jhb171achill

That BCDR 4.6.4T seriously looked like a monster, but as you say, the looks weren't matched by the performance, like the quare wan you met in a nightclub at 2 am when you were 19......... Senior covered the whole BCDR at least once, and the main line and Bangor and possibly elsewhere) at least one more time. In all cases, I believe he travelled on footplates with a pass his father had signed. He used to say that the BCDR 4.6.4T ate coal at a voracious rate, though I'm not sure if he footplated it personally. He rated the BCDR 0.6.0s highly and had a sprightly run down the BCDR main line on the footplate of one with a fairly heavy load.

Regrettably, it seems he doesn’t have any current plans - but we may live in hope!

I would agree completely. I had a yarn also with Roderick and the market simply isn't there - and regrettably so - if it was, and a re-run was going to be likely, I'd be after a UG, and possibly a U also, in UTA livery.

Correct - and if they ever DID stray, it would an extremely rare “one-off”.

Until the late 1960s and the advent of fitted trains in the 70s, very few indeed and most were one-offs, or maybe 2 or 3 of a kind. The standard Irish wagons in loose coupled days were all four-wheeled - there were equally few six-wheeled. Offhand, the only examples I can think of were a small handful of specialised flat wagons. Can't think of a single example of a van on any line other than the GNR's grain vans, of which one is preserved at Whitehead.

I think it was.

Indeed. ON the Midland, as such, as far west as Newport on the Achill line.

I’ve one and am highly satisfied with it.

Yes - to be seen in many places.

Correct. That’s the drivers WiFi.

And then there were so many stations on main lines but at very small places en route. They also often had small stations. No reason why a building in such a place couldn’t be copied as a terminus building on a layout…..

Yes. Semi-circular too, on quite a few goods sheds. Several on the Clifden line too.

More so it would be variations on a standard theme. I thought of another small one of a slightly different design Maam Cross, also Ballynahinch (Co Galway).

If you wanted a small goods shed, the little red brick ones used on the MGWR at many locations would a suitable model and easy to make. They had a standard design though varying details. The ones at Attymon & Dunsandle spring to mind but there were loads more of the type. From memory they were usually about 18 feet X 12 feet or thereabouts.

Excellent “back story”; I always like to hear of the rationale of a “might-have-been” layout. It’s a very plausible one. If I had a euro for every plan made in real life to build new ports it develop others, with and without rail connection, that I’ve read about over the years I’d be a rich person. Also, had matters historical between 1959 and 1961 played out only slightly differently, you could have seen all sorts of CIE stuff in Donegal (or Donegal railcars in Lahinch….).

The GNR ones were actually quite different from the SECR (Hattons) ones - however - “Rule 1”! Several at least were in use well into the 1950s.

It does indeed, and it IS a main line train, though the jury is out as to exactly where. No branch would be likely to have a train that length (other than an emigration special, at a stretch), or a bridge wide enough for doubling of track.

Very likely is. They very likely worked the Streamstown - Clara line in Midland days and would equally likely have shunted at Mullingar and/or Athlone. Probably not - but - Streamstown was on that line too, and the branch that diverged there for Clara could well have had them, more than likely! So a model of that station would be good, with the added interest of a branch junction!

3rd November 1975, and the very last train pulls out of Dugort Harbour, watched by rain-wearied Kerry sheep. The line has been goods-only since 1967, and will now slumber for forty-seven years before Eamon Ryan reopens it as a cycleway for Lycra-clad people only (except Enda). A23R takes the last few empty wagons away.

I'm tempted by that GNR passenger Y van......... need to check which was the one which ended up (briefly!) in CIE green.........and find a rationale for it to be pockling about in Wisht Kerry in 1963...............

Well spotted!

It's the Fintona horse. I can feel it in me waters. Never mind these oul things on wheels.

Very certainly the up line in Lisburn, yes. Chimneys of the old linen factory in the background. There's a shappin' centre there now.

Under "A", it was not just ex-GSWR stock used for non-traffic purposes - it was stock from ANY company. many crew vans in PW trains numbered in the "A" series were old MGWR six-wheel coaches, including both at Downpatrick and the ones in Whitehead and Clifden.

Some good points there, which reminds me, as John suggests: for a 1900-10 period layout, "modern" 4 wheeled goods vehicles are inappropriate, as much so as an ICR on the SLNCR. Some of the earlier wagons made as kits by Studio Scale Models, the old GSWR goods brake van by Provincial Models, and the excellent range of DWWR wagons made by KMCE are the only show in town. Some mainstream manufacturers make open 4-wheeled wagons which, while technically a bit too modern, are OK as viewed under the "2-ft Rule". Provincial Wagons' SLNCR / GNR cattle truck kit is again technically too late for such a time by a whisker, but would fit in more than adequately. As John suggests, the "soft-top" or convertible van was by far the most common wagon on most (not all) lines. There were some dedicated cattle trucks which were open-topped too, short wheelbase of course. Padraig's research on all things MGWR is indeed comprehensive; in connection with my current research project I am going through his notes in detail, which he derived almost in their entirety from the boardroom records of management meetings of the MGWR; they correspond with my own notes from the same source, as noted some twenty-five years ago. Indeed, on my last visit to Padraig before his untimely passing, he kindly gave me a box of index cards of volumes and page numbers of all this stuff, which saved me much time in research. However, his own notes had some slight differences from those of the late Bob Clements - despite Bob's well-deserved reputation of probably the greatest historian and railway enthusiast of the 20th century, and his unrivalled knowledge of locomotives on all railways, the two of them both can't be right! However, such differences are very minor - one that springs to mind is that of goods brake vans, and nomenclature. O'Cuimin describes (as John quotes above) "brake vans" - but without specifying whether this is intended to imply ALL brake vans or only goods ones; if the former, passenger brake vans were indeed brown, but goods ones were elsewhere deemed to be grey, same as wagons. The 1874 type were green indeed, but also cattle drover's vans were. There is a model of one in the Fry collection, and it is a dark green. With Fry having started his working career in Broadstone, I am inclined to believe that his is the right colour, but such vehicles would not exactly get a repaint every couple of years like passenger stock would, so O'Cuimin's description of a "light" green could well be the darker shade badly faded. jhbSenior took a picture of one still in Midland markings in the 1930s (pic in "Rails Through Connemara"), and he said that while he could not be sure, as far as he recalled it was faded grey. O'Cuimin mentions "Passenger Train Wagons"; this would apply to horse boxes and flat carriage trucks, nothing else. Over a century has passed, and there are rules 1 & 2; ("It's MY layout and I can run what I want", and the "2-ft rule" - if it looks OK 2ft away, it'll do"). So minor alterations may not bother 99% of us - but the above is for anyone interested in strict accuracy. In 2089, there will no doubt be a layout with a 141 class in maroon and black........... or a brown A class with "014" in bright blue on the ends.......and I'll be pushin' the daisies and weeds up in Mount Jerome.