jhb171achill

Just found this now. A proper little gem - very well done indeed, and I also like the rusted siding. Very nicely lit photos too - very realistic.

Looks like a Thurso - Kyle of Lochalsh Bulk Haggis train.............?

Superb plan, Mark - very well thought out and very realistic. To your questions: (1) Yes, 6ft typically, not less. Sometimes more within stations. (2) No! At termini, most were quite wide - up to double track width is a reasonable rule of thumb, though Kingscourt, Achill, Clifden, Kingscourt & Edenderry less so. (3) It varied. From perusal of MGWR boardroom minute books, which I have consulted quite a few times over the last 30 years, 40-45ft was normal. On a branch, 50ft would be a bit of an overkill. Might be relevant here to mention that "Rails To Achill", currently sold out, is going to go to a 3rd edition, according to the publisher.

Great info, thanks! The "cutting down" of sides was done in early NIR days to assist track gangs in shovelling ballast out of them onto the track. Primitive methods back then!

For your era, 1900-05, you have the interesting "quirk" of an occasional loco or coach in the very short-lived "tourist" livery of blue, which appeared about 1903 but only lasted a few years before reversion to the older liveries. "Normal" MGWR of that period is emerald green lined black and white for all locos - unusually, they painted goods and shunting engines that way too (many companies reserved the colourful liveries for passenger locos and painted other stuff black). Carriages were mid-brown with gold lining (yellow after about 1905). Wagons were a very dark grey, with some goods brake vans and drovers' vans being a very dark green. There's a model in authentic livery of one of the latter in the Malahide Model Railway Museum.

Continually. Suppose someone in Sligo had a customer in Belfast, Enniscorthy, Nenagh and Bandon. You're going to get a MGWR goods van on GNR metals, DSER, GSWR and CBSCR respectively. Locos and coaches not so much, obviously. The SLNCR would scarcely ever have a goods train without at least some GNR and GSR constituent wagons in it. maybe different down in Wexford, where few would not be DSER, or West Cork, where fewer still would be "foreign". Equally, few wagons on the BCDR or northern parts of the NCC weren't "local", but SOME would have been. But overall, yes, wagons got about all over the place. Coaches and locos would be confined to one-off excursions, usually, though in some cases companies had running rights over the lines of others - for example, up to 1901, trains of WLWR and SLNCR origin were operating over the MGWR line from Collooney to Sligo. Superb stuff, Galteemore - that CIE van really is the business. My comments re liveries are based on a paper catalogue I obtained a couple of years ago, in which unfortunately the (numerical!) majority of the card kits had incorrect liveries. That said, liveries aren't everyone's cuppa tea, I know that; and as you say they can be used as templates or repainted correctly. They are extremely good value for what you get. His brass kits - yes - every single one above is incorrect livery wise, but an absolute beauty to behold otherwise. So, overall, I would not "knock" them.

Very true indeed - I have some of those!

Do beware of one aspect of the Alphagrafix range, though - the vast majority are wrong livery-wise, sometimes completely so in all aspects; however if right, they are very nice little kits and not expensive.

Though real, it looks like a badly "colourised" photo! The film-makers got the "SNCF" livery wrong too - nothing the SNCF ever had was remotely like that...!

Hi Mark, just noticed these questions now. 1. I have no record of white being used, and early photos suggest a duller colour, so I suspect the beige is what was on the window frames. 2. Yes, those SSM wagons are fine, and the JM Design horse boxes likewise. JM Design also did a kit of a G3 2.4.0 - an iconic and ling-lived design, certainly appropriate to the era you have chosen (and many others!). Maybe John (JM) might comment as to whether this kit is still available?

Odd, isn’t it!

Indeed; similarly, the three “Hunslets” were ordered by NIR against the advice of old UTA engineers, but to please the politicians in Stormont who insisted on “buy British” the loco engineers wanted 181s after seeing almost a decade of the 121/141/181 story being highly successful with CIE. We could easily have had three maroon 181s….

16 feet is twice 8ft; thus a station area of 8ft & under a tunnel / scenic break to a fiddle yard of the same. 8ft might still allow a run-round loop if some 3 bogies’ length.

Ah! A customer tube. Tis how I travelled the world incognito…..

What’s an ICR?

Hi Mark So that’s about 11ft in “old money”. From the first set of points to buffers on Dugort Harbour is about that, and the loop comfortably allows four bogie coaches to be run round. The issue is where it goes to once it’s leaving its terminus - can it go beyond the 3.6m length to a fiddle yard? I am assuming here that the width of the boards is maybe something under a metre?

What sort of space do you have available, Victor?

The gallows have been prepared……. (Actually, you’re right, even if they’ve got the shade of blue quite wrong!)

Once I get everything 1955-65 up’n’running, the next stage is a world of grey steam engines (in somewhat cleaner state than CIE had them!) and a mix of maroon and darker green carriages to depict 1945-49. Hence my continual whinging about six-wheelers! I have high hopes for the Genesis coaches from Hattons…. We now have the excellent KMCE Models producing the sort of ancient goods stock in common use in GSR days (and later). Provincial Leslie does the GSWR guards van, so we’re sorted! Once someone does a RTR 6w chassis, turf wagons can be made up out of just about any oul junk in the spare bits box….

It will also have the De Deitrichs in CBSCR olive green, and the West Clare railcars in BCDR maroon.

Inspirational stuff! In terms of finishing, does anyone know if correct UTA lining is available? Many UTA loco and coach models seem to have yellow lining - possibly influenced by the RPSI’s own Whitehead carriage livery (which is not, nor was ever intended to be, a replica of UTA) - rather than actual UTA style - red/straw*/red on coaches and red/pale yellow on locos. (* a pale beige/cream colour) I should add, of course, that NCC lining was straw & maroon - very different indeed. The Fry model of No. 5 shows that up well….

IRM have privately told me the ship left China at 11:59 this morning, and is due at IRM Towers at 00:01 on 1.4.23. The shipment will be in two containers in complementary liveries.

Congratulations on another great release. Must be an all-time record to have them all sold out by 12 noon on release day! I want one in MGWR lined green, and also in GNR blue & CDRJC red for Eamon Ryan’s new Sligo - Donegal - Derry-Hi line.

Easy to fix - saw chassis in half & take a centre section out, glue back together. Yes, far too long as it is….

I’d be more interested in IRM here!