Mol_PMB

The kit includes frame spacers for both gauges, and it seems to fit. I'm still mid-build so bear with me for final confirmation!

Ah, you've done well to find that! Thank you. There's a barely-legible note on the IRRS scans of the CIE painting and lining schedules that I think confirms that is the correct shade for EdN: I didn't find the original of this on my archives visit but I'll have another look next time.

In the latest batch of uploads to the IRRS Flickr archive, there are a few more showing Tar Bitumen tanks. The first two show conventional cylindrical tanks in trains, while the other two appear to show a rectangular tank on a flat wagon - possibly one of those converted in a hurry when the traffic on offer had overwhelmed the available fleet of normal tank wagons. https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/55234900996 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/55235300565 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/55235300730 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/55235300735

I'm aware that with this thread 'I've started so I'll finish' but I haven't finished it yet. In my defence, I realised that my information sources were incomplete and I have been working to fill the gaps. In the process I have discovered several carriages that were definitely through-wired for operation with the AEC railcars but do not appear in the published lists. For example, GSWR tea car 841 is mentioned in an accident report, and in several streams of correspondence with the catering division, as well as being part of the last train on the CBSCR. No doubt at all it was through-wired, but it's not shown thus in any of the other listings I've seen. I have also uncovered more information on some of the carriages already listed. So I will revisit this thread in due course and finish it off. In the meantime, here is a nice photo of the cabside of driving trailer 1907 before its disastrous smash, one of the images newly uploaded to the IRRS Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/55235143494/

I have had a lot of difficulty tracing the British Colour Council CC colours, unless I want to spend north of £500 on an original swatch catalogue. They are different from the later British Standard colours and the numbers don't even match the British Colour Council BCC series. However, it has transpired that the CC 222 as specified for the livery proposals in 1960 was officially 'Golden Brown' rather than Saffron, and was equivalent to BCC 74, and appears to be the same as the colour used by CIE. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.14074/page/n35/mode/2up?q=222 I have not done so well in tracing the dark olive green CC 239. This is the one that wasn't actually used in practice, being replaced with more black in the BnT livery. Meanwhile, Ciaran has uploaded some more photos to the wonderful IRRS Flickr archive and we can add another vehicle to the list of those painted in the early BnT. Here is heating van 3113, looking a bit worn in 1968: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/55233972147

The latest uploads to the IRRS Flickr archive include several nice photos of horseboxes, either in passenger trains or in fair specials, in the early 1950s. Here are the links, I'll let the pics speak for themselves: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/55235049308 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/55235049298 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/55234900661 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/55235049378 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/55235043623 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/55233992782 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/55234895251 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/55234895856 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/55235300875 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/55233992492 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/55235280370 Many thanks Ciaran! My previous assessment of the GSR horseboxes was a bit vague as I was interpolating between GSWR and CIE data sources. But the IRRS archive includes pages from a GSR diagram book including this one, which clarifies the position with the larger, late GSWR / GSR horseboxes. In particular, those built in 1924 had steel frames, while those built in 1925/6 had timber frames with the addition of steam heating.

I learnt yesterday while at the Malahide Casino with JHB, that Fry and other contemporary modellers of Irish Railways were quite picky about the liveries they liked and didn't like. To be fair, I'm the same. The Fry collection includes quite a lot of carriages in the fully lined dark green 1940s CIE livery, and a good selection of 'silver' and BnT locos and rolling stock too. But there's nothing at all in plain dark green, or the 1955-1961 light green. There's a clear preference for green livery on steam locos with several models in green that prototypically ought to have been grey. Surprisingly, there's no AEC/BUT railcar model in the Fry collection, which otherwise well represents the steam and diesel railcars. So Fry and his contemporaries had their 'Rule 1' just like we do. That's absolutely fine and I'm very grateful that he did produce the models, and record the liveries, that he did. But we need to remember that it's not a complete record. Here are some photos of one of his GSR coaches in the elaborately lined dark green CIE livery of the 1940s, seen out in the sunshine. Also a S&S coach in the same scheme. JHB reckons the colour of the EdN lines on the S&S coach is a better representation than on the GSR coach. Note that when well lit, CIE dark green isn't as dark as you think. There is no evidence that this elaborately lined dark green livery was applied to the Park Royals. But there is some evidence that the first batch of Park Royals built may have been this colour of green, with simplified lining. Also, note that Fry added build dates to his models, for example the S&S coach in the last photo was built in October 1950.

https://www.studio-scale-models.com/Locos.shtml The SSM kit is what I'm using as the basis of my build. It's quite an old kit, well designed but I rarely follow the instructions!

Interesting! I wonder what happened to them. The copy of the report I found in the IRRS archives has words but no pictures or diagrams. But the words suggest that there were some accompanying illustrations at least.

Little and large? My one acquisition from the Heljan sale. Get them while you can!

I'd love to find the original illustrations that went with the design consultant's report.

I was thinking the same. One reason I’ve held back on making platforms for my layout. CIE themselves had to cut back some platform edges when the Park Royals were first introduced. And then some more when the first laminates entered service.

Like this:

Thank you!

This may not add any more info to what has already been published, but here it is anyway: There are plenty more where that came from if you fancy a trip to Dublin.

Thanks to JHB’s privileges, here are some photos of Fry’s steam railcar models outside in better lighting conditions than you would normally get:

You had better get building some more shelves! My 48DS has been delivered already, less than 24 hours from placing the order. I hope the postie hid it well as I’m still in Dublin!

I took over 600 photos in the archives yesterday and I’m only going to share a few here, hopefully as an inspiration for other IRRS members to go and have a look themselves. Beware, you will end up down a rabbit-hole and may need several visits!

That is why they were downgraded and I found some correspondence about that too. Whether the E401s actually ran at higher speeds in 1958-62 I can’t say, but it looks like it may have been permissible. Also I found some info about the multiple working trials of E421s. But none of this was what I was really looking for, so I didn’t spend much time on it. There’s a lot of technical and contractual info from Maybach too.

That Saffron is very similar to the ‘tan’ or ‘golden brown’ of the BnT livery. It looks good with the dark olive.

Dark olive around the windows, saffron below the waist. So the overall appearance would have been quite similar to the actual BnT, but towards the greener end of the spectrum. Colour Council reference numbers are given for the two colours but I haven’t looked them up yet. Saffron CC222, Olive CC239.

Well according to the diagram we may now ‘go in peace’ at a maximum speed of 60mph, Lively in an E class I would suggest…

The interesting thing is that the initial proposal was not black and tan. It was dark olive green and saffron. The black underframe and roof, and the white cantrail line, were the same.

Is it GM? 121 class? Though the thought of a VS class in the revised livery is quite something!