Mayner

"Locomotive of the GSR has a whole section on GSWR tenders but unfortunately no photos showing the front end. 186s tender is most likely to be what described as a Type C Tender 67 of which were built between 1899-1922. These tenders appear to have been the standard for the majority of 4-4-0, 0-6-0, 2-6-0 & 4-6-0 classes built between 1899 & 1914 and the three Inchacore built 400 Class 4-0s 400, 401, 402, 406. The remaining 400s were built by Armstrong Whitworth in Newcastle and fitted with the larger E Class tenders, the English built engines were not superheated and would have been expected to be a lot more heavier on coal and water than the superheated Inchacore built locos.

I got mine from Tonys Trains Exchange in the USA a long-long time ago, Digitrains in the UK seem to stock them expensive though http://www.digitrains.co.uk/ecommerce/search/?loc=1&q=&c=1&m=17. Converting your Liliput HOe locos to DCC is probably more trouble than its worth and won't help the re-sale value or improve the running quality of your locos. DCC works best in N or 009 /HOe with bogie diesels or electrics with 8-12 wheel pick up. I converted my Irish narrow gauge locos back to analogue as I could not get reliable operation with 4 or 6 wheel pick up and found analogue more forgiving.

I found the CMX Clean Machine very effective in N gauge, should do the job in 009 Used to run the car around the layout in the consist of a train once or twice a month. Used isopropyl as a cleaning fluid in the car, and to clean loco/stock wheels.

Came across this explains what a Relco is supposed to do. Definitely not suitable for DCC but recommended for 009 http://www.mrol.com.au/Articles/DCC/Relcos.aspx

They would have needed at least 3 MPDs to put out a similar power output to a 141 or 4 to equal a 181 or Hunslet. The heavy freights would have put a terrible stress on the MPD engines and transmissions. In Diesel Dawn Patrick Flannigan spoke of power units shutting down as engines and transmissions overheated until there was only one 275hp power car trying to keep the whole train moving. Between the constant threat of closure, reliability problems with MPD cars and Crossley locos the drivers and fitters lot could not have been a happy one in the 60s and 70s

Harris imported Hino trucks into Ireland in CKD form in the 60s & 70s claiming that they were assembled in Ireland rather than imported. "Assembly" was basically attaching the cab to an already assembled chassis, topping up with fuel, oil and water and driving off the assembly line.

Having investigated spent the best part of the last 15 years investigating workplace accidents including several fatalities, I have found that common sense is not the most common of commodities as we are hard wired to take risks. Trains cannot swerve if someone cocks big time and permits a train to enter an area under possession, a high vis just might draw a drivers attention to warn workers of an approaching train. PTS certs and training has become more critical with the increasing number of contactors and casuals, with CTC and power signalling and multiple worksites there is probably a greater risk of control loosing track of possessions than during the era each section had a local ganger and control by a local signal box. The behaviour of the Ballymena signal man is a symptom of the casual culture on the railways during that era that that lead to the like of Buttervant and Cherryville and Clapham Junctions disasters. Was this the usual practice for exchanging tokens at Ballymena? Did the union raise the issue with management and ask for a platform for exchanging tokens or simply let sleeping dogs lie?

Great photos I did not realise CIE operated bulk cement and unit load/sundies container service to Waterside. The mixed manifest consists are more typical of the Speedlink wagon load era in the UK than CIE freights of the same era.

80 Class power cars may have been used to work the "Derry Vacuum" between Lisburn & Waterside. The Vacuum was an overnight fully fitted express goods that ran between North Wall and Derry with freight for Donegal in the 60s & 70s The train was diverted to run via Antrim after the closure of the GNR Derry Road and was usually hauled by MPD or EE railcars between Lisburn & Waterside. The service ended in the late 70s when traffic to rail freight to Waterside was cutback to Fertiliser and possibly bagged cement

The lack of road knowledge in combination with inadequate information in maps could be a factor. You would expect accurate information on road maps and GPS/routing systems. Before the building of the West Link bridge and the M50, European truck drivers regularly tried the R109 narrow and twisting road from Chapelizod to Castleknock as a short cut from the Galway (N5) to the Navan Road (N3). For anyone that does not know the area the road has a severe height restriction at Knockmaroon Hill. Although there were overhead gantry loading gauges at Chapelizod and the top of the hill, the odd driver still tried it and had their driving skills tested having to reverse an artic and 40' trailer from the bottom of the hill along the narrow twisting Martins Row to Chapelizod Village I doubt few if any drivers made the same mistake twice. We tend to protect high risk overbridges with box section impact beams independent of the bridge span or deck.

Some day Some day To drive from New Orleans and follow the old SP across Texas and Arizona to the Pacific is still one of my unfilled ambitions. Last time I was in the states wife made me turn back half way across Montana she thought I would not stop till I reached the Pacific, when all I wanted to see was some blue MRL diesels, got to Bedrock though and eat a Broto-Burger.

I would disagree the one of the main reasons I left the private and joined the public sector was out of frustration with consultants. I have come across some horror stories where private sector clients have been sold complete pups in terms of management, environmental, heath and safety and design consultancy. One of the favourites is to charge a client for information that is already in the public domain and freely available.

There would be the usual argument over who should pay the railroad/the city/State or Federal government. The combination of speed & sudden narrowing of the traffic lanes under the bridge is potentially lethal with cars and van striking the abutment and re-bounding to the opposite side of the road. I once drove from New York through Southern Ontario to Chicago and the Mid-West the only place we were honked at or came across really agressive driving was in Canada.

