Mol_PMB

Lovely! I remember my dad pointing those out to me when I was on childhood holidays in Ireland. I think they must have been used elsewhere too, not just the GNR, as we normally visited the west of Ireland?

I was looking through photos of passenger trains at Fenit yesterday, and found one which included an 8-compartment corridor second (formerly third) in black and tan livery: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511154971 Here's another image from Ernie showing the same type in green livery: The first coach is one of these, showing the compartment side. The fourth coach is also one of these, but shows the corridor side which had quite a different appearance. This sent me down a rabbit-hole as my initial thought was that this coach looked similar to some LMS vehicles. I did a bit more research and found that this is a GSWR type, still being built very early in the GSR era. I think they were numbered 1290 to 1322, although there may have been minor variations between the earlier and later builds. So there were a good number of them and many seem to have survived into the 1960s. Here are some more photos from the IRRS Archive showing both sides. These are in the older dark green livery: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53508911093 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53509172220 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511165871 And these are in Black'n'tan: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511331613 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511597330 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511331608 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511303071 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511303076 Key dimensions were 57' underframe, 61' over buffers, 42' bogie centres, 9' wide over body, and 13'2" total height over ventilators. These compare pretty closely to the early LMS corridor thirds from the same period, diagram 1695: 57' underframe, 60'8" over buffers, 40'8" bogie centres, 9' wide over body, and 12'10" total height over ventilators. To my eye, the styling also looks very similar to these early LMS carriages. On the compartment side the layout of doors and windows is identical, and the panelling layout very similar. On the corridor side, there are the same number of doors in a similar arrangement but the windows are distributed slightly differently - the GSWR type has more deadlights where the LMS ones have glass. These are the Comet models etched sides for LMS D1695: Now, the Mainline / Replica / Bachmann LMS coaches are representations of this type, but they only make the composite and the brake third, not the full third. These are the two sides of the composite: I've seen accounts of people doing a 'cut and shut' using parts of two brake thirds to make a full third, or of course you can overlay the Comet etched sides to make a third. Now, I know that Bachmann produced their composite and brake third in CIE dark green as part of their Irish set, and some people have dismissed them as completely incorrect. But are they really that bad? Am I missing something? The older Mainline versions can be picked up on Ebay for not much more than a tenner each, so they would make a cheap basis for a conversion. I was wondering whether anyone has used these as the basis of Irish models? Some details could be changed quite easily: adding full-length footboards and an Irish livery would help a lot even if you didn't change the window arrangements. Please show me what you've done!

There's a Cravens and a Park Royal in this train hauled by 186, in 1972. You don't necessarily need RPSI-liveried carriages for an RPSI railtour: https://www.steamtrainsireland.com/members/galleries/132/north-kerry-railtour-1972

Looks great! Nice work. The gauge glasses are very effective.

There are two existing types of carriage which could run with five of Leslie's six: Cravens and Mk2s. Park Royals are also suitable for some of them.

I'm pleased to say that I have managed to make time for a good few hours of modelling today, and I've been focusing on the chassis for the E class. Making up the High Level hornblocks and hornguides and getting them all to be a smooth fit was a time-consuming task, lots of fettling required as the parts supplied had some dimensional variations. I got there in the end though. Main frame components ready for assembly: Hornguides fitted and fettled (again) so the blocks all slide freely: Once that was done, progress was much faster. Here are the main parts soldered together and checked for fit. I had to file a little off the ends as they clashed with my messy soldering of the vacuum pipes inside the bufferbeams, but otherwise it fits well: CSB pivots and brake hanger rods fitted, nuts added to coupler mounting plates. Geartrain case completed and the hornblocks ready to fit: Rough positioning of the QuaDriver motor and gearbox which drives the two closely-spaced axles at the front. The geartrain in the foreground connects to the third axle: And finally for today, the gubbins tray which bolts in place above the motor. My intention is that this can be used to carry extra weight, and/or to mount decoder, stay-alives etc. There's plenty of room above it in the bonnet: Hopefully at the weekend I can try fitting this all together with axles, gears, wheels, suspension and pickups. If that goes well it will be ready for a test-run, so I was delighted to hear that my 21mm gauge flexitrack bases went in the post today!

Have you got these two in your count? If indeed they are different, rather than a dramatic difference in colour sensitivity or deterioration of film? https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53449699674/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511737265/

Ah, I hadn't looked in that much detail but you're absolutely right. The tanks are different, as is the cabside cutout and the leading splasher. Thanks to Ernie again for the illustrations: There are lots of photos of both on the IRRS archive too.

And for oddballs like me who just can't leave a model alone, I could renumber it as 100 and it would fit my Fenit theme, if not my timeline.

