jhb171achill

THAT’s not a measuring tape!! It’s a YELLA LINE!!

On the ninth day the Lord created a layout. And lo, it was equipped with DCC, scenery and a herd of shepherds who bore the correct livery. But Satan did smite it with a stable in the gauge of N.................... (Ist Gricers, 3.5)

Right. I'm reading between the lines. They are producing a limited edition of 8112 of some blue Ulster Translink Authority diesel, or two men in orange thingies. Am I getting close?

Saw that the other day - pity there are no trains upstairs!

I need a 45' one for my layout. Could any of our 3D print wizards do an Irish standard 45ft one? These massive 70ft things they have in GB, with little cabs on them and so forth, or ground level ones - for an Irish layout look as utterly ridiculous as a TGV in Amtrak livery, hauled by "Dick", on a model of the Sligo Leitrim in 1898. The "bought" turntables are both too big and too expensive.

Wow! A rolling stock enthusiast's dream. That's a heavy enough load to start with, but look at the van behind the locomotive - almost certainly DSER. Perhaps KMCE might know more? At least fourteen vehicles, which appear to be, and in this order: 1. DSER vent van 2. Rebuilt MGWR 6W passenger van 3. Convertible van - probably MGWR 4. GSWR 6W passenger brake 5. & 6. Two carriages - I think one is a Bredin, but both either that or 1951-3 series CIE 7. & 8. Looks like two wagons 9. & 10. Two carriages - one, at least, looks GSWR in outline. The rest is too blurry, or maybe my glasses are.

Attymon was a good example of that. Yes, it's a Belfast train. The local wouldn't have that many carriages either.

Locomotives of the GSR (McMahon / Clements) This publication is not known as "The Bible" for nothing. The amount of research that I know went into it is quite staggering and it is an absolute must - no matter what the cost - for any student of locomotives in Ireland.

Pre-preservation Festiniog. This may have been taken by my grandfather in the 1920s, though the severing of the bottom of the locomotive's wheels tends to point towards a teenage Senior as the culprit, a decade later! Still, highly interesting image, without a camera-totin' gricer in sight. Finally for the moment (from Senior's Brexitstan material), the Vale of Heavy Rain in about 1956.

Out of curiosity, re. that last book you have advertised, "The Railways of West Cork - Reflections and Remiscences". I had a copy of that, but the binding is bad and all the pages fell out - it's a bit of a mess now, a pile of papers in a polypocket. But I looked at it to try to find who write it and who published it. Not a syllable. Privately produced, persumably, perhaps for some event? Does anyone know? No author, no publisher, no printer..........

Dave I echo what others have said. Between Leslie McAllister's Provincial Wagons, John Mayne's JM Design wagons, and Des Sullivan's Studio Scale Models, I thoroughly recommend all three, plus a few others I may have forgotten. These are easy to make, especially the Provincial ones. Between the three, I've dozens and dozens of 'em; many still awaiting making up. For carriages, you've Studio Scale Model's kits of a number of prototypes but they are not for the beginner, I'd say. However, in ready to run state, you've the forthcoming Hattons series of 6-wheelers of broadly GSWR design to look forward to; they were announced only a week or two ago. Order soon, as the run will be limited - they are VERY reasonable. Locomotives - you can get Silverfox A, B101 and C classes in made-up or kit form - but for the real high-quality stuff, look at the output of Irish Railway Models for inspiration, and those of Murphy Models. While the former are sold out, WRENNEIRE of this parish may be able to assist you in sourcing some. In the case of the Murphy stuff, they have announced a further run of their beautiful and highly-engineered 141 and 181 classes. All in all, never a better time to be a modeller of Irish stuff, and i9t is very encouraging to see another modeller interested in the "grey'n'green" era, prior to the "back'n'tan" era!

Is there one with black'n'tan or green with flyin' snail?

Steam to seventies means, quite simply, the standard CIE vans!

Not "Great Way Round"? .....

"Full service"? Two trains, six days a week? Havin' a laugh, as always with this route for the last forty years. maybe they'll lift the line speed limit from 21mph to 36mph, though?

The bit on the left is in keeping, if it had a stone finish. The Dermot Bannon thing in the foreground is light years beyond hideous.

Ah - Tom, Dick and Harry have just told me they each have picked up seventeen rakes each on fleabay. Ye missed that one, didn't ye. Tenner a pack, with a free "A" class thrown in.

But they’ll be happy when they see new IRM stuff on your layout!

We certainly appear to have hydrogen-powered politicians making these announcements! (or is it methane, or flatulence?)

Wow!! Never knew they had a depot there, OldBlarney! Most interesting, thanks for posting that. Airfixfan - do you know of this?

On the all-first, you'll notice a rudimentary repair that Cyril Fry had done to the left-hand pair of wheels!

Superb stuff, Ken - I was unaware of those. A rarity. Found a pic in an old IRRS journal of a Macroom six-wheeled coach of later design. Also, below, the three Fry models of typical 1880s six-wheelers of GSWR design; thus, the Hattons coaches. One is in the short-lived late 1920s GSR chocolate & cream, which it is unlikely to have carried, and the others are in standard GSWR dark lake livery.

While the LLSR was more a case of long lines with long trains, who's to say it might not have had a shorter line? Derry out to Moville (though this could have had busy passenger traffic) or somewhere further north. Bearing in mind that lines like the Carn and Burtonport extensions were built with government grants, and in a million places throughout the west funds were often sought for some very short lines (or long sidings) such as, for example, Gubbardletter or Inishlyre off the Achill branch, a loud and persistent local community with an idea how their village coulde become a major port - however utterly deluded and unrealistic their notions might be - could well have attracted such support. Add two six-wheelers or a scruffy bogie brake 3rd, one of those beautiful Lough Swilly 4.6.0Ts and a few wagons, and there ye go!

Interesting!

Those things had completely different body details and (especially) window spacing and shapes. It’s definitely been built as a carriage rather than even a comprehensive conversion of a railmotor.