jhb171achill

A bright day in summer 1965, and B141 is heard above the seagulls as it idles its way down to Dugort Harbour with the mixed. Only one van to unload today, with rolls of Irish Linen from Brookhall Mill for the local textile firm, O'Shea's who make linen souvenir goods for tourists, and some cases of Persil for McInerney's Cash Stores. Seen from a hill opposite the station, B165 shunts the following day. C201 appears in Dugort Harbour with a rake of empty trucks one day in 1966. Coal boats, once reasonably common here, only turn up about three times a year now, but when they do, the coal is unloaded into wagons and taken away.....

On a murky day in 1957, A30 approaches Dugort Harbour with the 08:35 mixed. On a bright summer day in 1960, No. 472 leaves Dugort Harbour with an overload goods. Two years later, in her last year in use, the same loco is seen shunting at Dugort Harbour. Yes, it's about to rain. "OK, Here's one. The Englishman an' the Scotsman an' Irishman walk into a bar, an' there's a rabbit sittin' there with a bottle o'stout in front of him, an' a woman on his lap......" "I'm tellin' ya! Thirty five vans an’ a drover’s van, over the summit with 120 pounds on the clock…. If anyone could keep time with that lot it was him, even with THAT coal…..” An almightly thunderstorm is about to erupt one summer afternoon in July 1963 as A42 brings the afternoon connection off the down Tralee train into Dugort Harbour.

On 19th September 1961, the afternoon train crosses the Dugort River as it approaches the Harbour station. "Tell ye what, the overtime on the weedspray will be good - three weeks all over the system" "Yeah, but sleepin' in that oul van, and you've the stink of the weedkiller on ye for days afterwards - sure it's worse than fair day in Ballinasloe!" "Yeah, but the up goods has to be held at the junction. The special will be in the next section at the time, which means we'll be looped at Farranfore for at least half an hour, and gawd help us if the down mail is running late. That would mean we're not into Tralee until maybe eight...." "Paddy! Would ye give Martin a shout an' tell him if he wants a lift up to Tully gates, he'd need to get a move on!"

(The neighbouring branch to Drumbane, which lost its passenger service in 1947, is in the process of being lifted in 1968). "Twelve miles of it pulled up over the last few days, sure they'll have buses all over Kerry before long" "Well, I suppose with the mill gone in Drumbane, and the mart moved to Kenmare, there's been nothing much over the line since the fuel crisis..." "What's he doin' - growing the damn tea leaves? We've to leave in ten minutes. Where's the Rich Teas, anyway?"

"Thing is, once you leave Cobh you'll be fine. The boat's at nine tonight, so you'll have plenty of time. Your stuff in the ship went six weeks ago so it'll be in Cape Town by now..." "It'll be hard getting used to the heat, but sure there's nothing for me in Castletown these days... dunno even when I'll be back!" Note on an old colour slide from 1966: "This morning's 11:40 leaving Dugort for Castletown".

Hold on...... that's a MODEL? WOW!

There are two, potentially. The LNWR livery is well within the “two foot rule” for DNGR livery. The LMS is suitable, albeit with some amendments, for GSR livery.

Generic looking stuff - not identifiably Irish….

I’d ask Nurse for different medication!

My guess is - for a good while. There has been talk of (a) hourly services and (b) 90 minute services* for at least a third of a century. Think budgets, necessary tax, costs, votes, and the gombeens that we persist in voting for, with zero incentive to plan long term. ZERO. Result: ain’t gonna happen unless the EU (hopefully) forces us to. (* With ever increasing journey times due to said gombeens having no interest in bulldozing north Dublin to create a 4-track line from Drogheda to Wicklow, expect journey times over said sections, no matter what tube-shaped “customer” train is operating, to take the same pedestrian times over the same sections, as the Dublin & Drogheda railway in 1844, and the Dublin and Kingstown railway in 1834; or possibly the donkeys before them!)

This will be Cork! An 800 plus the solitary Rosslare-liveried “Woolwich”!

Would the one with 583 not be 1960 rather than 1950? Wheel handle on wagon brake....

Exactly!

This in all reality is utterly ridiculous. In my dad's time, if he decreed that a level crossing was to be replaced, the local council got a phone call to say the railway was starting it on Monday, and it was done.

Brilliant stuff, Gibbo! Yes, they were. There were two used on the Loughrea branch, though I don't know their history, I believe they were used to bring fuel in for the resident G class locos. One was believed to have a tank which originated on the West Clare, probably to bring diesel toi Kilkee to fuel the railcar which did the Kilrush branch shuttle. However, such vehicles were as far as I know, always "departmental" wagons, rather than used for commercial traffic. As an aside, for the general readership, with no petrol industry or milk tank traffic here, tank wagons were extremely rare in Ireland, and almost all that we ever had ( a few exceptions) used for railway use.

I ate them all….

I’ll do me best, LNER!

Nice - and a green “D” class with it!

Senior used it a lot on the GNR in the 1950s too.

They certainly LOOK like they are in them, all right.... and, while I could be completely wrong on this, I do have an idea that i've seen other pics of these types of older (smaller) containers inside open wagons. Must have a delve! My curiosity hath been suitably piqued; but I'm off to the Island of Man in the morning, where there doth be steam, so it'll not be for a few days..........

Interesting one - the body could indeed pass as an approximate CIE brake van, but the wheelbase is completely wrong - it would need a totally different chassis.

The guy clearly hasn’t a clue what he’s selling!

The GNR AEC cars were more or less the same as the CIE ones; detail differences existed in terms of guard's compartments and heating boilers etc. But basically the same type of yoke. Very noisy especially when accelerating, but in terms of seating comfort, by light years the most comfortable railcars ever to run on this island, especially in the first class. Heating could be an issue; when it worked, it was fine!

That’s common parlance for that wheel arrangement, because it is denoted as such; Bo-Bo.

Yes - once Dart+ starts, all trains from Rosslare and Belfast into Dublin will be HSTs; Highly Slow Trains. What sort of lazy research is this......surely, whatever amateur clown designed this could at least put a picture of something that actually ran on this island; a Skibbereen tank engine missing a wheel would be more appropriate than an HST in a 1990s livery........ Complete with a logo of an organisation which ceased to trade in this fashion in 1996 - 28 years ago! Bring back the flying snail...........