jhb171achill

Now that’s a suitably civilised breakfast!

A bit late in the day to ask, but will this affect train services tomorrow?

THAT's not catering - there are BEANS on it!!! The horrors.........! Yes, but they did put extra air bubbles in the Aero to compensate.........

These are obviously plain canvas and quite new. Usually they were dark grey or black, as they were coated with some sort of waterproof stuff, and impregnated with coal smoke!

The IE catering staff were almost all foreign, mostly Polish. I knew quite a few of them and I’m aware many went home during the covid. I daresay this is what’s afflicting the caterers.

MORE "edgy" than Strabane? ...ye gawds...........!

One of Ireland's least known but best modellers ever in live steam, was the late A R W Montgomery of Bray, Co Wicklow. Alexander Randal William Montgomery was born in Dalkey in 1878 and lived in Bray, and was a very close friend of both jhbSenior and H J A Beaumont (my grandfather). He died in Bray in 1966. A highly accomplished modeller, he sought engineering drawings from my grandfather in the Drawing Office in Inchicore, and built a number of 3.5 inch gauge live steam locomotives, all in full working order except for the models of GSWR No. 36 and B1a 800 "Maedb", which he never fully completed. When he was getting on in years he gave his models to jhbSenior (don't I wish I had ended up with them!), who in turn donated the lot to the then-fledgling Ulster Transport Museum, where they were displayed in Witham Street. One more is believed to be hidden in the catacombs in the National Museum in Kildare Street. The models were finished to an exceptionally high standard - I remember seeing them in his house in the very early 1960s. I'm not sure they're on display these days in Cultra - does anyone know? If not, they ought to be. The one in Kildare Street also needs to be rescued. Here are the last two models he made, photos taken by Senior about 1962 at our house.

Had a look at their 4mm stuff too. The goods van they list at the top of their list would do as an old GSWR type if it had vertically planked plain doors.

Looks great - the off-centre door does tend to “disqualify” it, though. Having said that, lovely model and I know what you mean…. Looking at Slaters’ website now, I don’t see anything 4mm - seems all 7mm? Plus - minimum order for Ireland seems to €140!!!! Back to fleabay….

I had a look at that, Mark, but the off-centre nature of the doors suggests that even a generic approximation of a pre-1910 GSWR van would be easier to just scratchbuild. I think there comes a point where amending a RTR model or a kit becomes harder and more time-consuming than a scratchbuild. It might be worth it if an accurate model of a prototype was the result, but I don’t think this one suits….

Yeah, me too - though lining and lettering were never my strong point, to be honest! Yes, it’s an old Slaters kit. I might get another and put vertically-planked doors on it - that would better resemble what it’s meant to be an approximation of. But it’ll do for a quickie job!

If you look at the original wagon, the doors weren’t full height. Obviously, on a real van, be it a “soft-top” or not, the door would be full height, so this had to be disguised; the solution being the canvas cover just about covering the top part of the wagon side, thus making it look like a full height door. Finally, painting. Next will be couplings, flying snails, numbers and heavy weathering.

I spotted a Midland Railway (of England) high-sided open coke wagon as a kit, which I thought could be converted to a generic GSWR (or at a stretch, CBSCR) “soft-top”. So, off we go. First, cutting small curved bits of plastic to raise the (previously level-topped) ends. Next, the roof parts, each a curved bit of plasticard. At this stage I was going to leave the centre part open, as it would have been when carrying cattle, so I made the two end sections of roof. However, I could have saved myself a bit of work as I then spotted a glasses cleaning cloth and decided it would make a good canvas cover! So, a piece was cut out and glued to thin but very strong paper. Once set, it was shaped and glued in place.

My attempts at hand lettering would be somewhat inferior to putting a spider in a pot of light green paint and having it walk across the wagon side! I’ll use transfers….. though in the case of the wagons, as per prototype of very much older wagons in the 1955-65 period, they’ll be so worn and grubby that it would’ve been almost impossible to make out the markings!

The wheels for mine were ordered ages ago, and are in a packet in Wales awaiting my next visit!

Out came the paintbrushes tonight. I lost them plus paints months ago. I knew they were somewhere about, so I couldn’t bring myself to buy new stuff. Lo and behold, they turn up this afternoon when I was looking for something else, having been hiding in plain sight….. So, a reasonably productive afternoon. Weathering next, and these being old wagons, it’ll be very heavily done. The carriages will need black chassis and ends, and a new (black) roof, as they resemble WLWR prototypes, which didn’t have Triang clerestorey roofs! Got these two old Triang monsters on fleabay for £3 each…. Delivered to Daughter-in-Wales; had they been posted here, no doubt the customs, post office, VAT and Brexitstan would have resulted in an additional €397.43 in charges.

Got sick of seeing this little DWWR beauty unpainted, so out came the brushes tonight! So here’s its last time sans paint and grubby weathering….

Shunting at Dugort Harbour in 1955… . ….and the midday mixed leaving on two days ten years later in 1965….

Just for info, there's a B&B near me on BACK ROAD, Malahide. can't recall name, but if you google B&Bs in Malahide, you'll get it. 20-odd minutes' DART from Connolly. Dunno if they're full or not. The reason the prices are so high that weekend is that there are several major GAA games on in Croker, plus a few other events on in the city centre. Plus, the tourists seem to be coming back to Dublin in droves.

The GNR had a few also, some with quite a long wheelbase. CIE had an old long-wheelbase crew van of some sort on lifting trains in the late 1950s, which was of GSWR origin. While elusive photograph-wise, such images as I have seen of it suggest that it might originally have been built as a drovers van, although other sources suggest it was purpose-built as a crew van. If I can find a suitable pic I will post. Brake vans, like cattle wagons, are a much-ignored subject, worthy of a book of their own. (Any takers?)

Never!

I can rent camping spaces in North Dublin for a mere €295 plus customs, vat, brexit and postal charges....

Now, that would be an ecumenical matter. OK, the kettle one.....!

Irish companies never officially allocated locos to sheds - but they did allocate TYPES of locos to lines or routes, according to traffic and driver knowledge. Adelaide would have had everything. Suburban tank locos, goods and passenger engines large & small, dock shunters, etc....

For the times that are in it. B129 & 800 at Inchicore, 1962. From the P Dillon collection, given to me a couple of years ago.