Mol_PMB

Here's a first for you then, at Portarlington in July 1958 according to the slide mount. This is a slide I bought secondhand on ebay, but I'm not sure of the copyright position. I apologise if I have transgressed, please let me know and I will remove it. Colour-Rail image FIE02922 also shows B112 in this livery without any red on the front, but at a later date as it's more grubby. I did look on the Colour-Rail website for the image above but it doesn't appear to be listed, so I assume it's from another source. I think B112 was one of the locos displayed at the Inchicore open day in 1958, and was parked next to A46. If so, you can just see it behind A46 here, along with some kettles, all in colour: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53449604144/ And in this video in monochrome: Taken together, these photos should fuel the 'shades of green' debate... The Inchicore photo appears to show both A46 and B112 in light green, and they are considerably lighter than the adjacent 800. But the established wisdom is that these first repaints of diesels in green were in dark green, and B112 in the pic I've posted above looks pretty dark. Aha, @leslie10646, looks like you beat me to it with posting a near-identical image.

In the DCDR bookshop at Downpatrick.

As well as wonderful memories and plenty of photos, I have come back from Belfast with this haul: I must say that the Downpatrick book shop was excellent, a real goldmine. I could have spent twice as much there if only I could have carried them all home! It was also great to see @jhb171achill, @Tullygrainey, @flange lubricator and many others, and to see 124 running again. Great to put some faces to names. Thanks very much also to @flange lubricator for the copy of the CIE carriage stock register, which I will make available on the forum in due course. I've just had a quick look through the GSWR carriage diagrams document and I've found that it has been annotated with those vehicles wired for AEC railcars. That and the CIE carriage register will give me some more useful info for my AEC trailers thread. Meanwhile I also need to properly draw up the 'Big Boy' goods van based on my measurements and photos. I managed to fit a lot into my 3-day visit - Whitehead, Cultra, Downpatrick, Portadown, Derry, and some of Belfast itself. There was so much going on over the bank holiday weekend that I couldn't do everything - if I'd known about 131's last trip further in advance then I would have done my best to go on that too. I must confess I'm pretty exhausted today, and glad that I'm not back at work until tomorrow.

In the green livery, only some of the B101's had the cowling in the bufferbeam area painted red, with the ends apparently outlined in black. Here's a view of B107 from Ernie: Others had the front cowling painted the same colour as the body, like B102 here: The 'bufferbeam' colour doesn't correlate with the presence or absence of a waist line. Again from Ernie, here's B104 with red cowling outlined in black, but with the waist line: For the initial livery, the whole front was silver. This slide sold on ebay recently, for rather more than I was willing to pay!

A little bit of digging in my memory, library and online has produced the following. In IRRS Journal No.84, D. Renehan's article on the E class includes an introduction covering some of the earlier diesel shunters in Ireland, including a couple of paragraphs on the D class which provide some useful technical data. In 1945, CIE placed an order with Brush Electrical Engineering Company for the supply of engines and electrical equipment for five 0-6-0 diesel-electric shunting and transfer locos. The first was completed in December 1947. In the mid-1940s, Brush was primarily an electrical equipment supplier. Brush did not make their own engines, but bought them from several manufacturers: Mirrlees was one of the most common makes used. Brush did not usually make the mechanical parts themselves, these could be subcontracted or left to the customer to build (as with the D class). However, Brush must have had close involvement in the design of the mechanical parts and the interfaces to the engine, generator, motors, transmission, cooler group, controls etc. In 1947, Brush Electrical Engineering Co joined with W. G. Bagnall (a former steam loco builder) so that they could produce complete diesel-electric locomotives including the mechanical parts - however by this time the D301 class were already under construction. Brush's main-line type 2 loco for British Railways was the Class 30, which had a Mirrlees engine originally. Later they were re-engined with English Electric engines and re-classified Class 31. They did not build any 0-6-0 shunters for British Railways, and just one 0-4-0. However, Brush also produced many locos for industrial and export customers, often with mechanical parts from Bagnall, though other firms such as Hudswell Clarke and Beyer Peacock were sometimes used. In the UK, many Brush locos were built for steelworks, and these included 0-4-0, 0-6-0 and Bo-Bo shunters, all diesel electrics and mostly with Mirrlees engines. I have encountered the 0-4-0 and Bo-Bo variants myself at Port Talbot (I did some work for the railway there a few years back). The Bo-Bos were still in use until the recent closure of the blast furnaces, though they had been re-engined. Here's one of Gordon Edgar's photos: The Bo-Bo doesn't look to have much in common with the D301 class. But the 0-6-0 variant of the Brush-Bagnall-Mirrlees locos looked like this (photo from Hugh Llewelyn on Flickr): Compare the bodywork to a D301 class, especially the bonnet side doors and louvres, and you'll see a very clear link to the D301 class. Inchicore built the mechanical parts for the D301 (rather than Bagnall) but I suspect they used many details from the Brush design. Dimensional changes would have been needed for the wider track gauge. The UK steelworks locos were too big for the British Railways loading gauge and might have needed slimming down a bit to fit the CIE loading gauge too. From D. Renehan's article, the engine in the D class was a Mirrlees TLDT6 vertical 6-cylinder of 487bhp at 710rpm. This drove a Brush 290kW dc traction generator and a 10kW auxiliary generator. There were Brush nose-suspended traction motors on the leading and trailing axles. The arrangement of the steelworks 0-6-0 locos was very similar, with subtly different engine variants (Mirrlees TLT6 and TLST-6). The 487bhp engine power was significantly greater than the equivalent English Electric 350hp locos, but may not have been fully utilised as the total generator rating of the Brush design was only 400hp. Now to the dimensions, here is a CIE diagram of the D301 class posted by @BosKonay The drawing has few dimensions. Based on those which are shown, I estimate the image is to a scale of 0.0353 feet per pixel. Using that to scale other measurements: Length over buffers: 28'9" (should be 29'0" according to IRT&T data) Wheel diameter: 4'0" (should be 4'0" according to IRT&T data) Length over headstocks: 25'9" Wheelbase: 11'8" (5'9" + 5'11") Front overhang buffer-wheelset 8'3" Rear overhang buffer-wheelset 8'9" Width over cabsides: 9'0" Width over bonnet: 6'6" Height to cab roof: 13'1" Scaling off drawings can introduce inaccuracies, as can copying and scanning. I'm not claiming these figures are perfect but they should be reasonably close, perhaps +-3" or 1mm in model form. It's probably most useful to compare those to the LMS class 11 (BR 12033-12138) and the BR class 08, since those are readily available in model form. The LNER type (BR 15000-15004) is also an interesting comparator. Data from 'The Diesel Shunter' (Marsden) Now, given the potential inaccuracies of the scaling process, many of these dimensions are acceptably close. Note that the wheel diameter of the Class 08 is larger than the rest. In this respect, the Heljan class 11 model might be a preferred starting point for some. The D301 is also slightly wider and taller than the other types, with that high curved roof. I note that @Auto-Train Original has already dealt with this on his model - good work! I haven't considered the accuracy of the available models of these prototypes - they may not be spot-on themselves.

