Mayner

Before the fixed formation train era the GSR & CIE had very low carriage utilisation by modern standards, a high proportion of carriages would have spent most of their working lives in sidings and were only used occasionally to strengthen scheduled trains or when required for excursions or specials. There was a report in one of the Fayle's Journals of passenger complaints and delays when damp/wet coaches were used to strengthen Broadstone-Galway/Mayo trains carrying cross-channel passengers. Passengers (tired and sleepy) had to detrain so that porters could sweep/mop the water out of the carriages.

Flatbottom Track panel with Peco Code 60 rail on copper clad sleepers in foreground, panel with Code 82 rail salvaged from Atlas flexible track in background. Peco Code 60 rail profile Peco Code 55 N gauge rail with double foot!

I had to do a double take when I saw the photo, I chased a similar consist with 129 & 142 from Waterford to the Junction on the 2002 Oct Holiday weekend! The locos propelled the train from the Limerick Line onto the North platform road before running round, further shunting took place with the Beet shunted to the Down Main line to free up the platform roads for up and down passenger trains. Ten years earlier during an acute loco shortage single headed 121s worked two fertiliser trains out of Cork on a summer Saturday afternoon, before the 17:30 Dublin Passenger, the 1st made it to the Junction the second to Rathpeacon before being shunted clear of the main line for the passenger. Apart on the ban on long hood running the Straffan p.w. bogie collision lead to one of the 1st modifications to the class the fitting of louvers to the cab doors.

The GSR proposal to re-build the Woolwich into 4-6-0s seems to been for similar reasons to the GWR decision to rebuild 100 4300 Moguls into Grange and Manor Class 4-6-0s, to improve stability at speed by fitting a bogie and increase boiler power by fitting a larger boiler. "Primarily goods engines but suitable for passenger trains. They work Galway passengers but are too overloaded to run fast. The boilers are to the British gauge (loading) and are too small for Irish requirements" 1948 Operating Department assessment. Fitting a bogie would allow a bigger boiler to be fitted while keeping the axle load within acceptable limits. While a Manor was 16 tons heavier than a 4300 the Manor had a lighter axle load.

During the 1950s CIE like British Railways did not anticipate the requirement for high power diesel locomotives that would become necessary as trains became heavier/faster in the 60s and 70s The B121s were only fitted up for multi-unit operation during the Mid-1970s when double heading became necessary to keep time with longer/heavier trains as service frequency was cut back as CIEs losses worsened as a result of the 1st Oil Crisis. More people were using the trains than before but fares were capped by government as fuel costs soared following the crisis. Increased fuel and transport costs basically killed of Quigley Magnesite and adversely affected the viability of Asahi and NET/IFI

I was curious about these locos as the more I looked at the GSR/CIE diagram the more the design made sense. I am not sure what Milne or the diesel faction would have thought. Proposed conversion of Woolwich Mogul to 4-6-0 re-drawn from GSR/CIE weight diagram. The first impression is that the loco looks like a scaled down Lord Nelson rather than a Patriot. The comparison with the GWR "conversion" of 43XX into the Grange Class of heavy mixed traffic 4-6-0 was striking, was Inchacore planning a light weight version similar to the Manor for the 16t axleload lines? Was the design of the 3 cylinder front end design influenced by Maunsell's Southern Railway Schools with a little help from Bullied? Maunsell's team on the Southern advised Inchacore on the front end design of the 500 Class and 402 the 1st and most successful rebuild of the 400 Class. I would be interesting to build one and see how many people identify the prototype cool:

Its interesting the GSR closed the Muskerry in 1934 the same year the Free State Government completed its final payment to the GSR in compensation for abolishing the Baronial Guarantee system. The Muskerry was one of 41 railways (broad and narrow gauge) built under a system where the capital was guaranteed usually at 5% (in perpetuity) and operating losses guaranteed by the ratepayers in area served by the railway. While the GSR did not hesitate to close uneconomic lines which did not receive a subsidy and the Balfour Lines, it would have looked bad closing a Baronial Line until the Government made the final compensation payment. The GSR to have been much more decisive about branch line closures than CIE proposing to close most branches and secondary lines in 1939, including West Cork and remaining narrow gauge The odd one is how the Schull & Skibereen survived until the 1947 coal crisis. One of the weakest of the Narrow Gauge lines, never made a profit taken over by the Cork Grand Jury in 1892 and later Cork County Council. Was the road in too poor a condition for motor vehicles or had Kingsbridge forgotten about it?

