jhb171achill

While not to the taste of all (what livery is?), a "generic" repaint of a British loco as an Irish one will look more convincing if it is in the grey - as black can simply look like unlined BR! If BR had painted their engines grey instead of black and put big pale yellow numbers on them, it would be the other way round.....

There are a number of British 0.6.0s which with little more than perhaps replacing the cab with something "Inchicore-looking" could pass off as a "generic" Irish loco. Bear in mind, if modelling is based on a "three foot rule", that the best locos for a scenario like this will almost certainly be tender 0.6.0s. yes, the LNER J72 can indeed look very MGWR "E" class - just drop it into a pot of grey paint! Many 4.4.0s also will look "half-Irish" if painted blue for GNR or grey for GSR / CIE. I have seen posts here and there of some very nice conversions of 2.6.0s or 4.6.0s into Irish versions.

That's the sort of "back story". I remember calling at small rural stations here and there in the 1960s (and in the 1970s, Loughrea) and just standing looking at the infrastructure, sometimes well kept but sometimes very tatty looking, and just wondering "how long can this place survive?". Dugort Harbour is indeed intended to look like one of these places where threats of closure have been ongoing for decades. Had it existed in real life, the 1967 closures would certainly have put paid to it.........

True - and the “A”s also - need to get them chipped too. Long list of things to do, as always!

1966; the branch train arrives and departs again. Four passengers and 13 schoolchildren on board this afternoon. The lunchtime bus had 41 on board, as it’s 1s/6d cheaper than the train…..

Well, he hasn't a hope of selling them. I also heard he was looking for silly money. Even in the Emperorship of Boristan, vehicles THAT far gone are rarely rescued - though that bastion of decent British carriages*, the Isle of Wight Railway, has had some very notable and impressive successes. Even if some DID take one of those remarkable Muskerry survivors, they would almost certainly not be in a position to pay ANY money. So, like the West Clare diesels, unreasonable greed will kill them. One is falling apart as it is. (* as opposed to Mk 1 tin cans)

Good thinking; and that palethorpes thing might be a basis for a 6w scratchbuild….

Unlikely. They’re struggling for volunteers to keep operational carriages running, and allocation of a budget towards something which won’t earn a bean - after a 2-year closure with no train income - isn’t practical.

This little yoke has a huge aversion to staying on the rails, and refuses to do so at all if being shunted. Thoughts?

Bet nobody knew they had drones in 1967…..

What they don't know is there will be another three of them once I get the wheels!!

Still have 'em, Colin; PM me.

Grand Canal St., of course….

“…..Just the one van? Sure we’ll have that unloaded in no time….”

“Yes, we’ll have to leave it here. Hot box, you could boil a kettle on it. Dunno why they can’t give us a decent brake van…..” ”Well, PJ says we’ll have to take the van off the goods. The cattle’s expected in North Wall for the boat…”

The GSR Pullman cars were a bit like De Dietrichs, 800 or the Fintona tram in that they were specific in their use and location. There were just four, and only one per train. One each was on the up and down day mails between Dublin and Cork, and Dublin & Galway. So you’re going to need Bredins and GSWR wooden stock to run with them, with a “Maedb” or a 400 or possibly a Woolwich up front. But yes, in theory, 2-foot rule, just repaint green. Also they had different window spacing, different ends, and matchboard lower panelling. Ive an idea they had different bogies too, though I’d need to check that.

BR Mk. 1 full parcels brake = CIE “BR” genny van Plus of course, numerous Mk 2 & Mk 3 carriages….

I did indeed see those - the top ones look the best for my requirements. It strikes me that so many backscenes have clear blue skies! Grey & dull would seem more realistic!

Not sure, Ken, I’ll have a look. Senior went to school behind those little tank engines, so he probably saw them as being as routine as a Dart! if only……..! Should add, that would make a very nice little 00 scale kit.

Yes, it's of the same class. There were 6 or 7 of them. This one ended up with Murphy too. The rest were scrapped. I wonder if one ever went to Dugort Harbour; now THERE'S an idea - something on a plinth like No. 36 in Cork, but out in the open covered in bird.... stuff.

Got more info on it, having had tea, and searched archives in the untidy cupboard behind me. The DWWR withdrew it in 1891 and sold it to W M Murphy & Co., a contractor. Murphy was engaged in building the Bantry extension of the CBSCR at the time, so it is likely that it ended up down there somewhere. There seems to be no further record of it - at some thirty years old by the time the Bantry line was open, Murphy probably scrapped it. It had the name "Oberon", but never carried a number. My grandfather was born in 1880, so if he did take that picture, he'd have been very young (11 at most!). Perhaps he didn't, in which case I have no idea who did, as the negative is in among old family photos which he certainly DID take. The earliest photos he is known to have been responsible for date from about 1905. So it remains an item of interest! Regarding livery, DWWR locos were green at first, but some at least (obviously including the above) painted a red colour for a while in the late 1880s / early 90s - but lined black after that until GSR grey appeared in 1925.

Very interesting - I've long thought that there ought to be a book on this! Not all that much my thing either, as industrials aren't quite my area of interest, but an excellent addition to the overall railway press.

Brilliant, Leslie. Was looking for references to it but cannot put my hands on Ernie's book. Any idea when it was withdrawn?

OK, boys'n'girls; what exactly is THIS, and where? Found in a newly-unearthed packet of negatives among Senior's stuff.

Let's hope they aren't. The level of inaccuracies in Indakinny's series was disastrous. Dreadfully bad research. Let's hope they actually research it!