jhb171achill

You've the patience of a saint! But the results are always worth it................

Given the chassis, might some sort of 0.6.0 tender engine be a bit longer?

Notwithstanding all that, since this is an "Enterprise" thread, here are some Enterprises, between 1962 and the early 1990s. One picture is not an Enterprise. Can anyone guess which?

(Pics 2, 3 & 5; jhbSenior)

3 hours ago, Galteemore said:

 Very gracious of you to reflect on it in that way all these years later JB . How did you make it home in the end?

I told the lizard in the pizza shop all about it. I think he caused some consequences.

3 hours ago, Galteemore said:

 Very gracious of you to reflect on it in that way all these years later JB . How did you make it home in the end?

I walked into that one, didn't I...............

26 minutes ago, IrishTrainScenes said:

Delays recently

Yesterday (21 Feb 2024)

0735 ex Dublin was 67 minutes late due to a signalling issue, overall 72 min delay on arr in Belfast (arr 1057) departing 36 mins late (1111). 1320 ex Dublin was about 10 mins delayed.

Today (22 Feb 2024)

The 1405 from Belfast to Dublin was 10 minutes delayed today due to disruptive passengers.

In the 1990s, I was on a local NIR train, when a walking tracksuit type started smoking. Two passengers reported him. The conductor appeared. This was the LAST train out of Belfast for Portadown.

The train happened to be slowing for Finaghy stop. Smoker wouldn't stop and was giving conductor a mouthful of abuse. Conductor opens the door for people getting out, grabs yer man and tried to push him out onto the platform. Smoker attempts to resist, whereupon conductor physically KICKS him out onto the platform, slams the door, and gives the driver the green.

Being the last service, about 23:30, there were none following, and it may have been too late for a following bus.

In all reality, one can invoke human rights, and respect-for-the-person and so on, but like it or not, if railway staff and security men on board trains were able to do that now, the quality of life for the many who increasingly feel unsafe on public transport would be much better; also, the junkies and pond life who causes scenes like this would learn fast. Personally, I would have no problem with it.

21 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

Which 2 liveries are exclusive to one locomotive? 

Black with a yellow end was on quite a few (though not all) but one of them for a short time carried (as an experiment) a yellow buffer beam too. Also - I think there was just this one example - C231 received the dark green with a line round it, just as one "A" (or maybe two) did. All the others were the standard lighter green used after 1955 on rail vehicles. It seems, also, as an aside, that while the earlier "C"s were delivered in silver, the last few were green from the outset.

Perfect locos for a wide range of prototypical uses.

For late 1950s, they were to be found on branch lines and all over the Wisht Caark system. They made it to places like Cavan on goods via the MGWR route, Ballina branch train, Loughrea after 1964-ish.

All through the 1960s, they had been displaced from branches (bar Loughrea and Ballina) by closures, and displaced from passenger services by unreliability and 121s / 141s, but were to be found snuffling round goods yards, shunting, and keeping in their practice on passengers at Loughrea when the G's were out of action, or requisitioned in the autumn to shunt Tuam beet factory sidings. I remember them on ballast trains too - I got a cab run in a ballast from Clonsilla to the North Wall in one in the mid-70s.

Then in the 1970s and 80s, until withdrawal, as we know, they graduated to Dublin to be used on push-pulls. Add to that the several that went to NIR in the 1980s, and worked into the 1990s on ballasts on that network.

So they were very versatile and to be seen in a wide variety of locations and uses, over almost four decades. Thus, WELL worth a model.

Eleven potential livery variations, too, although two of these only applied to one locomotive that I'm aware of. Good for collectors as well as operating layouts.

Some workings at Malahide this week….

1.  Light engine comes back from Drogheda.

2 & 3. Drogheda - Connolly locals formed of 29s.

4. An overscale thing, operated by DCCCC.

24 minutes ago, Noel said:

That’s a B-and-a-half class….

On 16/2/2024 at 2:11 PM, Bóithre Iarainn said:

Does anyone know anything concrete about the regular services on this line after 1973? I understand there were mail trains and Asahi liners until c.1987 but I can't find much detailed information or dates. How frequently did were these trains and was this all that ran? I also know there were some PWD trains into the 2000s, would anyone have any details about these movements?

Tell me what year you want. I have most WTTs for that period.

Anyone got an oul bogie chassis with whels suitable for the above, for a rough freelance thing? Needs to be 171mm long or cabable of being altered to that length. Nothing fancy. Carriage rather than wagon bogies.

Enniskillen, circa 1952, c/o Senior.

2 hours ago, Mike 84C said:

Why not just buy a Silver fox "C" instead?  saves all that sawing and mess on the workbench.

I've two of those and they look OK. An IRM one, or equivalent, would be on a different plane altogether, if we dare hope!

1 hour ago, Horsetan said:

My cousin's mental alarm bells went off when he found out I was walking from the flat in Bow Bridge Place, through St. James and into the city centre. I only did that because it was more reliable than waiting for a bus. I could have walked out via Heuston and along the quays as an alternative.

The other thing my cousin told me was never to park my Fiat Punto in Ballyfermot as it was unlikely I'd see it again if I did. 

You'd see it in the papers next day, on a scorched football pitch in some sink estate with a crowd of blue-bag-sniffers round it..... and it would be alight.............

1 hour ago, Galteemore said:

 The bay was laid with FB rail up until about 56/57 when it was relaid with bullhead and reasonably ballasted.

Probably Senior's last PW job IN the station; maybe he got tired of looking at the shabby old stuff right outside his office window.......!

18 minutes ago, Brack said:

I recall the gardai telling us to go a different way back to the flat than through fatima mansions one night... I think they were watching/staking out something. Likewise Dolphins barn could be hairy, and out inchicore way...

