jhb171achill

Standard CIE green, still on it in Cultra, but with incorrect GS initials (put on by Cultra) instead of a flying snail. It’s typical “Irish preservation inaccuracy”. Cultra and the RPSI have both been repeat offenders. Correct liveries on preservation here are all too often either not properly researched, or “anything will do, we’re not bothered”!

Surprisingly, few newspaper images beyond the very recent past seem to have survived in original form. Plus, newsprint photos of the past, in print form (as in many of Colm's) were printed in an extremely low quality form, which was all that this medium was capable of back then - today, they are virtually un-lookable-at!

Absolutely fascinating stuff! I just wish Colm had managed to get the negatives, or at least decent prints, of all the (now very historically important) photos he took or collected. The frustrating thing with his material has always been the awful quality of the images, even in his books - it is hard to imagine how they could be any worse! But it's as well he recorded something, and we owe him a great debt of gratitude for this.

Not quite - but the grey certainly looks about right!

Interesting! It was definitely a grubby 85 I saw there. I wonder what dates? I wouldn’t be sure but would guess ‘63-68?

I'm involved in a facebook forum which has recently hit 100,000+ members. Even with that size it'll go for a while without bots and spammers, but then there will be a spate of them, and all three admins are busy for a day or two zapping them. Most we zap are far-right political activists, some claiming to be Irish, but the vast, vast majority of whom seem to emanate from the USA (extremist trump supporters, extremists racists and religious cranks) and the UK (tommy robinson / racist types). Some are identifiable straight away and don't get in. Others appear to answer all the entry questions properly and have good reason for entering, then start their nonsense. So, out comes the Zapper! Tis the world we live in..............! Gawd forbid, we'll be getting people here who aren't railway enthusiasts next! Horror of horrors!

Yes - there was one parked up in the goods shed - remember that? Dunno why it had been left there. 85, sans tender, was in there with it, just after withdrawal.

STUNNING! I love this layout!

He had been dew to get off the train at Tullamore.....

I must have seen the grey at some stage - but if I did, I’ve no recollection of it! I do remember the last of the brown GNR coaches though.

They could do this with relative ease as the sort of place they took “tail traffic” from and to, tended to be major stations, junctions of termini which had a resident shunting engine. This would creep up behind the railcar and detach / attach vans while it was stopped.

An absolute work of art!

A Tony Mirolo job, I believe!

10:22 was when the down day Sligo got to Mullingar. The Westport table shows nothing going via Mullingar by then - all via Portarlington and Athlone. However the 03:10 Dublin to Ballina Newspaper train arrived via Mullingar in Athlone at 04:54, and Ballina by 06.57.

In the 1973 WTT, for example, when mullingar - Athlone was still fully functional, the Galway mails were as follows: Down Day Mail 08:20 ex Connolly 09:29 - 09:36 Mullingar 11:30 Galway Down night Mail Pearse 20:05 Connolly d 20:15 Mullingar 21:24 - 21:31 Galway 23:34 No up day mail working Up Night Mail Galway d. 20:15 Mullingar 23:32 - 23:45 Connolly 01:00 next morning Pearse 01:30 The Sligo services were: Down Day Mail Connolly 09:05 Mullingar 10:22 - 10:26 Described leaving Dublin as "Passenger", but leaving Mullingar as "PAS MAIL"; they possibly switched the bags from the earlier Galway Mail here? Or, it left Dublin with the mail? Sligo 12:40 Down Night Mail Leaves Mullingar as a connection off the Galway at 23:40 Sligo 02:05 next morning No Up Day Mail Up Night Mail Sligo 20:25 (This is the one I travelled on several times, in all cases with a pair of 121s up front). Mullingar 23:21 Await Galway train. Returns to Sligo at 23:40 as above. So - in summary - the morning ones went through, possibly; the evening one was a Galway - Dublin one, and a Sligo - Mullingar one.

In steam times, yes! But - see my post below for 1973.

Yes, that seemed to be what it was the several times I travelled on it in the 1970s. You had to change at Mullingar and wait the guts of an hour.

Activity this afternoon! IMG_4490.mov IMG_4491.mov

THIS I am learning........................................!

Superb work!

I’ve code 75, which means three old coaches I have can’t run till I get better wheels for them….

This is the Lartigue model at Malahide….

My favourite RPSI loco!

Interesting stuff! 2011, thus, closed my personal chapter of interest in operational locos. 145 and 150 were personal favourites - the former, as I watched it shunting the Limerick - Sligo goods in Tuam, and the latter on account of a cab run to Cobh, only the 2nd time I ever went there. 190 my favourite 181, as I did Limerick - Ballina behind it, with a train of two laminates and a bockety-looking 4 wheeled tin van not long before that service was withdrawn……

No blue 4.4.0s on it today? (I remember the last blue 4.4.0 on the Thursdays only train - travelled on it too….)