jhb171achill

I've no clue as to what "discord" is; presumably a modern variant of tiktokgram, instamusk or bookface - but - THIN LIZZY! Yes.

That famous gig at Dalymount Park in 1976 (or was it 77) was probably the single best outdoor gig I've ever been to.

9 hours ago, leslie10646 said:

Time that you employed a local lad as a cleaner!

Coming on well, Jonathan.

There was a young fella in Castletown West, but he didn’t get on with Yer Man in the loco shed, and he went off to England, where he was last seen as a passed fireman on 9Fs in 1961…..

Looking at the bottom picture, Dugort is on the left. When designed, quite a few years ago now, the track was to go straight to a fiddle yard. Now, the gap in the middle is about to be bridged, and trains will continue to the right, and along the bogland section, still to have scenery added. 

The middle picture shows (where my hand is) the place where the connection will be made.

Up to now, for a number of reasons, Dugort terminus, originally designed just as a shunting layout, has been separate from the main line layout (Castletown West). 

Now, they will finally be properly connected. Yesterday, thanks to the good offices of Peter, Steve and Mark, we got the original but raised to the correct height, and preparations made to join them. 

This will give an idea - more to follow.

1 hour ago, Tullygrainey said:

That landscaping is a delight JB. Just perfect!

The work of the master of this trade, Kevan McIntosh!

2 hours ago, Mayner said:

The B101 may be on a Heuston-Dunlaoire Pier working. My first memories of the B101s were in the bay platform at Dunlaoire on parcel or passenger trains during the late 60s in my early teens, at the time I noticed the B and that the locos had 6 wheel bogies.

Some Southern Section passenger trains worked through to Dunlaiore Pier until the connection was severed around 1980s in connection with the the DART works and Busses substituted. Its possible B101s may have been used between Island Bridge Junction & Dunlaoire Pier allowing the train engine a pair of Baby GMs or an A Class off an incomming train to run to Inchacore for servicing.

Yes! That would make perfect sense - anything, even in steam days, could turn up on that.

Way, way, way less likely is a B101 appearing from the GNR or Midland… 

Personally, while every photo tells a story, I’ve yet to hear of, let alone see either in real life or photographic form, any evidence of a 101 working a service train on either.

——

Back in 1944, the branch engine is 472, recently transferred in from Albert Quay.

Here, on a similar duty, it is seen leaving Castletown West for the harbour.

—-

Finally, in 1958, the very same “A” as previously seen heads light towards Dugort to collect empty wagons…

Old colour slides from 1956…. and black white prints from 1944…..….

Dugort Harbour didn’t have a Sunday service, so the place latterly was deserted on Sundays - unless there was a GAA special. But not this day in summer 1956.

Smell the turf smoke and sea air?

——

The following Saturday, a light engine breaks the silence with its Crossley growl, as it heads down to the harbour station to collect a solitary fish van.

On 11/1/2025 at 10:10 AM, Mol_PMB said:

Another recent upload is this view of a Sulzer in 1968, B111 apparently arriving at Connolly with a passenger train from the north or north-west; neither being usual haunts of the class.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54257008764/

 

An exceptionally rare foray, if that's where it was coming from! They were always known on the railway as "southern engines".

1 hour ago, David Holman said:

 Well, the shiny nickel silver and brass has gone, replaced with Halfords rattle cans, starting with self etch primer [pale yellow], then red oxide primer and finally dark green gloss, as shown below.

 As so often with these things, the colour is a bit of a wing and a prayer, but was the darkest I could find. In some lights, it looks almost black, but the green comes through quite a bit more in others. No matter - I'm intending to make the final finish worn but well cleaned with some careful weathering.

  So what we have above is the primary phase of the gloss green, with lining, plus a first coat of red on the buffer beams and rods, and dark grey on the smokebox, footplate etc.