Very little on line Ian Allen/Midland Publishing 'Irish Railway Pictorial" series approx. 10 books published to date incl. C&L, GNR GSR,SLNCR, Dublin, Cork and Kerry. Colourpoint Books mainly Ulster subjects includes GSR Locomotives, Chasing the Flying Snail, Steam among the Drumlins. Individual photographs and out of print books from specialist railway and transport book sellers. Major UK exhibitions such as Warley. IRRS Library and Archive Heuston, SLS, LCGB, National Railway Museum York, National Library of Ireland

Apart from the Emergency the GSR and early CIE period was recorded reasonably well by British enthusiasts and photographers . From the 1920s through to the late 1950s The May edition of the Railway Magazine included articles and features on Irish railway operation. The May 26 edition included a Rex Murphy photo of a highly polished GSWR 403 at speed on the Dublin-Queenstown Mail Train and an E H Ahrons article on locomotive and train working on the MGWR. Prominent UK photographers such as Henry Casserley , W A Cammell, Ken Nunn, Ivo Peters, J Smith, P B Whitehouse plus our own C J Fry, Henry Fayle, Bob Clements recorded our railways. While companies such as the Loco Publishing Company (LPC)and Locomotive and General Railway and Genera Publications (L&GRP published high quality rods-down photos of locos and photos of coaching and wagon stock. Visiting enthusiasts and photographers were relatively rare in numbers often arranged their visits with the railway companies and got the red carpet treatment, for instance C L Fry arranged to have one of the Schull and Skibereen locos specially steamed after the line closed in order to pull out the other locos to take photos and measurements for modelling The LPC & L&GRP photo collections are now part of the NRM collection in York. Groups like the Stephensons Locomotive Society & LCGB have photographs of Irish railways in their collections, while IRRS members such as Herbert Richards and Barry Carse recorded railway infrastructure in the 60s and 70s.

A diagram of the 372 Class "conversion" recently appeared in New Irish Lines basically a 3 cylinder version of the 500 Class with an 800 class cab and double chimney with Woolwich driving wheels, possibly cylinders and tender. The general outline is remarkably similar to a LMS Patriot fitted with small driving wheels.

Dublin is similar in size to Copenhagen, and Auckland. Although there is high rise Auckland is probably more spread out than Dublin, people prefer to own their home in the suburbs, compared with living in an apartment with leasehold and building management issues. Whether you commute by private car or public transport its still a rat race.

It difficult these days to appreciate that during the late 1940s CIE could have up to nearly 350 locos in use out of a total of 461 with an average of 257 in service on any one day. A class of modern light weight 4-6-0 of similar size to a GWR Manor or BR Class 4MT capable of running on all the main routes, would have made sense allowing better loco utilisation and lower maintenance costs than by several different classes. Rather intriguingly in a similar manner to the GWR rebuilding 43XX Moguls into Grange and Manor Class 4-6-0s CIE developed a proposal to 're-build" the Woolwich 2-6-0s into 3 cylinder 4-6-0s as a light weight version of the 800 Class with wider route availability. Whether Milne (a GWR man) or Bulleid had a hand in this we will probably never know. The main parts to be re-used seem to have been the wheels and tender While CIE seems to have struggled to find work for the 12 4-6-0s on the Cork line it had the opposite problem with overloading of Woolwich Moguls on the Midland. A Class of 50 3 cylinder 4-6-0 with a wide firebox capable of burning poor quality coal would have been easier on the track (and fit in with Bulleids ideas) and have wider route availability than the big 4-6-0s. The 50 new locos would have freed up the large GSWR 0-6-0s & inside cylinder 2-6-0s to replace J15 and Midland Standard goods reducing the need for double heading or the running of overload goods trains. Although passenger traffic was in serious decline throughout the GSR period, freight was more important in terms of profitability.

Executive E9 Illinois Railroad Museum BNSF SD70s departing Moorhead Yard MN on mty Unit Coal

Got hooked on the Delaware & Husdon when I bought an Atlas RS3 in Victors model railroad shop in London 30 years ago. Preserved Alco RS32 at North Creek Visited some of the lines during a road trip across upstate New York in 2004

N Scale trestle set up in the back garden in Dublin around 2000 scanned from slide. Early digital photos attic layout in Dublin 2001-2

Resistance is Futile:

I particularly like the low own 3/4 front view of Sir Henry on the cattle train it could almost pass for Dromahair on the "main line". Any chance of building a roundy-roundy layout with Glenfarne as a centre piece so your locos can show their paces on the 06:30 & 10:30 Sligo-Enniskillen & 2:15 pm Enniskillen-Sligo goods trains and 7:30 pm Ennskillen-Sligo mixed.

For many years 24'' radius was the minimum recommended for OO gauge, while diesels and bogie stock is quite forgiving (18* the min recommended for American HO) a lot of compromises are needed to allow model steam locos with bogies and trailing axles around anything less than 36". The RTR manufacturers get by with excess side play (slop)) in axles, undersize bogie wheels, narrow plastic frames. Kit or scratch built locos are likely to have brass of nickel silver frames, a high quality Japanese can motor, with multi stage reduction drive, all gears and axles running in substantial brass bearings. Most of the locos I built from kits 20-25 years ago are nicely run-in and going strong, while I cannot get spares for expensive rtr locos bought within the last 10 years.

