Mol_PMB

The A class are not too hard to pick up secondhand at present, with a bit of patience. Considering that the Park Royals are nominally suburban coaches, they would go much better with one of these... Or some of these... (photos linked from Flickr, by Jonathan Allen and Ernie)

Exciting times for you! My resolve is holding strong at present, despite seeing both the models and the real thing in Derby recently. This month's budget has mostly been blown on house maintenance and a long weekend in Belfast. I'll have to be patient with IRM as they have a lot on at present, but of course I already have a backlog of projects in the stash and hopefully some new antipodean kits to build soon.

I think a real elephant would be more appropriate there!

Park Royals The Park Royal coaches were designed by the same firm as the AEC railcars. However, in construction and appearance they were radically different – a lightweight metal body with exterior ribs, which was unusually wide in the central saloon section, but narrower at the end vestibules. This was mounted onto a triangulated steel underframe with commonwealth bogies. They were supplied to Inchicore in kit form and assembled there by CIE staff, over the period 1955 to 1956. The initial livery was dark green, including green ends. The sides had an eau-de-nil waist line and unpainted alloy window frames; they did not carry class designations at first. The underframes and bogies were painted silver when new, but became dirty very quickly. 40 Park Royals were built for suburban use, with seven bays of 10 seats in the main saloon, and a further 12 seats and standing room in the large vestibules; toilets were not fitted. They were numbered in the range 1379 to 1418. These photos from Ernie and IRRS show them when first in service: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53506776188 Of these 40 coaches, the following 12 vehicles are listed as being through-wired for railcar use: 1397, 1398, 1399, 1400, 1402, 1403, 1407, 1409, 1410, 1411, 1414, 1418. The haphazard selection of numbers may indicate that they were retro-fitted as an afterthought, or perhaps more vehicles were fitted initially and some had lost their through-wiring by the time the list was prepared. The earliest photos I have found of a Park Royal in a railcar set are dated August 1956, including this one from Ernie. Note that this isn’t a suburban duty, and there are plenty of other photos showing suburban Park Royals in railcar sets on long-distance services: Of these 12 vehicles, 1407 was unique in being fitted with a driving cab, and was initially used on the W&T line. Here's a photo of it from Roger Joanes: There is also a photo in IRRS Journal no.104 p272. Compared to the other driving trailers 1906 and 1907 described in the previous post, the cab of 1407 is on the opposite side. Note that a further 10 Park Royals were built with toliets (and fewer seats) for main line use, but none of these were fitted to work with railcars. In June 1956, third class was redesignated second class. Many of the Park Royals received ‘2’ digits on their doors, on the original dark green livery, like this: Late 1950s repaints were in the light green livery with black ends and ‘2’ class designations. In the light green livery, the sides had an eau-de-nil waist line but the alloy window frames were painted over in green. This isn't a railcar trailer but illustrates the livery nicely: From 1962 the black and tan livery was applied, initially with class designations: This nice colour shot shows a railcar set with two Park Royal intermediates, one in light green and the other in black and tan. Note also the the railcar has the high-density suburban seating throughout, including what would have been the van area on the main-line railcars: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54251527288 An unusual attempt to promote commuting by rail was applied to vehicle 1399 in 1963, seen here formed in a railcar set on suburban duties: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54372688542 The Park Royals were some of the last trailers used in AEC railcar sets in the early 1970s; by this time the 2nd class designations had been discontinued as shown in this photo by Jonathan Allen dated May 1975: Not many photos are close enough to read coach numbers, but here’s Park Royal 1410 with AEC 2604 in late 1971: https://archive.rcts.org.uk/shopviewer.php?pg=44154&code=CH06260C There are plenty of other photos of these coaches in railcar sets over the years: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54253254294 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54253391335 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/51899161679 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/51657586999 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511772644 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54253242693 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54255088906 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54255088941 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54255321049 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54255320994 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/53081076683 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53449684534 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570446486 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570882915 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570770054 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511105076 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53569589332 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53447203319 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53449780550 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570770114 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570882930 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53527604884 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53569589337 https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/39218949724/ https://archive.rcts.org.uk/shopviewer.php?pg=44154&code=CH06260C https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/39218949724/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/39218950054 https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/28149247259 https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/39218949504 Book references of photos showing these carriages in railcar sets are as follows: Railways in Ireland part 4: GS&W (Bairstow) p2 Cork Bandon & South Coast Railway (Shepherd) p38 Irish Railways in Colour (Ferris) vol.1 p87 Irish Railways in the 1950s and 1960s (McCormack) p125 The Cork, Bandon and South Coast Railway Vol.3 (Creedon) p67 The Cork, Bandon and South Coast Railway Vol.3 (Creedon) p67 IRRS Journal no.104 p272 West Cork Railways - Birth, Beauty and Betrayal (Larkin) cover+102 Cork Bandon & South Coast Railway (Shepherd) p136 The Cork, Bandon and South Coast Railway Vol.3 (Creedon) p126 The Cork, Bandon and South Coast Railway Vol.3 (Creedon) p131 Many of us are looking forward to the IRM models of the Park Royals being delivered soon. Of the available range: For the original mid-1950s darker green livery with green ends, 1388 could be renumbered 1398 to represent a through-wired carriage. I’m not sure what shade of green is being used for these; the samples shown to date do not include one in this livery. 1402 in light green with black ends is directly suitable for a late 1950s/early 1960s railcar set. 1400 and 1409 in black and tan were through-wired but are modelled in their ‘TL’ condition which post-dates their use as railcar trailers. If you wanted a black and tan vehicle then 1387 or 1413 are in the correct condition, and could be easily renumbered to 1397 or 1418, for example. The IRM range also includes 1407, the former driving trailer, but modelled much later in life. Edit: this IRRS photo shows 1403, one of the through-wired Park Royals but not here in a railcar set. The photo is dated October 1961 and is interesting because it shows the early black and tan livery variant with a shallower orange band, and running numbers on the black portion. The white stripe is also much deeper than usual. This livery variant was also applied to a few of the AEC railcars including some powered intermediates: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54373564366