 The lining is from Fox Transfers [0.35mm yellow], while the Swilly lozenge uses the same for its outline with hand drawn logo using a fine dipping pen and acrylic paint. Lining and lettering took about 5 hours over two days and rates well down my list of favourite things to do.

 Very little is fixed in place yet, while the photos [for me at least], show why a model looks far too stark without at least some degree of weathering. It all needs toning down if it is to look realistic. Some of the lining still needs looking at too, but note how the shade of green varies between pictures

 Anyway, it's a start though it might be a while before the model is finished as attention now turns to Northport Quay, which is going to the Orpington Show in two weeks time. Always a nice occasion, but not the biggest. At the end of May, NPQ is going to Railex at Aylesbury as a late replacement for a layout which had to drop out. Galteemore David is going to join me on the Sunday, so there should be a fair variety of  broad gauge stock on show, maybe some GNRI too.

That colour is 100% authentic.  Even Cyril Fry's model in Malahide (unusually, but not uniquely) has a shade which is way, way too light.

An OUTSTANDINGLY excellent model in all respects.

£115 sterling for a Hattons six-wheeled passenger brake - thus about €150 maybe, plus brexit / customs / postal charges..... and these things were about £40-odd new.

I know there's some validity (perhaps less than many think) in the idea that if someone's prepared to pay a certain price for something, in a free world, why not. Go for it, and if you don't want to, toddle off.

But there is also the wise old adage that "fools and their money are easily parted".

Despite missing the black and tan one, due to a mistake by Hattons in my order originally, I will not be answering that ad.

53 minutes ago, spudfan said:

LIMA 205018 CLASS 217 DIESEL LOCO No 217 in IE Railways Yellow Livery. OO Gauge

LIMA 205018 CLASS 217 DIESEL LOCO No 217 in IE Railways Yellow Livery. OO Gauge | eBay

Aha! The elusive 217 class. Must confess the introduction of such a class passed unnoticed by me, as did a "yellow livery"............

But £46 is a much better price than the stuff mentioned above.

3 minutes ago, commerlad said:

And it came (Second Hand) from the County Donegal Railway (At the same time as the Walker Railcars 19 & 20), Made from the frames of a Class 5.

 

As for a car turntable, I saw one years ago in Scarbrough (Near the North Bay / Peasholme Park.)

The IOM one isn’t the Donegal one, unless they got a 2nd one which they never used. The St John’s one in the IOM was there from about 1905 I think.

1 hour ago, IrishTrainScenes said:

1200 ex Belfast terminated Portadown 

This is scheduled as an NIR railcar. What happened? (Or do we even want to know!)

On the entire Isle of Man Railway there was only ever a single turntable, at St. Johns.

From 1873 when the first stretch of the railway opened, to the present, the IOMR does not turn locomotives. With the exception of a very small number of occasions, they always worked chimney first out of Douglas and bunker first towards Douglas.

The turntable was installed for one reason only - turning carriages periodically to ensure even weathering of the paintwork on both sides, particularly on the very exposed coastal section of the Manx Northern line mid-way  between St Johns and Ramsey. Since 1968, only the Port Erin line operates, so both the northern line, St Johns station and that turntable have all gone.

The carriages above - yes, a perfect illustration of weathering. the forst one is in the 1955 green, and the other three are in the older 1945-55 green, but in the "local" Cork version of simpler or absent loining.

1 hour ago, DERAILED said:

Just when I thought I had seen everything and then this tonight: https://www.easyliveauction.com/catalogue/lot/9d17798ac0fdcdd6a9d52a8c6f0eb66e/0af8d24542e81eb9357e7ef448a6646f/antiques-interiors-auction-in-doneraile-co-cork-lot-3/

Ugh

3 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

The two photos I have of E410 in silver are at Fenit in 1958 and Albert Quay in 1959, and I think it is in similar condition to E402 in the picture posted above, so that's what I'm going with. There's a lot of subtle staining down the sides, with heavier dirt on the horizontal surfaces. Should be an interesting challenge!

