jhb171achill

For those who knew Drew, or his reputation, the idea of his reaction to those plastic Americans would be worth ten dollars a box…….

Ah, ok, didn’t know that.

Looking this up now!

I presume that’s a wartime livery…. Its near enough the right colour for GSR / CIE, though if you wanted to go that route all you need is a number on the cabside instead of the tender, and a grey smokebox. Certainly does look “Irish-ish”….. Presumably you removed the smoke deflectors that the British versions had?

Looks a bit young for Drew in the 1970s? Could be an old photo? It does look very like him when younger, perhaps.

Great stuff, Noel, as always!

Is that a British version of a "Woolwich" I see there?

But you were right initially in that it WAS on the "County Donegal Railways" system - albeit a section owned by the NCC........

Brilliant trip and brilliant weather - was on it.

"Erin", No. 299 (later), by the look of it.

It's also riddled with vicious curves, as is the Strabane - Letterkenny line.

True. If any Shapeways stuff IS actually good quality and worth the (quite high) prices, that fact will sadly be lost amongst a litany of awful reviews of their other stuff. As a result, despite there being a number of things I'd like to get off their website, without knowing specifics about individual prints of things, unfortunately I wouldn't touch them.

That's more like it.

I've been privately shown pics of some of these prints from this manufacturer - as far as 00 scale is concerned anyway, they are VERY rough indeed. I was tempted by the computer-generated images of the MGWR stuff - I'd have bought quite a few if it was good, but it's the opposite, unfortunately.

The likelihood of any new link to Letterkenny-hey being built on either the old Lough Swilly route (via the boonies) or the CDR route (via Tripoli and Cork, as shown) is nil. Absolutely nil. The only way to do it is a new route, like suggested above via Newbuildings, new bridge across to carrigans, and via your green line. Dunno if that passes anywhere with more then seven inhabitants, but none of the others serve anywhere of much size either; thus Letterkenny itself, as a single destination, would have to be deemed to be viable in itself. I wonder if the proposers of such schemes have surveyed the number of bus passengers between the two points? That will give the best possible guess with regard to viability. As far as the Derry Road is concerned, massive disruption, diversions or both would be necessary now to get it out of Portadown, let alone through Dungannon and Omagh. Experience in other countries of reopenings after decades closed often produce results like this. Expect some new stations to be nowhere near the originals!

I agree

Good point - I had forgotten that….

Is there any benefit in using a commercial delivery service (something I’m normally dead set against) instead of the clearly confused and inconsistent An Pist / Royal Fail?

One of the better preserved stations of the Irish narrow gauge. Note the similarities with Clogher valley and Cavan & Leitrim architecture.

An excellent topic for a model! Nice original find in the field....... wonder if it's still there.

I'm not sure what went wrong with them, but my recollections of them were that at any one time you'd be lucky to see one in use! Once NIR got 111 & 112 (113 came later), and there were spare 101s (themselves not the most reliable, especially 103), the "DH" class shunters saw little use and were gradually set aside.

It's got doors?

Something else to keep goldfish in!!

Is there enough damp in it yet to keep my goldfish in?

In all reality, for a location like that, and given the numbers and nature of the public throughout this island, the only thing suitable is something very small. If steam, you're looking at borrowing the Guinness engine. Maybe Derry docks No. 1 in Cultra? And it's not even No. C202!