The Blacksod Terminal seems to have been part of a much bigger scheme for communication between the UK and the more far flung parts of the Empire without having to set foot on foreign soil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-Red_Route. Its hard to know if the promoters lead by J P McAndrew and a group of English investors were genuine in their attempts or it was a speculative bubble feeding of the rampant jingoism and nationalist fever that lead to the Great War. Mc Andrew and his supporters also appear to have taken out mining options in the Arigna Valley and made two unsuccessful attempts to build a broad gauge Sligo-Arigna line. I always liked the idea of a Ballina-Crossmolina line that would have given Burtonport and the Kyle of Lochalsh & Mallaig lines a run for their money in terms of remoteness, possibly hanging on into the late 50s like Valentia or Kenmare. I just wonder how the terminal building with its concrete structure and glass roof would have held up to the salt air and Atlantic storms.

Steam tours tend to sell out quite fast, fares are expensive by UK/Irish standards. http://www.steaminc.org.nz/_brochures/South_Is_Booking_Form_2015_v6.pdf. Rolling stock and crew shortages, restrictions on trains carrying passengers through the longer tunnels are making it more difficult to run steam on the main line.

Very popular annual steam excursion along the "Coal Train Route" from Christchurch across the Canterbury Plains through the Southern Alps to Greymouth in Westland. No excursions this year due to the lack of available coaches, future of the route potentially in question due to the collapse in coking coal and gold bullion prices on the world market.

The NTA providing targeted funding for specific services seems to be an improvement on the old system. Is it feasible to provide cross platform interchange between services using the slow and fast lines at Adamstown? It would make sense to route long distance commuter trains over the fast lines between Hazlehatch and Clondalkin with Adamstown or Park West as an interchange point between Heuston & Grand Canal Dock services.

Dapol held on to the Wrenn wagon toolings and incorporated them into their wagon range. Wagons like the Dapol Cattle Wagon, Gunpowder Van and Fruit D are basically Hornby-Dublo bodies on Airfix GMR chassis rather than the original HD diecast chassis.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry it has taken IE 25 years to finally implement its 1990 proposal to introduce a suburban rail service between Grand Canal Dock and Clondalkin. The Heuston-Kildare Arrow service seems to have been introduced as a lower cost option with minimal signalling and infrastructure costs compared to completing Grand Canal Dock for its intended purpose as an interchange between the DART and Southern and Western suburban service. A second platform opposite Platform 10 would open up Heuston & the Phoenix Park and apartments and businesses in the Island Bridge area as a destination. Terminating Northern Line outer suburban services at Connolly would improve line capacity over the Loop Line Bridge.

JHB. The GSR appear to have been plans to develop a 2-4-4T as its final steam design. The proposal is mentioned in "A Decade of Steam", the view was that it was a well thought out modern design similar in principal to the LMS 2-6-4T locos. Do you know if any drawings exist of this loco.

Possibly an amalgamation of the MGWR, GNR & DSER, the NCC absorbing the BCDR and the GSWR absorbing the West Cork. There were supposed to have been rumours of a MGWR GNR amalgamation and the DSER wanted to amalgamate with the GNR in 1924. Possibly an Irish branch of the BTC had the whole island of Ireland remained in the UK , possibly some of the lighter BR standard steam types, the NCC / UTA engineers had invented the DMU ahead of British Railways. Harland & Woolfe might have become a serious diesel locomotive builder with a potentially wider market than the County Down & NCC. An Irish Railways Executive would have to develop its own diesel loco designs as most BR classes were too heavy for use in Ireland I am not sure if the Beeching cuts would have been worse than the cuts of the 50s and 60s, CIE, UTA & Stormont were years ahead of the UK mainland in closing railways

The oil headlamps were mainly to assist the signal man to identify the class of an approaching train, though most GSR/CIE mainline passenger and goods trains used to display the UK Express Passenger code (a lamp over each buffer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_reporting_number#Headcodes. The practice of using oil headlamps seems to have died out in the early 1970s when CIE introduced a computerised train control and the 1st stages of widespread CTC.

Do the right thing and move the airport to Baldonnel or Saggart

Controller Is there a makers name stamped on the bottom of the loco? If there is, it might be worth doing an on-line search to see if there is a photo of the same type of loco with valve gear and rods. Assembling etched coupling rods and valve gear can be quite tricky, accurately matching the wheelbase can be quite difficult and there may not be enough metal in the rods to open up the crank pin holes to fit around the bosses and crank pins on your locos. Alan Gibson and most British made rods are designed to fit over a 14BA crank pin bolt and bush (very small). If you want to experiment the Alan Gibson 4M92 Universal Adjustable coupling rod would probably be the best option. http://www.alangibsonworkshop.com/Catalogue.pdf, If you have access to a small pillar drill and accurately measure the wheel centres, you could try and make up a set of rods using KS strip or rail filed flat like the Workbench photo of the GSWR A1 4-8-0. Once you are happy with the running, you can file the rods to their final shape.

Most likely the lack of resources up to the setting up of the Railway Safety Commission and Accident Investigation Unit about 10 years ago the Department of Transport employed only one Railway Inspector with very limited powers of enforcement Completing the report into Dalkey would have been low priority compared to the reports and follow up action in connection with the Buttervant & Cherryville disasters, and possibly Keeping some oversight over the DART, MK3 and major main line re-signalling projects.