jhb171achill

YOU are getting it right, Skinner, indeed; a pity that many sellers or importers beyond our shores can't be bothered to read the guidelines!

There's a lot of modern-image stuff you'll like, murphaph.... containers and orange locos galore! For "A" class fans, a feast, as this was a stamping ground for that class at one time. The occasional "oddball" working too, such as an 6-car 80 class set at Clonmel on a Sunday working, and four "G"s stuffed in the loco shed at Thurles. Naturally there has to be at least a LITTLE steam in colour.....including 800!

There's a lot of modern-image stuff you'll like, murphaph.... containers and orange locos galore! For "A" class fans, a feast, as this was a stamping ground for that class at one time. The occasional "oddball" working too, such as an 6-car 80 class set at Clonmel on a Sunday working, and four "G"s stuffed in the loco shed at Thurles. Naturally there has to be at least a LITTLE steam in colour.....including 800!

There's a lot of modern-image stuff you'll like, murphaph.... containers and orange locos galore! For "A" class fans, a feast, as this was a stamping ground for that class at one time. The occasional "oddball" working too, such as an 6-car 80 class set at Clonmel on a Sunday working, and four "G"s stuffed in the loco shed at Thurles. Naturally there has to be at least a LITTLE steam in colour.....including 800!

Tis my plan indeed! I rang the Quack yesterday to find out when I can go… As of today, the publisher has got a delivery from their printer, and they’ve put it on their website and Amazon* today. (* personally I refuse to get anything from this parasitic company! Buy from publisher….!) Sure does! Borris-in-Somewhere!

Just got a text - this has arrived from the printers now. Now Barry and I can mull over what’s next…… if and when we’ve time, as if we’re not struck down by the covidpox…..

The K class was broken up years ago mostly at Oranmore, bit by bit - first there was the basic loco minus many a thing, then much of that was disposed of, then finally the basic shell of the engine block. The two surviving CSET steam locos are, of course, two-thirds of Downpatrick's steam fleet (both currently in working order, I think) with the other third of that fleet being GSWR 90.

The G & E classes.... E421 & E432 at Downpatrick, and E428 at Dunsandle. None in working order, though the pair at Downpatrick, E421 in particular, are very much restorable. E428 would require a great deal more work, as many bits are faulty, broken or missing - one major part which is beyond help and would need to be replaced was priced at £5000 sterling about 20 years ago. G611, G613 and G617 are at Downpatrick, with G617 in working order. Again, the other two could easily be fixed up; time, manpower and money permitting. G613 is owned by the DCDR, the other two by the ITG. G601 and G616 are at Carrick, neither working, both ITG-owned.

Superb stuff, westcorkrailway. Your green is more accurate than Silverfox's, as it happens! That railcar is in BR green..... but to be fair, it's not that far off, and I have to say I like their latest version of the railcar.... thinking of ordering one, actually, as they were an absolutely essential part of the passenger scene in the 1950s and early 60s - every bit as much as an ICR would be today.

Thirty years ago, while RPSI treasurer, I had a massive argument with the vat people in the north, who wanted some £30k for something backdated. Eventually, I went through their own rules and legal piffle and proved to them by quoting their own rules back to them, that they were wrong. They dropped their claim, but not before I made serious personal complaints to the highest levels about two specific individual staff, who were like mini-Hitlers on speed.

Aerial view of Dugort Harbour tonight, with tomorrow morning’s mixed ready to go; an extra coach on market day. ………… CIE have agreed to present No. 800 “Maedb” to the Belfast Transport Museum. It was stored briefly at Thurles prior to going north, but who knew it also spent a short time at Dugort Harbour? The guy whose idea it was to send it down here was committed to the Home for the Bewildered after it hit its second bridge and came off the road for the seventh time. Here, watched by locals, railwaymen, rubber-neckers and gricers alike, it is shunted down to the loco road.

Embankment collapse, Castlecaldwell, Co. Fermanagh, on the Bundoran branch in 1956. (H C A Beaumont) --------- Lisburn with Great Victoria Street - Portadown local, mid 1930s. Note coach which was once a steam railmotor. (H C A Beaumont)

It used to be that once a manuscript was ready and all agreed between writer and publisher, it would take about six months at the very least before books were in shops. Now it can be turned round within weeks, once all are happy with the production.

Ah, I don't like those oul cattle trucks! In reality, bogies and everything "below" would also be grey in that livery...

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and suspect that not one person will agree with me; I would love to see an ICR in black'n'tan, or 1950s green, snails an'all...! Or a NIR 4k in UTA green..

I wonder what they’ll pair her with. Perhaps 071 or 073?

The GSWR Inchicore tradition of sheep-dipped grey lives on, 106 years since it was first seen…..

Whaaaaat!!! Amazing! I’d love to see that - is this real or photoshopped? Love the monochrome crest…

Me too! They only missed that livery by some four years….

Plain grey!

Senior was on the footplate of a Bandon tank too - he said you couldn’t swing a cat in it, and they were uncomfortable to travel on….!

I had several footplate runs in the 1970s and 80s where speeds well in excess of what official decreed as appropriate were achieved. One was about 1980/1 on a down train between Templemore and Thurles with an 071 and about ten bogies. He was trying to catch up a bit of time - we had left Heuston some minutes late. We hit 88 mph, and later on sent a stray sheep into orbit..... When the DDs and 201s were brand new, I had a run on the Enterprise in the cab one time (only). Between Dundalk and Drogheda was largely newly relaid - tip-top order. Yer man notched up and away we went; 105 mph. I'm not sure what the limit was - but it wasn't 105! Senior recalled a teenaged run on the Schull & Skib in one of the four-wheel coaches. The track was so bad and the coach was swaying about so much, he ended up being sick over the end balcony!

Indeed. I have seen pictures of decent colour quality showing locomotives of the 400 and Woolwich classes, which look exactly the same, despite the fact that they are of locomotives known to be, at the time of photography, GREEN! I must get round to posting pics of my two weathered J15s. These were delivered from 00 Works in GSR / CIE grey, but once weathered realistically look like this. As often mentioned before, this is what made some GNR blue locos and CDR red ones look largely black, especially around the boiler and dome, and what led to the impression that most, rather than just some, of the CIE steam fleet in the 1950s were black rather than dark grey or even lined green.

Branch Line Heaven! Some inspiration for operations on branch line termini…. this is from 1935. I love the old rubber stamps on railway documents.

A reasonable point, considering that the design work for the mid-1910s rebuilding of them was all done in Inchicore, and by the same team who were working on trying to standardise as many boilers as they could, right across the GSR. Certain drivers and crews would have vehemently disagreed. The driving position was on the other side on the Midland; not a small detail to a footplateman, though less obvious from outside the cab, of course! Plus there was the old company loyalty thing, like NCC versus GNR in Belfast. The late Billy Lohan once told me that J18s were, in his words, "scrap", and by his admittedly highly pernickety judgement "weren't properly looked after by Broadstone" (he was a "Southern" man through and through!). Billy was most certainly not the man to whom it might be wise to suggest that he was generalising!! So I said nothing............! He went on to regale me with a story of taking empty cattle trucks from Tubbercurry to Ennis for a fair the next day, one time. He was given a J18 which was not in the best of order; in fact, it was on its way to Inchicore to see the vet. The brakes failed and he swept away a pair of crossing gates with it, and the air turned blue.......!