jhb171achill

SO much to look at in that! Absolutely superb!

Not my thing as being on the wrong island, but those look absolutely amazing! For our younger readers, it's vital to be aware of this; since the 1970s goods trains tend to be trains of a whole rake of a single type of wagon, with nothing on the end but a lamp. But throughout the entire life of all railways, worldwide, since they were invented and until the advent of continuous brakes (air OR vac), a guard's brake van was as necessary at the end of a train as a locomotive at the front. It's as bad as this; imagine someone putting a motor in a cattle truck, and having it haul a mixed goods train going round the layout with only wagons (and a brake van!) but NO LOCOMOTIVE! Yes, I hear ya, Rule 1, you can run what you like - and of course that's true. But to even the strongest adherent of that rule it would look....odd. Very odd. On ANY layout, a string of loose-coupled goods wagons without a brake van at the end looks just as ridiculous; it would be unworkable in real life. Indeed, both on our Rainy Isle of Todd and our neighbouring Brexit Isle, you could occasionally see a more than one van. I saw one train somewhere on the Cork line years ago - might have been Thurles - and I was told that the second van at the end was simply being taken for repair. And, in situations where it might aid a rapid turnaround at a terminus, I have seen a brake van at both ends - I saw that on a Dundalk-Belfast goods once. So, at least one of these yokes is mandatory, but don't be afraid to put two on a train for the craic. On Dugort Harbour I currently have about six brake vans from JM Design, Provincial Leslie and CK Prints Enda. All are superb. Leslie's old GSWR type is perfect for remote rural locations up to about 1961, while JM & CK serve later periods. For British Rail, the above beauty is a must! I note, over the years, seeing the monthly "comics", as my learned friend call them, when new they were all much the same livery, but especially since privatisation it seems no two have the same livery! So - choices, choices.... This, for British modellers, is a MOST welcome design. For Accurascale I hope these things sell like hot cakes. Well done, folks. Next: an RTR AEC railcar, RTR MGWR six-wheelers, RTR UTA "Jeep", RTR GNR 4.4.0, and a MGWR "A" class 4.4.0.....

And Northport Quay is a masterpiece, packing more interest in than many a layout ten times its size. I have a small leftover baseboard, probably about four feet long, five at most, and wide enough for a platform and three tracks side by side, or a platform, two tracks spaced out a bit more to give an illusion of space. It could be operated lioke Fintona - the railbus going back and forth, and a steam loco BACKING two or three goods vans in or out. Just about anough room to shunt. Alternatively, something like the photos shown recently here of Ardnacrusha (but without a model power station the size of the No. 42 bus), the railbus bringing workers in and out each day; or Kilmokea in South Wexford and a makeshift platform for the same use, the excuse for goods being a beet siding. But I'd need an 0 gauge J15 or 141 for that! Fintona-type thing like this; Meant to add - the yellow siding shown is what COULD fit on the small baseboard I have if I didn't have the loading bank, but I think it would make the whole thing far too cluttered looking.

Interesting...... You've got me thinking....

With "0" gauge taking up more space than 00, something like this also often struck me as an ideal "entry-level" yoke for this scale. I don't suppose anyone makes "0" scale kits of it? Or for a scratchbuild, what chassis / motor would you recommend?

Aaaarrrrrgggghhhhh!!! Where's me smelling salts!! Yes- - it became CIE green about 1958 - CIE never ran it in SLNCR livery, I believe. So green from then until maybe 1963-ish. Five years or so, maybe six?

If it was before 1963 it would have been the 1955-style lighter green with black roof. If after ‘63, Black and Tan. I had toyed with the idea of buying a kit, long before this German man advertised this on eBay. Couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it! Had I bought a kit and done it myself I’d have painted it green for the simple reason it would have been easier…. I like it in BnT though. I still harbour notions about a UTA one with “wasp stripes” on a mini-shunting-terminus based on Fintona surviving into the 1960s….. I’ve a spare baseboard the right size….

I'll ask Barry Carse....

