jhb171achill

A scratch-built “tin van” is worth the effort for that!

Yes, I forgot about that! The GNR lab would have had a lot to do with that too, and now that I think of it, I think I was told they also I tested something to do with the metal content of rails. The last time I had any sort of detailed conversation with the former works manager there, I was probably in my 20s, wish I’d paid more attention and asked more questions!

Absolutely. Inchicore and Broadstone did, and I’m sure the likes of the NCC did too.

Latterly, yes, but still grey I think in the early 1940s when these pics were taken. Actually, I’ve a spare copy of this book for sale. If anyone’s interested, €20 + postage anywhere. Local post rates for north, south & Britain. Binding is a bit shook, but this book is a hens teeth thing by now.

Paint was one thing; they were meticulous about proper adherence to guidelines on colour, not just on rolling stock, but buildings. They also tested and monitored chemicals used elsewhere, such as creosote for preserving sleepers.

See attached; from the GNR’s commemorative book, published then. Note the purpose-built turf wagon. The image of the Fintona tram is in its original dark maroon and white livery. Meanwhile a chemist in the lab gets paint pigments spot-on for the next paint batch order….

Those oul colour slides from 1949 - ye need them scanned to stop further deterioration.... cheap oul film back in those days....

Nope, don't think so - certainly never a Park Royal.

No... I am pretty certain they never hauled any CIE coaches.

There are several Downpatrickers online here, Mol. I am certain you find everyone there, be they ITG or DCDR, to be most helpful.

Exactly!!

Correct - used for carriage-heating in the cold mornings. All stock still had steam heating till the late 1960s / early 70s.

A further thought; even when modelling a small rural terminus, of the "fit-in-the-corner" type, it's always a good thing to try to imagine a scenario where two companies met, or where stock from several companies would all be seen. Primarily, the reason is that many of these out of the way places rarely had anything other than the very same six-wheel coaches that they had when they opened in the 1890s, and same locos. Take Kenmare; the very last train was hauled by a loco already over a decade in traffic before it opened, and which type almost monopolised the line for much of its life (J15). Likewise, until its last few years, trains were always standard GSWR six-wheelers. Thus, a strictly accurate model of many locations will have but one or two different types of everything! Much more variety, therefore, if the place (be it real or imagined) could conceivably have Midland stuff alongside GSWR stuff - which itself could be a combination of "original" Inchicore designs with also ex-WLWR stock. Go to the likes of Collooney and you've all three of the above, plus SLNCR stock (stop drooling, Galteemore!) and a lot of GNR goods stock and coaches on "pilgrimage" days. If we are in the Connemara area, your Maam village terminus might see GSWR stock (if the line came from, say, a junction at Ballyglunin or Tuam), GSR-ex-WLWR stock, like a G2 2.4.0, and Midland stuff too. Between the various designs of goods stock for all of these, plus locos and coaches, already you've a bewildering variety of prototypes/ Loughrea was on the Midland, obviously, but not far from Athenry. For some 20 years, two ex-WLWR G2 2.4.0s (291 & 293) were the regular engines on the line. Ballinrobe, on the other hand, despite proximity to "The Crewe of the West" at Claremorris, seems to have have had an exclusive diet of MGWR J18 0.6.0s for most of its life. Just some rambling thoughts. Personally I am a big fan of actual prototypes, with every detail as it was in real life, but (plausible) "might-have-beens" undeniably have a massively greater potential for the modeller.

Me too.

Re that GSR committee, I believe my grandfather had some part in it but I don't know any details. All I know for certain is that a whole lot of recommendations resulted re the J15 class in particular, and he was tasked with doing the design work for a number of hopefully standardised ways forward. Mind you, by the time the last J15s were withdrawn, hardly any two were identical in every detail, an issue with any numerous and long-lived class. Family folklore suggests that the main bugbear was money, as a result of the lack of which, serious attempts at all sorts of standardisation were curtailed or never properly completed, and even where attempts were made, it was too little. They had similar thoughts on standardising passenger stock, which would have included replacement of most 3ft gauge passenger stock with a GSR standard, had money be available. But it wasn't. The "standard" GSR passenger coach for 3ft gauge would have been bogie vehicles of 35-40ft long, broadly based on Cavan & Leitrim types, with end balconies (possibly enclosed). I would love to see a drawing of a thing like this, as many PROPOSED locos, wagons and coaches DID have drawings made - but again (through family folklore, anyway) it seems this vehicle was not even drawn. There just wasn't the money.

For the timberwork, the MGWR would have painted this red, and the GSR (later CIE too) darkish green, which soon faded to exactly the shade shown.

Well deserved.

The Carbon Police will have you on their wanted list (and me today too)

Seems that despite most Belfast services actually being on target and normal, the 1st, 7th, 12th, 22nd, 45th and 119th Laws of Sod are fully invoked every time I plan to go to Belfast! Sadly, I drove today. I don’t do “bus”…..!

I know, yes - the railway is getting busier and needs to be maintained to an uncompromising standard of safety - but have we reached a stage where between DART works and main lines, we may as well assume that henceforth there won't be meaningful train services on any bank holiday weekend?

There’s just something about middle management in large companies, isn’t there! They even have their own (inevitably inane) language. In the bank, they used to refer to completing a task as “covering off” whatever it was; and the task in hand was a “piece”. How could ANYONE even begin to take seriously a 40-something clown in a natty business suit standing in front of a flipchart wittering on in faux-urgent tones about “covering off the investment piece”…. Yawn. The room we had our meetings in, I can assure you, had exactly 273 ceiling tiles, or parts of them at the edges. I know - I counted them all, many times. It gets worse. They don’t agree to SIGN a document. It has to be “signed off on”. The real world and the English language never got a look in, still less any form of critical thought.

Guinness loco livery was traditionally a very dark olive green, as in the one preserved in the Guinness storehouse in Dublin. The RPSI’s No. 3 would have been like that for much of its earlier life.

As Mol suggests, there are unresolved issues about Park Royals; e.g. how many were silver, how many were dark green, DID any dark green ones have an upper EdN band (despite some thoughts, I do not think so), and which coaches and when had green ends, and / or green roofs. What we DO know is that some were silver (as Mol suggests, almost certainly not many), some were dark green (ditto), but most were the lighter green with a single thin EdN waistline, for most of their lives (including in many cases from new) up to the introduction of black and tan. I've pretty sure I've seen a pic somewhere of one painted new in 1962 - right at the start of BnT - with the tan band not quite window height, and the coach number on the black background. Must try to find it - it might be in Cyril Fry's daughter's collection.

Colour wise, a lot better, yes! Interestingly, the flying snail on that railcar is thee "normal" way round. In some cases, on THAT side of a railcar it was reversed, as on the same side on a lorry, bus or steam loco tender....

Superb stuff, mol. The pic above in Sligo, though, while interesting in terms of whart was painted what colour, is so badly compromised by age and printing processes that as far as actualy shade is concerned, it has become completely inaccurate. Colour hues on the track, the two vans, the station roof glass and the station stonework are wrong too. Interesting, as a separate issue, to see the two ancient Midland mail vans there too. There was one (not one of those two) still in use up to about 1960, which dated back to 1877!