jhb171achill

Nineteen RTR steam engines, twenty new diesels and 58 new carriages due this afternoon............... I'm off to put my house on the market!

The fictitious Castletown West and Dugort Harbour line lost its passenger services in 1975 along with Loughrea. From then until closure a few years later it was goods only. In the last few years, re-engined A and C class locomotives were often seen there, though Cravens coaches were rare, as they were almost without exception used on main lines. However our intrepid photographer caught A23R with a Craven on the branch service one day in summer 1975. Here it arrives, and the loco A23R is shown backing onto its train again before departure.

Firstly, the grey. The 121 class arrived stiull in the green era, when almost everything was the later lighter gree, but with some newer stock still very dirty silver, and other very old stock (pretty much confined to a few 6-wheelers) still in the older dark green. The 121s, of course, were never green - they were delivered in grey and yellow, a completely unique example on the railway (later repainted black'n'tan). First repaints of 121s into BnT were not all that long after they were new, but there were quite a few in grey and yellow around 1965. As far as I am aware, the last in greay and yellow was about 1967 or so. By 1968/9 they were definitely all BnT, but since Cravens were introduced first in 1963, a grey one could have hauled Cravens for a short time. A 121 on a branch would have been a rarity, but they certainly were seen on the North Wexford line in its last full year (when they were new). It is perfectly plausibe, though, for a 121 to appear on a branch (one did once in the final days of the Ballaghaderreen branch, albeit on an enthusiast special) in 1962. In such a scenario, since diesels weren't allocated to particular lines like in steam days, it wouldn't be that single one which would stay there until 1965, but various members of the class. In 1962 all were grey; in 1963, 4 & 5, some were, with others in the new BnT livery. So between '62 & '65 it's perfectly realistic. Rolling stock then was a mix, with some stock still in green, a very small number in dirty silver, and even smaller number of ex-GNR coaches still in either their brown or their navy & cream; but most, and increasingly most, in BnT. All wagons, without any exception, were all grey. Of nthese, most still had the old flying snail, but increasingly the new roundel logo was appearing on them. Chassis of wagons were also the same all over grey. Southern Railway green is not the same as either CIE shade, nor the UTA.

I contacted Rails about my missing stuff. Email: no answer. Phone call: we’ll look into this and get back to you (about 10 days ago). Loud silence so far. Yes, I guess they’re overwhelmed, but I will hold me powder for the time being. But I DID order one of everything, and I will expect to get that.

At school I had a teacher for who the word “tremendous” was inevitably “tremen-Jus”! Plus, the endlessly irritating “irregardless” instead of “regardless”, and something “comprising of” whatever it is, instead of “comprising”!

If they were to try to develop any of it as track for trains to run on, to give short journeys to people, the existing track would not be in any way satisfactory. The type of track the C & L have would be what would be required, proper ballasted bed and all. Not sure if anyone is proposing this anyway, but if they were the existing track would have to lifted in its entirety and binned to start with.

Unfortunately, it was exactly the same fifty and sixty years ago. I watched a crowd of village idiots smashing windows in a derelict house nearby. Go back earlier, and it wasn’t quite so bad, and there was zero graffiti either.

Raymurph The BnT 6w brake will be authentic with the following vehicles: in green OR original-version BnT, Bredins, all types of laminates, Park Royals; even the odd ex-GNR K15 still in GNR livery - brown or blue and cream. Or, original BnT version only, Cravens. Locos - A, C, B101 classes in silver, green, black or black'n'tan. B121s in grey or bralck'n'tan. B141s, and at a stretch B181s in BnT. Anything in Supertrain livery or the later IE / IR liveries would not be authentic. Any fitted wagons on the back of a train would only be grey, as the brown wagon livery wasn't introduced until 1970 by which time the last of these vans had been withdrawn. In operational terms, with vacuum braked / fitted rolling stock, it didn't matter where the brake vehicle was situated, but in the case of loose-coupled stock it had to be at the end. So, if your layout has a goods train coming in (pre-1970, loose-coupled grey 4 wheled wagons), you have to shunt the van to the end before departing again. With your passenger set, it does not need to be shunted. If you're operating a mixed train, like Loughrea, Kenmare, Ballinrobe and Foynes had in their final days, the fitted stock, namely the coach / coaches will be behind the locomotive, thus ensuring continuity of vac brake, with loose coupled wagons and a guard's van behid that. Hope that helps!