Fenit:

Cork:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54323027377

 

Given the standard of your work it will look amazing!

15 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

 

 

This view shows how the dirt accumulated on the bonnet top:

....leading some to think that silver stuff had grey or black roofs; not so! A bit like domes on steam engines that were any colour other than black, which were always body colour. but the grime made them LOOK dark grey or black.

That colour pic of 402 is about as clean as you'd ever have seen one!

43 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

Only seen this now. Sublime work….it looks perfect! (Other then said weathering in due course, cause Christ these got dirty) 

 

Everything silver got utterly filthy, and quickly.

In an environment still surrounded by many steam engines, hot oil, coal smoke, coal dust and steam (and leaking oil on Crossleys) it was inevitable.

8 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

My understanding is that in steam days in Ireland, specific locos were allocated to sheds, often for many years, with those sheds being responsible for maintenance and running repairs. Only if a major overhaul or heavy repair was needed would the loco go back to Inchicore. The same system was used in the UK too.

D Renehan's articles on the various early diesel loco classes also mention particular locos being allocated to routes or sheds. For example, Cork's C-class allocation around 1960 included C203, C206, C207, C210, C214, C218, C225, C227 and C232.

The G601's each seem to have been allocated to particular branches too - 601 at Kanturk-Newmarket, 602 to the branches around Tralee, and 603 at Clara-Banagher.

For many years E428 was based at Limerick and E429 at Cork.

 

My question is about how long this system lasted into the diesel era? 

Did the improved reliability and standardisation of the GMs lead the change to a centralised 'common-user' approach?

 

Modern allocations tend to be a whole fleet together at a depot, with the operating diagrams arranged so that they return to base each week or so for exams and maintenance.

 

Yes, as you suspect, the diesel era put paid to all of that. As you say, certain locos were in steam days very much associated with certain lines, although classes like J15s could end up all over the place. In diesel days, Inchicore was Planet Central. Even the G611's got about - all but one of the seven were to be found in Loughrea from time to time (the missing one, G614, probably DID go there too, but I haven't seen a pic of it). E's were probably more static, though, as all here will know, while they're primarily associated with dublin, they did turn up at other places, sometimes (like Fenit, Shelton Abbey at al) not where you'd expect to have found them. (I personally saw them in Cork and Limerick - the latter, I think, E425 in the mid-70s).

1 hour ago, Rob R said:

Zoomed in a bit.

I will have to keep a look out when browsing the NLI

That is a very exceptionally rare beast indeed. I wonder was it the only one they had? Is it the same one seen at Fenit? I am unaware of a solitary example, anywhere else in Ireland, at any time, of a wagon even remotely similar. And I have been intently poring over every photo I can get my hands on for almost sixty years by now. In this pic it has "G S W R" on it, rather than Fenit Pier markings, so obviously it was taken into GSW stock. I suspect that most of the time it simply shuttled coal between Fenit and Tralee, which doubtless will be why we never see or hear much of it. An excellent find. Note the rust on the ironwork of the right-hand wagon, appearing so much darker, and faded grey paintwork on the timber bits. GSWR wagons were painted a very much darker shade of grey (I have a sample) than this photo would suggest; as seen on the bogie, and the four-wheeler on the left, of course!

Wonder what that tank loco is............

Wow! Very many thanks for that - I’ll email you this evening.

The only difference in the original DART livery was lining and logo. Both shades of green have always been the same.

Dublin buses were the same green(s) in the early 1980s.

On 11/3/2025 at 9:17 AM, Westcorkrailway said:

Exactly. Perhaps somone using Ral colours extracted from the hattons coaches/800 one could repaint appropriate British stock. Thats what I did for years before the genesis coaches and it was perfect

 

im sure I’ve seen photos of CIE full brake 6 wheelers running behind 800

Yes, you have. Only full brakes, though, or mail vehicles.

The 800 class would never have pulled passenger-carrying six-wheelers, as these were gone from main line expresses by 1939.