As we know, a bit like CIE building 34 "C" class and then closing most of the rural routes they were intended for, in the same way BR got a number of railbuses from different manufacturers for lightly used branch lines during a few years either side of 1960. In reality they didn't last long as these branches were sliced by Beeching's "axe". My "back story" here is that CIE got hold of one of these things from BR as an experiment and re-gauged it. They tried it in Loughrea and Ballina, where it was deemed unsuitable, so they sent it to west Kerry, to do the shuttle connection btween "town" (Castletown West) and "the harbour". It acquitted itself adequately on this duty between spring 1962 and mid-1966, when an unfortunate incident in Castletown loco shed saw it being walloped against a buffer stop by an "A" with misbehaving brakes and a trainee driver.... At present it's "display only" as it hasn't been trained to deal with DCC, but that will follow. I saw it on fleabay and bought it from a German gentleman, of all people! He had expertly painted it. A unique little thing - I did, actuallly, have plans myself going way back to get one and paint it thus, so great minds must think alike. As you say, a credible "might-have-been"!

It's one of Cyril Fry's (and his model of a Park Royal is silver); courtesy of the collection of his photos held by his daughter, Patricia Dillon, who I know. She said I could post all those images above. I hope to go to visit her again quite soon.

“That thing’ll be useless on fair day!” ”Yeah, but it’s OK normally. It only uses a few shillings of diesel a day, an’ it’s only on trial anyway. Pat says they’ll have an engine and coaches on Thursdays and fair days….” "Well, these crates won't fit in it. You could always get 'em in a van, but this thing can't even tow a van... They'll have to go up on the 4.30...."

I like that with the simplified CIE-era panelling!

“No, you have to get the bus now. There’s no train to Bandon for over two years now. So, once you get to Cork, go over to the bus station”…..

I'm wondering if the two coaches which are a darkler-looking green are indeed as such, or whether they are very dirty light green. My reason is the lining style is more akin to the lighter. On the other hand, railcars were initially the dark green, but with the single thin waistline as used later on the light green livery. I'd be 50/50 on the middle one, anyway.

There is a Bredin full brake available as a Studio Scale Models brass kit. As a complete novice raw beginner in brass modelling, i'm tackling one right now and it's going OK so far - and I think I've done the most awkward bits. So there's that. Re the IFM one, the P&T markings are in red on a whitish-looking backgrouind. This is wrong. It should be a gold colour on a pale green background. Otherwise it's a very nice coach indeed/

Unfortunately not! Silver livery for anything was so very obviously catastrophically impractical, as steam locos were still bumbling about among them, and Crossley A & C classes spewing burnt oil into the atmosphere. As a reasult, it was given up very quickly indeed and replaced with lighter green. However, this was happening as the PRs were entering traffic, so I would have thought it certainly possible that a PR would have started off unpainted. The idea of them taking a conscious decision to paint a (presumably previously-green) one in silver, as if it were a livery, does not seem likely.

…..to be fair, that’s a low bar; the vast majority of them have as much understanding or knowledge of a railway as a dung beetle might!

Recent comments on this forum re the smaller dimensions of 1880s / 90s six-wheelers are worth bearing in mind here…. It was real; see Fry photo of one in use. I have no info on how many were either like this OR dark green; almost certainly very few indeed in both cases. The new lighter green livery had just come into being literally as they were entering traffic, so the vast majority of them entered traffic like that.

Niles at DCDR will be interested in this!

From Patricia Dillon’s collection with permission; IRM (for Park Royals) and Mol-PB will be particularly interested!

I saw them on ballast trains in the 1971-4 period several times, and once in an excursion with nine coaches, a mixture of old steam-era wooden-bodied stock of ex-GNR and ex-NCC origin, and old GNR railcars with engines removed.

You're right!

The "snail" and numeral and lining on the loco, and the lettering on the tin van, are 100% perfect!

When I inserted the existing ones, you wouldn't believe the hassle I got from the animal rights people. So I'll leave them as they are; all but one will make sheep noises, but the one on the right barks and meows, as I couldn't find my glasses when I was fixing it up.... The REAL problem is, my A42 moos.....