jhb171achill

If we go back to Railway Commission reports and plans of the 1830s, and right up to more wacko and downright delusional plans for various rural branch lines up to about 1920, we would have a network of railways never built, which probably was almost as much as what WAS built. When researching for the books on the Achill and Clifden lines, I found some seven or eight schemes in those two areas which were not built - and in the case of some of those proposed, requiring huge engineering features in virtually uninhabited country, whoever dreamed them up must be have been smokin' the funny stuff! I am currently almost finished a book on another MGWR branch, and in its formative years there were also several proposals which were stillborn. Equally, with the one I've just started recently. Not only that, but extensions to BUILT ones often were strange. There were four extensions once proposed to the Achill branch, each one more impractical than the last!

Pretty typically, a cross-border goods train (which I saw every day 1960-70) was 35-40 wagons, the vast majority covered vans. At the dawn of the decade, a handful were UTA, but of ex-GN origin; I don't recall ever seeing a NCC or BCDR type on the GN main line but it's hypothetically possible. Most were CIE, either wooden or "H" vans, as time went on these dominated. Palvans appeared from the mid 60s. Grey "bubbles" appeared then too, in ones and twos scattered through the train. Guard's vans were inevitably standard CIE. All wagons, of course, were grey - the brown ones only appeared in the early seventies, but which time containerisation and bogie wagons weren't far away. There were few open wagons and almost never flats; literally never "ordinary" tank wagons. If you're going to go for a 20-wagon consist, may I recommend a typical formation might be one SSM CIE guards' van, ten Provoncial "H" vans, five Provincial GNR vans, one in GN livery, one UTA, and three with CIE logos. Very occasionally, for parcels, a CIE "Tin Van" was included. Also, two Provincial "Bullied" opens, one wooden open (anything repainted) and two grey bubbles.

I really need to get on with the scenery. Thanks to my Learned Friend who was here today, all of the trackwork bar one siding, a turntable road, and the fiddle yard are complete, with wiring well under way. The area in the foreground in the last picture of B141 will be a boggy area, as found adjacent to many a railway (and everything else!) in the souih-west and west. I'm reading up on online tutorials about scenery at the moment to see how best to tackle this; I will omit, of course, the clouds of midges which ate my arms the other day in Co Mayo. They're a bit fiddly to model anyway. I was able to get a very realistic bag of turf sods on fleabay, made by a German manufacturer, and I need to get to grips with grass-making machines..... and varnish for the ditches and pools to masquerade as boggy stagnant water.

Passing the same spot in the other direction two years later, B141 has the 11:40 goods for Cork as it slows to enter Castletown West.

That is MIGHTY stuff - well done.

Yes, it is. More DAS clay needed, then ballast, undergrowth, bushes, buildings etc etc.

A42 trundles away from Castletown West on the last leg of its journey with the goods from Cork. Having dropped off 34 wagons at Castletown, this is what’s left for Dugort Harbour. One goods van with soap powder, gas cylinders, bags of flour and a few parcels, and a couple of open wagons to bring turf back, and a couple of empty cattle trucks to take some sheep up to the midlands. It’s 1962.

Looks absolutely outstanding!

Highly recommended to all.

I think it’s shut, actually, to house Ukrainians, though that means nowhere to stay within a billion miles of Maam cross……

Is Peacocke’s open again?

GSWR 837 of 1902, sister of the DCDR's restored 836. Previously prvately purchased by a now-deceased RPSI member and, i understand, given to the RPSI in his will. The other coach in there, 813 (GSWR 1910), had been privately owned too by a group of about half a dozen RPSI members (it was never actually owned by the RPSI), but as these folks were the regular Mullingar work squad 30/40 years ago, 813 ended up based in Mullingar shed as a tarry / restroom for volunteer workers there. The group of owners recently agreed to let the vehicle go to Maam Cross on condition that it be kept under cover and looked after. It appears to be inside the shed there now.

Fantastic shot! Shows so much interesting details, e.g. BCDR signals.

Was about to say.....IRM do these sort of things now and again, and Mark's Models have a fgood range of Oxford stuff at reasonable prices too.

€76 million would seem a reasonable sum, then.....

I love the fact that the station there was acually a much older "re-purposed" house - not a common thing on railways anywhere, not just in Ireland. Soller in Majorca is the only other one such that springs to mind.

Yes, it's no longer safe.

Yes, Taras are a matter of absolute pot luck. I did a "watch" on them for two months last year for a friend who is accumulating information on them for an eventual IRRS article, and there was barely a day they went according to anything remotely close to the timed paths. On at least one occasion i heard one at exactly the right time, and rushed to the window to see, only to discover that it was pure coincidence - in fact, what i heard was one going the opposite way, itself two hours out of path. Regarding timber and containers in and out of Ballina and Westport, with many passenger trains to cross on single lines, I guess that these go very much more to timetable. Someone with a current WTT (not me) would be able to elaborate. Kildare is a good place to spot these.

I’m contacting Santa and the Tooth Fairy. Well, I DID get an extraction the other day. Think I must be owed a good bit for it.

In theory, all of the following could authentically wear GSR livery: 1. The MGWR six wheeler at Clifden. 2. The one at Whitehead. 3. The two MGWR ones at Downpatrick. 4. RPSI heritage coaches 1142 and 1337. 5. IE’s 351. 6. DCDR’s 1287, 836 and 1097. 7. The two liberated from Mullingar this week. There’s a dozen vehicles! Oh yes, DCDR’s No. 69 (6 wheeler) also.

It’ll need a complete rebuild first, but yes - GSR livery appropriate!

813, from memory, is about 1908/10. I’ll check when I get home.

813 (the green one) is going to Maam Cross, and 837 (the brown one) to Whitehead for preservation.

Any of these overlays left, I wonder?