Mayner

Cannot check for cab photo as IRRS Flickr site is closed for editing at the moment. Richards Chown's model on WLWR No 2 (later 222) in its original conditions is fitted with a screw reverser. There is a photo of the cab interior on 5 Nov 2020 posting on David's thread. Its likely that Richard's model is based on a Kitson builders drawing obtained from Leeds or NRM York

Possibly Industrial Alcohol from the Chemici Teo Plant at Corry in Mayo shipped through Ballina, traffic survived into the 80s possibly 90s in 10' ISO containers. The LL Flat particularly with 3 Guinness container or an Aluminium pre ISO CIE container would be a nice 60s era model at home on CIE and UTA and there is even a PWD version of the flat that survived into the 80s!.

The GSR in the 1930s in a way was a bit like the UTA wanting to replace loss making rail services with buses with no real long term need for a fleet of 'modern' steam locos for branch and secondary duties. The GSR proposed a series of closures in the mid-late 1930s that would have closed most branch and secondary lines such as the West Cork. In a way the GSR had a surplus of 4-6-0s for the Cork Line and the 27 Woolwich filled the bill in terms of a modern mixed traffic loco for main line work. The GSWR 333 Class supplemented by the 1930s built 342s (both classed as D4) were a useful mixed traffic design which proved themselves capable of working passenger trains on the South Eastern, Rosslare Route and popular locos for working excursion trains. The superheating of the smaller goods and passenger locos could be justified by reduction in operating costs as a result of reduced fuel consumption without going to the expense of building new locos for passenger services the GSR hoped to replace with busses. Many of the short feeder branches had lost their passenger services by the Mid-30s but traffic from cattle fairs justified retaining the lines for goods traffic. The GSR had already gone for the jugular by closing the Clifden, Achill and Killala Branches by the Mid-30s as the building of the lines were financed by Government grants and closure did not result in a major write off of capital. The Drumm Battery trains appear to have been forced on the GSR possibly a quid-pro quo for passing of the Transport Act that gave the GSR similar monopoly powers to the Northern Ireland Transport Board and dependent of the supply of electricity from the Shannon scheme at a discounted rate. The system was surely capable of development but the Government "was not prepared to subsidise inventions" when Drumm and the GSR applied to funding for new batteries during the late 30? or 40s. This was at an age when railways were still expected to stand on their own feet fund improvements from their own resources or borrowing and operate without subsidy, after all immediately before WWI the GSR and Midland were efficient and reasonable profitable companies. The main issue with the Drumm Trains appears to have been the high capital cost compared to steam and short battery life. Two car Drumm Unit similar capital cost to a new steam loco and a 5 coach train. My father at the time subscribed to a conspiratory theory that "the Drumm Trains were driven off the rails" (possibly the mid 30 Sandycove derailment or perhaps 'brown envelopes" from AEC and the oil companies. Certainly something to be said about a train that 90 years ago was capable of a trial trip from Amiens St to Gorey and back with minimal topping up and a battery life of 5 years before needing refurbishment (not replacement!) Definitely left a favourable impression on my father though at the time the family lived in Ballinascorney in the Dublin mountains, their transport was a Ford V8 and pony and trap!

Have they retained the original seating? There was a lot of criticism of the original seating. The Sunday Cork-Heuston Arrow (stock transfer) had the reputation of being something of an endurance test. Possibly a rail equivalent of enduring the privations of Lough Derg. Perhaps no refreshments on Saturdays leg or the IRRS Railtour and "black tea" only on Sunday's return to the 'Real Capital"

