jhb171achill

I remember that station well. Seemed to me to be a huge place!

Saw an NIR 3-car railcar heading north earlier this evening. I'm thinking my Thursday trip will be by car.

I went first a while back, but the train was a railcar. I told IE I wanted a refund, and while I got it, it took about 2 weeks and involved a bit of a palaver online; sufficiently user-unfriendly to deter anyone nit that “techy” from bothering to apply at all; not acceptable.

Yes, she double-headed with 100 on the Courtmacsherry to Clonakilty Junction section. They had retained a five-coach set of 45 or 48 ft bogies of GSWR origin (replacing an earlier set of clapped-out Bandon stick) for these excursions, as longer bogies couldn’t deal with the curves on the branch. I assume that a “proper” engine brought this set from Cork to the junction - if 90 & 100 had taken the excursion the whole way, it would still be on its way back today…. 90 hauling a train always looks to me like an N gauge engine on someone’s layout - hauling 0 gauge coaches! I lit 90 up once before it left Whitehead for Downpatrick. I am of average build, but I felt like an 0 gauge driver being out in the cab of an N gauge model; the good people of Castleisland, for whom it was built, must have been marginally smaller than hobbits or leprechauns. Or possibly, Inchicore’s 3D printer was set to the wrong scale when they built it. For people built to 1:1 scale, or 12 inches to the foot, this thing is an utter monstrosity to oil, especially compared to the equally minuscule, but way better designed, CSET Sugar locos. You have to be a contortionist underneath it. I wonder what crews thought of them - I suspect that opinions might have been less than complimentary!

Utterly disgraceful. Anyone care to guess what it’s like on Thursday (I’ve to go to Belfast)? Will it be a cattle wagon, a bin lorry or a wheelbarrow?

Maybe it was just going in the other direction.................................

I've a whole fictitious history in my head about the originsof Dugort Harbour and Castletown West! Opened probably 1890s, closed to passengers maybe 1967, and completely 1976.....

We’ve an 0 gauge model of one in Malahide in the Fry museum. You’re welcome to come and examine it.

I meant the GSWR 4.6.0........

Dare we ask if a 400 class is likely to follow?

In reality, all WTTs are confidential to this day. Since many train movements are not public passenger trains, it was always considered unhelpful to allow public access to such things. The public issues list passenger services only, not goods or light engine movements, or empty stock. At various times in the past, security was deemed to be another reason to keep train movements other than passenger-carrying ones as confidential.

A fifth "Rails Through...." is currently in progress. It will be somewhat more detailed in the historical aspect, but will contain some 190 illustrations, in this case covering Wexford to Harcourt St & Amiens St. The rough draft is done, and most of the pictures selected. It will include several photos of the Shillelagh branch, often quite camera-shy, but these are older, and black & white, as the very last section of it (to Aughrim Mill) closed finally in 1953. As for the North Kerry and West titles, one is now out of print and the other only very low numbers with the publisher, but Tipperary and Wexford are still available from the publisher. Glad you liked them!

That would be an ecumenical matter.

Well, arguably, a bit of it did……!

That Baltimore view is classic. A smoky old Crossley, an ex-MGWR six wheel third a LONG way from home (at that time, there were quite a few of these based in Cork, both at Albert Quayand glanmire), another six-wheel third of indeterminate parentage but probably also Midland, a brand new tin van (essential on ALL diesel trains if they wanted heat or light!) and a 1920s-era GSWR main line composite....

Wow - this will be a MOST impressive project! Will it be set in pre-NCC days?

Very nice collection indeed. I remember that 1967 diagrammatic one coming out. Even then I thought it was weird. Some of what you have are very rare beasts indeed, especially the Macroom one and the Parknasilla booklet.

Bring back a Vs and some old bogies....

Blue 216 has been kickin' around at Connolly shed several days this week. Dunno what's in Belfast.

This is precisely it, in a nutshell. Culturally, we’re just not that much interested, as a whole!

Forgot to mention, the reason there were never any narrow gauge wagons is that with the possible exception of Strabane to Stranorlar, no narrow gauge line had a sufficiently high and wide loading gauge to take standard gauge rolling stock.

Indeed, it was the other way round. Zero narrow gauge transporter wagons, but a few standard gauge ones, used to bring narrow gauge stock to Inchicore, Dundalk, Limerick or York Road for repair.

Many lines all over this island had trains going through them almost 24 hours a day. Even places like Omagh had signal cabins manned 22 hours a day. Even West Cork, with its sparse services overall, had goods trains in the wee hours leaving Cork for Bantry.

I'll try to have a look for you. I might have one or two duplicates.

Like that, with no train behind it, yes!