Mayner

The curtain siders really look the part, the Dapol chassis is probably the nearest thing to the CIE standard 20' underframe of the 1960s Rtr OO gauge H & sliding door vans are already available from James Mackey misr@eircom.net, he does not have an on-line presence, there was a favourable review of his H van and corrugated opens in the May 2013 New Irish Lines.

The Bachmann 3F is also worth looking at very close to the NCC 0-6-0s and a good basis for the more modern GSWR & DSER types & 461. http://www.ehattons.com/52551/Bachmann_Branchline_31_627A_Class_3F_0_6_0_3709_in_LMS_black/StockDetail.aspx The main draw back with a rtr conversion is that apart from the Northern Companies and DSER few locos had a straight running plate like the 3 or 4F, most Southern locos either had squiggly or raised running plates which are difficult to model and a major part of the character of the Irish locos.

A good example of a weathered wagon, I caught this gem in Mullingar about 30 years ago. These were basically the standard Irish open wagon for about 40 years from about 1915 up to the introduction of the Bulleid opens in the mid 1950s.

Desmond Coakham's articles in Railway Bylines Summer Specials (Irwell Press) are well worth looking out for. Excellent articles with brilliant photos on Grand Canal St (Number 5) Branch Lines (Number 3) & The Harcourt St Line (Annual No 3) and cutting comment on the Celtic Tiger Economy that turned out all too true.

Waterford 1.-Mallow/Killarney 2.-Kilkenney/Dublin via Carlow or Portlaoise 3.-Limerick Junction/Limerick 4.-Macmine Junction/Wexford/Dublin. 5.-Rosslare/Wexford.

Nelson Brilliant looking layout and the very best of look with the 70 Class.

There were a hell of a lot of schemes convert/extend the C&L with little physical substance apart from an underbridge at Keady and the Government funded line to the mines. All the same the C&L was probably the most profitable part of the GSR at least up to 1934 paying a 5% return on its capital and probably making a small profit on its operations. All because the Ratepayers signed up to an early form of Public-Private Partnership in the 1880s and agreed to guarantee a 5% return on the capital in pertuity. This along with the National question probably lead to a lot of the hostility that blocked any extension of the line and the friction that boiled up between staff and management during the War of Independence. The Dublin & Blessington and Clogher Valley were in a similar position with the ratepayers having to provide a guaranteed return on capital to a pair of railways that were basially broke. The Free State & Stormont basically had to buy out the shareholders to take the strain off the ratepayers and cover pension costs when the lines were abandoned.

The February 1973 Irish Railfans News includes original CIE publicity posters "Travel the Tomorrow way Today" of the original Supertrain on the Wexford Line in the Vale of Avoca and on the section below Vico Road Killiney. 001 looks especially smart with a possibly unique version of the Supertrain livery with the centre section of the roof painted black. The original concept behind the Supertrain was to run a relatively frequent service of short trains similar to the Midland Railway in the early 1900s. This policy came unstuck when service frequency was cut back following the oil crisis in the early 70s and something more powerful was required than the existing power to keep time with the increasingly heavier less frequent. Up to the widespread introduction of the MK3s the heaviest main-line trains tended to be made up of conventional rather than Supertrain stock. Most of the morning trains out of Dublin to the provinces and the up evening working tended to be made up of conventional stock, with Supertrains used on the more lightly loaded but prestigious morning Up trains and Down evening workings the successors of the expresses of the 1960s. Lines like Westport, Sligo & Rosslare were almost exclusively conventional stock until enough MK3ss were available to cascade the MK2D to these secondary main lines The 071 were definitely introduced in a darker shade of brown to that used by CIE, and the locos seem to become increasingly grimy in service possibly because their excellent reliability allowed really intensive use and less time on shed than the 001s which were never as reliable at the thoroughbred GMs