The saga of the hotel project and the Gombeen Man did some good as I was headhunted and offered a role as a manager with a company that had impressed me for some time. First project was Project/Site Manager on a large North West Dublin Logistics/Warehousing project where my role was largely co-ordinating things with the designers nd specialist contractors while John our senior engineer and something of a Claude Greengrass character was in day to day charge of the sub-structure works with a team of engineers, direct labour, and specialist contractors. I looked after superstructure works (steel work, cladding, mechanical and electrical services) with a Finishing Foreman in charge of the Office Fit out. John was extremely enterprising individual along with his day job, he provided a taxi service for our team of directly employed workers from Westmeath, installed part of the project's rainwater system on a piece-work rate during weekends and indulged his Greengrass instincts by trapping game and vermin. Setting and checking out the traps did no go down to well with his passengers going to and coming home from work. John would take a diversion to set or check out his traps and some of the lads were a bit squeamish about the dead animals in the back of the van. John got into a spot one day installing a downpipe inside a warehouse at a height of about 12m using a knuckle boom and managed to trap himself between the structure and the cage of the boom, was unable to reach the controls but somehow managed to find a way out despite being the only one on a very large site before the days of reliable cell-phone coverage. I did not acquit myself to well with possibly the same boom after successfully replacing a defective double glazing unit in the project Office Block some time after handover and the Office Block was occupied, I managed to strike and damage the remotely controlled entrance gate to the Office car park with the knuckle boom. One of the clients Directors rang my boss in panic and was told not to worry that I would sort out the problem. Apart from telling me that he received the call my boss never said another word about the incident. We carried out a temporary repair job and operated the gates manually for a couple of weeks before carrying out the permanent repair. During the Final Phase of the project a serious problem arose for the firm of Architect in charge of the project issued a Certificate of Practical Completion to our firm and the Client refused to accept the Final Phase of the project. At literally the last minute the Clients representative identified that one of the staircases in the Office Block breached fire/building regs.. Spent an interesting afternoon walking the Office Block with one of the Architectural Firms senior partners and a copy of the Building/Fire Regs trouble shooting the offending stair case, changing the direction of opening of some fire doors and closing off general access from the staircase to a plant room (chain and a small sign) so it was not classed as part of an escape route. We completed the alterations in a day or so and the client occupied the Final Phase of the project. I guess the Clients Rep could justifiably claim that he had done something to justify his fee. Never found out if we invoiced the firm of architects for the alterations or simply treated as a goodwill gesture to avoid embarrassing the firm and remain on their list of preferred contractors a days wages for a couple of carpenters was small change on a £12m project during the late 90s Unfortunately I did not really appreciate that I was working for a really good company until I jumped ship in pursuit of higher pay 2-3 years later and found myself in a far worse situation, though I guess I would not be where I am today if I did not make that move so there are no regrets.

Possibly a watching trains go-by N scale model of the GNR Main Line across the Border or Craigmore Viaduct as a next project if Patrick has the space. Kids used to start counting wagons on goods trains as they emerged from a tunnel/from under a bridge when we exhibited a 13' x 2'6" N Gauge club layout about 40 years ago! Alternatively watching/trying to count cars on American freight trains can help you sleep. Spent a week chasing/photographing trains on Donner in 2001 before we were all abruptly brought back to reality by the 9/11 attacks.

Likely to have been initially loaded under the large Elevators at Dublin, Waterford and Cork ports and unloaded by gravity at mills around the country, apparently wagons were unloaded through a hole in a road bridge in Limerick and the grain then transhipped by road to Ranks Mill in the Docks. There is also a photo (possibly O'Dea collection) of grain being transhipped from a grain wagon to a truck at Fermoy during the 60s using a portable conveyor The GSR originally built 10 hoppers for its own use and 8 for Ranks traffic during the 1930s, the increase in traffic that lead to CIE converting H Vans to grain wagons likely to be tied up with large scale mechanisation of agriculture in Ireland during the 50s leading to increased grain growing and use of grain as stock feed (Anglo-Irish Free Trade Agreement? Ferns County Wexford seems to have become a significant originating point in the 50 with Ferns-Ballysodare possibly Ardee traffic flows. Grain seems to have been stored for loading in a typical Irish curved roofed agricultural/industrial building as opposed to a silo/elevator at Ferns and loaded through covered conveyors that projected out of the building. Some photos of arrangements for loading/unloading at Clara. Built 1930s quite a contrast with stone mills built during 19th Century Ranks Mill Clara 1990s Elevator on left, drystore? on right, seems to have been 2 siding in this area. Mill Elevator on left smaller building may have been for storing finished product animal feed? before dispatch Close up of loading chutes and discharge point. Looks like the discharge point was set up for unloading trucks after rail traffic ceased during the Mid 70s. Clara an industrial town once relatively busy with freight traffic mainly tied up with the Goodbody family. Jute mill served by a long siding west of the station and Goodbodys later Ranks Mill at the rear of the station and two goods yards with its own pilot loco laterly a G Class

