jhb171achill

It’s the nearest thing available to a GSWR bogie of the type still very common into the mid 1960s. (If I post pictures of it often enough, IRM will bring out a model!). Its origin is a LMS clerestorey corridor which I think was in a train set - I got it second hand. It just needs its waistline lining, numbers and weathering. Its a nice little thing - might get another and put a more authentic ordinary roof on it, and maybe the older dark green with double lining for variety. That’s the compartment side.

”So yer man gets to Killorglin that day with the sheep special, and he unhooks the van, an’ wait till ye hear what the eejit does then….” ”SSSSHH! He’s coming, tell me later!” ………………………………………………. “Ah, no, I wouldn’t be training on the diesels, sure I’m fifty years old. I joined the Great Southern in Kanturk when I was fifteen, first month of the GSR it was. No, I’m leaving. Me son can get me a job as a night watchman in a rope factory in Birmingham an’ sure I’ll live with them…..”

“It’s Jack Byrne’s! His kids let it out again. We’d better catch it before it gets down the cutting. That twice this month!”

On a bitterly cold snow-covered day in 1957, No. 372 meanders across the West Kerry landscape with a local train from Dugort Harbour to Castletown West. Looks like there’s plenty more of it in the sky.

Exactly! A strange one indeed. I also saw several drawings done at Dundalk for 49 foot SIX-wheelers for the GNR, with a 30 ft wheelbase! While I don't know the details, I am aware that jhbSeniorx2 designed several vehicles for the GSR which were never actually built, plus the designs for the bodywork of Drumm trains C & D was substantially changed between drawing office and actual build. Interesting to speculate what other "might-have-beens" are, or were, out there!

Yes, it does seem a crazy waste of what was then the most modern type of coach!

This has turned up, courtesy of a friend. Never knew it was even being considered….

Wisht Kerrry, boy? Ah, we’ve no jackeens and nordies doon here, boy! I’m sure I’ve seen his black & whites on Flickr!

Saw those bubbles running this afternoon, hauled by a Silverfox "C" class, also weathered very convincingly by Mr. Dempsey. Excellent stuff.

I wonder what her favourite trains were............

Not yet.

Excellent, Derek, many thanks for that. Off to Woodies DIY, then!

May I make suggestion that you start a thread for this? I've loads of questions to ask, but I don't want to hi-jack this thread either!! That is an absolutely stupendously good little layout. Shades very much of early Antrim industrial narrow gauge, a la Carnlough, Red Bay, etc. The scenic content is outstanding as is the railway interest.

Superb scenic work around the track too. Can we see more?

On the Holy Sobbbbith in Larne!!!!! Ooooooooooohhh! Tis straight to Judgment, hellfire, damnation and eternal wailing and gnashing of teeth for him!!!

I see that in order to STOP the train, the signalman changed the signal from “danger” to “line clear”!

Genuinely, that IS what will happen - it actually HAS to be what happens. And 50% as a bare minimum, I'm afraid, possibly added to by 50% of the planet becoming uninhabitable, through either being too hot and dry, too stormy, or submerged. In such a scenario, a 50% reduction in numbers would solve nothing - it would have to be a very great deal more. Gloomy and apocalypic as it sounds......... that's what nature does.

There's one pretty large elephant in the room, and that is the world population. Without doubt, fossil fuels are finite, and without doubt they pollute and add to global warming, which is real. Without doubt, it's better (if we can) to walk or cycle. Without doubt, it's better to grow our own food and not import. However, not all can do any of these things, no matter what Green parties in every country say. Public transport will cost so much that taxes will go up massively to support that alone - if it is provided with as comprehensive and frequent cover as people would need to replicate the life of travel freedom they already have. Battery powered cars are fine if you live on an island the size of ours, but travelling across America? Canada? Russia? Australia? Mainland Europe? No, just no. The tech is nowhere close to being good enough to enable the same flexibility that a petrol or diesel (or even hybrid) car gives us - and even if it was, the cost of these cars is beyond most people's budgets. I, for one, will never be able to afford one. So, governments subsidise the price of them to satisfy emissions targets - watch the tax bill go higher again. Also, the environmental as well as fiscal cost of making the batteries is huge - and LITHIUM is as finite as coal! The elephant in the room is this; while we can mitigate much of what we do, we cannot solve it entirely, and that is for one reason and one only. There are FAR TOO MANY PEOPLE on the planet. In 1700, the world's population ws 600 million. In 1900 it was 2 billion - over three tyimes as many in only two centuries - and there have been humans on the planet for tens of thousands of years. In 2000 it was 6 billion - three times THAT in just ONE hundred years. Today, just over 20 years later, it is almost 8 billion; or 30% more than only 20 years ago. Some predictions suggest that it will reach 10 billion within ten years. A population of that quantity of two-legged mammals on this planet is simply not sustainable, no matter what way we look at it or organise society. Just think about all of that. Exponential growth, thus exponential need for food and commodities - and FUEL. The food production methods - cattle emissions - is yet another driver of global warming as well as smoke from fuel. I'm sure there are others too. No, I've no solution, because I don't think there is one at this stage. Mother Nature will stage a "correction" at some stage - that's the way she works, and then we can whinge all we like. Sobering thoughts, as we tuck into our air-imported kiwi fruits for dessert.