Stephen Funnily enough I have a copy of the 1960WTT which adds even more to the confusion: I will post it up when I get a chance. Main Line 4 Passenger up and down, (2 Limited and Night Mails, 1 stopping Passenger, 1 Cu na Mara Railcar express passenger) Branch 4 Passenger+ 1 Mixed up and down. C Class possibly 6 wheelers or GSWR or Midland Bogie & 6w van) The Night Mails would mainly carry mails and urgent freight traffic, possibly a single coach, heating, mail and luggage vans and a tail of vans and cattle wagons. A lot of pre-amalgamation ventilated vans would have remained in service for perishable traffic into the 60s possibly traffic to the Dublin Fish Market from Westport or Ballina. Goods "Ballina Goods" fast overnight limited stop goods 9am arrival Westport, mixed train connection to Ballina! "Westport Goods" all station pick up goods Athlone-Westport late afternoon arrival Westport. A Class on the main line apart from the Cu na Mara, with a pair of C Class on the Ballina Branch. In steam days large ex MGWR Cs Class 4-4-0 on main line passenger, possibly Ks or 650 Class 2-4-0 on the Mails, 650 or Achill Bogies on the branch. The Ballina Goods actually ran to Ballina ex MGWR Standard Goods L or Lm Class similar in size to J15 due to weight restrictions on Moy Viaduct. Ex-MGWR F "Cattle Engines" on Westport Goods, ex-MGWR As Cs Class 4-4-0s and F Class on main line cattle specials. N J Mc Adams mid 70s 2 article IRRS paper on the Mayo Line provides a good background of history and operations up to around 1975.

I still keep thinking Davids model looks more like Drumkeeran than Arigna, then again my layout does not look anything like Keadue The whole history of coal mining and iron making in the area is quite interesting with one of Irelands earliest railways an 18th Century Plateway linking the mines and Ironworks, the Lough Allen Canal and the Government 1918 built Arigna Valley Railway from Arigna Station to Derreenavoggy (Arigna Fuels) and Aughabehy. http://www.arignafuels.ie/about/history/ Coal traffic on the narrow gauge only seems to have come into its own in the 1930s when the GSR drafted in 4 extra locos and a large number of wagons from the Cork Blackrock & Passage Line. There probably never was enough traffic to support a broad gauge line or there may have been some un-written agreement between the Midland and GNR not to build into the area, Irish companies keeping to their own areas, with the Sligo line skirting the border between Leitrim and Roscommon and the Midland's Killeshandra and GNR Belturbet branches probing the frontier and that 20 odd mile gap between Sligo and Bundoran.

Sounds too much like hard work George but the tunnel flyover is a nice feature. I raised my line up on treated pine framing, its much easier on the back and saves the track from being overrun with weeds. I am gradually planting small shrubs to hide the framing. Keeping the top of the paving blocks flush with the ground acts as a mowing strip and saves a lot of work trimming borders.

IE/CIE resistance to re-routing South Western Suburban services around to Grand Canal Dock, seems to be more to do with political infighting between CIE & The Department of Transport (NTA) as much as any real issues. Although the route is somewhat roundabout a through service through the Phoenix Park Tunnel to Grand Canal Dock, eliminates potential delay in changing from rail to bus or tram at Heuston and opens up rail as a viable option for people commuting to work in offices in the Pearse Street and Docklands areas and finally integrates Dublins suburban rail services. Despite the equally roundabout route over the Belfast Central Railway diverting Ballymena, Larne and Bangor services into Great Victoria Street had a positive effect on Belfast's rail services. Funnily enough South Western suburban services were originally planned to run between Clondalkin and Pearse/Grand Canal Dock and changed at the last minute to Heuston-Kildare. A lot of the loop line congestion and conflicting moves at Connolly could be eliminated by terminating Drogheda and Dundalk suburban services at Connolly. Perhaps the resistance to the Phoenix Tunnel route is that its success may undermine the case for the Interconnector, the 20 year delay in improving Loop Line (Connolly-Grand Canal-Dock) capacity says a lot about IEs priorities

I am concentrating on releasing the existing van kits and the MGWR 2-4-0 before doing further work on the flats. I am looking at returning to 3d modelling in combination with lost wax castings for detail parts, as to date taken nearly 12 months to produce a set of masters and whitemetal castings for a simple van. A few companies have shrunk kits designed for 7mm scale to 4mm, but new artwork and tooling would probably be needed going up to 7mm as the effects of undercutting become more pronounced, ill fitting parts, smaller panels bigger window openings and holes. John

The 1st aid kit would have mainly been for the slips trips falls sort of incident and medical emergencies with passengers and potentially more serious with railway staff. In the days before mobile communication there was no way of contacting Train Control or the Emergency Services, guard and checker would have been expected to provide 1st aid or deal with a medical emergency until the train arrived at its next scheduled stop

Hi RAL2011 I received your PM you are on my list. I will be in contact with everyone who was interested once the parts for the first batch of kits arrive.