Interesting seeing IRM announcing the release of the Bulk Grain wagon before announcing the H Van from which its derived. The Bulk Grain variant of the H Van was a relatively rare and camera shy type. Apart from the Wicklow photo accessible on the IRRS Flickr site, there is a photo of two distinct variants of the wagon at Ballysodare Mill in JHBs and Barry Carse's Rails through the West. Stephen's comment of the wagons in a 3 pack retailing in Ireland at €26 each (incl Vat) is an interesting one , it currently costs me €25 (excl vat) to produce 3D printed versions of the GSWR & early CIE versions of the H Van in undecorated-kit form, and illustrates the impossibility of producing kits or quality 3D printed models at a similar price point to plastic injection models. I am not complaining I was aware for several years that IRM were planning to release "Bulleid Wagons" and went down the 3D printed road seeing a narrow window of opportunity to produce a range of pre-Bulleid era wagons before IRM released its range of Bulleid era wagons.

Possibly "Webbs Mill" Mallow private siding at Quarterstown off the Mallow-Killarney line. Originally a flour mill later used for handling bitumen traffic closed 1977. There is a Joe St Ledger of a B141 stunting bitumen tanks at the Mill in IRRS Journal 198 Feb 2019 Coach seems to be an ex-GSWR early GSR coach some of which survived into the early 70s. Would make a nice compact shunting module possibly forthcoming IRM Fuel Oil Wagons posing as Bitumen wagons or even H Van or Bulk Grain wagons.

The ironical thing is that the Clifden Station is no struggling preservation group but a profitable business that made €437,000 profit last year on a turnover of €6.2m , or returned a 13% profit margin, that could have funded the restoration of the coach from its own resources. The cost of restoring the carriage over the past 20 years would have been quite small change in terms of the cost of operating and maintaining the hotel and tax deductible, quite different from a preservation group attempting to restore a carriage from its own resources or donations. The restored carriage could have been treated an integral part of the hotel in a similar manner to other parts of the hotel such as the swimming pool that don't directly generate revenue or generate revenue rather than an eyesore in the carpark. Applying a bit of lateral thinking the interior of the restored carriage could have been used for storage or even a room for guests.

In my experience lineside fires are sometimes ignited by burning embers from the ashpan landing by the lineside. A steam loco travelling at speed has an ability to fling embers at some distance from the track, I once spent a day dealing with this problem on a Welsh Narrow gauge line which was almost perfectly flat and speeds did not exceed 10mph. Farmers burning off gorse/dead vegetation in Spring has often been a cause of fires, Spring is usually considered to be the start of the Bush/Wildfire season in Australasia and New South Wales. Perhaps a case for a Gangers Trolley with firefighting equipment following steam hauled trains through a section as they do on the Cumbres and Toltec in the United States, but difficult to apply on account of Irish or UK because of signalling practice/regulation. On the subject of steam trains I found a 2018 trip on a diesel hauled Sea Breeze to and from Wexford in the RPSI Craven set something of an endurance test, while I really enjoyed a WT hauled trip from Connolly to Longford and back using the same coaches in 2005 really enjoyable. Ironically I found driving to Wexford and taking photos of the Sea Breeze in the Vale of Avoca, Enniscorthy and Ferrycarrig on two occasions during the 90s much more enjoyable and relaxing than taking the train. Interesting family seemed to enjoy and appeared to consider 6+ hour journeys travelling on the Silverton and Cumbres and Toltec as a relaxing day out rather than an endurance trip possibly low speed and vintage cars contrasted nicely with our experiences of travelling by train in Ireland and the UK.

