Mol_PMB

The IRRS archive contains some very nice older photos, particularly those in the Harold Fayle collection: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/albums/72177720318213369 For those of you who are IRRS members, here are a few examples. DSER 2-2-2T no.27 around 1920: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53813452459/ WCR no.11 around 1900: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53813368063/ GSWR 2-4-0 around 1905: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53812198452/ GSWR 4-wheel carriage around 1920: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53813564205/ GNR no.70 with an express in the 1920s: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53813553975/ DESR 0-4-2 no.59 around 1906: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53813116576/ WLWR 2-4-0 no.6 around 1902: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53813563110 MGWR 0-4-2 Comet around 1900: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53813563865 GSWR 0-6-0 no.188 around 1920: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53812198922 GNR 0-6-0 no.145 around 1920: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53812188152 There are many more.

Lovely! The original pier at Fenit before it was rebuilt in the 1950s. A fair sized ship alongside. Limerick Steamship Co were the most regular visitors here. Pages 56-58 are good too - unusual view of the inside motion of an 0-6-0 goods engine, and a nice selection of goods wagons in a rather wrecked state. Pages 65 & 67 have one of @leslie10646's brake vans in a slightly ticklish position. Page 73 has a nice view of a 'Big Boy' van, 15065 I think. I must finish of my drawing of them, and then think about a model or two. I've been distracted by the layout construction.

That last image you linked shows a VERY busy goods yard at Listowel - there must be about 50 wagons visible, no doubt plenty of WLWR types amongst them. Market day? Going off on a small tangent, this parcel stamp is one of the rarer pieces in my railway philately collection: And in a fine example of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it', a parcel stamp of almost identical design from around 80 years later:

Lovely! I thought at first that the train at Loo Bridge was hauled by one of the single Fairlies, but on closer inspection it's one of the very similar-looking conventional 0-4-4Ts. I agree there are some super 'Easter eggs' to be found in the background of non-railway photos. Although from a later era I'm still amazed by the photo I found earlier showing a 1000 (D) class diesel shunter working in Cork.

This is a beauty. Zoom right in on the NLI original to see the details of the elaborate lining and lettering on the rolling stock. The train crew make a lovely cameo too: https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000251179 107 was built in 1881, but the line to Valentia Harbour wasn't opened until 1895. An unusual view of the Waterford coaling quay: https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000036651 The loco is presumably 'Erin' as seen in this view: https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000036650 No trains but what a delightful scene, asking to be modelled! https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000058719

124 at Cork with the mail in 1961. But what's that van behind the loco? Could be a UTA crest on the side. Pigeons? https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000305726

GSWR era at Cork, this is not really a railway photo but it has a lot of wagons in the background: https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000337575 Two items of interest: on GSWR convertible vans, the sheet covering the hole in the roof is also lettered GSWR. And there's a butter van in shot too. Also in Cork, and perhaps an even earlier era when the original station was still in use? https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000337571 Certainly some antiquated rolling stock, apparently on lines at right angles to each other (maybe lots of small turntables?). And an early loco partly visible, just teasing us.

That's a hell of 'a start'!

In CIE times there was rail traffic in gypsum, shale, barytes, magnesite and dolomite, also in lead and zinc ores. I'm not sure how early some of these mines were developed - I think in many cases they were 1960s developments and the rail traffic was won then. So I think the geology would be OK, it's more a question of when the minerals were first exploited on a scale that would use dedicated wagons to transport the output by rail.

There are couple of GSWR-era images at Glanmire Road here, with some early wagons and a clean and shiny 101 class (I think): https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000168904 https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000168906 http://www.nli.ie/digital/vtls000168906.jpg http://www.nli.ie/digital/vtls000168904.jpg Also in the J J Clarke collection, a DNGR through train to Bundoran, it would seem: https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000168902

There was a trial on 7 March 1948, when 1000 hauled a goods train of 25 wagons, non-stop from Kingsbridge to Cork. It took nearly 9 hours so I hope the crew took some refreshments! Must have been tedious at that speed. But this photo is the first mention or evidence I've seen of a D class working in Cork, and being dated 1955 it's well after the trials period for these locos.

Looking at the Early Irish Railway Photos thread and the NLI collection, I have fallen down a bit of a rabbit hole. In fact I was looking for photos of mills in the NLI collection in the hope of finding some more photos of Quartertown, when I stumbled across this super aerial view of the flour mills in Cork. With Glanmire Road station, goods yard and shed in the background. I wouldn't have found this when searching for a railway-related image, but there's so much of interest in this photo I thought I'd share it here. The date is April 1955: https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000733522 You know how much I like wagons and there's plenty of them to love here, including three different types of 6-wheel goods brake van. There's a lot of containerised freight in CIE (pre-ISO) containers - they're easy to spot as the snail is in the middle of the side, rather than at one end on the goods vans. There's also a nice view of 'Pat' working on the elevated coal gantry, showing how this served the quays and the sheds. On the turntable is one of the 'Queens', contrasting with an AEC railcar set in the station. But to me the most interesting loco in this shot is a 1000 class shunter, apparently busy at work in the yard. I knew that a D class had once hauled a trial train to Cork, but I didn't realise that one was based here prior to the arrival of the E class. This is a cruel zoom in to a tiny portion of the whole photo:

