Niles

My favourite part from last week's news piece on IÉ fitting sensors before some of the more stricken bridges was when the haulier rep called for them to be placed before ALL bridges - more or less suggesting that his own members are incompetent.

The fitted North Wall-Connolly fuel train used a brakevan until it ended in 2000s, I think it was down to the reverse move at East Wall Junction.

The brake coach is of GSWR origin, quite possibly 69 herself which is undergoing restoration at Downpatrick: https://www.downrail.co.uk/rolling-stock/gswr-69/ I think the others are GSWR as well; at least they don't have that distinctive MGWR Attock window shape with curved edges at the top. While the Hattons ones don't really have the 'look' of MGWR coaches, for GSWR types they can't be any less accurate than the Bachmann/MM LMS vehicles masquerading as GSWR and GSR built stock (which looked fantastic all the same).

Wasn't there a plethora of brake vans stored at Gort until the early 2000s-ish? There was a 30t one on the wash roads in Inchicore until the late 2000s, I think it went bye bye around the same time 123 met her maker I could be misremembering. The Limerick was actually only overhauled in the last decade or so, its most notable role being in the transport of a giant granny puppet... now there's a modelling project.

And throw in some mkIIIs on an IRRS Executive Train special for good measure.

Though at the easier end, I always thought the footbridge there was remarkably similar to the standard Hornby one!

There was mention of unusual shunt moves in Ernie's Photo thread; I unearthed some I took in Wellington Bridge back in November 2004. (I say unusual but not unknown at this location). Basically 084 has brought in a train of empties from Mallow into a road already occupied by wagons. It couples up (so that it is 'sandwiched' between trains), then moves the whole consist forward to clear the points so that the laden train can depart on the other road. It then detaches from the wagons its brought in, propels the stabled ones over the crossing towards Rosslare, and then brings them around into the other loop once the laden train has departed before doing more shunting. Would make for quite a busy layout, especially in the late 90s/ early 2000s era when you had the occasional palletised cement passing through as well.

I've definitely come across the term "BGM" on at least one official doc (surprised me too). I'm not sure how common it was however.

I recall seeing similar 'loco sandwich' moves at Wellington Bridge, when all roads were occupied. An inbound empty train would arrive, couple up to 'stray' wagons ahead of it, and then move the whole consist at once to clear the Waterford-end points so that a loaded train could leave. The inbound loco would then uncouple from from the wagons it arrived with and propel the 'strays' towards Bridgetown and then draw them forward into the other loop once the loaded train had departed.

Hornby Black Five No.45253 R2250 BR 'Early Crest' black, boxed, only ever got light use. (This is the 2002 tooling as opposed to the older 1980s version). €115 including tracked postage anywhere in Ireland or UK. SOLD

That's why we used stick-on stripe on the real 1508, as @mphoey will attest!

Been going through old photos to scan and came across this one I took of a cement bubble at Gorey, 21st September 2004, thought I'd put it here on the off chance it's of use to anyone looking for a 'weathering pattern'.

St John's Mill siding south of Enniscorthy would make a compact enough little layout... the IRRS journal did a feature on it a few issues back. Edit: issue in question is actually available here as a sample: http://irishrailarchives.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IRRS_J192_2017_February_sample.pdf

Wow that was fast - swap arranged!

** Edit swap arranged, no longer available **

There's also Laminate 1460 at Kiltimagh museum, and another (1468 I think) in Sligo Folk Park. Then converted brake 3rd 1918 at Downpatrick.

Anyone remember this? I found some snaps of the Killarney Model Railway I took on a family holiday to the Kingdom back in August 1999. Note the good old Murphy Models/Lima IR-liveried class 33, not a patch on the forthcoming A but 21 years ago it was quite something for 11 year old-me to see a model that looked anyway like day-to-day trains I saw. (I didn't now how improbable it was to have a vac-braked only loco hauling a mixed rake of vacuum and air-braked carriages!).

There were a few others like that (3172 off the top of my head), however 3173 was changed (slightly) again when overhauled at Mullingar in the preservation era. Interestingly, I've vague recollections that while researching the vans for the RPSI website articles a few years ago I discovered that Graham Farish had actually modeled 3173 in its original BR identity as w21146.

1518 and 1520 were also converted to snack cars around 1986 and reverted to standards after a few years... I "think" I've seen a pic of a Craven with plated over windows in CIÉ livery which would be one of these but not 100% sure. 1509 was damaged in the Belview derailment of 1993 on a GAA special. 1508 herself had a brief further modification in RPSI days, running with a wooden bar (painted by yours truly) in place of four bays of seats at the No.2 end from 2008, but we removed this again when she underwent full restoration over 2012-2015.

Friday 7th November The Blue Train "A private charter will see the Society's Cravens and an 071 diesel locomotive operate to Midleton from Dublin Connolly. As the passengers will not be returning on this train, we are able to offer the diesel-hauled one-way return leg to the railway enthusiast fraternity. The bar and buffet will be available. NIR's 112 has been requested (no guarantee) for a blue train out of Cork. Arr Dep Midleton -- 15:00 Cork 15:23 15:47 Dublin Connolly 18:51 -- Fare: €25 (Pay on the train)" Probably the first time a NIR 111 has been to Midleton (all going well) All profits from the trip go straight back into keeping classic loco hauled trains on the mainline

Of course... more carriages may get turned out quicker the more people that sign up to volunteer! Loads of pics on www.facebook.com/RPSIDublin - check it out!

Some of the suburban variants had toilets retrofitted in time. Of the preserved ones 1419 is a mainline example, 1416 survived into preservation but was sadly destroyed by arson in the mid-2000s. I think the pair at Clonakilty came off the last set active set.

The Heritage set is moving to Heuston for storage but as mentioned in recent RPSI newsletters it is not seen as a long term answer to the Dublin base question.

Whatever about having them as dummies out of the box, I don't see the point in going to the trouble of de-motoring an existing model. Seems like a lot of hassle for no real benefit.

As Lough Erne says I wouldn't mind what the railway press says, another publication seemed to think that Heuston was going to be a new Dublin base! The RPSI's own bulletins and newsletters are the most accurate source.