jhb171achill

It’s beet season. The empty wagons have arrived, plus a van to bring the beet pulp back to the farmers.

Variously fine gravel and crushed cinders out of locos….even sand….. according to the guy in charge of the PW when that pic was taken!

Could well be the same train! I’ll look for the link.

Indeed; but the wording of the initial bit is, I assume, verbatim from the photographer! So unless he changes his mind…. Before I read that bit I had emailed smugmug’s own “help line”; it was they who pointed this out to me……

Hi hexagon It seems I didn’t read the writings on it properly - it says that the particular photographer (whose details are private) does not “under any circumstances” grant permission for copies, nor enter into any correspondence! I must presume, therefore, that unless anyone knew him personally and might “put in a word” for someone else, it’s a dead duck…. The photo was of a steam train leaving Dunsandle for Loughrea. It’s not even that great a photo, but I like it!

I had a footplate run on one occasion when the official speed for the section was exceeded by over 20 mph!

Only saw a train on that line once - the daily goods crossing the street in Charlestown….. he only had about 4 or 5 wagons on…… superb choice and those drawings of the crossing cottage would be suitable - and easy to build - in many applications. Its making me wonder if I can fit a level crossing on my extension station….

Very many thanks, Jason, much appreciated. Enjoy!

Having seen the finished result, I would strongly recommend changing status from “interested” to “purchaser”; that will automatically propel you to the ranks of “satisfied customer”!

That issue applies no doubt to a number of types of vehicles “at the end of the train”; BR vans, Dutch vans, tin vans in their several varieties, EGVs and TPOs. You could always flog them on fleabay for €799.99 each + postage + customs + duty + import + delivery + taxes…..

Seems no probs with that. Those who live in the north may not be aware that down here the postal service treats all of Ireland as one unit; thus, if I post a letter from Cork to Coleraine, or Lifford to Strabane, it's local rate. I am aware that a letter coming the other way has to be treated as "international" postage. Same for parcels. Now, as far as actual customs are concerned, it seems that so far anyway, the "protocol", the Common Travel Area, either or both, results in no issues for parcels posted south to north - not sure about the other way round. It's when they travel from Ireland to Britain or vice versa that problems seem at arise. The only sure-fire way around it is for those of us who can, get anything ordered in Britain to be delivered to a friend or relative WITHIN Britain or the north, and for those who live in either, vice versa. I now have routine that whenever a relative (who lives in the UK) visits me, anything I've ordered online from a British supplier appears too!

"Adult" modelling has never been cheap anywhere, and where cheap models are available of anything, it's a case of compromising quality. ("You get what you pay for"). Undoubtedly, the words "compromise" and "quality" do not even fit in the same sentence in IRM-land. Any hobby is expensive at a serious end. Look at golf clubs / green fees, or what serious-head fishermen or cyclists cough up in support of their hobbies.....

Yes, to turn round. NIR would only be ballasting on NIR territory.

Boys, you've excelled yourselves yet again. Superb job. Those vans are, I suppose, the British equivalent of the GNR's "P" vans, the NCC "Brown Vans" or the CIE "tin vans".......

I very much doubt it. IE always had a more comprehensive fleet of such things than NIR ever did! I've never heard of such a thing - unless anyone else can give details of anything?

Ah, ok, fair comment.

“A” class locos managed to get to elsewhere in Co Cavan too. On one occasion anyway, a GAA special from Monaghan town travelled to Dublin via Cavan and Inny Junction.

Sums it up perfectly! Barring MEDs, or some if the old MPDs, no two of which seemed alike, the 450 or “Castle” class railcars were by light years the worst rolling stock to travel in since the last MGWR unfitted cattle wagon was scrapped. Awful things, and of minus zero railway interest……

I believe one got to Derry at least once - a 141 certainly did.

We'll need to ask Dr. Drumm.....

This one's priceless. Now how do I organise a 00 scale working donkey cart for Dugort Harbour, complete with DCC chip stuffed up its.......well, you get the idea. Actually, serious point. Horse or donkey carts were used even by CIE at several locations for local deliveries well into the 1970s; Loughrea had a CIE horse cart almost to the end in 1975. Does anyone make models of carts which resemble this typical rural Irish type, perhaps even with modern car tyres on it, as later ones (which I well remember) tended to have? Such a cart would make a very good scenic "prop" in many a 1960s (or earlier) goods yard. As a child I remember asking Senior to take a picture of something - can't remember what it was - but the reply was "sure, who'd want a picture of that...."! I'm quite sure many a wan would, nowadays!

That was my point, exactly. They did all three large cities and also were regulars on the Belfast - Dublin line with special trains, the "Peace Train", substitute Enterprises, rugby, GAA and other special trains, and so on. They appear at Clonmel on a normal SCHEDULED service in "Rails Through Tipperary" and they appear at Ennis and Clarecastle on a GAA train in "Rails Through the West". As you say, that is by no means a complete list of their travels. It relates to a point I've made before. In modelling any line in any era, there are certain "must-haves", without which a layout even loosely based on that era and place is simply not possible. Without endlessly listing these again, we're looking (for CIE) at AEC railcars, "H" vans and "tin vans" for 1950-70, ICRs for modern times and container flats; and for NIR we absolutely need a "Jeep" plus AECs again for the 1960s, and Mk 2 coaches and 80 class railcars for the mid-70s onwards. Other stuff too; but with an 80 it's quite possible to model NIR without, say, the NCC breakdown crane, but no matter how accurate a model of that is, it won't convince anyone it's NIR unless there's an 80 there too. The 80 class may thus be taken as a "staple". I can think of eight livery variations off the top'o'me'ead, and that's before we consider several one-off centre cars, so there is huge scope for variations of a model of one of these, as there was / is with an A class.

Those ones are narrow-gauge.......

Some of us are lucky enough to be in a position to go out and buy half a dozen multi-packs of anything we want (provided Mrs. Woman doesn’t find out!), but I’m sure we all remember saving hard to have enough pocket money for one Hornby 4-wheeled wagon. I can recall giving up any hope of buying a “Flying Scotsman” at about £5 when pocket money ran at a shilling or two a week….. However, if I was one of the younger or budget modellers today, given the quality of IRM or Accurascale stuff, I’m quite sure it would be feasible to buy a pack of three (employing the Bank of Mum & Dad) and keeping one and selling the other two individually to others in the same boat…..?