jhb171achill

An 80 would indeed be a logical step. It simply isn’t possible to model NIR realistically at ANY stage between 1974 and the early 2000s. One must not forget that they also appeared on the Dublin and Cork suburban services, the only type of train ever to serve suburban routes in the three biggest cities in Ireland apart from the equally ubiquitous and equally necessary AEC cars. It would be an excellent choice and one can only drool at the certain quality that such a thing would have if produced. A Hunslet, too, would go nicely with the IRM Mk 2 carriages, though possibly more limited in appeal.

I believe the cover photo shows double-headed ones in UTA green pulling an Asahi into Carndonagh in 1949?

That will create great fun at Ashtown and Merrion Gates!

Much as I like the GM sound on Murphy 121 / 141 / 181 classes, I think the IRM "A" sound is by far the most realistic yet - and I remember both 141 and "AR" engines in real life from new!

In this day and age, children are watched and not let out of their parents’ sight. Sixty years ago life was simpler. I recall being “brought to work” by senior on several occasions. One involved a visit to Foyle Road in Derry (GNR side) where I observed raindrops leaking through the platform roof - it was bucketing down - and Strabane - with me free to wander from one end of Strabane to another and play on the north signal cabin steps. Playing on Dr Cox’s Donegal stuff. Stranorlar, where the track had just been lifted and I spent the time running up and down the footbridge, still in situ, spanning two lines of sleeper marks in the ground. I think there may still have been some rolling stock in a siding. Killybegs just after the track was removed. The station remained 100% intact, and the overall roof used as a fish box store. The STINK!!! Another was in Westland Row, where a large black diesel (C or A, I suppose) was idling in what I suspect was one of the old Kingstown mail bay platforms. “Stay there!”, I was told, and I did until retrieved at what seemed like an age later. Kildare signal cabin was another, and probably my earliest memory. A train swooshed through, of green carriages. ”Stay there till I come back!” Portadown, as what I believe was a Warrenpoint train came and went - “Jeep” 2.6.4T in charge. The throaty roar of AEC railcars. Lisburn signal cabin, where I was offered biscuits by the signalman, as another Jeep simmered outside with a ballast train. A friend handing a can of shandy to the driver of a “Jeep” on a ballast train…. “Don’t move. I’ll be back in a few minutes!” A GNR 0.6.0 in Lisburn, simmering in the back platform, on a Belfast local. The crew invited me onto the footplate to look, but “Stay where you are” occupied my mind. Adelaide loco depot. Coal smoke in the air, weeds between sleepers, rusty wheel sets from scrapped BCDR & GNR coaches in a long line. ”Stay there till I come back!” In the back seat of the car outside Dungannon station, seeing a signal arm over the wall and wondering if it would move, like you could make the ones on my first train set move up and down. ”Don’t move from here”……. Great Victoria Street, awaiting my aunt off a Dublin train. Smoke, steam, 207 Boyne, aunt. ”Stay where you are”…. I’m bored sitting in this station. How much longer will he be?

Crossleys, I say! Hellfire! Thrash! "C" classes!

Interesting. When the GNR lines in the west were all sacrificed on James Craig's political altar of still-unbuilt motorways in 1957, Senior was retained in Enniskillen for many months before being transferred to Amiens St., before taking up what would have been a temporary position in Great Victoria Street - but the division of what was left of the GNR some months later left him on the UTA side of the fence! While IN Enniskillen post-closure, the matters you mention were exactly what he dealt with, including the removal of a brand new concrete bridge he had replaced months earlier! I don't recollect all his utterances on this subject, but the girders from one underbridge somewhere on the Irish North ended up on the NCC during a bridge replacement there under his watch (1959-64), and the concrete beams for another Irish North underbridge remain buried (I know where!) near the line at Adelaide - they were cast but never used. What a waste. He also had to supervise the lifting of tracks he had maintained well only months earlier, and the removal of all sorts of other structures which GNR management thought might attract stone throwers or the then equivalent of claim-chasing morons....

Pints of Guinness?

Exactly! Yes, I think it ŵas summer '62, and it was indeed a publicity shot, in which, it will noted that "A6" is displayed in an experimental font which was nor perpetrated, and the white line is also not what became standard. First applications of Black and Tan in traffic did indeed tend to be more AEC railcard than anything else as they were the ICRs of the day, on most lines taking the most important passenger services. While a handful of vehicles were painted in the new livery in late 1962 to see what they looked like, it would be another year before they were commonplace. Thus, 1963 may be taken as the year when black'n'tan actually became the actual livery in practice. Any layout based in 1963-6 will still have many green coaches as well, though.

I found a photo on the smugmug site which I'd like a copy of, and publishing permission if possible. The site says that copyright is held by a number of different people. Having identified this one specific image, does anyone know how I can find out who holds the copyright and, ideally, their contact details?

They were also known as "hooded" vans by some railwaymen - jhbSenior and, for what it's worth, one old Kildare signalman who he knew, used to refer to them as such. I think the term came from an idea of a distinction between them - with internal "main line" dimensions and the older wooden framed vans, very often with lower roofs. Not certain of that, though.

I think Barry has exact dates for this. I will check. If Barry doesn't, I know someone else who should know this.

“….the carriage? I think they’re putting a storage heater in it like the one at Loughrea. Saves a heating van…..” ”Gimme a hand with these sacks. My back’s done in.”

It’s 1964. Every year, the Far North Antrim Pigeon Botherers & Greyhound Worriers Club have an event which involves a special train containing “pigeon men” and their birds, down to West Cork. The birds are released and the club’s passengers have lunch in a local hotel (no alcohol is served). Here, we see the returning train with A55 up front. Crossley sludge in your eye if you open the window…. Here, there are four full vans of pigeon crates. Not since the All-Ireland has Dugort Harbour seen a five-coach train…. This train never runs on the “Sabbath”, of course. Inspired by watching pigeons being loaded into CIE “tin vans” in Lisburn, some time in the early 60s….. . The following day, a grimy B141 shunts several wagons to the goods siding after arriving with the mid-day mixed train. A new pair of level crossing gates for the nearest crossing up the line have been delivered. That’s Tim Pat and his damn tractor again. Second gate he’s run into in the last eighteen months.

Yes, I do know him.....indeed! In the 1980s he and i used to do sales stands for the RPSI all over Ireland. Whitehead, Larne, Donegal, Carlow and even Wishht Caaark! (Upton)...

Ah! I see. No, don't know him, but looks impressive. What Irish stuff does he have?

N scale Irish? Pray tell us more.......

Couldn’t agree more! Very well said.

Mystery solved?

I knew Wilson, yes K9, years ago and I always found him to be reasonable to deal with - perhaps PM him? He’s very much interested in things UTA and NIR…. He collects photos too.

Nice - well done, Ken - great to see yet another home-grown maker of home-grown wagons. I've put my order in, folks, and I am very satisfied with what the postman brought to me!

Correct. There were very few TPOs, and while I have seen a bogie TPO in green I can't recall a 4-wheeled one. That is not to say there was no green 4-wheeled TPO - there may well have been. The "tin vans" (LV) and heating vans were certainly green as shown in those pics - but some of those two types went straight from "silver" to black'n'tan. Livery note for silver: roof and chassis and ends silver too, not grey or black - though weathering made them look almost that way.....

Ah, I see….. odd. I’ve no answer…… did you try shutting it down entirely and reopening it?

If you set it up, it's possible for you to vet - or to confirm or refuse - permission for others to post. Some FB pages will show a message to the effect that if you or i post something, it won't show up until or unless the mods approve it.

Which one, Tony?