Patrick Davey

Clogherhead: the driver of this evening’s light engine run has a quick chat with Stationmaster Sandy Castles on the breezy platform, before climbing up into his cab for the short run back to Drogheda. The 121 class will remain at CHD overnight.

CLOGHERHEAD SAND TRAFFIC The GNR had obtained a license from Louth County Council to extract a small annual tonnage of sand from Clogherhead beach. The Clogherhead sand saw light usage, such as in fire buckets and flower beds, and also for light maintenance and repair jobs around the GNR system. Usually a single open wagon was all that was needed for each sand run and this was brought to the station along with a brake van. Once the brake van had been shunted clear, the open wagon was shunted into the sand loading bank. Once the loading of the sand was complete, the brake van was attached to the other end of the wagon, and both vehicles were brought into the platform road before the locomotive ran around. The sand was brought to Drogheda for onward distribution. In CIE days the procedure was much the same, except that the motive power was usually a 121 class, and the sand was transported in one or more Bulleid open wagons. Clogherhead Sand Traffic.mp4

Could be trouble ahead….

Trouble with the neighbours at Clogherhead tonight…. This evening, locomotive A15 is on late evening manoeuvres at Clogherhead station, following a recent overhaul at Inchicore. All her systems are being thoroughly tested, which inevitably creates a lot of noise. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue in this remote part of County Louth but tonight there are evening devotions taking place above in the chapel, and Fr. Ray Codd is not amused by the frequent interruptions to the singing of his choir by the revving Crossley engine and the piercing horns. Presently, Fr. Codd emerges from the church, in full regalia, and the threat of a strongly worded letter making its way to the CIE board will be enough to make the loco team shut A15 down for the night.

Always a mine of information JB! Where did you dig that one up? Bursting at the seams here with laughter. Ore maybe not……

Moody shots from Clogherhead station this evening.

Exceptional work Kevin - easy to forget it's 2mm!! Looking forward to further updates.

There is something reassuringly hypnotic about watching a train of covered vans snaking its way across pointwork. Van Train.mp4

Impossibly heavy goods traffic at Clogherhead this evening. One of the trains has been named ‘The Insomnia Special’.

HIGH SUMMER AT CLOGHERHEAD It’s July 18th 1956 and the morning GNR goods from Drogheda arrives into Clogherhead, hauled by T2 442t No. 64. The loco needs to shunt her train into the bay platform pretty sharpish this morning because a CIÉ special is due to arrive from Bray, Co. Wicklow. Once the goods train has been shunted into the bay platform, unloading can commence - the Clogherhead goods shed was closed 10 years earlier and the very sparse goods traffic is now handled at the main station. Shortly, the special arrives, hauled by one of CIÉ’s brand new A class diesel locomotives, No. A30, and the train is interestingly made up of elderly GNR stock. Later, No. 64 departs for Drogheda and A30 brings her empty train back to Dublin, having successfully brought her happy sunseeking holidaymakers to the coast of County Louth, where they will enjoy the delights of warm golden sand and sweet-tasting candy floss for a few hours, before A30 returns to bring them all home again. Simpler times indeed. GNR Days @ Clogherhead.mp4

My thoughts? Incredible!!!!!!

That is EXACTLY how I remember them! Top job Philip!

Can't see how to delete posts - can someone assist? Ta!

No success with an attempt at posting a video - just won't upload......

These look fab! Lovely stuff IRM.

B125 at Clogherhead this evening, getting ready to bring some empty wagons back to Drogheda.

Another stunner!! BCDR heaven!!

Pre-ordered!

Regarding suitable paints to represent GNR colours, I have used the following: GNR carriage mahogany: Revell Aqua Colour Mud Brown Gloss This produces this effect: I should probably add a wash of black to these at some point before adding GNR coat of arms decals. Then for the GNR bus/railcar/carriage blue & cream: Cream: Anita's All-Purpose Acrylic 1106 Antique White (it's definitely cream though!) Blue: System 3 Acrylic 134 Prussian Blue Hue I used these two on my GNR buses: Hope that helps!

*THUD* (That was the sound of my jaw hitting the floor.....)

Meanwhile at Clogherhead, A46 arrives with the by now quite rare CIE ex-GSWR/GSR 10-ton brake van. Thankfully, this ancient vehicle did not tear herself apart on the dodgy double slip…… IMG_6966.MOV

She does Philip - Mr. Weaver approves!

A nice new arrival at BHM! The new UTA-liveried Jinty from Marks Models/Hornby has arrived. Once the couplings were removed it looks great, obviously not super detailed but certainly a fantastic model at a great price, the UTA livery looks good to me! Looking forward to running it soon. Well done Mark!

Two contrasting additions to the Clogherhead roster - an ancient ex-GSWR 10-ton brake van, in faded GSR livery with the recently-applied CIE flying snail, plus a not-so-ancient CIE double beet wagon. There wasn’t much beet traffic from CHD but these wagons were occasionally seen on the sand traffic. Many thanks to Alan Nixon @Tullygrainey for finishing off the finer details of the brake van for me and to Leslie @leslie10646 for producing the excellent kit. Also thanks to Eamonn Redmond @enniscorthyman for the very generous donation of the beet wagon and chassis. The body is a superb 3D print by Enda Byrne.

Excellent! One of my favourite layouts on this forum the inset track isn’t an easy feature to carry off effectively, and you have managed it very convincingly in a relatively large area. Superb!!