jhb171achill

4 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

I’d be interested to find out when CIE stopped providing a parcels service. 
 

On rail, I think the Fastrack service lasted into the early 2000s?

CIE buses also carried parcels but I have no idea how long that service lasted into the Bus Eireann era. 
 

I’d also be interested to know when similar services ceased in Northern Ireland. 
 

Can anyone help? 
Cheers,

Mol

 

I haven't got exact dates, but parcels activities were still carrying newspapers at the very least into the 1990s, as I saw these in a Mk 2 (or 3) guard's compartment on the Waterford line during the RPSI's May Tour one time about 1994/5, I think. As for NIR, I think the early 1980s.

19 hours ago, Railer said:

They will be to replace all of the vac braked LP and LX wagons initially. There was talk of a batch of ore wagons to replace the Tara wagons but I can't see a requirement for them anymore. 

Sadly, I think Tara is history….

Superb weaterhing. You've absolutely nailed how they looked in their later days!

18 hours ago, irishthump said:

 Mango Mussolini 

4 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

I did half wonder whether the sides might be GSWR as they did, I think, have some compartment/saloon composites. GSR and CiE copied the idea. Sorry to be vague, I’m away from my notes at present. 

The GNR did too, but I don’t have the details.

On 3/3/2025 at 8:45 PM, Mol_PMB said:

I’m sure that the IRM team will Stoutly deny that this speculation about kettle models had anything to do with a heavy night out on the Guinness, and they’ll claim that this early CAD has nothing to do with them…

 

Often thought a G scale model of one of those would be a great project!

On 7/5/2025 at 3:59 PM, Westcorkrailway said:

Damn, I was going to steal them. The evil ITG fooled my plan again

Indeed the ITG’s locos are holding up well enough considering what they have been subjected too. 124 is very good while 190, A3r and 152 are in solid condition. All of them would need a big restoration yes, but far from unrestorable. (Aside from 152 which was always meant to be the spares dump) 

 

The rest of the stock is not ITG owned and therefore is not moving. They are in much poorer condition. The EX-HST mark 3 could probobly be staticky restored if the right buyer came along, though in all honesty. I don’t think anyone likes the mark 3s that much . Just moving it at this stage would be an incredibly costly venture, all this for a coach that can’t even run!

Who owns the non-ITG stuff?

On 11/3/2025 at 9:17 AM, Westcorkrailway said:

Exactly. Perhaps somone using Ral colours extracted from the hattons coaches/800 one could repaint appropriate British stock. Thats what I did for years before the genesis coaches and it was perfect

 

im sure I’ve seen photos of CIE full brake 6 wheelers running behind 800

Possibly a full brake, but very definitely never passenger-carrying six-wheelers.

If there was a six wheel van on the Cork line much after 1935 (pre-800!) it was at one end of the train carrying mailbags.

I presume these are container flats of some sort?

41 minutes ago, Mayner said:

Recently I had suggestion from within Accurascale that it would be a good time to do a small repeat run of my 20T Brake Van.

Worth a reminder to perhaps our younger colleagues here, used to seeing modern goods trains which comprise a dozen identical vehicles and nothing else.

Apart from the fact that a traditional goods train of four-wheeled loose-coupled vehicles could have 34 wagons  of 32 different types, it’s worth pointing out that ALL of them had a brake van.

Running a train of older wagons either no brake van on the end is as ridiculously inaccurate as Stephenson’s Rocket hauling an ICR, or a Tara Mines train happily running round the layout with no locomotive.

Thankfully, we’ve had JM Design and Provincial Wagons to bridge this absolutely ESSENTIAL gap.

Apart from the fact that it does us all a common good to support these small manufacturers, we actually need these things for any credibility on any layout.

(Mind you, “Rule 1” applies if you prefer a train of British Rail Mk 1s hauled by a Javanese 3’6” gauge B50 class 2.4.0 in NIR silver and blue; a Japanese bullet train hauled by a Listowel monorail engine, a Sligo Leitrim 0.6.4T double-heading a Darjeeling “B” on the Enterprise, or WORSE, a train of CIE “H” vans and Bullieds with no guard’s van….)

On 28/3/2025 at 8:17 PM, Darrman said:

https://irishbuildingmagazine.ie/2025/03/28/sisk-completes-track-laying-and-next-phase-of-works-commence-on-limerick-to-foynes-freight-line/

Tracklaying has been completed. Providing the signalling and level crossing upgrades are proposed to take 18 months from here.

Which, if that turns out to be true, will mean it's not ready for the Ryder Cup time, so no chance of the JP Express to Adare!

In Mallorca in 1993 I saw a metre-gauge "G", owned by a private company that hda a contract to relay track on the Palma-Inca line. It was to all intents and purposes an EXCAT copy of a G61X type, bar being (a) P W yellow and (b) metre gauge, and (c) centre coupling. Its build date was 1983, according to its diamond-shaped Deutz plate. A friend from AAFB, the Mallorcan preservation / railway historical society, told me that spares for these were still very readily available (well, in 1993 anyway). Exact same engine, apparently, as G611-7.

56 minutes ago, Mayner said:

Ex-GNR (express passenger) locos are likely to have been used on the 'Trial Train' (newly overhauled coaches) between Inchacore and Portarlington up to the end of steam on CIE or sold to the UTA. So potentially a legitimate reason for running an S Class, Compound & Vs at speed other than an enthusiasts special on the GSWR main line

Absolutely.

Even when the last steam survivors were banished from Inchicore and sent to Broadstone, just about anything could turn up on the Dun Laoghaire Pier mail shuttle. It could be a filthy lethargic Crossley “C”, an elderly 1897-built J15, or a blue 4.4.0 barely fifteen years old.

4 hours ago, IrishTrainScenes said:

.

A packed-solid train on its way to the Invisible People’s Convention”….

1 hour ago, DJ Dangerous said:

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that any unsold 22000’s and Park Royals will be snapped up by the Irish market, so the A/S guys probably decided not to dedicate any space to them.

On the flip side, unless the likes of Hunslets, 800’s and Bubbles are featured prominently, growing the Irish-outline / IRM part of A/S is not going to be easy.

Maybe we’re at a point where Irish releases are going to slow down a little for a year or two while the post-Covid-19 market settles.

There was an explosion in interest in Irish outline during and shortly after the pandemic, but that bubble has now burst and a lot of the Covid era modellers have vanished.

As things get back to normal, and UK sales of Bubbles, Hunslets and 800’s mature, A/S will be better able to gauge future demand.

That said, I hope to Hell that they had an A Class and Ballast wagons on display, because A/S wouldn’t even exist today without them!

1 hour ago, ttc0169 said:

This is not a rant but an advisory…….

I write this having attended the model world live exhibition at the NEC Birmingham today and again tomorrow,

I also attended model rail Scotland last February,

I have noticed on both occasion's that the Accurascale stand does not have a section solely devoted to IRM products - past,present and future-granted there was the Hunslet,bubble cement and two axle vans on show - but no ICRs,Park royal or pre production 800 class steam locomotive,

As we all know the Irish scene is very much in the minority so I would have thought that in such a major UK exhibition circuit that the Irish products should be promoted more as there are quite a few UK modellers on IRM and are interested in the Irish scene. 
 

Not my place to question marketing strategies of a (thankfully) successful company, but that would seem a good idea.

The Irish market is minuscule. Many of what would seem perfectly logical models for IRM to produce are, on analysis, almost certainly hopelessly non-commercially viable. So any extra exposure has to be good.

From 1984 to covid, I worked on all but 3 of the annual RPSI May tours. The number of people each year from the 32 counties was almost never more than three quarters if one coach. The rest were almost all English. Not “British”; but specifically English.

IRRS London meetings have many ex-pats; but also many folks from Starmerland who just have a superb interest in Irish railways.

Its’s reasonable, therefore, to assume a significant interest in (domestic) Britain for Irish railways.

So, a spotlight on IRM itself should be a good idea?

Superb, as are the scenic details.

I love the oul ruined cottage!

1 minute ago, Irishswissernie said:

Yes HG I have had the same problems which is why all my copyright images have 'Copyright Ernie's Railway Archive' plastered all over them and I don't supply un-marked images for free unless its for a Museum or other Preservation group (Don't panic Jim!)

It still doesn't stop some people cropping the images which I try to offset by placing the overlay near to the subject. Others even trying to erase the overlay and others moan that it spoils the image when they snip it.

 

 

Having used several of your images in books, Ernie, after seeking permission from your good self of course, I must express my great appreciation and full support for your stance. I hope others will respect your rights as copyright owner.

PO wagons tended to be confined to one specific route, so they’re not really flexible.

