jhb171achill

Ah, the MCWR. Mullingar, Carlow & Waterloo Railway. Seems legit.

Worth commenting on all of those vehicles, set aside in the 80s at mullingar (where they are pictured) with POSSIBLE preservation by the RPSI in mind. The left hand one, as is obvious from the bowed-in ends, is of WLWR origin, built in 1896, I think. It was one of only verey few bogies owned by that company which was a bit like the BCDR in favouring a diet almost completely of six-wheelers. The ex-WLWR Director's Saloon was also there, out of the picture to the left. Built the same time, they were GSWR Nos. 934 & 935. The green one is GSWR 1110 as staqted, followed by a container, and finally MGWR six-wheeler 13M. Nothing survives of any of them, bar the chasis of 13M, which is currently used at Downpatrick to house the body of the sole remaining GNR six-wheeler that awaits restoration there. The chassis of 1110 survived for a while, possibly at Downpatrick, but I'm not sure what became of it. Sadly the two WLWR vehicles have gone to their rest, partially thanks to the numbskull vandals of the good town of Mullingar... As an aside, the solitary WLWR vehicle left is No. 900, the former first class family saloon (not "royal saloon" as Belturbet calls it), thankfully saved and in store in the old loco shed at Belturbet. This yoke sat for years and years at Claremorris as a staff bothy. Many of us who have amassed a certain amount of birthdays will recall it as such. It would be great to see it restored.

Will it be live steam?

It is, yes - a former GSWR full brake. This is another quirk - anything in departmental green usually had a red end, but not things in grey.If they were grey they were grey all over, so this is one of thye "Cork Exceptions" which included such oddities as a J15 painted grey but with black firebox (normally grey all over), and several West Cork coaches which had the dark green, and two snails, but no lining. In livery terms it's amazing what details crop up. Analysis even today of such things throw up ICRs with IE symbols in normal colour, or all black, or all white; and on the modern grey 071 livery, numbers in different positions, with different spacings, and different fonts. Plenty to keep the livery nerds (of which I'm probably the worst) well occupied. In the very late 1980s, while throughout their entire lives Cravens never carried logos of any kind, lo and behold one or two managed to acquire for a while the Irish Rail "set of points" logo - one at each end.

Exactly. That one is (or was!) ex-GSWR No. 1110.

I’ve seen pics of that years ago. At one stage, in departmental (rather than traffic use) it and a number of other coaches used mostly interactive locations, guy a cost of standard bus green, with red ends which rapidly faded to a salmony pink or orange-looking colour. This continued into the late 60s, after the green livery had gone elsewhere - some green engineer’s dept. vehicles like that were green with roundels.

On the subject of oddball or one-off wagon liveries, many here will be aware of the fact that on cattle fair days, living vans were send to rural places for extra crews to bunk down in. They could be converted old coaches, but there were a small number of purpose-built ones, especially on the MGWR & GSWR. Normally standard all-over wagon grey, and one old one I’ve seen pics of still had a faded “G S” on the side in colour-photography days. One, at least, though, was bauxite brown from the late 1950s - ie over a decade before brown appeared on goods wagons. Another variation was the rectangular tank wagons used often for road vehicle or G class fuel in the sixties - grey chassis but black tanks.

Wow! Another absolute masterpiece is conceived! Looking forward to seeing this - very attractive design.

I’m sure I’ve seen a RTR model somewhere of something that would be a reasonable approximation of this type of 2-plank wagon…. not sure what make, though.

Had a good look at all of the above and did a good bit of other poking about. Undoubtedly several clearly show a livery of grey chassis and red - or at any rate very reddish - body. As I mentioned before, despite many visits to the likes of Port laoise and other yards, never once did I see anything that colour, so it has to be have been either a rare thing, a short lived thing, or both. Thus, I cannot throw any light on it whatsoever! However, while there is as above very clear evidence of the existence of this scheme, it has to be said that the majority of those photos are worn / faded bauxite rather than red. Paint pigments tended to sometimes assume a slightly more reddish tint when worn and faded - the original paint being the standard brown post-1970. Most interesting addition to my "livery dadabase"!

