jhb171achill

I’ve working timetables for the line more or less fully from 1926 to closure, if that’s any use. Until early 30s, two mixed trains a day. Consist would have been a J15, a brake third and a 1st / 3rd composite, both six wheelers, plus maybe half a dozen goods vans or wagons.

Fenit, a few of the pics from from Rails Through North Kerry… showing the pier, cranes and a few beet trains, more or less the sole traffic in later years. Note a highly unusual livery variation in pic 4 - number on wagon end!

I'm afraid it's long out of print, and I only have my own copy! Might be worth contacting Colourpoint Creative (the publisher) in Newtownards just in case they find any in their warehouse! It sold out in a flash, which pleasantly surprised Barry and myself. (We've No. 5 in the series in preparation, but it's a long way away geographically, and a long way of time-wise as both of us are up to our eyes with a million other things!) I'll put up pics later. Exactly - that's what Dugort Harbour is based on, though set in West Kerry.

A perfect potential location is a place called Inishlyre in Co Mayo, just north of Westport. There was a serious proposal in the 1890s to construct a small branch off the Achill line to serve a proposed new harbour there (which never materialised). Had the line been built - and it nearly was - it would have ended in nothing more than a run-round loop and a single adjacent siding, which would have continued onto a new pier. Pulling together references to this proposal, plus an on-site survey by me last year, it would appear that it would have ended up something like this - if anything, the perfect small-space shunting layout. Add another siding for the craic and away ye go. There is nor reference in MGWR papers to any proposed buildings at all, but it's likely there might have been some sort of small rudimentary shed.

There are a few pics of Fenit in my (and Barry Carse’s) book “Rails Through North Kerry”, which show the cranes too. What is below is based on a planned branch off the Achill line to a place called Inishlyre in Co. Mayo.

Usually the interior had a mid brown from floor to waist level, and cream above that. I don’t recall any variants, but there could well have been. The inside of the end verandas on ALL brake vans on all lines was the exterior body colour. Before anyone cites the fact that Whitehead's “Ivan” van has cream inside its balconies, that is wrong…..!

Very observant!! Most had NO vents, but many had! I’ve fairly reasonably established there was no hard rule. Myself and the late, (great!) “Lambegman” of this world, aka Steve Rafferty from Lisburn were collaborating for many years on what we had planned to be a (big!) book on Irish wagons. Like you, Steve had a major mental “database” of Irish non-passenger stock. I was working on pre-GSR stuff when he sadly passed away, and he was investigating BNCR, NCC & BCDR stuff. Unfortunately we never got to get this project anywhere close to completion. Such is life, boys’n’girls….

Just 3 or 4 had, a month earlier. But the GSR(s) took in many more.

That was quick!!!

Today is the centenary of the Great Southern Railways being established…

Teenagers can be handy oul yokes now & again! I used to have a few relatively tame ones, but they’re all thirty-somethings and 40 now!!

Ye on the sauce, John?

Fantastic as always, gents - very well done indeed.

Just awaiting lining, lettering and nameplates.

A very nice UTA “Jeep” today, with a 1990s “Enterprise”…. IMG_0717.mov

I would doubt that, to be honest - I think that some PO were numbered consecutively. Eg the tank wagons the GNR had were numbered in the same series as CDR narrow gauge ones! I stand to be corrected, but I doubt if there even 196 POs in the whole country…..?

Presumably Ranks Nos. 1-8 had GSR or CIE on these plates?

Fantastic stuff, and well worth opening this discussion again for. As can be seen, the mileage of PROPOSED railways ll over Ireland at various times probably equalled the mileage actually built! While researching Clifden, Achill, Loughrea and one or two other projects that are ongoing, I've come across numerous possible routes to all three. Loughrea was served from Attymon Junction, but at one time there was a proposal to make it a terminus of a line from somewhere around Claremorris or Ballinrobe. Another early proposal had it on a more southerly MGWR main oine, while another again would have seen it as the terminus of a WLWR branch from Gort, or a GSWR line from Portumna! Both Achill and Clifden had 3ft gauge proposals which came to nothing, as well as 5'3". In the case of the former, Achill was not even supposed to have been the terminus - Mulrany was; and any possible extension to that was to go north to Bangor Erris and Belmullet, not west. In the case of Clifden, one proposal - among the most nonsensical ever seriuously put forward anywhere - would have resulted in a HORSE tramway around Connemara's coastal villages, and the journey from Galway to Clifden would have taken 4-5 hours, even if they had later brought in steam trains. Then, as now, the hearts of some rule their heads. Same as the chorus we hear today from some insisting that all closed lines should reopen. Some should never have been built in the first place. While I have no plans at present to write a book on the "might have beens", I may refer to this issue in coming scribblings.

Yes, it was. People standing the whiole way from Connolly! No trolley, of course, eithre.

A few weeks back - end of November or early December.

I was on it recently and the advertised DD was an NIR railcar. I had upgraded (online) to 1st class. I contacted IE for a refund of the supplement. In doing so you get passed straight to the NTA, who "assess" the claim and then redirect it to IE. Only today, some six weeks later, do i get a message saying my claim has been upheld (well, the cheek of them stating the obvious, when they would have zero right NOT to refund!). No money, of course, for ten days or so. It's only €16, but its the principle. Suppose I had booked a group of 20 people in? I'd be out of pocket for perhaps two months by several hundred.

The norm in Ireland - though not exclusively so - was that railway companies owned the wagons but leased them to private operators, or else reserved them for their specific use. As Mol points out, though, the Ranks ones shown appear to have a different cast plate, which could indeed indicate RCH, but perhaps more tellingly is the wagon number painted on - No. 8. if that was a GSR number, the wagon would probably have to date from before 1870! The two newly painted ones will be red, and the "G S" ones plain grey.

Leading vehicle behind 402 dates from 1877, and the one behind 801 dating from 1902!

Wow! Absolutely spectacular!

Is this an earlier W & L design or a GSWR one? Either way, it certainly suits the Hattons model. Prior to WLWR as such, flat-ended W & L ones existed, but I don’t have any details to hand.