jhb171achill

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.

And another of Barry’s photos in “Rails Through the West” shows cattle being loaded from the up PASSENGER platform in Ennis about the same time. Cattle traffic finished finally in 1975. By 1976 most of the remaining cattle wagon fleet, some not even 20 years old, were in Cork goods yard awaiting scrapping.

Some dud stuff on there too - a supposed "antique" sign (modern forgery) and some sort of supposed "wagon plate"....not railway at all.

Yes, that ties in with what jhbSenior spoke of - seeing the shunting in Enniskillen in "early evening". Also, there's no way they'd have allowed cattle trains to get in the way of the evening commuter trains along the Lagan Valley. So anything heading to maysfields was probably very late evening, which for over half the year is in the dark. Hence less (or no!) photos.

Quite possibly Charlie Friel is the man to go to for pictures of cattle specials anywhere on the GNR. There WERE quite a few. Senior used to talk about busy cattle days in Enniskillen and Clones too, and I believe the Oldcastle branch had busy enough cattle traffic at times. As did the Banbridge lines.

Possibly - but still a dearth of photos! You think of all the "spotters" along the Lagan Valley, and all the pictures of all stations Lisburn - Belfast, and not a picture in sight. I remember seeing the remains of the cattle platform at Lisburn. I think someone told me one time that they would have "watered" the cattle there occasionally if the thing was running late........

That is OUTSTANDING!!