jhb171achill

Certainly looks like it! You’d be aware the palvans were a lot higher….

I ate it all for him.

I think that’s a 1930s GSR van….

This is a truly outstanding layout! More please!

A lot - if not most - of the “soft-tops” were the older, lower-sided, round-roofed body types as shown in the models above. A handful made it to the late 50s.

Yes, there’s an hourly bts service. If you fly to Dublin, Tailté Tours will be operating a day trip from Dublin.

I'd stick with Cultra and Whitehead - Grand Central has all the atmosphere of a Soviet-era cigarette and steel manufacturing factory, and as much charm as a wet February Tuesday morning in Carrickfergus............!

It's true - this is one of many large gaps in Irish railway literature! Other than what's been mentioned I'm aware of nothing significant.

I had several locos finished in CIE grey which I wanted to have realistically weathered to look like they did at the tail end of steam. The results were very realistic - I’ll try to find pics. Dempsey of this parish did some of them; but unfortunately I can’t recall who did the others!

Light engines and other comings and goings today….

1946, and a maintenance train is stabled at Dugort Harbour.

Except he’s a great deal more dangerous and irresponsible than Miranda!

We could move it to Europe or the USA, to any town where factory workers will work for €5000 a year. Trump and his ilk prattle on about how China has “stolen” their industry, when the reality is that (a) big business in the USA and elsewhere have proactively outsourced their industry to lower-wage countries and (b) as a result, American and first-world customers have voted with their wallets. Dump China, and be prepared to pay multiples of the price for all consumer goods, as proper western wages have to be paid to the workers. We can’t have it both ways…..

I think that in terms of return on investment - if we view that in traditioanl purely fiscal terms - not one red cent spent on any railway in Ireland ever will produce a "return", as such, so that one's long gone. However, the way to look at it is the social and practical benefit it brings, rather than return on investment. There is absolutely no doubt that if the money could be found, the existence of a much higher speed service would be an absolutely immense benefit. Four-tracking Drogheda to Dublin, a la Cork line, would in theory be the best answer, but Connolly congestion would become impossible. Plus, there isn't the room to four-track that line without (in some places) removing housing in a city with an existing chronic housing shortage. Add to that the difficulties associated with, perhaps, an entire closure of the northern suburban service for many many months, perhaps several years. Yes, hypothetically possible, but given the above, it just ain't gonna happen. The ONLY way is underground. Keep the darts where they are and send the Enterprise, and outer-suburban semi-fasts, UNDER the ground.They built the Port Tunnel WITHIN the allotted tomescale, and as far as I know within budget (Children's Hospital take note). If they had the underground serving the airport and Swords areas too, four-track THAT, and have a new and badly needed commuter route, with the Enterprise scooting through on central tracks. It really is that simple. If Vienna, a city of similar size to Dublin, can do all this - which it can and does - then so can we.

I'd be inclined to agree re accident repair. As you say, and as can be seen in zillions of photos, none of them had these waistline beadings when new.

Not remotely a stupid question - a very valid one. Everything was grey until 1970, and after that the brown livery appeared. However, flat wagons of this type were on their way out by then, so not all that many got the brown livery - a good lot of them, possibly an actual majority, saw out their days in grey. So a 1970-1977 layout can legitimately have both grey and brown.

Yes. I think these were for North Wall traffic. I think I’ve some info at home - will delve later. Not identical, but very similar. As Mol shows in pics quite a few detail differences. Apart from the panelling, see the footboards.

Yes, all grey pre-1970; brown the last few years, but even when the very last loose-coupled goods ran in the late 1970s, possibly 10-15% of the wagons were still grey. The standard CIE guards’ vans were either 20T or 30T.

Excellent list. Pity there’s nothing Midland on it, though!

A “might-have-been” factory beside the railway….. think Courtaulds (Carrickfergus), Allmans Distillery (Bandon) and of course CSET at several locations. For a built-up area, we had Shell at Alexandra Road, Dublin, with their diminutive Planet loco. In my teens I had considered a shunting layout based on Westport Quay as if it had been a private railway, to make use of an old Hornby shunter of some sort that I had. (Like many a grand scheme, it never saw the light of day!)

Indeed. I got a "Q" Kits "C" class. It was warped when I got it, and it warped more before I got it properly made up. The only advice I was given was "put it in warm water and straighten it"! No more Q Kits for me!

In 1900 you’d have got FB just about everywhere…. especially in sidings / yards. If the sidings were old, sleepers would be half-round. But whether they were, or rectangular, rails would must likely be spiked directly to them, without soleplates even.

Mr. Grandson is three, and since he was not far beyond two, knows the difference between a dart, an ICR and a 29. Being of this family, his indoctrination must naturally proceed with diligence…….! I am unsure if Tony Hunter, trading as the “Weee Duck” (yes, three “eee”s), is on IRM, but a shout-out to his superb efforts here. “The Weee Duck” is Tony’s own business which makes Lego kits of all sorts of Northern Ireland specific vehicles - plus these shown. I believe he’s working on an NIR CAF. He does northern fire and ambulance vehicles, and armoured RUC vehicles. Great fun overall; check out weeeduck.co.uk for more. Making up an ICR and a Dart took me most of this evening; I’ll be pleased to see what a (hopefully) fledgling three-year-old railway enthusiast will make of it. It'll distract him, possibly, from wanting to fiddle with delicate stuff at Dugort Harbour, up in the attic!

You'd think we could grow our own wood chip!!

So, bottom line, still nothing concrete!