This release is gold dust. A few years ago, I would never have dreamed that anything Irish would ever develop beyond a bachmann SECR loco dressed up (to be fair, the good side of reasonably) as a GSR “Woolwich”; despite hauling CIE-liveried LMS coaches, of a design completely unknown anywhere in Ireland other than the NCC. IRM have completely opened up the Irish market. Most of here are well aware of the insurmountable financial viability aspects of producing an extremely high-end product for a very small market. And IRM is not a toy maker - that, in business terms, would be comparatively easy; they make exhibition-standard models. So when IRM produce something like a short-lived class of only three locomotives (and one, 103, clocked up WAY less mileage than the other two), that’s all the more for us here to be grateful for. So, well done IRM folks; you bring back my early 70s memories when I saw the “new Enterprise” (with an engine PUSHING it) for the first time. And that funny whistly sound. Compared to As and 141s, I guess they weren’t around long enough for their voices to break.

That is absolutely magnificent. The finish and lining are exquisite. Fantastic job!

Yes, a “bauxitey” colour tended to fade in a somewhat reddish way. That’s a bauxite brown, badly faded. It was quite unique for the time. WestCork - you mention possible CMDR origin; yes, it’s certainly not unlike that in design, but it plus another of somewhat different design, had GSWR numbers. No letter suffix - an ex-Macroom vehicle would have had “R” after the number. This was numbered 8457.

These are also suitable for a layout based in some parts of the North after 1958. They were very common on the Derry Road, and many regularly visited Newry and Warrenpoint. They were of course not just common, but probably in the majority, of wagons within the Dublin - Dundalk - Belfast goods right up until loose-coupled wagons were withdrawn from this route. Prior to 1965, you'd rarely have seen them on the NCC, but after that when the Derry Road closed, they were to be seen on the Dundalk - Lisburn - Antrim - Derry (Waterside) goods. I remember seeing one isolated in Lisburn which had been taken out of a train with a fault of some sort. While doubtless extremely rare indeed, I have an idea that I've seen a picture of one on the Larne line - though what it might have been doing there I cannot imagine. The earlier versions found their way all over the GNR in Fermanagh and Tyrone, and SLNCR too. (The4se would be the grey / snauil ones, of course).

Yes, I think this is inded a "West Cork" thing. It looks even darker than loco grey, but that could be dirt - possibly both pics are the same wagon and it's thus a local "unique". The carriages behind the "C" are also a local arrangement - the older pre-1955 dark green but WITHOUT lining. (And a very familiar face on the platform with trademark brown raincoat...) Cork certainly did have stock of loco grey paint right up to the end. J15 No. 193 was repainted grey as late as about 1961 - probably 9along with one J18, I think) the last steam locos on CIE ever to get a full repaint. So it's possible they put it on thyat wagon. In a reversal of this, jhbSenior told of visiting Inchicore one day on the 1930s, and seeing a recently outshopped J15 after a heavy overhaul and complete repaint. It was considerably lighter than normal, having been clad in WAGON grey all over; wonder how long it lasted under the heat of the smokebox and chimney.... For those whop prefer weathering, it will be noted how wagons in use a while accumulated a browinh tinge - this was brake dust off the brake blocks. hard to believe that with the exception of that very dark "H" van, every wagon in the picture above has initially been painted one of only two colours - the lighter grey shown in the open wagon in the centre of the picture, which started appearing around 1960/61, or else the traditional "wagon grey" shown on the open wagon with the "snail" to the left of the small cabin. On the subject of livery in general, on the large cabin, the green and cream colour scheme which was applied by the GSR and later CIE to all stations up to the very early 1960s may be seen to good effect.