Niles

In furtherance to this, I actually remember the black ones being available in Marks into the mid 2000s (and I think they came out 2000?). They must have been there a good 3/4 years before selling out. That said, I'd love a J15 or K2, but with there only being 2 of the latter I appreciate that mightn't be a runner... Anyway, my layout-to-be will be set in a corner of the multiverse were a Woolwich was saved and runs with preserved coaching stock.

There's a few threads on these at the moment, here's 5233 in the consist of the morning Sligo-Connolly at Enfield, 23rd July 2005. I've another somewhere of such a coach added to the back of a Rosslare prior to a big GAA day, must dig out.

After a period they could end up mixed in with standard sets, I've a pic somewhere of 5233 attached to the back of a Rosslare to stengthen the regular 6+van set for a hurling match. Seen them mixed into Sligo sets too. The upholstery had a sort of lilac hue (very briefly considered retrieving the seats when we stripping parts for preserved Cravens back in the day as @mphoeymight recall). I quite liked them.

Hmmm... I've been looking for an excuse to get one.

The NOHAB is inspired... quite possibly what they should have gone with back in the 50s.

There's definitely footage of a 121 and and AEC pushpull set at Greystones on the Markle Irish Rail Archive - South East video.

There's a Westlife video featuring a mkIII pushpull at Limerick, can't remember which song off the top my head.

I see a Dark Stranger (1946) features a GSR liveried 800 arriving at Kingsbridge; rare enough to see moving footage of a loco in the livery of Ireland's finest railway company. (Whereas say the GNR survived as an entity long enough for the cine enthusiasts to capture it).

Received today. It struck me that many (bigger and with more resources) companies I've worked for or bought from wouldn't bother, a simple but lovely touch.

Mine arrived sain et sauf today - nothing says festive like Saturday post!

ah yes... my brain wasn't engaged phrasing that earlier!

I know of the extant ones in Ireland, Downpatrick's 3189 is dualbraked... the RPSI pair are vac only as is the weedspray one *I think*.

230 'died' in the original scheme (well, out of use since a fire in 2012!) The second Enterprise livery came in around the late 2000s, I think 8208 (I think @mphoey has pics of it newly outshopped?) was the only loco to get it ... the others went straight from '1st' to '3rd' Enterprise livery after the stock was refurbished in 2015. So most of them carried the original scheme until around 2015 or so.

I think the first Intercity yellow end (228) was early 2005... the orange ones got the full end treatment around 2005/6 (just 'non-pushpull' oranges 201-205 and 210-214). Then they got sidelined around 2009 after the ICRs took over the Heuston Intercity routes. At least one of the 'original Enterprise livery' locos got the full yellow end treatment around that time too... 233 off the top my head but I think most remained as is until the second Enterprise livery came in.

I'm a complete nutter who ordered IÉ ones to run with IR ploughs .

There's a nice bit of vidjo of the NIR MV on the ITG tour to Athlone here:

There seems to have been a plethora of 184s on eBay lately, could be that so many at once is effecting the price.

I was beginning to question if I'd imagined it myself... thankfully the Wanderer has recorded it, if something modern-ish isn't recorded on that site it didn't happen! https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/2006-photos/Speno-Track-Recording-Car/ For the carriage nerds like me, it's also notable that in renumbering to 11XX they (partly) regained their original numbers from their pre-mk2 steam heating days... 1162 née 4601 née 3162 etc...

4601, 4602 and 4603 were the three conversions - they were retained a little while after the mk2as were scrapped for use on airbrake transfers, pretty sure I remember seeing them at Heuston for this purpose. Two of them ended up on the 'Speno' train around 2006(?) - I think this was a track recording vehicle rented prior to the Sperry but my memory's foggy there. I think it may have only been for one season. I think they were also renumbered in the 11XX series by this stage, as were a couple of the unconverted vac vans, principally for transfers in the Dublin area.

IIRC 3187 sustained fire damage in Cork towards the end of the Cravens era, fo llowing which it was refurbished for the spray train. Would make sense if the genny etc was replaced at this point.

I think I paid around a fiver or so for a new one back in the day... bargain so!

never copped that myself until you pointed it out!

176 passing Malahide with 14:00 Dundalk-North Wall liner, 21st April 2006, consisting of just two flats. Afternoons on the northern line were busy then, up and down Taras, the Drogheda cement bubbles and the aforementioned liner, the latter two usually guaranteed to be Bo-Bo worked.

There's been a plethora of Craven 1509s up at quite high prices considering they're still available in Marks Models at the original RRP. Can (almost) understand it with the stuff long out of production but...

Worth noting that journals like the ITG's The Irish Mail and the IRRS Journal effectively provide a rolling update to these books for stock changes, stoppages, entries to traffic, withdrawl dates, re-numberings etc.