Used a selection of Dart Castings rabbits, ducks, swans etc. to keep viewers interested when exhibiting a small end to end layout 20 odd years ago. The different animal species were listed on the layout fascia. Families with small kits used to get more entertainment out of searching for and counting the rabbits and ducks than watching the trains! Rabbits and ducks have gone into hiding but swans have taken up residence for the past 10-12 years in the river on the Irish Narrow gauge layout

Going back to the old-old days the Great Northern BUT railcar trains were designed to be divided and combined to serve different destinations. The original 700 Class railcars were double ended with a driving cab at each end. This capability was put to use for a few weeks before the Irish North line closed in September 1957 with a combined BUT operated Belfast-Derry-Enniskillen train. The Enniskillen portion was operated by a single 700 Class railcar towing a vintage clearstory brake end coach, a last hurrah for the Great Northern demonstrating that it was feasible to operate a fast (3hour) Belfast-Enniskillen train despite the Northern Government having already decided to pull the plug. Going back to Ivan's comment about the North Kent trains continuing to divide en-route, the Southern always demonstrated innovative thinking with hybrid electric-diesel operation of Waterloo-Weymouth services long before the term hybrid became popular! Between the late 60s and the mid 80s completion of the 3rd rail electrification through to Weymouth through Waterloo-Weymouth services were electrically powered to Bournemouth by a 4REP unit at the London end of the train pushing-pulling the 4TC non powered units that worked through to Weymouth. The 4REP unit was uncoupled at Bournemouth with a Class 33 diesel working the 4 TC cars push-pull to Weymouth. There were also stories of combined electric and diesel working with 4REP units and Class 33 diesels on the 3rd rail, the 4REP traction motors were re-used in the stylish MK3 based Class 442 units

The IE Signalling and Electrical Department demonstrated a degree of innovative and lateral thinking to allow the morning Limerick-Ballybrophy service to split mid-section in the Birdhill-Roscrea Block Section allowing the lead unit to continue to Ballybrophy and the trailing unit to return as the Nenagh-Limerick commuter train. Nenagh was closed as a Block Post with the signal cabin closed and crossing loop lifted in the cuts/rationalisation of the late 80s with the Block Section becoming Birdhill-Roscrea. The S&E people got around the problem of a train splitting mid-section and the rear unit returning to Birdhill while the lead unit continued to Roscrea, by combining 19th Century signalling technology with 21st Century Industrial Safety Interlocking equipment. The Lead Unit was classified as the Train and the Trailing Unit a 'Banker" assisting the 'The Train" to Nenagh in a similar manner to the way Steam Locos and sometimes Diesel railcars banked/assisted trains from Stranorlar to the summit of the Stranorlar-Donegal line in Barnesmore Gap before returning to Stranorlar. The Birdhill-Nenagh 'Banking Staff' may have been an actual 'banking staff that survived from the steam era or possibly specially fabricated for the job, the S&E people managed to interface modern industrial 'safety interlocking" equipment with the existing electric staff instrument at Birdhill to allow the signaler at Birdhill to 'clear' the Birdhill-Roscrea section and release a staff when both the Lead Unit and the Banker had cleared the section. Interestingly the Donegal apparently used to detach railcars from trains in the Barnesmore Gap area to allow staff to cut/harvest turf in the gap, the railcar returning the Stranorlar on the Banking Staff when the days work was done.

Funnily enough CIE used to divide and combine the Galway and Mayo AEC railcar powered train at Athlone during the 1st season of operation. The train was initially made up of a pair of 2600 railcars and a pair of 1904-1908 Brake 3rd coaches fitted with the brake compartment fitted out as a driving cab with a single rear window. The Train divided at Athlone with one 2600 railcar and Brake 3rd (nicknamed Mule) continuing to Galway and the second to Westport. Train operate in this format for one season before being replaced with a 6 car train with Galway portion made up of a pair of 2600 cars, an open 3rd and a Buffet Car and Westport portion a pair of 2600 cars, Westport passengers wanting to use the Buffet Car had to travel in the Galway portion between Westland Row and Athlone, or possibly change at an intermediate station. The Galway-Mayo railcar service the Cu na Mara was one of the few prestigious named trains introduced by CIE in the early 50s and may have operated as an non-stop or limited stop service. I remember watching a pair of 158 Class "Super Sprinters" dividing at Ely in the late 80s-early 90s on a Birmingham-East Coast cross-country service possibly with portions to Kings Lynn and Great Yarmouth. A relatively fast frequent service of 156 and 158 Class Super Sprinters livened up previously neglected Cross-Country services in England, Wales and Scotland during the early 90s replacing run-down MK1 loco hauled stock and 1st generation DMUs, great memories of journeys in 158 Super Sprinters on Welsh Borders and in Scotland (commuting and leisure) a far superior train to the Class 156.