Niles

Happy Birthday to the DART, which began operations this day 40 years ago. Personally I think the original sets are still looking pretty spry for 40.

@Cyberbeagle and I spent considerable time researching the subject of how many eau de nil lines the dark green ones carried when repainting 1944 at Downpatrick—the evidence we found suggests only one. And yes, contrary to what many say, a few of them DID carry the dark green (and with 1944/1381 being the third in class, it's quite likely it was one of them).

Mine arrived sain et sauf today too. Now to get a minute to play with them...

A Die Dietrich set carrying invited guests went over it on the day the NCC route reopened (I know someone who was on it). I believe there was a bomb scare which meant it going back to Belfast via Lisburn.

Inverness still has one tootling about as well, pretty certain I saw at least two passing Longsight depot in Manchester a while back too.

Mine arrived today safe and sound. Haven't got a chance to play with bar posing them with a Woolwich. I wasn't home but the courier rang me to let me know and all.

Wow. even without the train that's some lovely modelling there.

Quite impressed with these, the really capture the wider look of Irish wagons compared to my models of 'narrow gauge' GB opens. Was doing some ballasting yesterday evening and found them the perfect size for keeping a small load on hand.

I used to say the same about Broombridge, but since the Luas went in it's become as safe a station to dwell in as any. That said I know some perfectly nice people from both areas.

My favourite part was in Grand Canal Dock, a guy in an adjacent Dart sat there bemused by what was going on, then eventually decided to take a picture himself.

I did suggest that we should have worn double denims or gaudishly 2-colour tracksuits.

Very sorry to read this, I only met Ken at Bray last year, very nice guy and an extremely talented modeller, it was my first time meeting him but he came up to say hi again at another show. My condolences to his family and friends.

An epic tour, wonderful atmosphere on board and a great social outing too. I have to say say the moment in this photo gave me goosebumps; I love locos, steam and diesel, but never have I had such nostalgia on like this railcar railtour evoked. Literally like looking into a mirror to childhood trips.

Our committee has organised a one day outing from Dublin by bus to visit the Difflin Lake Railway (home to Ireland's newest steam loco, 2003-vintage Duchess of Difflin) and Donegal Railway Heritage Centre. At the latter we hope to make a presentation using the proceeds from our previous outings towards the museum's fundraising efforts. Places are limited, details at https://www.tailtetours.com/hills-of-donegal-tour

We added a blog to the Táilte site a while back going through the history of the various termini Belfast has had (though already it's a tiny bit out of date ), https://www.tailtetours.com/post/a-virtual-tour-of-belfast-s-terminal-railway-stations-past-present

One observation from his reviews, they can be a bit one size fits all. For instance, I've seen him criticise big Pacifics over their slow shunting ability, when really it's not the type of thing the prototype would have excelled on either.

Sorry to hear that, drop me a message I'll see what we can do.

Great show, good to put a few faces to names too. Now to recover for tomorrow.

Yes, but what is life without sin.

The Cavan & Leitrim Railway have an appeal going for just that... https://www.cavanandleitrimrailway.com/bordnamona

No idea who wrote it, but they sound handsome...

Not my best photo, but you can just see the gangways made up between a 2600 and 2800 here.

Sorry just seen. Yes, I remember 8 car 2600s in action on the northern suburban in the mid 2000s though originally 4 was more common, but gangways were in use. They weren't unknown to run in multiple with 2800s on DSER line services and again the gangways were in use.

And the rest on the newbuild Woolwich?

Re: specials, Táilte did look at operating a tour taking in GVS but unfortunately resources and scheduled works precluded it this year, however we've had some nice chats with NIR people about the future...