Mol_PMB

102 'Falcon' is the fastest bird in the sky, and beats most trains too, though admittedly not IRM's air freighter. 242mph top speed recorded!

No GSWR 0-6-0s, CIE Sulzers or indeed GNR MaKs to be found here. Yet…

Depends which year…

Lovely! In the first photo, a GNR brake van which appears in several photos of the CBSCR around 1959-60. Always nice to see a good clear photo of one of the Wedgehead railcars, short-lived in original form. 2660 also seems to have been a regular in West Cork.

Attached is the list of 6-wheel passenger coaches which survived as 'secondary stock' in the 1961 CIE carriage listing. By this time, thirds were classified as seconds. A total of 39 coaches of which 36 were former MGWR. When managing lists of fleet numbers, the MGWR is frustrating because they had separate number series for each carriage type, and all the GSR and CIE did was to add an M suffix. And when carriages were modified/downgraded, they were renumbered into the appropriate series. So even in the late survivors, there were duplicated numbers, such as 3M, 9M and 39M. I started adding photo links to the right-hand margin of this listing and then got confused with duplicate numbers, and haven't fully corrected them all yet. Now, the list of etched MGWR coach kits is as follows: MGWR Atock 6-wheel Brake/Third coach £60 MGWR Atock 6-wheel Third class coach £60 MGWR Atock 6-wheel Lavatory Composite coach £60 MGWR Cusack 6-wheel First class coach £60 MGWR 4-wheel Parcels Van "The Hearse" £50 Only the brake third and the hearse are illustrated on the website, but I found this lurking in the forum: The card kits seem to include other types such as a brake compo and a coupe compo. Brake third 9M and 21M survived until 1961. The IRRS has a photo of 21M at Tralee in 1957 which confirms it matches the kit. https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54253243113 Also here from Ernie: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/50659862117 9M had the same dimensions and was built around the same time so was probably the same. Third The kit is for the common 5-compartment Atock type. The following vehicles of this type were listed in 1961: 3M, 9M, 13M, 30M, 36M, 39M, 45M, 49M, 53M, 56M, 57M, 62M, 84M, 85M Some late era photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53510409677 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570708148 https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/uploads/monthly_2025_09/IMG_3253.thumb.jpeg.bde10bbfca61c1a5bfd7d12af89df34b.jpeg https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53510270832 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511483419 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511331153 https://www.flickr.com/photos/110691393@N07/32105983135 Other types of MGWR third also survived. Lavatory Composite 187M and 190M were rebuilt from full firsts and like the kit they had four full compartments with a lavatory in the middle, like this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54252115962 20M and 21M were a bit shorter and had a different seating arrangement but I haven't found a photo of them yet. But the Alphagraphix card kit for a composite has a half-compartment at one end; 182M of this type was withdrawn in 1960 so isn't in the 1961 register. Cusack First This is the type illustrated on page 93 of Ernie Shepherd's book on the MGWR, dating from 1906. I can't see any of this type among the list of first class survivors in 1961. However, many firsts were demoted to thirds or composites and renumbered, making them harder to trace. I think this compo 189M is former first 11M of this type, seen in use in 1958 but withdrawn before 1961: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53508849579 Hearse I believe there were only two built: 56M and 58M. Here is 56M at Tramore: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53509093944 Here is 58M at Dun Laoghaire in the 1950s. It has spoked wheels whereas 56M on the W&T had disc wheels. https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53505927307 Note: many photo links are to the IRRS Flickr Archive. If you can't see them, you need to join the IRRS! Based on those findings, I think I could justify a third and a brake third if there's to be a run of these kits, and at a push one of each type except the hearse.. 6-wheel_coaches.xlsx

Yes, the MGWR third would be my first choice of the coaches so please include me in that count. I’ll have a look at my carriage register spreadsheet when I get home, and remind myself which other types were late survivors. I think the lav compo? Not so sure about the brake third in the condition modelled.

That is a very good thought. I don’t want to permanently fit the upper part of the front fascia and the lighting until the scenery is finished, but that doesn’t stop me making it. Then I could use the layout lighting to better judge the colours. A couple of days ago I bought some more timber for the legs and to support the fascia, so I could move this forward in the build. Any recommendations for LED lighting strips with a suitable colour and brightness for layout lighting? Ideally dimmable. This morning I am going to the Manchester model railway show. I don’t think there’s much of Irish interest but no doubt some other inspirational layouts.

Super, many thanks for the info. Looks good.

David, Many thanks for the info. From my point of view, the width of the frames won’t be a huge problem (as I’m working in 21mm) but may be an issue for those wanting 16.5mm as John says. However, it sounds like the chassis makes no provision for springing or compensation so I’d have that challenge instead. Noted the challenge of castings; wheels also these days. Have you built any of the 6-wheel coach kits in 7mm scale? Any views on how the undergear of those might scale down? Many thanks, Paul

Many thanks for having the discussion. I guess the challenge is to find enough people with similar interests! From the range, I’d be more interested in MGWR 6-wheel coaches and, maybe, a J30.

If it really does work it is probably illegal to sell without a licence.

Accurascale’s new announcement of the 73/9 adds another piece to the 80 class jigsaw - the bogies for the power car.

I've no idea if it was preserved, or indeed still in use. I don't know if these photos are any use for your research attempts - one slightly blurred photo of the same vehicle, and several other tanks showing the variety used by IE around the year 2000. Hopefully something of use here.

Thanks. I haven’t studied the later tar tanks. Recently I’ve been more focused on modelling than research but I have some other research topics unfinished that I need to get back to. I do have some photos of later fuel and lubricant tanks which survived into the early 2000s. There was much variety, and the numbering is complicated by the use of several different series.

A photo I took on my first visit to Whitehead. It’s not a prize-winning composition but it’s interesting to compare the two locos which have many features of size and appearance in common. The boilers in particular. I’ve had some super trips behind 186 since then, but 27 has only moved a few hundred yards in all that time. (neither are UTA green, I’m afraid, so well off topic! I think both worked for UTA in black though)

A few photos taken outdoors in overcast daylight: And indoors but with a brief glimpse of sunlight (dark lines are shadows from window bars) Compared to the photos in artificial light there’s a massive difference to the appearance of the sky. This was in artificial light: I suppose the real test will come when I have got the layout’s own lighting installed. That’s a long way off!

Some info here:

Those are all rather late in the alphabet. Wouldn’t they have to start with the A class and work up through B, C etc to soothe your OCD?

GNR 12 ton van.

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: