jhb171achill

A massively important "gap" in Irish railway models filled - the best of luck with it! The initial print looks highly promising, and if it's anything like the other products of yours which I was very happy to get, it will be a real beauty. Seven possible liveries, too.........

I think the lining looks extremely neat at that scale, and the lettering looks the part. The only alternative would have been to get specially made lettering with the right shading, but at 00 scale who'd notice! Probably more important for a gauge 0 model. Overall, that loco is absolutely superb. Looking forward to seeing it operating!

Absolutely beautiful model indeed. Out of interest, what chassis?

Quite “delicate” looking……!

Was speaking with Owen over the past few days and beyond. That scan above is of a standard MGWR third class coach, without which any model of the MGWR system 1890-1925 is as impossible as a model of a modern MGWR area of IE without an ICR. But following the amalgamation in 1925, these vehicles were to be seen all over the country, even penetrating remote branch lines like Kenmare or Valentia Harbour in the deepest wilds of GSWR territory, the West Cork system (even further away), and the south Wexford branch lines. The MGWR themselves even lent 6 or 7 of them to the BCDR in the 1910s, so they were at one time to be seen on East Belfast commuter trains, and in rural Co Down. They outlived many of their contemporaries, and in numbers, lasting until the very last operations of any six-wheelers in early 1963, by which time the last remnants of any fleets of six-wheeled coaches had graduated to Cork, where their final use was on peak hour Cobh suburban trains and Youghal Sunday excursions. A MGWR six-wheeler has for long been one of the big gaps in Irish railway models. I've my name down for one of these, and if Owen's Dungarvan signal cabin and several other 3D prints of his that I have are anything to go by, this will be a beauty. The SLNCR borrowed them too, from time to time, so they’ve picked up passengers in rural Fermanagh too. Now; chassis, anyone?

That very much looks the part. Just right!

Yes, pretty much. Bear in mind that there was not necessarily any direct communication between the ticket offices and the traffic department; and even if there was some fella taking a message up the platform, there might not be a suitable spare coach. There was no online booking system. There were no computers. It was a case of trial, error and experience. Many sets were made up with a rough idea of what was needed, yes. And indeed they might add on an extra vehicle just in case; less hassle if it was busy. If they DID add an extra vehicle, it could end up being just about anything. First time I ever travelled to Ballina, the train was a laminate, a Park Royal and a 4-wheeled tin van. At Claremorris, a spare laminate - of a different type - was sitting in a siding. Had an extra been needed (unlikely, in those days, for Ballina) that's what would have been stuck on.

The photos of the SLNC coach and the C & L wagons are definitely at least partially "colourised" in some way, or perhaps the originals were on poor quality film. C & L wagons were never that dark a grey, although the grey used by CIE did "lighten" in the late fifties, and with a pale green "snail" these are in earlier grey. But it wasn't THAT dark. The SLNC coach looks to be a faded brown colour. In fact, all SLNC coaches were maroon - although bad fading due to cheap paint - and not enough of it - and a liberal coacting of pale brown brake dust due to the company not being able to afford enough cleaners - made some coaches don a distinctly brownish hue. But this one looks like its original colour was some sort of brown - which it wasn't. As an aside, given the SLNCR's lack of bank balance for decades, I wouldn't be surprised if they got paint from the GSR or NCC, as they used the same sort of dark maroon.

Superb! I hope to see this at exhibitions! Will that be likely?

Is it DCC fitted?

Loads of potential there! Nice sized set-up.

Maroon fading was probably best seen on SLNCR stock - which though still in use was faded even worse, to an extent that even embarrassed the management - and covered on top of that with a good layer of brake dust! On a visit to the Isle of Man in 1973 I saw an abandoned coach body somewhere which looked "pink" for the same reason.

Incidentally, lately someone asked me if I had livery details fro the W & C I R. I knew I did somewhere; here goes: Locomotives: Similar to GSWR - a very dark olive green with light green, red and black lining, black boiler bands and brown frames edged in black and red. One source suggests that loco tenders only had a single red lining. Carriages: Very dark lake with vermillion and gold lines, again almost identical to GSWR. Quite possibly, they got their locos and coaches painted at inchicore. However, another source suggests a dark blue livery with elaborate lining. My suspicion would be that they might have started off like this, but repaints were later done in GSWR style. If so, this would amplify a theory of work being sub-contracted to Inchicore. Alternately, the "blue" theory might simply be wrong, as all other sources suggest a very dark maroon, like a GSWR-esque purply-brown "Guinness" colour. Balance of probability is therefore with the dark maroon. Carriages had the company's crest in the centre. Wagons were slate grey all over with white lettering. Unusually, it seems that metalwork was picked out in black - at least on the chassis, anyway.