When I get home and have some spare time, I’ll compare the specs. How many traction motors did the D class have? Most of the GB equivalents had two, one driving each end axle.

The CiE locos had a different and significantly more powerful engine compared to the LMS and BR locos. The LMS fleet also contained several different variants, some with jackshaft drive for example. I don’t think the D class shared the exact dimensions of any of the LMS types. Undoubtedly the concept was similar though.

There are several photos apparently showing this. I haven’t quite got to the bottom of it - is it painting or cleaning?

Here’s 124, late in its life and unusually on a conventional passenger train (rather than the Limerick Shuttle) seen here at Farranfore on a Cork-Tralee turn. Our plans for that day were rapidly re-written when we saw this opportunity! Very nice to be hauled by 124 again yesterday. I see it still has the mismatched numerals, 20+ years on!

Derry was nice too - the station has moved since I was last there, and just like Portadown it’s back in the original place. There’s a new bridge too, and I found a couple of good pubs. On my first visit around 1990 there was still track and wagon turntables on the Craigavon bridge, and a 3’ gauge train to ride on. But it was edgy…. My most memorable trip there was a railtour with a pair of baby GMs and Cravens. Non-stop through Coleraine the token exchange was fumbled and they spent half an hour in the nettles and briars looking for it! Things are a lot better now, the track is excellent and 6-car trains are well patronised, even on a Sunday.

Great progress! I was born and brought up in mid Essex, not far from the Maldon branches, so this sort of thing definitely appeals.

I confess that I felt the urge to spend a weekend pointing a needlegun at it. There’s something immensely satisfying about chipping off rust.

HOW Much? Wow! Does it come with radio control, working lights and a sound chip?

A whistle-stop visit from me this morning. It was great to meet Alan and Kieran and see the superbly detailed ‘Stone Yard’. The Portadown layout was also very impressive. I liked the continental trams layout too, with the working bicycles. Sorry to those I missed speaking with as I rushed round - Popeye’s buildings looked excellent. I’m heading off to Derry for this afternoon. Paul

That’s an impressive train, and very interesting info too. Thanks!

I’ve just had a walk round the People’s Park and thought that was very pleasant. I’d best get writing a generous review on Tripadvisor… the rest of the town was closed of course. Anyway, I’m heading back to Belfast now and looking forward to seeing the model version of Portadown this afternoon.

The catering staff weren’t confident in their ability to serve a full breakfast before Portadown (apparently first class was unusually busy) but produced me a sausage toastie and a cup of tea very quickly. Not officially on the menu but just what I needed. The £10 go-anywhere Sunday ticket is also a superb deal.

Now then DJD, where’s that can of white paint and NIR logo stencils you promised me? 216 at Grand Central on the 0805 this morning: I must say this is an impressive station.

Think you made the right choice - Downpatrick was superb. Hopefully I can do both with the exhibition tomorrow as well.

Etched nameplates are very small and flat, would fit easily in a letter. Get them sent to a friend/relative/fellow forum member in the UK first?

Thanks - nice to see the pic and hopefully I’ll see them in the flash tomorrow. Is there much Irish stock on the trade stands at the show?

Last I saw they were ordering fish and chips, hopefully a pint or two to come after that!

124 worked both freight and passenger. A39, 146, G617, the Wickham inspection car and thumper 458 were also in action. A busy day, and all went very well.

Very well done to the ITG, DCDR and anyone else who made this happen!

It does appear to be on the rails this time.