Weshty

David, a great post, it certainly highlights the point that an exhibition display needs military grade resilience to stay the course. And a good checklist of how to keep her maintained. Any chance of you coming over to this side of the pond in the next 18 months? Blackrock Oct'15, Cultra '16. I want to see Arigna in the flesh!

lovely clean brass sides there....and a tasty J26! Oh, if I DO do them, they will come pre rolled.....just like the SSM MK3 and MK2 EGV sides.

I wouldn't start from where you are to be frank. Ouch! If I thought there was demand for them, I'd consider doing etched restaurant sides. Comments on a postcard please Box1057 Late Late Show.......

Kirley, wow, you've done a lovely job, all the transfers added, handwheels painted, riveted skirting in white and the orange stripes look great. And the green looks just right. Very very nice. Great to see the full 2+6 as well.

Damn!!!! That is just so fine. Ateing and drinking in it.

I saw that first unpainted E class in the flesh, a really crisp and tasty model. The detail is just lovely. It was also the other way around so easier to view too...

I bought it sometime ago, but only perused it "proper" since reading Mayner's comments on it. Beg borrow or steal a copy. It is a great read with comments from ex-drivers, loads of technical data and photos. Some lovely detail on the J26 and Bandon Tank too.

One man and his dog, lordy, but some memories of watching that as a lad. Quality spoof.

I'd really love to know what they were thinking. Were they all a bunch of mad lefties with a chip on their shoulders against classical training or what?? That recent shot has not a jot of aesthetic worth. A big, unfocussed concourse, something Corbusier would have left behind on bog roll after a 10 pint exertion. Glenderg, we need your input!!

The Euston arch. Dear lord but 60's planning really does have a lot to answer for. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1215583/Historic-arch-destroyed-60s-planners-rebuilt-station-stones-dumped-river.html

Ouch, £500 in '65 is about €25,000, that's a lot of dosh.

Several of the D17s did get belpaire boilers, no.18 being a classic example. Thanks for the shout out JHB!

It's down to what was perceived as culturally important at the time. If it was as gaeilge, associated with the Blaskets, Mother Church or the great Freedom Fight, you might have had some hope. Remnants of a Victorian industrial influence were just not on the radar, look at the wholesale destruction of Dublin's architectural heritage at the same time. Is is very little exaggeration to say that we are very lucky to have what we have left.

One of the Bandon tanks was available for c.£400 in the mid 60's (c.€10,000 today), they could raise £350, but CIE wouldn't wait for the remainder to be raised and so off she went to the scrappers. Go figure.

When I was in the GSRPS back in the early 80's I had the chance to shoot the breeze with a few railway workers of a mature vintage who were utterly bemused at us reviving steam. To them diesel was your only man in every single way, cleaner, faster and more efficient. No clean outs, 6 am startups, manual loading of fuel etc...... It's a variation of the Manchan Magan type who bemoans the loss of the old ways of cutting and saving hay (scyth and haycocks et al), but didn't have to do the f&&^ing thing, backbreaking day in and day out, year after year........

Was just about to bid for this and realized I have it already ! D'oh!!!

George Boole. Prof of maths at ucc boy!

"An order worth £4,750,000" Or roughly £380M today, certainly not small potatoes......

Likewise.

Absolutely concur, missed that thread the first time around, superb. The Glenmeister strikes again. I'd agree on the airfix matts, those f%$£ers were the divil for drying out and wasting very rare 70's pocket money, and at 50p a pot, that was NOT insignificant!

Some lovely detailing there. The little red "Rabhadh" notice, ground signals, semaphore signals, moss on the canopy, vegetation on the ashlar stone. The Dutch Genny, and all this in a layout from 10-12 years ago when we didn't have the range we have now. Clearly done by someone who really knew their stuff. Any ideas who? More importantly, any more lovely piccies??

It is #59 From Five Foot three Magazine #9 Summer 1970, R.M Arnold Page 3 "There were many fair specials and Tuam, rather than Galway, was the senior shed of the area. Old Dick Cole, very quiet spoken, tall and angular, was Tuam’s senior driver and, week in week out, always worked the morning passenger. He was courtesy itself on my first visit, always taking me on the footplate and indeed well over half of my runs over this branch, with various drivers, were not in the train, a useful thing if I hadn’t had a ticket (though I always had) for there was a searching ticket check at the one intermediate station on the branch, Ballyglunin. If any of you have seen that excellent film “The Quiet Man” you will have seen No.59 at Ballyglunin (disguised as somewhere else) and I never saw Cole with any other engine."

Cough! SSM supply four variants of these coachs, 1st Class, Composite, 3rd Class and Brake and they include all the requisite glazing, whitemetal detailing (buffers, gas canisters, vents, springs), Maunsell (i.e.wooden centred) wheels.

Brilliant. T'would put "Not the 9 o'clock News" to shame....

Yup, a lot of work filling in the basic list detail alright. C'mon lads, get cracking and start filling in the blanks!