jhb171achill

472 again, entering Dugort Harbour with empty cattle wagons.

Very much so! A masterpiece indeed. I sent a photo of a grubby one with the loco to him. As might be expected with a livery like that, especially when their first 18 months or so were in the company of the last steam locos, they got dirty very quickly in real life - I wanted this one to replicate that. The black'n'tan one I have will end up being only very lightly weathered, to suggest it hasn't been in black'n'tan very long.

Most of those particular ones in 1940s.

“……Ultimately, a camera with manual overide, so you can set a small apertures and a long exposure (five seconds or more), seems to work best.….” I wonder is there some way of imitating that process with an ordinary mobile phone?

The photos of your own layout(s) that you post here are absolutely superb - but so is the subject matter - inspirational scenic surroundings too. The way mine is, you've natural light on one side of the room only, as it is in an attic room with two velux skylights beside each other, but no natural light on the other three sides. The artificial lights are ceiling spotlights, which shine straight down above it. Neither are ideal, so I have a stock-in-trade four or five angles from which I take most images. Today as the daylight was just starting to fade I tried a combination - indeed, that was the case when I took the above. Using a proper camera it might have made some difference, but it was marginal with an iphone. I might get some sort of table lamp rigged up at a different angle some time, though it's going to be way down the priority list!

Indeed - of the pics I've posted of this layout, virtually every one has been initially cropped within an inch of its life, otherwise you'd see shelves, a Christmas tree, suitcases and gawd knows what other junk looming behind the train!

Finally for today (well, 1965), two "A"s at Dugort is a rare sight. A55 is on the midday passenger train, deputising for the usual 141 which is away double heading a GAA special, while A12 is deputising for the normal "C" on the goods, which is having its weekly servicing.

1963, and B121 "yanks" have appeared in Dugort Harbour. "Yes, it's got a hotplate. I can warm the tea in it. I tell ye, these things are the way ahead"

I'd love to get a job lot of little male figures with cameras and plastic "pac-a-mac" coats, to recreate a 1960s IRRS "Outing", as they were quaintly called, or one of those LCGB / SLS tours....! .............................................................................................................. "Straight out of Inchicore. Smell the new paint! They reckon they've all the problems fixed now." "Gimme a hand with these sacks..... oh, and you should stick a shilling on "Mayfly" in the 2:30 at Epsom...."

I've often seen photos taken professionally of high-end exhibition layouts in the regular monthly "comics" from brexitstan - and the level of realism, already stupendous, is enhanced even further by carefully posed, carefully lit professional photography. The end result can have the viewer wondering of they're looking at a layout or a real scene. I cannot replicate the lighting, nor the professional photography, and I suspect I'm not alone; but here are two similar pics taken just with a bog-standard iphone, which as far as I am concerned is as good as it's going to get! It's easy to focus on front or back, but not both. And the distortion of the lens, whatever way it's set up, means that things near the right and left hand of pictures have the vertical distorted. Any tips on how to improve would be very welcome! Two views of the same thing, the morning mixed from Castletown West to Dugort Harbour - one with the front in focus, one with the back in focus.

It's a sunny summer day (funny how the weather never changes at Dugort - can someone make seasonally variable backscenes?) in 1965. The goods appears with C201, a regular on the line, now fixed after the last time. . ..........and having shunted and done its business, it departs again.

It's 1959, and Dugort Harbour is still mostly steam-worked, bar an occasional green or silver "C". J15s rule the roost usually, though there's a 472 class saddle tank and a Midland 2.4.0 which appear also. Here, 472 rounds the curve with cattle empties. But we have visitors today, as the goods guard notices. "Here! Mikey! Who's that fool eejit UP the signal post?" "Ah, don't mind him, he's one o'them train spotters from Dublin. Mad as a bag'o'ferrets. Sure he was MEASURING that old van at the back of the long siding. MEASURING it, I tell ye. With a measuring tape. Jack sez he was up in Castletown taking pictures of the footbridge yesterday. A FOOTBRIDGE! An' writin' stuff down in a notebook...." . And a better view of ex-CBSCR No. 472 from the ground, the last of her class and moved from the West Cork system to be the pilot engine at Castletown West.

.....at 07:00. ".....I've left them in a string bag on the handlebar of your bicycle. The ones in the greaseproof paper are sandwich spread, and the ones in the BROWN paper are for Tommy, with no tomato....you got that?..."

Correct, that's what it was. Beautiful vehicle - I was in it on RPSI May tours, and also on the DCDR! I think that's 47M (originally). Doesn't look very "Midland" as it was heavily rebuilt either by the GSR or more likely CIE as a departmental tool van. It ended up in private hands and the owner agreed for it to go to Downpatrick, when other storage options ran out. Unfortunately it was in very rough condition. If that's the coach I think it is, I inspected it at Downpatrick years ago and found both damp rot and dry rot all over it. The chassis wasn't too bad, though, but the bodywork was by this stage unstable. One night at Downpatrick about 15 years ago or more, very strong winds simply made it collapse - that's how bad the body was. So it has ceased to be...............

First thing in the morning a light engine and van appears at Dugort Harbour to work the branch for the day, as the loco shed there was closed in 1931. This type of practice was to be seen in places like Baltimore and Valentia Harbour. On a hot sunny summer morning in 1967, it's A12's turn. She's in fine form, just out of Inchicore.

1965 - Another day, another failed Crossley. B141 cosies up to C201 which has arrived in Dugort Harbour and failed - again. The crew will take her back to Limerick to see what magic they can work on her. "Any idea what's happened her?" "No, just can't get power. I'd a similar problem with A20 at Farranfore the other week...."

Does it not mention the compartments / side corridor bit, which were still there when the RPSI got it?

1097 is an interesting one. In original form it was a tricomposite, with both side-corridor (1st and 2nd class) and open (3rd class) internal configuration...... now at Downpatrick, where it's actually been for years, but owned as seagoebox says by the RPSI until comparatively recently when it was transferred to DCDR's ownership. WLWR No. 900 is, for those who may not be aware, locked up in a shed at Belturbet station in storage.

Along those lines indeed, MikeO, though while original internals would have been little altered in its passenger-carrying life, the exterior livery would have change from WLWR maroon at first repaint to the GSWR’s very dark purpley brown. It may have had the off-white upper panels for a while but not necessarily. This “dark lake” colour would have been maintained after amalgamation albeit now with GSR rather than GSWR markings (not that different!) until eventually probably being replaced by a more LMS-like maroon in the mid 1930s. It is possible that it went straight from the dark lake to CIE green. At some stage after 1945, CIE green. It may or may not have ended up in the lighter green. Internally I think it remained a saloon but cannot be 100% sure of seating.

I took these for a friend the other day, Dublin & Drogheda Railway, Dublin & Kingstown, and Ulster Railway. 7mm scale, of course.

Excellent stuff - a very rare beast which I was unaware of.

It's been said before and doubtless will be again; but we all owe a great debt of gratitude to makers of both RTR and kit Irish stuff. I'm sure I'm not the only person here who came back to modelling purely because of this, in my case after some 40 years of "life", and items built at 12 ins = 1ft scale occupying me for 30 of those. distracting me elsewhere. So, well done folks. (Now wheres me tin vans........)

I believe it was converted to departmental use in the mid 1960s. It remains the sole surviving thing on wheels from the W & L Railway.

Give it six months and they'll be on fleabay for €699 (+ €109.65 postage, + €767.51 customs, + €809.23 VAT), along with a seller's message "please do not contact me in relation to the price"...........!

Excellent weathering job - superb pic!