jhb171achill

They mostly stayed on their old haunts at first, though one wooden coach ended up briefly on the Loughrea branch of all places, and another ended up even further afield - West Cork. In both cases their stays were brief, and both were old wooden ones thus brown - no wooden panelled GNR coaches ever got the blue and cream livery except No. 50, the Director's Saloon. By the time they started straying beyond home territory they had typically been repainted green. At least one - 114 (brake 3rd) remained in blue and cream until (I think) 1967, as (I think) the last GNR coach to remain in GNR livery in use. But I think it stayed on the GN section. Once CIE took over the GNR remains in the south, because they were based in Amiens Street, the first (and in most cases ONLY) place on CIE where GNR locos, railcars and coaches would have been seen was the DSER. They don't seem to have penetrated the MGWR much, and the GSW hardly at all. I have never seen any evidence of a single blue and cream coach venturing onto the GSWR or MGWR sections - though it could well have happened. Such an instance, I reckon, would have been rare if it happened at all; over years and years of voraciously trawling any photos I can ever see, I have yet to see one example of it. Within a short few years, anything GNR which ended up on CIE was repainted green, and from 1963 on, black'n'tan. The UTA tended to keep some stock in GNR blue and cream a little longer; examples were still to be seen until maybe 1964 or so - my solitary recollection of a GNR coach in GNR livery was a brown one in Lisburn around 1964 (though I cannot be certain of the date). Several GNR & BUT railcars remained in blue and cream for a while, albeit with the letters "G N R" painted over, and a UTA crest substituted for the GNR one. Nothing "clueless" about your good self, murphaph! Yes, just a delay. All three were in CIE stock. If 136 had been UTA property, it would have had an "N" stuck in front of the number. It is likely that it had been fairly recently painted when CIE took over, so a few years later it's still wearing its GNR clothes. Meanwhile, one of the two in the distance has been repainted between 1958 and 1962 (green) while the other has just been repainted more recently - after December 1962 / early '63 - in black'n'tan.

Would have been very nice and very scenic, but there's nothing up there which would have made a railway line even close to being economically viable, unfortunately. Given the topography it would have cost a fortune to build, too, and would probably have needed quite powerful engines to deal with very severe gradients!

Surrounded by some great reading material!

If I set that up in our landing, I would get into very serious trouble with the Dept. of Domestic Matters (Planning, Clearing & Tidying Division)....

Three GNR coaches at Amiens St., 1963/4. For modellers, this triple-liveried pic also shows clearly GNR 3rd class upholstery. (H C A Beaumont)

It's a fairly easy concept in engineering terms. It's not so much that they "cared"; their job is to get people from A to B. They re-engined the Cs because (a) spares for AEC railcars were becoming hard to get, and (b) Dublin suburban needed capacity. Old railcars and GM-powered Cs were the best solution at the time without spending huge sums of money. Indeed. Having said that, no need to unless its necessary.

That's superb. A template for a truly unique layout.

Actually, Shillelagh would make a TRULY fascinating layout. It’s small, so perfect as a small layout terminus, but also unique as the one and only true DWWR / DSER branch line. A perfect home for some of your stock, Ken.

Good move; supporting the RPSI too!

A thing of beauty…!

Yes, she’s in the Ulster Folk & Transport museum at Cultra. She was one of a trio; 800 (1939) and 801/2 (1940). The other two were scrapped as steam ended in the very early 60s. They were the biggest, fastest & strongest steam locomotives ever to run in Ireland, but never got much chance to show it, as first there was the fuel crisis 1942-46, then diesel railcars took over most main line passenger services in 1950, and diesel locos in 1955.

That would have been interesting - though they already had an alternative in Inny Junction - Clones - Porteedown….

Any idea what state it is in now?

So it’s not just LIKE 114 at Whitehead - it IS 114 at Whitehead!

Wagons were indeed great wanderers. There were common sightings of wagons with “G N” in West Cork and Kerry after CIE ate the remains of the GNR, and in my Achill book there’s a picture of a DSER van at Achill.

An 800 in Limerick, 141s and laminates on the Derry Road, MGWR and GNR six-wheel carriages on the BCDR main line, a Mk 4 in Killarney……the mysterious Clogher Valley van on the Glenties branch, a GNR wooden clerestory bogie on the Loughrea branch still in GNR livery, and another the same in West Cork…..”A” class locos in Monaghan, a GSWR 4.4.0 in Achill….. the list of oddball exceptions almost equals a bedroom layout with a Hornby Jinty hauling IRM fertiliser bogies, and a Murphy 141 hauling the Orient Express, with a Union Pacific goods caboose on the end…..

Love the prototypical weathering!

Indeed! She was under repair there - I’m guessing he took that picture in the mid or late 30s.

I love all those GNR carriages, Leslie. Are they SSM?

Mid 1930s, DSER-side GSR Dublin suburban traffic with a "Bandon Tank". I may have posted this before - leading coach is DSER third, not sure what the others are. Second one could be GSWR or DSER - can't get a decent look at it. You'll notice another train disappearing into the distance. Second pic is a view of the 1st class section in an AEC railcar on the Harcourt Street line. Third one is an engine in a state of indecency........ (All H C A Beaumont)

Nothing more on that line, Ken, and indeed not all that many off the DSER. As he travelled back and forth to school on the Harcourt Street Line, hung about H St. at weekends trainspotting with his friend, and saw things Inchicore-based as more "exotic" - and was not at all a prolific photographer - he saw the DSER as more "routine" and took very few pics anywhere on it! I will have a look now and see what I have, though.

Great news - that's a fourth author working away that I'm aware of. Hopefully many more!

W O W ! ! ! Amazing work!

Shillelagh, mid 1930s. (H C A Beaumont)

Well, it's Hornby that I blame for the obsession with having wagons of all eras, in all liveries, with a black chassis, or ironwork picked out in black! Sure they also did model steam locos in yellow..........! Not sure - they would swop them about. Not sure - they would swop them about.