Rooskey Harbour Railway short lived line in the 1990s locos and stock went to the Arigna Mining Experience. Dromad short 2' demonstration line for ex ESB Ardnacrusha Hudson Hunslets, drove a loco on it once, not sure if that could be described as passenger carrying:)

Real life experience of the North London Line/Railway in the 80s & 90s especially the section from section from Camden Road to Dalston Junction, great views over lines into Kings Cross. The North London and Euston-Watford DC Lines were quite run down & decrepit in keeping with some of the neighbourhoods up to the Network South East re-branding in the mid 80s. The 501s were replaced by 313s on the Euston-Watford line and SR 2 EBP units took over North London Line Workings, a great day out on a London Off Peak Travel Card:trains:

The BR "Blue Era" modellers seem to be having a field day customising and weathering Heljan 1st generation diesels http://www.emgauge70s.co.uk/model_omwb.html. Always fancied a North London Line layout in its glorious urban squalor, a railway crammed in between deep retaining walls, pub on every corner, terraced houses, mansion blocks and 1960s tower blocks, 2 car 3rd rail EMUs Type1s on trip workings and inter-regional freights.

According to Locomotives and Rolling Stock of CIE & NIR 3rd Edition 1987 CIE built 40 62' 9" air braked bogie flats 30501-30540 in 1984 so there should enough in circulation for 3 sets plus some maintenance spares. On weekends Freight trains from the Sligo and Belfast lines to the South & West usually ran to the Boston Yard (Pearse Coaching) to run round as the North Wall usually closed on Saturday afternoons. Besides timber bulk cement trains from Platin to the South ran over the Loop line to the Boston Yard on Saturdays.

Dublin and Lucan Tramway. Started life as a 3' Gauge Steam Tram, re-gauged to 3'6" and electrified, modernised and re-gauged to 5'3" by the DUTC in the 1920s.

Besides the GNR locos and borrowed UTA Castle, J15s also showed up at Ballyhaise, there is a photo of one in Belturbet recovering material from the C&L in PJ Flannigans C&L Irish Photo Album and in CIE days a J15 caused consternation when it arrived in Dundalk from Inny Junction without a (GN) Pilot man on the Weed Spray I always wondered about that A Class hauled GAA special to Monaghan did it work in from Dundalk over the Irish North or over the Midland line. There is a photo of the train in Monaghan & the 1st coach looks like one of the ex LNWR coaches bought by the GNR during the 1940s. I suppose it depends on whether it was bringing supporters from the Midlands to a match in Monaghan, or Monaghan supports elsewhere. The Clones-Cavan line seems to have been much more "main line" in status than the ex-MGWR line from Inny Junction. The Great Northern line seems to have been important enough to have had a relatively frequent direct service to Belfast complete with corridor stock, while GSR patrons had to make do with square wheelers and change for Dublin at Mullingar. CIE threw the towel in fairly quickly discontinuing Mullingar-Cavan passenger services and closing the Killeshandra line. I might have to re-write history a little bit with a joint Midland & GNR Kells-Cavan-Enniskillen line. The track rationalisation seems to have taken place in GNR days very shortly after the ending of passenger services, its recorded in the Oct 57 IRN, its still leaves me wondering whether the crew of the Clones-Cavan goods, ran direct to Belturbet, shunted the yard then reversed back 4 miles to the junction, with the risk of de-railment and buffer lock, before continuing down the main line to Cavan or had a means of running round at the junction.

JHB The scenarios are limitless the GNR remaining independent of CIE & the UTA with Irish North and Ulster Railway lines surviving and modernised with fast Belfast-Cavan-Enniskillen sprinter railcar services and German diesel hydraulics on freight services. Heavy cattle and later container traffic from the Midlands and South to the Port of Belfast over the Central of Ireland line from Portlaoise to Mullingar and Midland Cavan Branch, perhaps mulit-unit lash ups of black and silver MGWR F Units or Blue and Cream GNR G8 & 12 diesels;). The Midland & Great Northern seriously considered amalgamation in the 1920s and the South Eastern did not want to have anything to do with the GSR. Looking at photos of Ballyhaise there appears to have connected at the island platform. There was not enough room for the branch loco to run-round without blocking the main line, so the branch train probably had to shunt to the middle road or "branch" platform to run round. The post 1957 rationalisation would have made life interesting if the Dundalk-Cavan goods were working the branch. In the absence of a run-round loop at the junction, did they run separate Clones-Belturbet and Clones-Cavan trips and spend another 2-3 hours on the road or break up, re-marshal and run round their train using the goods shed road. There is a photo of a Big D approaching Ballyhaise with a freight from Cavan in 1956 in the Great Northern picture album, probably about 30 wagons not exactly short.

Hi Richard. Good to see you are back try the Ordnace Survey map viewer http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,591271,743300,0,10. does not seem to be working at the moment but old layout at Ballyhaise is definitely on it.

Definitely what the Yanks call a signature structure, not sure how effective they would have been if there had of been in the face of a large scale invasion.