for the loco, and had created artwork not just for E410 but for the whole class in silver livery. Sadly my repeated emails to Steve at Railtec have gone unanswered. So I've reverted to my other option of John at Precision Decals. He has older print technology and there are some limitations, but responds to emails within hours rather than weeks, and is very helpful. Hopefully the decals will arrive tomorrow and I can get them applied and then finish the weathering this weekend. So there's a fair chance I'll have a complete loco by the time I board the flight to Cork on Friday morning. Shall I bring it? Who's on the railtour that would like a closer look?

Good news. Hopefully this will restore the AS team’s faith in multiple unit models. I suspect a lot of the features developed for this and the ICRs will find uses in other future models. I look forward to the day when we have to through-wire our Park Royals to act as AEC intermediates

It got me thinking about the forthcoming * AS Class 40's! Except they still haven't been announced. Maybe the pairs of 20s will be coming first? (*unfounded speculation warning)

Super - that really looks the part!

I couldn't help noticing this over on RMweb: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/172809-the-class-89-by-accurascale-with-rails-of-sheffield/?do=findComment&comment=5792988 The Class 50 shipment fills multiple 40' containers. Even with generously sized AS boxes, that's a seriously large number of locos! A rough estimate based on box volume suggests there might be about 15000-20000 locos (sale price about 5 million quid) per container. I can see why the business crossed the water, and very pleased that it's helping to cover overheads to keep the Irish models coming too.