Despite being the smallest, Pat wanted all the other locos to look up to him, and begged the Fat Controller to help hlm. He got EXACTLY what he asked for...

I wonder whether Pat was a Patrick or a Patricia, to the crew? The painted name was just Pat, and in later years was barely legible: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53813461924/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/110691393@N07/11403709374/ I think Pat was made in Cork and always worked there, while Sambo was made at Inchicore and always worked there. So I like the tongue-in-cheek idea of a collectors' pack of the two together! Incidentally, long after Sambo's demise, the Inchicore pilot loco turn was called 'the Sambo', even if it was an E class diesel rostered to the duty. I don't know whether that continued into more recent times.

Did they ever meet?

As I understand, the rail link is being pushed by Shannon Foynes Port Co. (SFPC). This strategy was published in 2011 with a vision forward to 2041, and it does mention rail in several places. https://sfpc.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SFPC-MASTERPLAN-Final.pdf We're nearly half way through that time period now; I wonder how the current situation compares to what was expected? Foynes doesn't handle containers at present and the strategy does not seem to consider intermodal traffic as part of the port's future. Intermodal is one of the easiest traffics to put on rail, and in GB (as a comparable island nation) intermodal traffic to/from ports is now the biggest rail freight sector. But that seems unlikely at Foynes. Foynes (and the Shannon ports in general) are primarily bulk traffic ports. But my understanding is that most of that bulk traffic doesn't travel far within Ireland - it is used, processed and exported, or burned within the Shannon estuary area. Hence the lack of rail traffic at present. Clearly all the existing traffics are handled without needing rail. Are there hundreds of HGVs filling the roads to and from Foynes? And are they all going to the same place? If so, then rail may be useful. But I suspect not. Some of the break-bulk traffic (timber, steel) might have a longer inland journey, but this is relatively small in volume and probably serves a widely distributed range of customers rather than suiting a dedicated rail flow. So whilst the rail link is seen by SFPC as a key asset, I think there would need to be one or more new bulk traffic flows through the port to really make use of the rail link. While SFPC can encourage that by improving facilities, their remit is as port operators not mineral extraction or processing, etc. Is there anything realistically under consideration - new mines or heavy industries?

Very nice! It was a great talk with lots of interesting photos from that transitional era.

There are quite a few books on BnM railways and these are the ones I have: For the history, Brown Gold is by far the best. The railways were such a key part of the operation that they get detailed coverage in the history of BnM as a whole. You can get it for about 10 Euro and I would highly recommend the book for anyone with an interest in BnM railways. It’s a thick tome but worth working through!

I've also been learning more about the later history of the line. Owing to major deterioration of the structure, the pier was closed from the early 1940s until it was completely rebuilt in 1955. Of course fuel shortages in the Emergency had also badly affected the branch, so that in the 1940s it was almost moribund but it gained a new lease of life in the later 1950s. 560 (ex-MGWR 0-6-0T) was the regular branch loco from 1955, but E410 and G602 made appearances in the late 1950s. Summer Sunday passenger excursions were introduced in June 1959, and proved very popular with up to 3 trains each Sunday when the weather was good. This photo is an IRRS one which curiously doesn't appear on the IRRS Flickr but is on the internet elsewhere. It gives a flavour of those times: There are quite a few other photos of these excursions, which show that in the early 1960s they were often formed of railcar sets or C class locos and a mix of old and new carriages. One one occasion a railcar set needed assistance from 560 to climb the bank out of Fenit! Known numbers include 2601, 2606, C212, all in green. By the mid-1960s, G602 had been replaced by members of the G611 class; G617 appears in most photos but others may have appeared including G616 and G611. The Summer Sunday passenger trains were more commonly hauled by 141s by then, photos show B151/153/156/169 and with stock in black'n'tan livery. Mid to late 1960s freights appear with traction from a green C227, black C218, black A30. The shunter shuttled back and forth along the pier to form the train, and the bigger loco hauled it to Tralee and perhaps beyond. Retrenchment in the 1970s saw the passenger excursions cease in 1974 and the branch traffic was reduced to seasonal beet trains, but these sometimes operated daily as late as 1977 with 001 class locos. 006 and 025 in supertrain livery were recorded in this period. There is some inconsistency about the final year that the branch was visited by the weedspray train, but it was probably 1978 with loco 210. There were enthusiast railtours in 1961, 1964 and 1972. The first used 560, the second 186 (before preservation) and the third 186 again (after preservation). Next I need to have a look at wagons and carriages. I've got a reasonable assessment of the wagons already, and I've worked out that Park Royals turned up at Fenit in both green and black'n'tan eras, and there's even a Cravens in one set! But older stock was the norm. The description on the original image says 5'3" gauge, which narrows it down a lot. Especially with side buffers rather than a knuckle coupler. I think it is for Fenit.