Very interesting indeed - that's a beauty. I'd like one of those myself. Curious as to why there's no "3" on the doors, though - that was standard with the GSR, and it's in the later GSR (LMS maroon) livery judging by the lining.

I love the weathering on these and the peeling paintwork. Is this "built in" by Alphagraphix, or did you do it?

The brown patches were fitted there by that well-known Inchicore fitter, Hu Flung Dung.

Seen in Malahide tonight, while on me way into town to perform the Great and Ancient Ceremony of the Imbibulation of Falling-Down Liquids. . In recent times, the following: (Spot the odd one out. The winner gets to buy me a pint later this evening).

That is precisely the way it was - not just on CIE, but on all railways. Add to that the fact that there was no such thing as standardisation. Many coaches were built as one-offs, or perhaps there were two, six or eight of them - so in many cases even if the traffic department had the pick of the whole fleet to make up every train, there simply did not exist enough of the exact same type to make up a single train, let alone (as now) every signle train on any given route.

I reported the ad. Spoilsport busybody, me, but it had to be done. Maybe the seller should stick to tarmaccing drives for cash only, sir.

I know that there's the old saying "let the buyer beware", and many will argue that if someone is prepared to pay a certain price for a certain thing, there ye go - it's nobody else's business. However, this is downright FRAUD. When I come across such things, I report them as fraud to the website. What, by the way, is a "ralway"? Something to do with paint colour reference numbers?

By far the most interesting period, indeed; the twilight of the "grey'n'green" era. BCDR trains would have wandered beyo0nd fairly close-by GNR locations, and certainly not onto the GSR / CIE. By the time you're looking at, the NCC has become the UTA. Under either, you wouldn't have got trains running to CIE territory either. However, the GNR is a different matter. GNR coaches made it to Cork on the "Enterprise" for a short time in the early 50s. By the time the GNR was broken up in late 1958, EX Great Northern locos, wagons, and rolling stock appeared in all sorts of places across CIE, especially the ex-DSER section. Well into the 1960s, it was possible to see wagons still in GNR livery (especially opens) with the large "G N" on the side - though with a "CIE" stencil perhaps, and an "N" added after the wagon number. One GNR coach managed to last until 1967 still in brown livery - I've a note of which one somewhere - it was an open brake 3rd. A GNR clerestorey coach, again still in brown livery, was used on passenger services on both the West Cork system and the Loughrea branch, in both cases very briefly, around 1960. GNR locos, including a (dirty!) blue "U" class 4.4.0, were regulars on the Dun Laoghaire Pier shuttle from 1959 to about 1962. While full trains didn't run in the circumstances mentioned above, it was by no means unusual to see individual carriages and / or passenger vans operating to all sorts of weird places - carrying pigeons to be released. I kinow of one case of a UTA van of some sort ending up in Baltimore with pigeons - literally as far from home as it could be, which was presumably exactly the point of the pigeon people. By B&NCR I presume you meant BCDR? The B&NCR was the same as the NCC. The (English) Midland Rly. (NCC) took over the Belfast & Northern Counties; it then was taken over in Britain by the LMS, so the NCC became the LMS NCC instead of the MR NCC. That became part of the UTA in 1949, then NIR. The BCDR, on the other hand (Belfast & Co Down Rly) was a separate company, physically unconnected to the BNCR / NCC except through belfast dock sidings. The BNCR was north and north-west of Belfast; the BCDR south east of Belfast. So it was nothing to do with either BNCR or NCC - however, it, too, became part of the UTA in 1949, before they closed almost all of it 18 months later! Special trains into Dublin from northern places would have been GNR, and even after the UTA and CIE ate the GNR in 1958, you might say the UTA's ex-GNR stock. However; as you say, "Rule 1"!

Rightly so! Was unable to go myself unfortunately. RIP, Noel.

That’s exactly the two I was thinking about.

The all-first appears to be one of - from memory - one of two built about 1962, the last timber-framed coaches ever built in Inchicore. Regarding older wooden bodied stock, yes, all gone by 1980, as were the last Bredins. The last of the steam-era timber framed, wooden panelled stock appears to have been withdrawn in 1972-4, all of it ex-GSWR. Last Bredins about 1976 or so.

Exactly - that’s pretty normal for those times!