jhb171achill

Easy enough to pull the deflectors off it, I suppose, to make it a K2.... and stir it about in a pot of grey paint!

Pity they only did the black and green versions - a grey one would have been nice, and in a much longer-lived livery.

I must say I’m not a fan of the often VERY crude Shapeways stuff. Often looks like pebbledash, as others have pointed out, and window frames make the thing look as if the walls are as thick as a Norman castle…. Much of the detail is cruder than a three-year-old’s toy….. But; each to their own - and in many cases it’s better than nothing, plus (as others again point out) there are alternatives.

Yes, for a few years. The “tin vans” appeared in the late 50s, and would have been used everywhere, with diesel haulage as a necessity, and even on steam trains as a brake van. Bogie, six-wheel, mix of both, branchline, main line, mail trains, the lot.

So 1961-5, light green six-wheelers until 1963, but maybe an old dark green full brake. After 1963, a light green ir black’n’tan full brake but no passenger ones…. ….hope that helps!

Light green started in 1955, and while the black’n’tan appeared first in late 62, green (bogie) coaches were to be seen until as late as 1968. Since the last passenger-carrying six-wheelers were retired in 1963, none were black’n’tan. Several full vans survived though, and at least 2, maybe 3 of those ended up black’n’tan. The darker Green livery was 1945-1955, but when any livery changes, the transformation is never overnight. So just like you’ll have a decreasing handful of green coaches into the black’n’tan era, you’d have had a few darker green coaches up to maybe 1960/1.

A friend of mine on his stag do ended up in his underpants, duct-taped to a swivelling office chair on which he’d been wheeled through the lunchtime packed shopping streets of 1980s Belfast, and left - chair and all - in the former Cornmarket fountain…. Being Belfast in the 80s, there was a religious crank nearby bellowing into a microphone the usual eyewash about “Yizzer all SINNNERS and UNLESS YIZ REPENT! REPENT! REPENT!!!! yiz’ll all GO TO BURRRRRRRRRNNN in th’ETERNAL FIRES OF HELL!!!!!!” You couldn’t have made it up. Worth every penny of a shilling a box…

The sidings under the bridge, the “loco depot”, would have been empty of locos by 1963, so possible….

A friend who used to be in the policing business told me of a time he arrested someone who was absolutely off his face with drink and acting the (very aggressive) maggot in a night club, and got thrown out, whereupon he started fighting with a bouncer. Tired oul tale in that line of business, I know, but he was done for a quite serious assault. What made HIM different was that once he was en route in his blue light taxi, he projectile vomited all over the back seat and floor, and his driver...........

Indeed! Especially by Stormont...........

Ah! Just had a look. It's 1950 mine go up to, not 1960! Maybe I'm wrong in thinking 1960 in the first place, but if I'm correct, then (as far as I can see) I don't have any later than 1950. If I find out anything else I'll post here, however, the IRN and IRRS Journal would be more complete in their coverage, I would think.

A very "Great Northern" thing; with no parallel even remotely like it on any other railway - the 1940s-purpose-built turf wagon on the left.

I'll have a look!

Without looking them up, sixties I think. Mine are in the attic somewhere!

Yes, I would avoid twitter like the plague - on principle!

I've a set of most or all of them, if anyone is interested in me fishing out any article for them and posting it here....

Interesting.....painting a coach under a bridge! Only in Ireland.............! Apart from anything else, given that date, these would have been amongst the very earliest things painted in that liver which was only very new then......