It seems that the coaches at Ballycastle were never repainted into UTA livery, ending their days in unlined NCC maroon. Unlike the (British) LMS, secondary and narrow-gauge NCC coaches generally received neither lining nor LMS crests after about 1940. The Ballycastle stock, like some on the 5 fut 3, were plain maroon with dark grey roofs, with the letters "L M S" and "N C C" and the number, all in shaded gold, on the sides. Upholstery in those yokes was blue, I believe.

Year “S” Class 2.4.2T “R” Class 2.6.0T “P” Class 2.4.0T (IOM “Peveril” class) 1877 Grey area denotes period BEFORE the specific locomotive mentioned below was built. “The Bruiser” 1 Larger tanks 1878 4 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 5 1884 BNCR BNCR 68 BNCR BNCR 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 63 64 1890 1891 1892 69 70 M R N C C 1893 New boiler 1894 1895 1896 1897 110 111 109 104 105 1898 1899 New Boiler 1900 1901 1902 1903 MR NCC MR NCC 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 112 1909 113 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 103 1920 102 101 104 Withdrawn 1921 1922 1923 L M S ~ N C C LMS NCC 1924 1925 Livery Unknown Livery Unknown 1926 Lent B’Cast 1927 1928 Reb SOLD CVBT 1929 (No. 6) 1930 Reb No 1931 To “S2” 2.4.4.T Number 1932 | Carried 1933 | Scrapped 1934 | Withdrawn 1935 | 1936 | OOU 1937 | OOU 1938 | Scrapped 1939 | 41 (B’Cast) 1940 | 1941 | Livery Date change approximate 1942 | 42 1943 | Paper Mill 43 (B’Mena) 1944 | 1945 | ** ** 1946 Scrapped … … 1947 … Armoy Snow To B’Cast 1948 44 (B’Cast) … … 1949 U T A UTA U T A 1950 UTA Livery UTA Livery UTA Livery UTA Livery 1954 Scrapped 1954 Scrapped 1954 Scrapped 1954 Scrapped 1954 NCC Narrow gauge locomotives Livery key (background colour) Darker Green (at top): Ballymena & Larne Rly. Lined green Lighter Green (post-1884): BNCR extremely dark lined green Pink: NCC maroon, lined White: NCC black, unlined – approx. change 1941 White, 1950: UTA lined black Regarding the track, I think that perhaps the sleepers look to short and too narrow - but the massive advantages that you state in terms of using 00 scale track and chassis, etc., (also carriage bogies!) is a very compelling argument. The good news is that a lot of narrow gauge track wasn't in the prime of its life, and the sleepers were half-embedded into Mother earth, so the sleepers thing isn't really a big deal to me, and certainly passes the 2ft rule........ The above info may be of use. Livery details included, of course.

Very well done indeed! I can attest to the quality of Dempsey's weathering, as it is his by his fair hand that my Woolwichs, 00 Works J15s, 141s and "A"s were made work-weary, equally realistically. Regarding the cement wagons, yes, in real life they got a good coating of actual cement. One thing I do remember is that this seemed to get much worse with the passing years. In the latter-day "cream" livery (with either logo!), they were always absolutely filthy - so much so that sometimes they could have been painted tartan and pink for all the world knew. However, in the original standard wagon grey, and earlier days of the later orange, they were kept much cleaner.

Those would be CIE barges retained after normal trading ceased in 1960, for maintenance purposes. I remember seeing one of them at Baggot St Bridge years ago.

Next: the DCC-fitted Fintona horse!

Wow - that's some of the very best weathering I've ever seen!

Sorry, yes - other ads, certainly not his.