jhb171achill

Thank you, gentlemen!

Finally for tonight, B165 gets away with the daily goods, 1969. A string of Provincial goods vans and one Bullied corrugated open. Heard the Beatles’ new song, by the way?

Open wagons…. Quite a few Provincial corrugated open wagons, but as per the 1955-65 period, almost as many timber bodied ones of traditional design. These are just old Bachmann, Dapol or Hornby wagons repainted. The grey on this one is wrong - too dark, but once it gets its “snails”, and number it will look ok when severely weathered into oblivion! This particular one will need to lose its vacuum bags too. I will need cows at some stage, indeed! I’m working today on the “big” station where the Dugort Harbour branch originates from - it will have Macroom-like fair days and enough cattle siding space for almost 40 cattle wagons! Track bed being prepared….

CIE “H” vans. I’ve a good few, some made up, others not. Again, most with snails - just a couple with roundels. Note the lighter grey livery used after approx 1960, also the tan surrounded logo. These were only used on there and the “palvans”. All other wagon types had a plain white “roundel”.

Next, cattle trucks. CIE built lots of brand new ones in the 1950s, so by the time the GNR was included, most GNR ones were scrapped straight away. Numbers of cattle by rail collapsed after 1957, with only half the 1957 number by 1965, and half of even that disappearing soon after. By the early 60s, non-standard cattle trucks were nowhere to be seen. I have one GNR one, which will have battered-looking GNR markings; I’m pretty sure none ever got CIE livery. Of the dozen or so CIE ones I have, two have “roundels” (the two on the left here) and the rest have “snails”. Provincial Wagons kits.

Next, GNR vans. Provincial again. Unpainted replacement planks were a feature of wagons likely to be withdrawn soon. Wagons with GNR markings were to be seen all over CIE, even at places like West Cork, Westport and Valentia Harbour, after CIE ate part of the GNR in October 1958. The vast majority were scrapped quite soon, as frequent closures of lines, contraction of freight traffic and ferocious building output of “H” vans quickly replaced them; not, though, before some acquired “flying snails”, and even “roundels”. A very small number even survived the 1970 changeover to brown livery. Dugort Harbour has six - two each with GNR markings, snails & roundels.

The first lot of these are with two exceptions, all Provincial kits. Weathering by either myself, Kevin McIntosh or “Dempsey”. The guards vans are two Provincial GSWR types, still to be seen in isolated places into the 1960s, with two of an only very slightly later design staggering on into the 1970s, at Castleisland and Loughrea. Liveries all 1955-63-and-after, grey with snails. All wear the darker grey, which was “lightened” when the new 20T and 30T steel-sided brake vans appeared. One is very “bleached” looking - I remember seeing this effect on wagons which had long been a stranger to a paint brush. Middle van - JM Design.

I like to imagine if even the Bantry line alone had survived… the 1960s, 70s, 80s and early 90s would probably have seen a diet of 141s, Park Royals and laminates, and C / B201s. Oil trains would possibly have appeared. Probably no goods after 1975/6. Fast forward to today: the system would be operated by two 2-car 2800s. I’d rather go to Bantry in an ICR or 2600 / 2800 than a car, looking over hedges at a long gone railway formation! (I might draw the line at an NIR 450 or MED, though….)

Like Leslie, I am absolutely gobsmacked at your output, Darius. Those are exceptionally realistic and superbly detailed. Rarely if ever do we see work like this - very well done indeed. I love the Indian one especially, but they're all just as good. More, please!

Yes, that aspect has always interested me. Trial and error has helped me - some of the first ones I took were plain awful, and I wouldn't dare post them! The learning curve continues, but it's high time I stopped messing about with the mobile and got into laying more track!

Because it was the most efficient way to operate the line.

Thank you! I’ve been experimenting with angles and daylight -v- artificial light. My attic has overhead spotlights, but unfortunately there are two directly overhead. I’ve found that whatever way the angle of natural light is, just when it’s beginning to get dusk, for some reason the best results are obtained. Once I’ve everything done I’ll get the “proper” SLR camera, now unused for some years, out of retirement. For now, I’m just curious to what extent acceptable results can be had with a bog standard mobile. One thing I have learned is that it’s best to take pics from a distance and then zoom in.

Didn’t realise there was so much left of that station, including the signal cabin! Superb stuff…..

Experimenting with receding daylight to take pics - it was actually duller in the room than the pictures suggest.

Definitely one of my favourites!

There's also the small matter of frequent disruptions to ferries these days. With daughter-the-younger now living in Wales, we are more than ever aware of the vagaries of the floating things between us and that island in between us and Mainland Europe!

Mine is a different thing - a shunter designed but only built as a sample. In an ideal world, the chassis for it would be something not unlike an "E" class diesel chassis, but with even axle spacings.

With the beet season over now for another year, it’s back to the daily goods in 1969, the passenger service having ceased two years earlier. Things are pretty quiet today - just one laden van and two empties. The McKinsey Report looms…. Here, our intrepid photographer captures the scene from a nearby hill, using a telephoto lens. Yes, very modern.

Related question: for a future project of my own, would you have any recommendations for a six-wheeled power unit, suitable for DCC even if it's old, but without connecting rods? (00 gauge)

That is an absolutely amazing job - very well done indeed. One of my biggest regrets is not following No. 28 about when I could so easily have done - and given the right circumstances I could have seen that one too. Very well done. Now, this has me googling Judith Edge kits, though I'm in the 00 rather than 0 gauge world.......

Those beasts are among my favourite Brexitland locomotives. WELL DONE to Accurascale! Looks superb.

The parallel world of Dugort…. ”..........So, he throws the newspaper out of the cab window as he goes over the river, but the KEY was INSIDE it in an envelope to “keep it safe”! WHY the hell would ANYONE do that?” ”It was yesterday’s paper…..” ”Me foot’s getting stuck in the mud….” "We NEED to find that key.....!"

An absolute delight to meet the Past-Avenue team in Donegal last week - many congratulations on finding a home for this inspirational layout, and no more appropriate place. Well done.

Remember to seat the timers on the left hand side on day 1, and the right on day 2, the drinkers in coach C next the bar, and the weirdos and oddballs in seats 43 to the end......... Seats 1-8 to be set aside for IE crew, 9-12 for RPSI crew, and one seat in the first seating bay in each coach for the marshal for that coach. Seats 50-60 in coach A for the shop section and two seats in the diner marked "crew" for when they're having their break.

So we can now get both RPSI liveries - the Craven blue & cream and the Whitehead green!