Those dolphins can be very dangerous all right...........

11 hours ago, minister_for_hardship said:

Re transport museums in general, even being located in a major league tourist town is no guarantee of survival. Blarney once had a veteran car museum back in the 70s and more recently Killarney up to the early 00s. In the case of Killarney it was family owned and it was decided to auction off the exhibits, a hotel stands on the site now. Not a peep out of anyone in the town wanting to retain it there.

Official Ireland and Bórd Failte or whatever they're called now have a set idea what interests tourists (The Craic (TM), ancestry hunting, Book Of Kells, surfing in freezing water) A transport or any sort of technical museum isn't in there. 

Yes - get 'em in, send them to Blarney, Ring of Kerry and the Giant's Causeway, charge 'em plenty in Dromoland Castle, and away ye go. Next please! There's more to Ireland then little green leprechauns, Temple Bar and "Pattys Day".......

10 hours ago, minister_for_hardship said:

To add to that, I firmly believe there is an anti heritage mindset in the general population. Old things and old buildings are not looked fondly upon, just reminders of bad old days and poverty, a general unwillingness to reuse and repurpose old structures as it's thought to be too expensive.

It's seen as old, irrelevant, stuff for nerds - by a lot of people. Education needed!

10 hours ago, hurricanemk1c said:

We have industrial heritage, and plenty of it. It's just culturally determined as "British" and therefore doesn't fit into the post independence "everything British was bad" mindset of a lot of museums around the country. That affects not just railways but any industry of note that has been here

100% correct on all counts. Look even at a recent thread on this IRM board where the all-too-common myth that the British built all our railways - usually mentioned in a dismissive way - was referred to.

5 hours ago, Galteemore said:

it had occurred to me that Manorhamilton would probably have hoovered up RB3 from BREL had the SLNC  lasted until the 1980s so you’re not a million miles off….would have suited that Belcoo scheme nicely…,

Often wondered about that. I'd say that the company would have become part of CIE in the split of 1958, but if it hadn't, and remained today, I suspect it most likely (on financial grounds) it would simply have increasingly leased CIE stuff - which would have meants a diet of 141s from the late 1960s to early 2000s - and perhaps bought a pair of new 2-car 2600s when IE were getting theirs - as EU and Peace Money grants were all over the place then. A "G" might lurk to this day at the back of a shed in Manorhamilton, still in faded CIE livery, used for shoving things about when necessary. Goods would have vanished about 1975/6.

33 minutes ago, seagoebox said:

What on earth is "Ulster broth"? Something that foams from the mouth of Paisleyite preachers on the Sobboth?

5 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

An Irish locomotive leaving a meuseum going to wales….I bet you won’t see half the wibble when the reverse happened !!!

And it’ll have to be regauged to narra gauge!

Ill tell yiz a wee secret. On the basis that it has little real history here, HAD it been reliable at Downpatrick, and HAD SLNCR “B” been fully restored, I had this notion of getting both painted together to save money (the treasurer’s job…)

…….in matching SLNCR livery.

Yup, jhb171 promoting a wrong livery…..  

Answer: yes!

To include black’n’tan B209 which hauled the last train out of Loughrea….

On 11/2/2024 at 12:52 AM, WRENNEIRE said:

Another 4-4-0 this morning
Was this ever named "Louth"?
Thought I heard it somewhere

 

 

 

 

 

A thing of very great beauty!

2 hours ago, airfixfan said:

RB3 was offered recently by the UFTM and accepted by a group in England?

Really? Didn’t know that. I thought DCDR owned it now…..

I presume the wagons are stored there on a Saturday to allow a clear run for several rugby specials on the main line, seein' as it's this time of year? Onwards to Barrack St. later in the day.......

57 minutes ago, Mayner said:

As far as I know RB3 is part of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum collection on loan to Downpatrick.

Think there are also long term plans to restore SLNCR Railcar B for use at Downpatrick

There was a funding app prepared for "B" some 20 years ago, for which the cost was Stg.£160,000. The app passed its first stage, but during the convoluted correspondence the funding criteria changed, so that closer to the time it would be going anywhere, there was no longer funding. I had kept the firm to whom it was to be sent, fully up to date with developments, as I tried to sort out what instalments would need to be paid, and when.

The company was based in Shildon in England.

Those who are familiar with recent RPSI restoration projects will raise an eyebrow here.

Yup - it was the very same firm to whom No. 171 was sent some time later.

They went bust, and the RPSI (very luckily) managed to repatriate 171 before the scrapman could sieze it to pay their debts!

SLNCR "B" would very probably have ended up in the same precarious position, so it is lucky that it never went there at all.  Still, with a proven background in bus restoration, and a great familarity with Gardner engines (which "B" was going to get), I am sure a good job would have ensued. It would have been great to have it operational there now.

As for RB3, yes, indeed, it was part of the UFTM collection. Under museum rules, a museum in possession of a listed artefact can't just chuck it if they get tired of it. They must first offer it to kindred bodies, properly registered with museum status, thus pre-fulfilling all normal standards for the care of the artefact. If nobody wants it, then they can sell it to a farmer to keep chickens in. Nobody wanted RB3. While I stand to be corrected on this, I think it is now DCDR property - and THEY don't want it, as it has never proved to be reliable, and in all reality is of very little indigenous Irish railway historical interest. Maybe it'll see chickens yet.

It was in use one St Patrick's Day, as I recall, as an extra train. It did a single return trip. I was travelling as guard on it on the way back in, and the driver struggled with it to persuade it to exceed walking pace. That's the walking pace of a chicken, by the way. As far as I am aware it was never used for fare-paying passengers again., even though DCDR's experts did try to persuade it to behave. Useless oul thing.