Suburban Railcars Railcars 2600 to 2647 were intended for main line use and delivery of these was between March 1952 and February 1954, contemporary with most of the trailers described to date. The next ten AEC railcars were destined for suburban use, and were delivered later in 1954 with an extra 4 seats in place of the toilet compartment but otherwise similar to the main-line cars. The last two (2658 and 2659) entered service on the Waterford & Tramore section in September 1954 with high-density bus seating throughout. 2658 retained the normal van area with steam heating boiler, but 2659 had its van space replaced with additional seating. Over the next 3 years, all the suburban cars were modified to this specification, with 78 or 80 seats in the boiler-fitted cars, and 94 or 96 seats in the others. Consequently, the next groups of carriages to be through-wired for use with the railcars were suburban carriages. The biggest group of these was the Park Royals, which will be described in the next post.

Driving Trailers 1906 and 1907 To complete the set of early 1950s CIE coaches through-wired as railcar trailers, we have these two rather special but enigmatic vehicles. A batch of 5 brake open thirds were built in 1953 and numbered 1904 to 1908. They were similar to the open standards 1356 to 1371 described in a previous post, but had only 5 bays of seats and a brake compartment, complete with side duckets. Unlike later brake vehicles, the double doors to the van area were curved and flush with the sides - later batches had flat doors which were either inset or proud. They had the traditional trussed underframe and GSR bogies. There has been a lot of discussion of these vehicles on the forum already, in this thread: https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/3975-brake-standards-1904-1908/ Some time around 1955-1956, coaches 1906 and 1907 from this batch were modified as driving trailers to work with the AEC railcars. A driving cab was added to the brake end, which required removal of the guard's ducket and changes to the door and window arrangement on the driver's side. A windscreen was added in the end, along with a triangle of headlights. Most obviously, the bogies were replaced with the commonwealth type - giving a very unusual combination of a traditional trussed underframe with commonwealth bogies. The intention was that these driving trailers could be used cab-to-cab within a longer railcar train, allowing the train to be split en route, but retaining through access along the train before it split. They could also enable a 2-car set to operate with one power car and one driving trailer. It should be noted that there are some inconsistencies in published sources about which coaches were converted from the batch of 5. Pender & Richards say 2 coaches, 1907 and 1908. However, later photos of 1908 prove that this was not converted. BSGSV's post in the thread linked above says 2 coaches, 1906 and 1907. Photographic evidence indicates this to be correct. Colin Holliday's list says 1 coach, 1906 The CIE carriage register published in 1969 shows only 1906 as through-wired There are plenty of photos of 1907 with the bogie, cab, window and headlight modifications in the 1960s and early 1970s, but not formed in railcar sets. It appears that 1906 and 1907 were converted, but that 1907 later lost its wiring and control equipment, but retained the other vestiges of the conversion. 1907 was destroyed in an accident in 1974 and this photo shows the cab side window and door arrangement which replaced the ducket on one side. https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53527598229 Here's a couple of photos showing an intact one, earlier in life: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54253223013 https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000306044 Note that the door position has also been moved compared to an unmodified one: These photos compare the other side, not much changed here apart from the bogies and headlight: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54252109222/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/52959572973 The only photo I've found of one of these actually in a railcar set is this lovely shot from Ernie, dated 8th June 1956. Here the carriage has its cab modifications but seems to be used a plain intermediate: There are several IRRS photos of 1907 with RPSI 184 or 186 around 1970, prior to 1907's destruction in an accident: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570456911 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53569599852 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570654018 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511309423 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511309418 https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000307782 What these show is that 1907 had been converted to a driving trailer in the same way as 1906 (cab, headlights, commonwealth bogies etc), but by 1970 it had lost its headlights and therefore was no longer functional as a driving trailer. Other internal control equipment may have been stripped out too, but we can't see that in the photos. That would tally with the entry in the coaching stock register for 1969 which shows only 1906 (not 1907) wired for use with the diesel railcars.

Just to keep the suspense going, here's another crop of a nice prototype pic showing two variants of green livery on Park Royals; the pic is dated 1961. At the front of the train, a light green carriage - including green-painted sliding window ventilators, EdN waist line and post-1956 '2' class designations on the doors. Black ends with red dimension plates. Broadly this matches the decorated sample we've seen already - light green, black ends, painted window ventilators. The class designations should be easy enough to add with transfers. Fourth in the train, a darker green Park Royal - with sliding window ventilators in unpainted aluminium, catching the sunlight here. EdN waist line; originally this livery did not have '2' class designations on the doors. Green ends are hard to make out in this photo but are well proven in other photos of the dark green livery (see below). We had one of Ernie's photos upthread showing the original darker green livery when new in 1956. Below is another of Ernie's dated 1959 showing the dark green livery like the 4th vehicle in the train above. No '2' on the doors, unpainted window vents, green ends. By this time the silver underframe was looking very grimy! The next instalment of my AEC Railcar Trailers thread will include the Park Royals so here's another of Ernie's pics showing the dark green livery, almost as original but with the '2' class designations added: Waiting with baited breath to see the IRM painted samples, and wondering whether I need to order some more, or possibly change one of my existing orders...

I certainly will do if I get a chance. I’m trying to cram a lot in with Whitehead, Downpatrick and Cultra in the 3 days I have available, plus hopefully a few good pubs in the evenings.

Terrible caption on this slide but might be of interest of a colour view of the UTA narrow gauge. https://ebay.us/m/doPkfo And this green A class is something I’ve been resisting for a week or so. The AI description says it’s sound fitted but on quizzing the seller they haven’t been able to confirm this, it’s from a deceased estate and the seller only has DC to test it on. So it’s either good value if sound fitted, or overpriced if not. https://ebay.us/m/vnmtze I’ve decided to save my money for an IRM C class, hoping they’re on the way eventually!

O gauge MGWR coach kit: https://ebay.us/m/qIKpbb Looks like someone’s just started it and given up, but could be a bargain?

Looks great. It’s possible I can drop by that exhibition on Sunday afternoon if I get round Cultra quickly. I’m beginning to wish I had given myself an extra day in Belfast!

Just don’t tell anyone, or mention it on the internet…

Is that 3D print the CMAC one? Or from another source? It looks good in that pic - are you pleased with how it has turned out? Any chance of some more photos and a brief description of the work you have done to it?

Super work in lots of areas there! I particularly like the use of the choc block parts to provide an adjustable connection between the point tiebar and operating rod. You did well to persevere with the point rodding and it looks superb. I hope it’s not so fragile now it’s fixed down. I wonder whether there’s a brass equivalent, for next time? I’m looking forward to seeing this develop and it is inspiring me to make some progress on a layout myself.

Wonderful - thank you!

I would very much like to see more decorated samples in the two green livery variants. We’ve only seen one of the green liveries so far, and I gather that the colour has been tweaked since then.

BnM could still produce a fine old mess in the 1990s (my pic):

The IRCH vans are getting closer to completion - adding all the little details takes time: I bought some etched W-irons, sold as for 21mm gauge (and at a premium price), but sadly they turned out to be way too narrow - only suitable for 16.5mm gauge. I had to widen them which took several hours work. Never mind, they're done now and ready to fit. Each wagon will have one fixed and one rocking set. Still to do is the brake gear and I have various suitable parts from Wizard Models.

I found the set for £5.95 on ebay! Should keep me entertained for a few hours...

Many thanks for the tip, I’ll get a set of them and take a look.

Because at the time I did, no-one else had provided a useful reply and I thought that some of my links might be useful even if they weren't the full answer. At the very least it bumped the thread and DJD then responded. I apologise again.

Fascinating history and beautifully presented in the maps. Thank you for sharing!

I think this looks like a great idea. It could easily be compressed to a manageable size without losing the functionality. And loads of scope for modelling al those little details to bring the scene to life.

This is not my area of expertise. However, I know that there was a modification needed to the wiring in the A class to make some lightling functions work - I think that may have only affected the cab lights though? @Fowler4f knows more and may be able to advise? Also, is the function mapping on your new chip matched to the A class functions? It ought to be possible to re-map the functions on any/most chip types - again, not my area of expertise. You shouldn't have to buy an IRM chip. On the other hand, an IRM chip should come set up correctly in the first place, so it may be the easiest solution. But at present, only sound chips seem to be available for the A class: https://www.accurascale.com/collections/cie-a-class Sorry this isn't as helpful as it might be.

Thanks John, those are nice clear shots. I suspect these buffets had mostly ceased being used in railcar sets by the time the B4 bogies were fitted - I haven’t found any photos of B4-fitted examples in railcar sets. According to the list I’m working from, none of the side-corridor coaches on triangulated underframes and commonwealth bogies were through-wired to work with the railcars. It was only some of the older batch with conventional underframes. I do have plenty more types to cover in future posts. I’ll probably be looking at some of the suburban types next.