Also well before my era of interest but nevertheless nice to see, this must be the station building that was long gone by the diesel era: An early loco and evidence of fish traffic by rail: Despite the caption, I'm pretty sure this isn't Fenit, possibly Tralee?

I've been busy busy at work recently and not much time to focus on modelling, though a bit of time for research. Still interested in Fenit as a prototype, I've been delving into that rabbit hole. I found this image of a rather interesting early bogie wagon, apparently a 30 ton high side open goods wagon for the Tralee & Fenit Harbour Commissioners, body 34' long, built by the Lancaster Railway Carriage & Wagon Co. Ltd. It doesn't carry a number; I wonder how many wagons the T&FHC had? There are some odd technical details such as the long 5-link coupling, the buffers spaced on blocks, handbrakes acting on all wheels. The top plank of the body seems to run the full length of the wagon. It appears to be iron or steel-framed with T-bulb section for the solebars. Bogies are a rather lightweight diamond-frame 3-piece type. Some details may have been lost in retouching the photo to hide the background. Anyone know more about these or other T&FHC wagons?

After my visits to the dying remains of the BnM railways a couple of years back, I bought several books on the history of the BnM and Turf Development Board. Some are more wordy and some more pictures. But they are all really good. The best one for a detailed history is this, and it's not expensive: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brown-Gold-History-Irish-Industry/dp/0717147525 There's also a fair bit of history on the BnM's own website, though it's not too easy to navigate to all the pages. When I was there, the oldest loco still in use was LM40 built in 1947: So by 1947 there were at least 40 locos in use by BnM. The first few locos pre-dated the LM numbering system, but it was introduced fairly early. One of the very first diesels still exists at Dromod - German-built I think.

I know that putting sheets on a rake of wagons requires the purchase of several packs of Tunnocks Caramel Wafers, but it's good to learn that making a model fuel depot can justify consumption of several dozen cakes!

Also in 1875 was the merger of the Dublin and Drogheda Railway with the Dublin and the Belfast Junction Railway to form the backbone of what would soon be renamed the Great Northern Railway. But another important anniversary in 2025 is the centenary of the formation of the Great Southern Railways. For the 2026 announcement, we can look forward to the 200th anniversary of the first act of parliament for a public steam railway in Ireland - the Limerick and Waterford. And for 2029/30 it's the 150th anniversary of the two surviving J15s, so if IRM haven't started a J15 already then they need to get that date pencilled in...

We live in a changing age, both in model railways and in the bigger picture. In model railways, the standards keep rising, and what was the 'must-have' loco 10/15 years ago is now superseded my new models, new manufacturers, new technology. What was once a highly sought-after model may no longer have the same value. In the wider world, we're now in or approaching a position where disposable incomes are no longer growing, probably decreasing or soon will be. So the market for discretionary purchases like all collectables is decreasing. For model railways in particular, there's a boom generation who are now in retirement with more-or-less generous pensions, that probably represents a peak demand. Younger generations may look towards different hobbies and interests. The market for high-end models is probably close to its peak volume now, and if the demand shrinks then the prices plummet. We've seen this effect already with old railway books - some sought-after titles which 5 years ago were impossibly expensive are now surprisingly cheap. I'm not qualified to offer investment advice, but my view is that model railways are not a good long-term investment at present. By all means, buy a model because you like it and it will give you pleasure in owning/operating/modifying etc. There's also potentially money to be made in buying discounted models and selling on fairly quickly at higher prices, although increasingly marketplaces such as eBay are getting more greedy with their fees. But don't buy a model in the hope that it will be worth more in 10 or 20 years time! Having said that, the high-end, small-run obscure niche models are probably the least bad speculation option in the model railway scene, especially if you keep them pristine while idiots like me rip them apart, modify and weather them to destroy their monetary value. So get your wallets out next week and BUY BUY BUY!

Lovely! Some nice little details to catch the eye there. 141 has large shaded numerals on the cab front, relatively unusual and only applied to the first few 141s repainted in supertrain livery. Most had small unshaded numerals. 054 has the horn pointing straight towards the photographer, rather than forward along the track. Note also the small lettering on the lower bodyside, not often seen so clearly, not often modelled.

Sorry, I was attempting to be tongue in cheek, maybe that didn't come across. I had guessed that 'Senior' would have been there for this photo, and that the loco was actually grey (not green at all) when pictured. The same album has a photo of 801 in fully lined livery, much more elaborate than the photographic grey:

There are some interesting photos in the same album, image quality is a bit mixed but it's fascinating to see what it was like in and around the works over the years: