jhb171achill

You'd be surprised! They had these engines on a number of military-related trains. I was told a story of two of them (dunno what numbers) allocated to Belfast to Aldergrove trains of sand and supplies for the American air base there........

These clowns have absolutely ZERO right to eject someone from a public railway platform solely for taking photos. While the UK is a different country with a different legal system, their railway laws are based on the same original legislation as ours, and this has been tested in court there on a number of occasions. One extremely highly respected and well kinown railway photographer was threatened by a member of railway staff at a location on the Kildare suburban route and threatened with the gardai. Her told the member of staff that he would go of his own accord when he was finished, and suggested they call the gardai if they want. The railway staff member retreated, with bad grace. By law, there is no restriction on taking photographgs of trains in Ireland (south OR north), either on non-railway premises (e.g. over a wall) or ON railway premises, such as a platform; provided: 1. You are not obstructing the public or staff in any way, by the use of your equipment or your personal presence. 2. You remain at all times on the platform or footbridges in areas where the public are permitted (e.g. not up signal cabin steps, or off platform ramps). 3. You do not interfere with, or in any way obstruct, railway staff going about their business.# 4. You do not violate the personal privacy of the general public by including thewm within your images (within reason; a distant image of a tiny figure with their back to you wouldn't be held up in court as being a problem, or else all public photography would have to be banned). .....and so on. I have taken pics at Malahide station myself - and posted them (publicly) online. If I am ever confronted with a person wearing any uniform - be they security companies, railway staff, or whatever, I will make a note of, or ask them, for their name or ID number and make a complaint accordingly; I would suggest that anyone else does the same. Firstly, though, I would politely tell them that there are no laws of any sort preventing you taking photographs of trains subject to the above. As for the Taras, yes, the above times are when they are SUPPOSED to operate; but they rarely stick to the paths allocated. At one stage, I monitored their times for several months for the benefit of an IRRS member who intends in due course to write an article about them for the journal. I can do this, as I can see the line from outside my study window; a 29 class railcar has just passed me by a few minutes ago. I know of several potential photographers who have stood about Malahide, Donabate, Skerries and Drogheda stations for ages hoping to see one, but having no luck. The scheduled three return trips per day don't always run either - occasionally just two.

Wow! Interesting…… Probably a cheaper option than building an actual building of the same floor area….

I'm intrigued now, Andy! Must fish out my dad's pic of it............

I wouldn’t be surprised if they mean some sort of hybrid thing…..

The weathering is pretty good, but the models look too long, the wheels aren’t right, the buffers are the wrong shape, and they’ve got the wrong type of roofs. Thus, they can’t be IRM products……

True. I do recognise that a huge investment in time is necessary to produce these designs, but I am also aware that there is ample technology now to 3D print things to a much, much higher standard.

That seems to be a general consensus, unfortunately!

Maybe we’re talking about two different things…. the one I meant was a CVR passenger van which apparently remained in its original deep maroon livery with no markings other than a “14” on the door….. In the 1946 pic at Strabane with railcar 18…..

And there's that elusive Clogher Valley van again, behind it! I think that's the number rather than "DR" - I believe it was No. 14.

E looks good to me.

Found this little beauty after a tip-off from a friend, to the effect that it was for sale. The "back story" is that CIE ended up with one of the short-lived BR railbuses as a demonstrator. They tested it on the Loughrea and Ballina branches but found that it was inadequate for traffic, so it ended up replacing a "C" and a mainline carriage on the Castletown West - Dugort Harbour shuttle. It was permitted to haul one wagon if required. It came to an untimely end following an altercation with a 141 shunting at Castletown West one summer afternoon in 1968. I had long planned to do something like this myself, but someone else beat me to it!

The above are an absolutely superb job. It's not often, too, that we see the original pale green snail in the lower position and pale green number - with or without the "blackboard" - on models. This was the rule on all wagons 1945 - mid-50s, when they became white, and the snail moved to the upper part of the bodyside. I'd put viciously weathered brown on the roof of the brown one, though. In terms of "Irish-ising" planked opens, there were many varieties of these over the years. The ones I have above are different heights, as I often saw in real life. The very high-sided ones, used as "coke wagons" in Brexitstan, aren't suitable for Ireland, so I would avoid those - the only use for such vehicles in Ireland was loco coal - you might see one lurking at the back of a steam loco shed / siding. For routine goods trains, no. I simply painted them grey, and the "snails" were applied and heavy weathering done by Dempsey, who is also resident on this forum. So yes, unless the modeller is a rivet-counter in terms of open wagon design, many 5- and 6-plank types with centre doors will do. Some British coal wagons had end doors - these did not run in Ireland, to the best of my knowledge; unless someone can enlighten us, I'd be pretty certain that these are unsuitable for an Irish layout.

"......as well as allow our UK based IRM customers access to features like the loyalty credits and such that accurascale can offer (coming soon for the Irish side)...." How will the loyalty card system work? (Excuse my ignorance!)

Excellent stuff all round. The only thing I might suggest is to make the goods platform have a stone front facing to it, rather than being on stilts on the Scalescene model. Looking forward to seeing the whole thing developing!

The CIE heating van is a JM Design one, and the "H" covered goods van adjacent to it is Provincial (Leslie). The open wagons are a Provincial Bullied, three "rummage sale" 4-wheel opens originally in liveries of British coal companies - Hornby, Mainline type, etc.; then 2 Provincial cattle wagons and a JM Design brake van.

That NCC van may have reached Dundalk in UTA days on a ballast train, but nowhere else more southerly. They were rarely seen even on the GN section of the UTA / NIR - the UTA abolished goods trains in 1965 and thereafter all goods trains in the north were CIE, with CIE vans. Even for ballast trains, a couple of old GNR vans, like the zebra-painted "Ivan" at Whitehead, were retained for ballast operations. No long-wheelbase types like this ran in Ireland. To make this one reasonably acceptable for a generic "Irish" type, a chunk would have to be taken out of the middle. Yes. As with all CIE wagons (and most from other irish companies), "W" irons, chassis, buffers and the whole lot, plus the roof, were painted the body colour. Brown chassis and all the bits for brown-liveried wagons (i.e. those painted after 1970) and grey for everything else.

It's OK. They apologised..........

From Charleville; north to Limerick, Ennis & Galway, or south to Cork or the Kerry line.

…..AND extended to Bray.

I wish!

Correct. This was a “one-off” a few years before black started appearing on many repaints. The red plate was both of a completely non-standard shape and design, and colour. The other one of these locos had a normal CIE painted number.

There were two sent to the C & L. One was substantially altered by having the open balcony end enclosed with conventional guards' doors either side. The one shown above at least, and possibly both, had a conventional wagon-type end. The other - I think - had at one stage at least a small window fitted in the middle panel on the end. but with a small window in the middle panel. Planked ends as on the sides. Internally would have been a short bench seat for the guard, probably close to where the stove was at one corner internally. The above is in original condition.

Excuse the awful diagram; this is the way the markings were. Easy with a black marker!

I like those JM ones too - I've two in "pre-stripes" grey; but again, black above and below the stripes where they exist........... The JM ones have all the interior detail too, an excellent touch as dare i say it, many younger modellers might wonder exactly what they looked like inside! When the fire was lit in the little stove they were surprisingly cosy, when not, they were uncomfortable, very noisy and draughty!