No. The grey and yellow livery was gone from most of these locos by about 1965/66, though two of them seem to have retained it until about 1968. That's still two years too early for any brown wagons of any sort. However, the broken wheel appeared about eighteen months after the 121s started work, but on GREY wagons rather than brown. The broad guide is this: Up to 1963: All wagons grey, all with flying snails (by this stage, almost all stencilled on but a few older ones still painted on). 1963-1970: All wagons still grey, including earliest cement bubbles. Some still with flying snails, but increasingly with broken wheels. On "H" vans and "Palvans", the broken wheel had white letters and a tan surround, but on all other stock it was all-white. 1970-1987: Wagons painted brown, though many grey ones, including the ODD one still with a snail*, lingered on to the extent that when loose-coupled freight disappeared about 1976, a good 20% or so of the wagon fleet was still grey. But all new stuff, and everything fitted, brown after 1970. Broken wheel always white. 1987 to present: Brown, but no logo. After around 1990 the brown has got a very slightly more reddish tinge. 121 class locos: 1961-mid 60s: Grey & Yellow (not silver, as I've seen described; that's mixing it up with 1950s A, B101, C, D, E401 & G601 classes). For two locos (I think), grey and yellow was actually repainted and lasted until about 1968. 1968-1972: Black'n'tan 1972-1987: "Supertrain" orange and black 1987-end: Same, but with the "tippex" white stripes added and (first) the "set-of-points" logo, later the "three-pin-plug". (* I saw a "H" van as late as 1975 or 1976 still with a "snail" on it (grey, obviously)....) I'd love to have seen one of these things in late 1950s green, or even Belmond dark blue; but that's just the deluded ramblings of an oul wan!

Sure about that? The so-called “works” was nothing but a siding under a bridge. The old carriage shed was virtually derelict (what was left of it) before the line closed - and the Black and Tan livery didn’t exist when it closed. If such a repaint did happen, it’s going to be on a derelict siding under a bridge in a freight yard after it’s main line has closed. Possible, but why not do it in Glanmire, where there were better facilities?

It was an unusual one on two other counts as well. First, it was on two levels. Secondly, it was not purpose-built as a works for a railway company; it was a former industrial premises (originally) of non-railway background! Yes, an ideal layout potential.

Indeed. Even worse in the days of the 4 and 6 wheeled tin vans - whether in silver, green or black'n'tan livery they always seemed to be FILTHY whereas passenger-carryong stock was kept remarkably clean.

I must say I like the SF BR genny in RPSI maroon.........

Tin vans have a much greater and wider field of application than many realise. As well as being tagged onto ALL diesel hauled passenger trains in the 1960s, they also were to be seen (when new (and silver)) on the back of steam trains, both branch and main line. They made occasional appearances in goods trains carrying parcels and newspapers, especially on the Dublin - Dundalk - Portadown - Belfast goods. Until 1965 they were to be seen unhooked at Portadown awaiting hitching to either the Derry (Foyle Road) goods, or stuck on the back of an AEC set heading that way. On CIE main lines, they were often seen on the back of AEC sets too, carrying parcels. As well as THAT, mail trains could often have up to half a dozen of them, right from the late 50s through to the mid 1970s. I saw a photo (might be one of Barry C's unpublished ones) of a Cork down mail some time early 70s, with the first four vehicles being tin vans, then a TPO and some other stuff, and another couple of tin vans at the end. Note: if buying Silverfox ones, tell him to put a silver roof on it - he makes them BLACK, which is wrong for the silver livery - but correct for all other stock - which he puts light grey roofs on! We BADLY need an IRM range of these things....

I have to say that in terms of pre-1960 models, if the posts here are any indication, or the number of enquiries I get from modellers a third my age in some cases about what ran with what back then, the interest levels and knowledge base in the “grey’n’green” era seems to be rising over the past few years - small though it is in the grand scheme of railway modelling. The recent efforts of Messrs. IRM, Provincial, JM & OO will no doubt have helped immensely. One doesn’t have to remember this era personally. It is an era which is by far my personal biggest interest, and that of many younger than me, but my very earliest railway memories are from about 1961.

Airfixfan may well comment on this too - but given the location of Donegal Railway Heritage Centre, and the cross-border residencies of several of the volunteers involved, it would be perfectly feasible for them to arrange for it to be posted either in Donegal (Irish / EU postage) or in the north (Brexitsterling postage).