I’m unaware of any on the NCC. I think the Courtaulds ones were UTA-owned, not PO.

This rules out Jeeps, Moguls or the two Jintys in terms of hauling anything PO.

The BCDR had the Dundrum PO coal wagons. Some of these ended up on the DNGR, but of course by that stage they were no longer owned by the East Downshire company.

In terms of era, to such extent we had PO wagons, you’re really looking at the 1900-20 period mostly. They’re not really a “modern” thing.

They give colour, of course, to a model goods train. But prototypically, until the 1970s, any sort of goods stock which wasn’t grey was a rarity on all lines. 

2 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

 

It seems from @jhb171achill's posts above that private owner wagons were gone before the 121's entered service?

Yes - the old traditional wooden-bodied open wagons, very few as they were in the first place, were very long gone.

On 17/4/2025 at 7:34 PM, Mol_PMB said:

This is another of my random threads spawned from spending too much time on Flickr, posted here in the hope that some nuggets of information might be useful to others in future.

Looking at a lot of photos from the late 1950s and early 1960s, it became apparent that filthey silver tin vans were ubiquitous, but green ones were really quite rare. I did find a few photos of green ones though, so I'll collate them in this thread.

Initially I'm focusing on the luggage van variant, numbers 2700 to 2765, built in 1957 and outshopped in silver (unpainted aluminium for the body). The vast majority seem to have been allowed to get more and more filthy until the mid 1960s when they were repainted in black and tan. Most skipped the green livery phase which had been reintroduced in 1958/9 and lasted until the introduction of black and tan in 1961/2.

Here are some photos of green ones I've found.

 

1959, definitely 2717 at Heuston:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54253237378/

 

1962, one was used in a special train to Ardnacrusha power station. There are lots of photos of this trip but it's always the same van, of course. I'm fairly confident it's 271# where the last digit may be 7.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53454103743/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53454390475

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53468557251/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54419891970/

 

1962, number not visible:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570940700/

 

1963, number not visible:

1965, number not legible:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54251543369/

 

So, there was definitely 2717 in green and there may have been a few more. They were scarce though. Has anyone got any more examples?

 

 

In due course I'll look at the heating van variants 3101-3152 - they were more common in green and the last batch were painted green from new.

You’re right, many went from silver straight to black’n’tan.

Worth pointing out that any that became green would have been in the later, lighter shade, as shown in your illustrations. The dark green was discontinued as far as passenger coaches went, several years earlier.

On 22/4/2025 at 9:24 PM, GSR 800 said:

Maedbh has gotten a bit of weathering. There's not a great many photos of Maedbh in colour during her working life in CIE. The vast majority I've seen are taken after she was earmarked for preservation and received a fresh coat of paint. It's unlikely she did almost any work after 1958.

There's two colour photos of her at work in later years. One is of her at Limerick Junction in 1955, the other at Thurles hauling a train of horsebox vans. These show her relatively clean but with some black grime in certain areas. In their earlier years they were kept almost spotlessly clean, but I intend to model the end of steam. Macha was utterly filthy toward the end.

For reference I also looked primarily at the VS class in the 60s. Still kept quite clean, but far from spotless. The domes and corners of the belpaire firebox were almost always blackened!

A mix of black and umber wash was used, with excess removed using a cotton bud.

That is a truly magnificent model, finished perfectly!

14 minutes ago, IrishTrainScenes said:

When and why?

33 minutes ago, IrishTrainScenes said:

Am I correct in saying that ICRs and DDs have been on the Antrim branch? I know 29s have.

Didn’t even know a 29 had!!

13 hours ago, Colin_McLeod said:

Colour is difficult to get right.  I thought the blue of the IRM Mk2b NIR blue and grey coaches was too dark.  Upon investigation I realise that it perfectly matches the MIR 'NIR light blue' paint which was professionally colour matched to actual NIR paint in the early 1980s.  

Despite this it still looks darker than my recollection.  Photographs don't help as there you will find a whole range of blue shades.

For my own interest I repainted two IRM coaches. One with a lighter blue stripe, and the other in NIR maroon and dark blue.

This is the result.

 

I think the repaint is closer to my memory but maybe a bit light, so further experimentation will follow.

The MM GM also looks on the light side and I may repaint that if I can get the shade right.

I would say the left hand and middle coach are spot on - right hand one I’d say the blue is a BIT dark.