I picked up a G Gauge model of Schull & Skibereen No4 Erin from a modeller in the UK that was moving up to 3½" Gauge standard gauge. The loco was built in plasticard on a Playmobile (LGB) chassis. Although the plasticard modelling was reasonably good, work was needed on the chassis and the loco was earmarked for conversion to battery radio control as pick up was poor due to spark eroded tyres a common enough problem with older LGB locos. Before overhaul/conversion I compared the loco with an Ian Beattie drawing that appeared in a 7mm Narrow Gauge Association collection of Irish narrow gauge locos. While the loco is reasonably close to the drawing of the loco in its original condition, it appears to have been built to 14mm rather than 15mm scale in order to use the Playmobile rather than a scratchbuilt chassis. The mechanical overhaul is basically complete the connecting rods were re-jointed with solder rather than glue, new crossheads machined to replace the original with strangely off set piston rods. The prototype was one of the first locos in Ireland to use Walschaerts valve gear, though most of the motion was hidden by an inspection panel. Bogie pivot machined from brass to replace the existing nut and bolt arrangement. The radio control wiring harness includes a charging jack, changeover switch and Deltron receiver. I am planning to fit a small battery pack in the loco for shunting and use a battery trailing car with 2 7.2 battery packs for line work and visiting layouts. I will try and fit an LED in the head lamp, acetylene headlamps were a distinctive feature of the Schull and Dingle lines I will probabably end up scratchbuilding a short S&S train, although Worsley Works produce parts for some of the coaches they are to the more common 15mm scale for Irish 3' gauge and likely to dwarf the rather small loco.

The GNR (I) has a large following the U & UG were relatively modern go-anywhere locos Worsley Works produce etched parts for both the GNR (I) U & UG. OO Works seems to be a one or two person business, its possible the U may be based on Worsley Works parts rather than developed from scratch

RM Thread on OO Works http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/41670-who-are-oo-works-and-what-do-they-make/. Locos appear to be batch built from metal parts and reasonably priced.

Up to Buttervant and Cherryville Junction old railway inspectorate tended to focus on engineering and human error aspects of accident investigation, without digging too deeply about the underlying causes of why people sometimes cut corners to get the job done. At the time of the 1955 accident the signalling and water towers at Cahir was set up for Up & Down working through the platform roads, rather than a main line and loop situation where Up and Down trains can be signalled onto or through either road. The siding extension of the Up line on to the viaduct would have been for passing trains that were longer than the loop and to protect the main line from wagons running back during shunting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_loop Kiltimagh on the Burma Road had a similar arrangement and run-away in 1917 The main station building was on the Down platform with the water tower near the starting signal for Bansha at the Limerick end of the station, there was also a water tower or crane near to the starting signal at end of the Up platform to allow Waterford bound trains to take water without blocking the main line. The custom and practice at Cahir at the time of the accident seems to have been to bring Up mail from Limerick in on the Down platform road in order to load/unload mail without station staff having to use the barrow crossing. On the evening of the accident the loco of the Mail stopped to take water from the tower at the Limerick end of the station blocking the crossover from the Up platform road to the main line, setting up a trap for a heavy goods with limited braking power I don't know if Cahir had a down Outer Home signal in 1955 or whether BS3 entered the Clonmel-Cahir section under the "Warning Arrangement, either would have given the crew a better chance to reduce speed and stop at the Home signal before entering the station. Cahir was later signalled for Up & Down running along the main and loop in connection with the closure of the Waterford-Mallow line in 1967 and by 1980 had an Outer Home from the Waterford but not Limerick direction. The Woolwich were notorious for poor brakes with reports of near misses and run-aways with heavy goods trains. The crew of an Up Midland goods managed to stop a run-away between Clonsilla and Liffey Junction with the tender hand brake narrowly avoiding ending up in the Liffey, there were run-aways with Woolwich down the Gullet from Inchacore and through the Cork tunnel.

Managed to run the 1st train of the year this morning before the weather turned with rainstorms threatened over weekend. Freight arrives with diesel shunter cut in behind stock car. The shunter is used to shunt the yard and a local trip working while the train loco is turned and serviced. New Year resolution to paint the loco shed roof

Gormanstown Oct 3 train collision 1984 Crashworthyness of railway rolling stock does not really appear to have been considered on Irish railways before the 1960s. Rail safety was pretty much based on strictly following the Rule Book, an interlocked signal system and the automatic vacuum brake. The GSR & CIEs record of not killing a passenger between 1925-74 seems to have been more by luck than judgement Straboe 1944, Cahir 1955 & Dundrum (Co-Dublin 1957 were all warning signs that all was not well. And good examples of how the Rule Book is one of the first things go out the window when staff are under pressure or in the case of Cahir find a 'work around" to save time.