jhb171achill

Teenagers can be handy oul yokes now & again! I used to have a few relatively tame ones, but they’re all thirty-somethings and 40 now!!

Ye on the sauce, John?

Fantastic as always, gents - very well done indeed.

Just awaiting lining, lettering and nameplates.

A very nice UTA “Jeep” today, with a 1990s “Enterprise”…. IMG_0717.mov

I would doubt that, to be honest - I think that some PO were numbered consecutively. Eg the tank wagons the GNR had were numbered in the same series as CDR narrow gauge ones! I stand to be corrected, but I doubt if there even 196 POs in the whole country…..?

Presumably Ranks Nos. 1-8 had GSR or CIE on these plates?

Fantastic stuff, and well worth opening this discussion again for. As can be seen, the mileage of PROPOSED railways ll over Ireland at various times probably equalled the mileage actually built! While researching Clifden, Achill, Loughrea and one or two other projects that are ongoing, I've come across numerous possible routes to all three. Loughrea was served from Attymon Junction, but at one time there was a proposal to make it a terminus of a line from somewhere around Claremorris or Ballinrobe. Another early proposal had it on a more southerly MGWR main oine, while another again would have seen it as the terminus of a WLWR branch from Gort, or a GSWR line from Portumna! Both Achill and Clifden had 3ft gauge proposals which came to nothing, as well as 5'3". In the case of the former, Achill was not even supposed to have been the terminus - Mulrany was; and any possible extension to that was to go north to Bangor Erris and Belmullet, not west. In the case of Clifden, one proposal - among the most nonsensical ever seriuously put forward anywhere - would have resulted in a HORSE tramway around Connemara's coastal villages, and the journey from Galway to Clifden would have taken 4-5 hours, even if they had later brought in steam trains. Then, as now, the hearts of some rule their heads. Same as the chorus we hear today from some insisting that all closed lines should reopen. Some should never have been built in the first place. While I have no plans at present to write a book on the "might have beens", I may refer to this issue in coming scribblings.

Yes, it was. People standing the whiole way from Connolly! No trolley, of course, eithre.

A few weeks back - end of November or early December.

I was on it recently and the advertised DD was an NIR railcar. I had upgraded (online) to 1st class. I contacted IE for a refund of the supplement. In doing so you get passed straight to the NTA, who "assess" the claim and then redirect it to IE. Only today, some six weeks later, do i get a message saying my claim has been upheld (well, the cheek of them stating the obvious, when they would have zero right NOT to refund!). No money, of course, for ten days or so. It's only €16, but its the principle. Suppose I had booked a group of 20 people in? I'd be out of pocket for perhaps two months by several hundred.

The norm in Ireland - though not exclusively so - was that railway companies owned the wagons but leased them to private operators, or else reserved them for their specific use. As Mol points out, though, the Ranks ones shown appear to have a different cast plate, which could indeed indicate RCH, but perhaps more tellingly is the wagon number painted on - No. 8. if that was a GSR number, the wagon would probably have to date from before 1870! The two newly painted ones will be red, and the "G S" ones plain grey.

Leading vehicle behind 402 dates from 1877, and the one behind 801 dating from 1902!

Wow! Absolutely spectacular!

Is this an earlier W & L design or a GSWR one? Either way, it certainly suits the Hattons model. Prior to WLWR as such, flat-ended W & L ones existed, but I don’t have any details to hand.

The difference with WLWR stock was that while the side panelling was very much like this, the ends were bowed in rather than flat. Common on the MR & GWR in Britain, this style was unique here. Since this feature makes a considerable difference to the overall design, these yokes are unsuitable for WLWR. If anyone wanted to model the WLWR specifically, six-wheeled Midland of England stock would pass generically. They do. On a layout, though, the difference isn’t quite as noticeable for some reason.

Sure he wasn’t the Londondean of Derry?

Is this one DC or DCC?

Senior spoke of seeing gigantic and heavily laden Cork mail trains leaving Kingsbridge in the 1930s. I wish I’d paid more attention to his descriptions of the loads, types of coaches and vans, and locos. Obviously 400s were prominent….

Never saw an orange one - any pics?

A 3D print of these would be good - very much a part of a 1960s scene.

You too!

I’ve a good stock of these beauties now, but I also had a set of four actual GSWR ones from Studio Scale Models. The SSM ones are beauties and correct for Irish loading gauge. The Hattons ones were done in an Irish livery because as will be seen, they resemble very much the GSWR “house style” in design. But they’re British in width! See below. Despite that they look perfectly acceptable among the SSM ones. It’s important to note that the Hattons design does not even closely resemble the design of coaches on any other Irish railway, and would thus - to be honest - look peculiar in GNR or MGWR guise. But, GSWR or GSR liveries, yes, as actual GSWR stock carried both! The closest you’d get in any other Irish company, and it’s a long shot to be fair, is DNGR. See the “real” GSWR design, as in SSM, compared to Hattons’ generic design, below:

Winter sunset, Castletown West, Christmas Eve, December 1964. Stock for Tomorrow’s Christmas Day service, which CIE still had until 1965, awaits at the platform. One coach is plenty - it’s not going to be busy. As usual, a C or a B141 will provide haulage.

Old colour pic from 1958 showing the branch set during shunting at Dugort Harbour. The last surviving Bandon saddle tank was put out to grass at Dugort Harbour for its last fifteen years.