I just remembered that I have a book 'Transport in Ireland 1880-1910' (Flanagan, 1969) which presents many photos from the NLI Lawrence collection. Of course the book was published long before the internet, and Lawrence's photos now form a key part of the NLI's online archive: https://catalogue.nli.ie/Author/Home?author=Lawrence, William, 1840-1932 There are thousands of images, and only a fraction of them relate to railways or other transport. Probably worth a ferret through though... https://catalogue.nli.ie/Author/Home?filter[]=digitised%3A"Digitised"&filter[]=format%3A"Photo"&filter[]=topic_facet%3A"Railroads"&author="Lawrence%2C+William%2C+1840-1932"&type=Author A few nice ones I stumbled on: https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000057129 https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000339660 https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000747316 https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000317183 https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000317056 https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000318850 https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000058724 https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000333490 https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000058720 One for @Darius43 showing his latest model festooned with advertisements: https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000317163

The wagon just visible on the left is interesting - very low and with a peaked roof. In GB, wagons of this shape were sometimes used for minerals which had to be kept dry, such as lime, some types of ore, or loco sand. Salt too, but salt wagons were normally much taller in the sides so that people could handle the product in sacks. Does anyone know more about the use of these low peaked-roof wagons in Ireland?

Many thanks for the NLI tips - I'll have a look. As for a freight diagram book, I haven't found anything for the GSWR, or indeed the GSR. There are some CIE wagon diagram books in existence but not in the public domain, and they tend to be 1970s or later. I do have a copy of the reprinted GSWR carriage diagram book, which includes NPCCS such as carriage trucks. So the GSWR Motor/Fish Vans are shown on page 104 - one of these is the nearest vehicle in Ernie's photo just above. Your single plank wagons are also for carrying vehicles - note that the sides are fixed but they have drop ends - but are not vacuum brake fitted and are numbered in the wagon series, so they don't appear in the carriage diagrams. The carriage diagram books do include some other types of open carriage truck.

My pic of 055 at Ennis, now preserved at Castlerea: Photo by A Leach, 124 on a Cork-Tralee service: Not really on topic, as it isn't a loco: I'm sure I can find some more.

Yes, if this was at GWRA or equivalent, my wallet would be in danger!

Fortunately pendos are pretty robust. Even more fortunately, the driver was able to make an emergency broadcast on the radio which stopped the approaching northbound train…

I would have thought that to achieve the best prices from this collection the auctioneers should be appealing to the US market too. Yet the poor descriptions/photos and the ruinously strict terms and conditions will really discourage bids from anyone who can’t be there in person over at least 3 days.

If you fly Boeing there’s a fair chance your plane went by train: but hopefully it wasn’t one of the trainload that wanted to try white-water rafting:

True! But to be able to view the items, and then attend the auction, adds hundreds of pounds of travel and accommodation costs plus some days of annual leave. There wouldn’t be any budget left over for buying the stuff, let alone getting it back home!

There are items on there (mostly historical documents) that I might be willing to pay a fair amount for, if only there was a better description or more photos. But I'm reluctant to take a punt on the basis of the awful information presented.

Agreed. That UTA rolling stock diagram book caught my eye too. I hope it goes to a person or organisation that would be willing to share the data in it, if the insides are as interesting as it sounds. One wonders what's in these lots (terrible listings but tempting photo): AN INTERESTING COLLECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC AND HAND DRAWN BLUEPRINTS together with copies and facsimi A BOUND VOLUME OF BLUEPRINTS, etc. for various locomotives mainly LMS NCC with technical details, no A MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTION OF RAILWAY AND LOCOMOTIVE BLUEPRINTS, etc. There are some odd combinations of items like the handmade model of an NIR DH class shunter (O gauge?) mixed in with some Hornby tat. I suppose they're all the same colour, so they must belong together? HORNBY 00 GAUGE DUCHESS OF HAMILTON AND TENDER boxed together with A Riva Rossi 00 Gauge Royal Scot In the pricing there's little account taken of the age/rarity of some railways compared to the bigger names. Some of the prices for the artworks seem high to me as well. The listings for the books appear extremely rushed - take a photo of a shelf-full, name only one and guess a random price. Some lots are a bargain while others are seriously over-priced. Some of the official railway paperwork is nice, but remembering that there's a hefty buyer's premium on the prices it's not cheap. Other items of interest may include a bound set of IRRS journals (perhaps from the very beginning? the listing is poor): THE IRISH RAILWAY RECORDS SOCIETY PROCEEDINGS A box of bound volumes of Irish Railway Records Societ

Is there an Indian takeaway in that town? Certainly ought to be!

Excellent work - another little masterpiece.