jhb171achill

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...........

Link?

Where is all this Isle of Man, Ratio, T&D and C&L stuff? Can't find a link? And the ebay ad is all written in gobbledegook - I can't understand it....

Loud silence from Rails of Sheffield on these; not a sausage on their website, nor any update on Hattons. So near, yet seemingly still so far?

I think I met that person in a pub last night............

Yes. Jumbo and Sambo, shunters in Waterford and Dublin, and the vertical-boilered “Pat” in Cork.

You'd probably be better off trawling the archives of the IRRS?

Indeed - especially if the back story is that it's still privately owned. Guinness had their own engines to "feed" wagons into heuston station well into the 1960s; Courtaulds had little green shunters of their own - two or three of them - which, actually, I think were Pecketts themselves, albeit of a totally different design. Irish Shell BP had a little 4-wheel Planet diesel shunter at Alexandra Road well into the 1960s. It's a Whitehead now. Tiny little thing wihich would make 90 look like an 800 class...........

Looking again at your initial thoughts, and trying to shoe-horn reality into fantasy, exactly as I do on Dugort Harbour, we've many possibilities. Your layout is more branch than mainline, so this Connemara line - had it existed - would certainly have seen C classes working on it. Had the West Cork system lasted into the 1960s, you'd have seen Cs and 141s there. Had the Achill or Clifden lines have survived, same. I have two Silverfox Cs on Dugort Harbour, though they're in store right now. One is green, to represent 1957-early 60s, and the other is black to represent 1963-70. I agree with WestCorkRailway, the Silverfox railcars are woeful, right down to livery being 100% wrong in all details. Await an IRM one, hopefully! So, you'd need laminate coaches too - the IRM Park Royals also perhaps - might be a good start. Unlikely Cravens would have appeared there, but certainly possible. As to the steam engine, don't worry about the shade of green - had CIE held onto a little thing like a Peckett, it would never have been green - it would have remained plain grey to the end. But the independent company, just like Allman's Distillery in Wisht Caark, boy, might have simply received it in maker's livery and done nothing more than patch it up now and again. As W C Rly said, by the time CIE inherited it, filth would be the livery of the day! Another aspect, of course, is that your independent railway might have kept it on as a "pet" and adopted the maker's green as their own actual livery, and kept it clean! Indeed, you might order those shunters in black, if that's available? CIE did paint some engines black in the last few years instead of grey. The beauty is - no lining or lettering or anything, no crests or logos - just plain black with a number on the side! Like this - just paint the red connecting rod into weathered black and you're good to go! Remove makers plate and add a fictitious CIE number - or, keep it as it is, if it is to be still independently owned!

None were green 1963-9; the green livery ended in 1962/3 fir everything. As far as the C class were concerned, the first ones entered traffic in silver, but the last ones started off green. This was in 1957/8, so by the time the black’n’tan livery appeared, only a few years later, some went from (by now very dirty) solved straight into black. Thus, green was short-lived on Cs. I doubt if any were still wearing it by the start of 1965. First ones repainted in 1963 were black’n’tan. Later ones were all black. No locomotives of any class were green in 1969, or probably any time after maybe late 64. As for loco numbers, any number could turn up anywhere. No diesels tended to be always in the one place - they were all rotated. The C class were common in West Cork for its last few years until it closed in 1961. Even though this was only a 3 or 4 year period, Ray Good recorded every member of the class in West Cork at one time or another. By contrast, they were never all that common on former MGWR lines, and when they did venture that way it was almost always goods. I don’t think they ever regularly worked passenger services anywhere in that area bar the Loughrea branch. They shunted in Galway and Limerick for sure. Cs were not to be seen on the North Kerry much either. I am again unaware of any regular use of them on that line at all, though I wouldn’t rule out visits to Foynes. They simply weren’t strong enough for the vicious gradients in North Kerry, combined with the still-heavy goods loadings. From the mid-1950s, North Kerry (and many Midland services) were monopolised by AEC railcars, so you wouldn’t have got a C on a passenger train there. If you prefer a green C, the period to model is 1957-63; the good thing here being that within the same period you’ve the crossover from steam too! Which brings me to your last question about tank engines. In diesel days, most classes went to most places most of the time (B101, C, D, E & G classes excepted), but steam was different. For example, even in CIE days, J15s never on the Midland, J18/J19s never down south; and neither on the ex-GNR. So, to answer your question about which tank engines to look at, the first question is within what area? Ireland had comparatively fewer tank engines than Britain, but if you’re looking at the MGWR area, the J26 0.6.0T. In North Kerry, not really tank engine country. Hope this is of help.

No, but I was after a night in Coppers last night.........

Superb!

When I saw "Burnhouse", I'm looking for an old UG or SG3 shoving a couple of goods vans about, with "U T" stencilled on their faded paint!

Not at all within my range of interests, but this is a superb resource for modellers and livery fanatics (like me!)

Absolutely perfect in this setting!

Superb

180 years of the Dublin & Drogheda Railway

A couple of people cancelling or threats to do so might liven them up?

Well, he WAS a thatcherite conservative, so that’s part of the package!

They were a massive improvement for the travelling public. The trains they replaced, while far more interesting to enthusiasts, were falling to pieces.

What if the driver's an atheist.......

The "half-cabs" were only being built as the GNR becaqme CIE / UTA, so any such workings fully under a GNR banner would have been at the very eleventh hour, and thus extremely short-lived. The last of them were only completed after the GNR was broken up, albeit they were turned out of Dundalk in full GNR livery, only shortly to be either repainted CIE green, or else have a UTA crest put on themk instead of the GNR one. I did have an idea I had seen mixed formations myself in the 1960s on the UTA, but I was not certain. This confirms it. The late Steve certainly knew his onions when it came to UTA railcars - perobably the greatest expert on them I've yet encountered. We had been speaking to each other about doing a book on UTA goods stock, but sadly we never got around to it. May he RIP.

This is just amazing. One of the most realistic I've ever seen. As others say, the colour and lighting and street scene detail are just on another level. Well done.