jhb171achill

George, I know the mail order folks at Whitehead. Not sure if they read this, so I will pass on your message.

Yes, it was. I've a note of the number somewhere. That pic was taken near Poyntzpass. I think the UTA Jeep came on at Dundalk.

A string of open wagons to distance 800 from the loco hauling it while going over bridges, most particularly the Boyne Viaduct. It was being steam hauled itself at this stage, as you can see.

A pretty rare pic - probably unique now. Colour pic from "Maedb"'s footplate. Senior travelled with her Dublin - Lisburn in 1964. I thought that I had LOST this slide, as I lent it out once and when I had been given it back, I somehow misplaced it. Thankfully, the party to whom I lent it has a copy! (Thanks, Ciarán...) (H C A Beaumont)

How long ago are those rails removed / covered up? I thought I remembered seeing them as rails back in the day.......

That is an absolutely beautiful location.

By FAR my pet hate is people (be they suppliers or anyone else) who simply ignore texts or emails and don't answer them. Sadly, I've come across a few in the model railway world, though the above is not someone I've dealt with.

Love those scenes - pure "little England"! An excellent backdrop, I'm thinking, for a SR "Radial" 4.4.2T loco and a couple of old SECR bogie coaches.........

On the NCC / UTA, GNR and CIE all alike, it was common practice in the 1950s and early 60s for railcar sets to tow “hauled” stock - including six wheelers, other random wooden and/or non-corridor vehicles and even goods vans and cattle trucks! I saw a pic somewhere of a Tralee - Cork train in the 50s consisting of a 3-car AEC set with two cattle trucks behind it….

And in all reality, while this "livery" only lasted three years or so, many of them were still running about like that (albeit in a filthy state) until the early 60s.... so for a 1955-65 layout, they're a perfect buy alongside the lighter green one. Surprises me, actually, that A46 - attractive as it is - sells better than the lighter green one, as the dark green was only applied to one or two of the class plus one C class, and was much shorted lived.

Could be - if it was he has no excuse now.

Was reading up about him - apparently he had a fire in his premises.......

Up there with the very best kit finish I've ever seen in any scale.

I wouldn't place any great store on RM web either!

That is truly outstanding work, Darius. The lining is exemplary. How did you do that?

It also had brake problems - I think that's why Senior set it aside. A puncture would certainly not have helped its case either! he said that's why there was a "prop" against it, as far as I remember.

In that photo of No. 2 / 8177, the cantrail has gone as have several uprights on the side. That vehicle is rotten and only fit for scrap, which is of course what happened! The GNR blue has long fadded away, so it's been out of traffic by the time that photo was taken, by a long time. The reason they considered converting any railbus was that 8178, which the UTA had inherited, was successfully being used as a civil engineer's "runabout" on the ex-GNR lines in the north, and CIE thought that they might employ one likewise. Wasn't to be - and jhbSenior used (variously) either 8178 or a loco hauling ex-GNR saloon 50 (now in Whitehead) on engineering inspection trips between approx. 1959 and 1962/3. 8178 sat down one time at Goraghwood and was shoved in a siding there until the Warrenpoint line closed and then taken to Witham Street, where it fell to bits before being rebuilt (incorporating many historical inaccuracies, as it happens, but a good job technically) in the 1990s before going under its own power to Cultra from Poyntzpass or somewhere round there.

There were various local variations as seen in those pics. The Whitehead version only has yellow lining on the cabside and cab end, but is closest to the way MOST were delivered. Red buffer beams were normal, but red buffers as such most certainly not! One of many "one-offs" or local variations. The Belturbet one is too light a green - but then again, with industrial engines there was rarely any "correct" livery. Those ungainly looking things seem to me to be missing only one thing - a great big clockwork key sticking out of the side of them!

A lot of Rustons started life with that livery - it was probably a "factory" livery. The restored Carlow one at Whitehead gives a good idea of it.

Amazing as always!

Very true! The good news, as a reality, is any amount of prototypes.... Worth adding, as far as British "Jintys" are concerned, only two were ever brought over here, and they had a comparatively short life of some 15 years, all of which was spent shunting Belfast docks. Other than a couple of trial runs on the lokes of the Larne line, they were never used in service as such.

Correct! Totally plausible, yes. There was WAAAY less standardisation here than in Britain! Many, many locos here were either one-offs or perhaps one of a pair or a trio; also, even if 20 were built, maybe you go forward fifty years and only two are left, but they'll survive until the end of steam. By far the biggest class here were the GSWR J15s, or which 111 were built - next down, you're looking at classes of 10, 20 or30 engines, and the vast majority are in classes of half a dozen to ten. And then WE look at Britain and see that some 08 shunter, class 47, or black 5 was built in the gazillions!

jhb171Senior snapped 495 in the late 1930s in Cork... Still had its Peckett-delivery mid-green livery, very badly weathered and faded. the top of the saddle tank almost certainly looked blackish. Thus, the one and only GSR loco not to be grey, other than the three 800 class!

In the winter days, darkness comes early. Here, in 1958, 472 shunts a single open wagon and is later pictured as the winter sun sets after the fire has been dropped and the firebox and smokebox cleared out. She'll be lit again at 05:00 on Wednesday for shunting the beet wagons. . In 1960, the mid-day mixed appears at Dugort Harbour with the branch loco, 650, which shares the duty with a J15 which today is having its boiler washout. . A few years later, it's gone all diesel.... here, the branch train is stabled for the night, but all ready for the early mixed tomorrow morning.

For CIE, this is a good one to have - I've two of them. Leslie's "Provincial Wagons" has two - a Great Northern one and a GSWR one. Antique as the latter look, several of them worked into the 1960s, and two of only slightly younger vintage made it into the mid 1970s, so perfect for CIE. Leslie's GNR one will suffice obviously for a GNR layout, but a small number of these vans were also used 1958-early 60s by CIE; one at least ended up in CIE livery (grey) with flying snail logo, and was seen as far away as Cork. Other GNR ones ended up with the UTA and later at least two ended up with NIR on ballast trains. In that guise, they saw service on the NCC. Studio Scale models do a brass "modern" CIE brake van for the 1960-1976 period - most of these ended up brown after 1970. No GNR ones were ever brown, either with the GNR, CIE, UTA or NIR. A small handful of the JM Design ones ended up brown but most were gone or repanelled in steel by then. So between JM Design, Studio Scale Models and Provincial Wagons, all areas of Irish main lines are covered at least to some extent, bar the BCDR.