Correct. Six wheeled coaching stock by 1963 were confined to spare stock in Cork, and one or two branch lines. The very last of the passenger-carrying ones were withdrawn in March 1963 from traffic. While the black'n'tan livery had just been introduced months earlier, only a handful of newer stock, like Park Royals and laminates, were in BnT. Not one single six wheeld passenger vehicle was ever thus painted, which is why only the full van is offered in this livery. Even at that, only three six-wheeled full passenger vans that are known of, received this livery. They were numbers 69, 79 and 10xx (xx = I forget). All three were ex-GSWR. This trio and two or three others survived the extinction of all other six-wheelers in 1963, although the three others, being withdrawn by 1965, may actually no longer have been in use. So CIE knew there would never have been any point in repainting anything at all on six wheels bar the three vans, the last of which was only withdrawn in 1970. The last record I can find of any of these three being actually used is 1968, by which time they appear to have spent their time on the Galway mail trains, alongside a motley collection of tin vans, GSWR full brakes, Bredins and Laminates. All in BnT. The van on the 1964 tour was 10xx. No. 79 was scrapped about 1970. 69 is at Downpatrick being rebuilt as a brake first. When the six-wheel vans received BnT, all other six-wheelers were withdrawn, so no BnT ones ever went with any green six wheelers at all. The solitary instance, lasting only a few months, of a BnT six-wheel van working with steam, was on the Ballinrobe branch in its last months, when one of these three ran with a green BOGIE coach (a 1920s GSWR composite). If we model a Galway line mail train, it is at least hypothetically possible that between 1964 and 1968 a BnT 6W van coukld have ruin with Cravens, only in their original livery; alongside laminates, bredins and Park Royals, and even the occasional old wooden (GSWR) bogie.

The turf wagons, to be fair, were functional and hastily assembled in a time of exceptional austerity. I agree with you about the railbus; odd though it might look to some, there were a sufficient number of them in Ireland to warrant a degree of normality in Ireland. To my eyes, the only "ridiculous" looking things that ever ran on rails here were the Achill railbus and the unwieldy garden shed contraption on wheels that the Castlederg & Victoria Bridge line used as a "railcar"!

Very true; and that very fact blows right out of the water any claim the perpetrators might have as to boredom as motivation. The fact that they put diesel all over the floor of a carriage, and also tried to break into the building, I’d exceptionally worrying too. Again, my thoughts as to suitable punishment are far too extreme to put into print.

My grandson has the kitchen floor covered with that stuff on an almost daily basis!

That’s exactly what happens in the north too. ”Poor fella came from a broken home” ”He didn’t realise that bricks break glass” ”He’s studying hard at college” Verdict: Guilty! Fined €10, if he has it; if not, sure lookit, never worry….

I’ll refrain from commenting, as I’d be banned from the internet if I was to suggest what I would like to see happening to the perpetrators. Suffice to say, it would make exceptionally bloodthirsty reading. They’ve apprehended one, aged 16. Let us hope they don’t just give him a slap on the wrist due to his youth. Great sympathies to the DCDR folks in facing yet ANOTHER disaster.

They were separate and could thus be articulated... I had one of those kits for years (never got around to making it up, though, and I sold it a long time ago).

I’ve an idea for a bus shelter. It can hold 4-5 bikes, and I can organise the whole thing delivered, no questions asked, for a specially discounted price for IRM readers. Tarmac included, thanks to an irresistible cash offer from my colleague in Co Limerick. I can do this for you good folks (but keep it quiet; not the general public), for let’s say €650k. Cash preferable. My colleagues, Ahern Drumcondra Agencies can supply cash envelopes (brown only) for €50 each. 3D printed using best materials available. PM me with orders, and I can do this in Z, N or 00 gauge. EM, 0, 1 or G gauge €12.40 extra. 3.5 inch gauge €16 extra.

Can’t see the same EU money tree growing these days, especially with Ireland’s currently good financial position…

We seem to have a “quorum”; I will contact Allen and report back here when I get an answer.

Ah sure them yokes from Dunleer and Laytown tore ‘em all down.

In all reality, that’s a nonsensical idea via the M1……. I very much hope to be proved utterly wrong on this, but the more I see of this “review”, the more rooted I believe it is in Cloud Cuckoo Land - or most of it.

As long as the ends aren’t curved in, like British MR or many GWR types. While this was common in Britain, only the WLWR had that feature here, and they only had about half a dozen bogie coaches which in other terms were unlike these. So, for Irish layouts, flat ends.

True, and the elliptical-roofed ones are vaguely DSER like. The clerestorey ones are as close as makes no odds to GSWR designs. The panelling on the LNWR ones is inappropriate to anything Irish bar the DNGR. None of the Hattons ones or these, unfortunately, are remotely like the BCDR or GNR, but the ncccis well enough catered for by repaints of quite a number of standard British LMS (not so much MR) designs.

Bredins, Laminates or Park Royals You’re still being asked for £29 per coach? They’re asking £34 on my invoice!

VERY much a retrograde step - downright ridiculous, as are the lack of glider* and bus connections in the city. Very bad planning indeed. Have they learned nothing since 1976? (* “Glider” = wannabe luas)

Methinks they speak tag-along…..!