jhb171achill

Well, that’s it in a nutshell. Nothing silver ever stayed that way more than a few days - or if steam-hauled maybe a few hours! No wonder they started repainting them green after a couple of years.

Despite coming from a decidedly steam background, Cyril Fry threw himself enthusiastically into making models of the new diesel era. Here are a few of his locos from the grey’n’green (and silver!) era. For modellers, note the attention to detail; I particularly like the gangways on the tin vans - a detail not the most sophisticated on many models. Lettering in pale green, looking as”weathered” as the real thing. These were the only models of well over 360 that he weathered. Simple reason was that (especially since ends, chassis and roofs were silver too) you never saw a pristine one in traffic. The shaded gold on the PO van and luggage van are incorrect.

448 would be 221 double-heading with 227……

You might know the “weatherer”…….

Not only that, but the DCDR is a working railway behind the scenes. Recent ballast wagons, plough vans and "yellow machines" are tools needed to look after the railway, so even to the most detail-obsessed purist, whether such items ever "ran like that" or not, is entirely irrelevant..... Also, there's another point. When a preservation scheme is set up, in an ideal world it will take over the entire stock of the working line to be preserved, á la Isle of Man. If the IOMR had been closed, with everything scrapped, decades before it became a modern tourist attraction, gawd knows what would be running on it - but it wouldn't be original. The BCDR closed in 1950 for the large part, with its stock of six-wheel carriages fast becoming firewood and a few henhouses. When the DCDR was set up, well over thirty years later, it was (and is) a case of take what you can get, even if it ran on Mars (as all yellow machines did). Incidentally, this now gives the DCDR two ploughs - there's this yellow one and an old GSWR one.

Summer 1958, and the 11:40 morning mixed leaves Dugort Harbour for Castletown West with J15 No. 134, while sister loco 195 awaits its next duty on the goods. "G2" No. 650 reposes in the loco siding at Dugort Harbour after bringing the goods train in on a bright day in 1959. Modelling note: all three locos were initially painted grey - this shows how comprehensive weathering makes them LOOK black, as in so many photos!

Blue'n'grey era........

Luxury executive transport today. I think that between the two carriages, this thing had at least two, and possibly three wheels......and a stop and go button in the driver's cab. . Now an orange and black one. Must be at Leixlip (Druggie).

Just before Raheny.

Steam this time - Barry. I may have posted this before, but here goes anyway. . I have to say I like this one....

If John (an absolute gentleman, who I knew years ago) is still alive, but he's a good age. He deals only by letter. He and I used to write to each other regularly. I must look out his last letter - I THINK (but would need to check) that he has handed his entire collection over to someone / somewhere.

This was one vague idea, it seems- but I don't think it was a serious proposal. The idea of diesel-hauled mixed trains was already established by then and the flexibility this allowed tended to trump any thoughts of a separate passenger train - plus there would be no spare parts for it in Galway or Athlone, and possibly less knowledge amongst fitters. They seem to have put a railcar idea to bed for good with a trial of the Sligo railcar on that branch in 1959. In a modelling sense, I always thought that a single-unit railcar, in a CIE, UTA or even NIR world, would have made an ideal subject for a very small shunting terminus layout. The Sligo car, or one of these, or even for modern-image, one of the 2750s, would be perfect.

They’re both thoroughly obnoxious systems! Lucky we don’t get model trains from Russia…..though domestically, Xi is every bit as bad.

I think it’s a generational thing - jhbSenior would have dismissed them outright, albeit not actually bitching as such; having been brought up when even all commuter services were steam (except the Drumm trains!), diesels in any shape or form were ignored. I think he gave a special dispensation to Donegal ones, though! Personally, I have little interest in any of them, per se; but recognise the immense value they have been to the railways here for nigh on seventy years now, this alone propelling them into the world of technical and historical interest. A few memories too, of commuting in them when I had less grey hair. Might add, while my layout is firmly rooted in the grey’n’green and black’n’tan eras, AEC railcars are absolutely crucial for that time, so if a RTR one appears, I’ll want several. And while an 80 class or ICR is technically far too modern for that era, and too modern for my own area of interest, I would still buy one of each for historical interest.

Indeed. For the benefit of younger readers, there was scarcely a line on the (then much larger) CIE system which did not use them - in many cases virtually all passenger services were worked by them LONG before the end of steam, the latter being confined to shunting and goods on such routes. In the north, the GNR used them on the main line as stated above, but also on Howth and Belfast - Portadown suburban, as well as Belfast - Clones and Enniskillen, and Belfast - Portadown - Derry. After the GNR, the UTA continued their use, and so did NIR until the mid-1970s. Imagine trying to model ANY line in the west of Ireland today, or the Rosslare or Waterford lines - without an ICR. If anything remotely approaching accuracy was desired, and ICR is an absolute MUST. SAME with AEC railcars on all of the above-mentioned lines. Even the Waterford & Tramore and Cork (Albert Quay) - Bantry ended up with these things on all passenger services. They worked Waterford - Limerick, Limerick - Tralee, and Limerick - Claremorris - Sligo, as well as the main lines from Dublin to Waterford, Rosslare, Cork, Sligo, Galway, Westport, Tralee.....

That's actually pretty reasonable!

Tonight's contribution:

The reality is that inter-connectivity of SOME transport routes nowadays is very far from top priority. Things do change over the years. The apparent lack of any attempt at connecting foot passengers on Welsh ferries at Rosslare, with trains, or even a bus to Dublin, is well-known and much commented on, but the reality - whether any of us enthusiasts like it or not - is that only a miniscule percentage of passengers on that line are going to Wales, and an even more miniscule amount of passengers on the ferry don't have cars or are passengers in minibuses. I, too, recall when you could get a ticket from anywhere in Ireland to anywhere in Europe - Senior, in the 1950s, was able to get tickets by train from anywhere in Ireland to a specific rural location in Austria. But the plane and the car have pushed these to the bottom of the list; I would say enjoy what journeys are possible this way while any of us can!

Of ALL the railcars that have ever run on this island, there are three absolute essentials. The AEC sets, variously in CIE, GNR, UTA & NIR guises; the 80 class, and ICRs.

RTR GSWR and MGWR 4.4.0s, then...........

A beet train would be easy, for example - Provincial’s GSWR brake van in CIE livery and a string of Bullied corrugated open wagons. Add in a 1953 goods van or two for beet pulp.

OK, next one:

I can happily attest to the fact that far from anything being wrong with them, they're excellent! A few of them hard at work on Dugort Harbour, with a few more awaiting construction. B L U E touch paper? Now that IS food for thought........ I'm thinking a GNR 4.4.0!

The overall mileage was at its height between 1913 and 1923; after the Keady-Castleblayney line had opened, but before it and the Listowel & Ballybunion had closed.

Excellent stuff, Hexagon! Thank you. I’ll go on posting Senior’s British stuff, as good information like this will be the result.