jhb171achill

Not sure, LM. My dad knew him well, as he was a GNR man. I’ve a notion his origins might have been south of Portadown somewhere but I could be wrong. There was a PW Inspector Thompson who both my dad and William were very friendly with. Did you know him? (And who could forget Noel Scott!)

Indeed! The farmer you mention is Brendan Ferris - a true gentleman. As you say his sheep demo business is right ON the track bed!

Not within my modelling era preference, and something I confess to knowing less than zero about, but totally right. Your info on this thread is invaluable.

I remember “Mr McIntyre”!

Very nice job indeed!

Strange American train horn sound for an IE loco! Interior shots are a laminate.

Easy to weather too!

These are good quality and broadside, and show the original condition. The liveries are "works grey", not the actual liveries ever carried. For official photographs, the first of each was painted up in various shades of white, black and light grey shades to show detail. Contrsats, such as dark ironwork and pale bodywork, were not carried into real life. Livery notes for all of the following are: GSWR wagons: All-over DARK grey, ironwork, roof & chassis included. Lettering white. GSR wagons: Dark grey as shown on the GS grain hoppers, equivalent to LMS grey in England - again, all-encompassing. Ranks wagon - at that stage, all over dark grey. CIE grey after c.1960 was lighter than any of the above. Locos: 36 & 123 lined dark olive green, same as 90 at Downpatrick. The four in light grey, lined or unlined, would also have got this livery up to about 1900, and lined black between then and 1915, after which the all-grey appeared (in real life)! The coach - very dark "crimson lake", lined - as per the shade used on Downpatrick's No. 836, or the RPSI's 1142. Loco 850 - not sure. The white motion certainly wasn't used in traffic - the rest seems very dark, possible poor light (hence the white?) This locomotive would have been grey when new. The pics are from an old collection in the hands of a friend of mine: 204 appears to be standard dark grey, while the MGWR tank, with no lining showing, must be in the 1918-25 MGWR black.

Yes, they were indeed - the initial glossiness of the black, same as on other CIE roofs in green and black'n'tan eras, would last about four seconds flat before becoming matt!

Nice looking book. I wonder if it starts in the early days with photos of 121s when new, and both them and 141 / 181s in black'n'tan? Or is it just modern photos (IE, Supertrain), does anyone know?

That would be weathering. They were all painted black in actual fact. If you want them to look weathered, which of course would be far more appropriate than anything pristine, a grey background would be too consistent - I would paint them a way darker grey and weather it heavily.

Brilliant! And your painting idea is a very good one too. That size will give many possibilities as you have outlined. Best of luck with it.

You mean colour of roofs? That would be black.........

That explains it!

Hardly "railway heritage", though!

What's the "railway heritage" bit?

That's one of the Malahide Castle (as opposed to Cyril Fry's) models from the 1990s Malahide Castle layout. If anyone is interested I will post pics of others next time I'm in the storage place.

It was painted brown, but a one-off. Departmental stuff was generally all grey, including carriages for transporting staff and used as crew quarters, except steam cranes which I am nearly sure were plain black all over. That particular crew van was seen all over the south west at the time when Valentia, Kenmare and West Cork were being lifted. I believe it was a purpose-built maintenance train van, not (as was more usual) a conversion of an old coach. It has a normal number rather than an "A" series number. In later years, departmental vehicles received several liveries. An old GSWR third, No. 837, was painted a brown colour, and while most other old converted coaches got standard wagon grey, albeit with all sorts of one-off markings, some old coaches were painted in old green paint, probably to use it up, with red ends. One old WLWR third, which had been briefly used as a camping coach in the early 60s, retained the Donegal-esque red and cream (which actually looked very well) into its departmental days and eventual scrapping at Mullingar.

Noel, this stuff is inspirational. Your in-depth experience and knowledge of the railway industry inspires what goes on at Tara junction perfectly - and of course, prototypically accurately.

Meant to add, if anyone is ever making a model, upholstery according to jhbSenior was red.

Wow - not a pay packet will remain intact all year! Great news, though..........!

The GSR had four of these, entering traffic in 1926 in Pullman brown and cream, which was probably the inspiration for the brown & cream colour scheme applied to many main line carriages between approximately 1927/8 and the late 1930s. Later, of course, they would be maroon, and CIE green in their final days. They were fully seated in later years with the snack bar removed. For modellers attempting a conversion, note the matchboard plank lower panelling, unlike British ones, and window spacing different from British ones.

Some more details on these unique vehicles, after which I’ll post a drawing of one If them in the scale drawings section of this website. All of these clips are taken from various issues of the “Railway Gazette” in 1925/6. Bottom pic is the 2nd page of top one….

The GSR Pullmans, from a 1926 article. They were tried out on the Sligo line and into Limerick, probably via Nenagh; one per train. They eventually “settled” on Dublin - Galway and Dublin - Cork.

Ah! Well, there we go - we might live in hope?