jhb171achill

Yes, Mountmellick.

Gerry Conmy, who put that together, would be the acknowledged expert on that unfortunately short-lived line.

Drooling duly carried out!

Yes, Mark. Companies like the Claremorris & Ballinrobe, the Loughrea & Attymon Light Railway, and quite a few others existed right up to the creation of the GSR, with the “large” company having entered into an operating agreement with them for a (usually very substantial) proportion of receipts. Liveries on stations buildings were as per the “large” company, as they used their own paint! In the case of the MGWR, stations were usually painted in a combination of bright red and either white, or possibly a very light beige or light greyish colour.

Very much a GNR thing; I'm pretty sure no other Irish railway had them.

While researching the history of the Achill, Clifden and Loughrea lines - starting over 20 years ago - I ended up reading through the entire MGWR boardroom minute books from about 1885 until it became part of the GSR. The thing that comes across VERY strongly is that the MGWR, with shareholders to please, had absolutely zero time for what Broadstone saw as small-town unprofitable schemes promoted by unrealistically over-optimistic local interests. They continually maintained an ultra-businesslike stance, refusing point-blank to even entertain local groups, promotors or committees unless they had some well-researched and well-funded proposal. In other words, idle chat and vague, bland ideas of "how great" something might be were off-limits. It was a case of "Show us the MONEY and then we MIGHT talk". This was a reasonable stance to take, as they knew perfectly well that these lines would never do anything but lose money; had there been the likelihood of a sniff of a profit they would have built the lines themselves. If someone else put up the cash, they'd start listening, but only after that became evident. As far as they were concerned, it didn't matter whether local interests, the British government, or the tooth fairy coughed up; it was no money, no deal, stop wasting our time. Frequent requests for financial assistance with quite a number of projects were turned down flat. Once funding WAS in place, and seen to be, they would agree to terms - but only if and when the entire new line was built exactly to their standards - and that included main line standard buildings. Even as Achill was opening, the MGWR were still picking holes in various issues in Mallaranny station, and had demanded major changes to that site once the extension to Achill appeared. Similarly, the Midland took issue even with level crossing gates on the Loughrea line, and the goods shed at Loughrea.... Harsh as it all sounds to a railway enthusiast, this is the way a well-run business operates; one must remember that the railways were at that stage private companies for profit, not state-owned as a social service as now.

Nope, you’re not reading too much - you’re spot on! The MGWR’s engineer of the day was heavily involved with these designs, and the MGWR dictated their broad specification to the local companies (e.g. the Ballinrobe & Claremorris company). The lines would not be accepted by the MGWR to operate until each and every detail was completed to their satisfaction.

Cue a track-suit claiming against IE for being stung!

Wow! That's amazing stuff, Dr Pan - reminds me of my teen years job on the Festiniog Railway way back in the day........... excellent realistic weathering.

Don't drink it all at once...........

Annual staff outing to Mosney?

That BCDR 4.6.4T seriously looked like a monster, but as you say, the looks weren't matched by the performance, like the quare wan you met in a nightclub at 2 am when you were 19......... Senior covered the whole BCDR at least once, and the main line and Bangor and possibly elsewhere) at least one more time. In all cases, I believe he travelled on footplates with a pass his father had signed. He used to say that the BCDR 4.6.4T ate coal at a voracious rate, though I'm not sure if he footplated it personally. He rated the BCDR 0.6.0s highly and had a sprightly run down the BCDR main line on the footplate of one with a fairly heavy load.

Regrettably, it seems he doesn’t have any current plans - but we may live in hope!

I would agree completely. I had a yarn also with Roderick and the market simply isn't there - and regrettably so - if it was, and a re-run was going to be likely, I'd be after a UG, and possibly a U also, in UTA livery.

Correct - and if they ever DID stray, it would an extremely rare “one-off”.

Until the late 1960s and the advent of fitted trains in the 70s, very few indeed and most were one-offs, or maybe 2 or 3 of a kind. The standard Irish wagons in loose coupled days were all four-wheeled - there were equally few six-wheeled. Offhand, the only examples I can think of were a small handful of specialised flat wagons. Can't think of a single example of a van on any line other than the GNR's grain vans, of which one is preserved at Whitehead.

I think it was.

Indeed. ON the Midland, as such, as far west as Newport on the Achill line.

I’ve one and am highly satisfied with it.

Yes - to be seen in many places.

Correct. That’s the drivers WiFi.

And then there were so many stations on main lines but at very small places en route. They also often had small stations. No reason why a building in such a place couldn’t be copied as a terminus building on a layout…..

Yes. Semi-circular too, on quite a few goods sheds. Several on the Clifden line too.

More so it would be variations on a standard theme. I thought of another small one of a slightly different design Maam Cross, also Ballynahinch (Co Galway).

If you wanted a small goods shed, the little red brick ones used on the MGWR at many locations would a suitable model and easy to make. They had a standard design though varying details. The ones at Attymon & Dunsandle spring to mind but there were loads more of the type. From memory they were usually about 18 feet X 12 feet or thereabouts.