jhb171achill

And we're off! If a mixed comes IN, and also LEAVES as a mixed, it's twice the work - and we're not into the beet season yet, nor is it Cattle Mart Day.

Now to sort out the first three and the open wagon with barrels in it. First, the wagons to go are placed in the cattle loop. Next, the wagons between them and the van have to be put back in the goods platform road. Back they go. Now, the passenger set is drawn forward and backed down onto the wagons which are to go. Routine everyday stuff; today busloads of enthusiasts would descend on the place to witness such manouevres. Passenger set attached to goods wagons, then drawn forward and reversed into the passenger platform having also attached the van. Time to do the brake test and check wagon couplings.

Nowadays, if a train arrives at a terminus, the driver switches off and walks to the cab at the other end, switches on again and awaits the green signal to go back whence he came. Until comparatively recently, all over the world (and possibly in a few places still), there was a great deal more to it than that. On many traditional branch lines here, the daily service was two passenger trains and a mixed. The mixed would usually be the branch passenger set with whatever trucks were necessary tagged onto the back. What follows shows the sequence when a passenger service arrives, and departs as a mixed - only. First, the branch set arrives as a passenger train. The loco detaches to run round. Yes, I still need to add the vacuum bags, etc........ Next, the loco runs round. There are several vans and an open wagon at the goods bank to be added to go back to the junction, but the brake van has to be retrieved from a line of other wagons which are to remain. This will involve pulling the whole rake out, isolating the van, propelling the other wagons back into the siding, and placing the ones to go against the van. The vans are removed.

Superb! How did you do that?

Yes, and typically so for the period - it's probably a Youghal train. The first is a GSWR 3rd (now "upgraded" to 2nd) - one of quite a few of the same type built in (I think) two batches about 1907. The next is interesting - outwardly obviously of the same company and period, but that larger end window is throwing me; possibly a later conversion of something that started out like the first coach. The van is a six-wheeled standard GSWR brake of 1890s origin, or thereabouts. On the right is GSWR side corridor composite of 1915-1925 era. Incidentally, this picture shows very well how the post-1955 lighter carriage green weathered from its pristine state (first coach) and "flatter" hue as on the others. Coal smoke and brake dust accelerated this dulling-down, of course.

And this afternoon, a narra-gauge visitor from Brexitstan (the driver got lost).... And featuring a SUPERB ballast train of NIRs..... IMG_0189.MOV IMG_0188.MOV IMG_0189.MOV

“Thought I’d find you two eejits behind this” ”What!!! Who tipped YOU off?” ”Never you mind. You’re both under arrest….”

"There's two more down here, gimme a hand down" "Where do we put them now? They've already told the guards they're missing!" "We'll hide them behind PJ's shed - he won't know, and the guards'll never look there..."

Sehr gut, Andreas, wilkommen!

I was at the nearby Quainton Road preservation society a few years ago - it was brill!

An impressive looking thing, even if I would never even begin to understand what all the buttons or for, or the numerous signs and labels. It seems, from the narrative above, that IE staff will not operate this thing at all, but instead a team of people employed by a specially set-up Irish subsidiary of the makers - is that right? Seems over-the-top in terms of administration - and somebody's company CEO salary and dividends. Could this be like the creeping and insidious "privatisation" of the British NHS by introducing more and more "private contractors" and "specialist firms", and "partners"? Just a thought. On a completely different note, any time I see the latest thing that maintenance and PW people are getting, I wonder what my father, a lifelong PW Civil Engineer, would have made of it! Old-school as he was in many ways, he was always keen to embrace new tech, and was pleased to be one of the first to get hold of the GNR's first ever tamper, which he deployed between Dundalk and Inniskeen before the GNR's Eastern District snaffled it........

Then it's got mixed up with Senior's stuff! There's no chance of either copying from the other, as they didn't know each other.

No idea, Steve - it was all in with the same stuff. I will attempt to delve. Looks familiar to me too.

Yes, always way more common in the south-west. Despite being a GSWR (WLWR) line, their activities were even rare north of Limerick to Sligo, though as one might expect, they were somewhat more common on goods trains on both the North Kerry & South Kerry lines. Even with weedsprays, forays onto the GNR and the Midland were as good as unknown. They were never in regular service on anything on those systems.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=william+ulsterman+sketch&view=detail&mid=F76D7DDFAF7E4FC04373F76D7DDFAF7E4FC04373&FORM=VIRE

This is light years beyond farcical, and totally unacceptable. Let's see what happens with MY recent order for stuff from Noo Zealand! What sort of mess will An Post make of it! Anything I order in the Republic of Brexitstan I get delivered to my daughter in Walesland..... so that's ONE solution....

That it truly, utterly DISGRACEFUL. One for Joe Duffy, in all actual seriousness.

Ah! There we go; mystery solved!

I thought that too, though I wondered if the platform the photographer is standing on is a bit wide? It certainly is not Hilden, Dunmurry, Derriaghy, Adelaide or Balmoral. So we’re narrowing it down! I would be less familiar with the Bangor line halts at that time. It’s not Knockmore either, nor anywhere west of there.

I thought it might be Lambeg, on the down line, i.e. heading for Central / Bangor - but no footbridge is evident.... somewhere about there, yes, no doubt.

Thank you, northroader! I'll add to it next time I'm bumbling about Malahide station - there are a few more details I should be able to add. Pity blue 4.4.0s aren't among them nowadays!

That's exactly what it's doing. I travelled on that set at the time. 101 was on the back.

It's 106 that I got a cab ride in - I believe it was the last of them in traffic, though 103 seems to have been kicking about late on as well. Latterly, the last survivors were rarely used. Incidentally, I saw a pic the other day of one at Kingscourt. That was a VERY rare outing; forays north of Dublin were almost unknown.

I've a pile of these things which I got in a house clearance - I'd pass them on for whatever it costs to post them, or a token donation......

Indeed!