jhb171achill

Ah, got ye. I was looking at a vid on youtube last night which showed E430 arriving for WISRA at Attymon. Incidentally, a local person in that area last year told me that the locomotive now at Dunsandle (An "E", for those who don't know - E428) was the "steam engine which ran to Loughrea", while another mention of it elsewhere maintains that it was "the first diesel locomotive in Ireland"! I get the idea of a different image; given that they "morphed" into a rail excursion operation, that's perfectly logical. Interesting you mention the RPSI carriage liveries. About 15 years ago or more, the then carriage officer had a dream of having all the RPSI stock in a sort of pseudo-"Orient Express" livery, with dark blue and gold lining. Thus was born the controversial all blue livery which eventually was on three Cravens. It seemed to divide opinion as badly as tRump's America; it was either loved or hated. Personally, I was no fan of it, but I said nothing, as said carriage officer would accompany me on Friday evenings to perform the Ancient Ritual of the Imbibulation of Falling-Down Lotion, followed by nocturnal prattlings of utter nonsense in Eddie Rockets over an Atomic Burger........ He obtained RPSI Council approval for his livery at the time, as he was utterly obsessed with rules and regulations and "doing things right"*..... then took umbrage when other volunteers had it changed later to the blue and cream, but that's for another day! It was he who put about the story that IE wouldn't allow their own livery on preserved stock; this idea was aided and abetted by one senior figure at the time in Inchicore - I believed it myself - but it had absolutely no basis in fact whatever! The idea was, in my colleague's mind, to add weight to his idea for the all-blue livery! I actually only found out that our CO friend had made that all up just a few years ago when he told me...... Meanwhile at Whitehead, the green scheme was devised. Since none of the carriages ever ran in any UTA or earlier liveries, and some never even ran anywhere in Ireland at all, it was deemed that this be "UTA-esque". The former CO there, plus myself, devised this to look vaguely UTA-ish, but not actually be UTA livery, hence the entirely RPSI-invented style of lettering and lining, but a green pretty much of UTA type. Meanwhile, the current blue and cream livery on the Cravens is also an entirely new one - it's been suggested it's like the GNR, which is not so. The GNR blue was way darker, and there was no blue above window level. End liveries are different too, as again is lettering. Thought that might interest some here! (* And very well ahead of his time on that one, actually, and rightly so; the whole regulatory scene we have today is as he insisted upon back then).

E429? Did they have that too? I thought it was 428 & 430 they had at Attymon? Did they get another, or maybe swop 430 for 429? Yes, now that I think of it - someone with BR sympathies……I can guess who that was….. and I have to say that I thought the laminates looked very well in maroon & cream (though the E and the G looked ridiculous in maroon….)

Wonder what part of Britain that was…….

That's €566.13 (Or £473.09 for our sterling brethern)......... PLUS postage PLUS whatever charges brexit creates......... I've 100 "A" class for sale at €4000 each - any takers? I'll even pay the postage......

Great to see it in progress. Outstanding job.

Totally agree about the "Yorkshire attitude" being no excuse. Ignorance is ignorance, rudeness is rudeness, no matter where anyone's from.

George, I know the mail order folks at Whitehead. Not sure if they read this, so I will pass on your message.

Yes, it was. I've a note of the number somewhere. That pic was taken near Poyntzpass. I think the UTA Jeep came on at Dundalk.

A string of open wagons to distance 800 from the loco hauling it while going over bridges, most particularly the Boyne Viaduct. It was being steam hauled itself at this stage, as you can see.

A pretty rare pic - probably unique now. Colour pic from "Maedb"'s footplate. Senior travelled with her Dublin - Lisburn in 1964. I thought that I had LOST this slide, as I lent it out once and when I had been given it back, I somehow misplaced it. Thankfully, the party to whom I lent it has a copy! (Thanks, Ciarán...) (H C A Beaumont)

How long ago are those rails removed / covered up? I thought I remembered seeing them as rails back in the day.......

That is an absolutely beautiful location.

By FAR my pet hate is people (be they suppliers or anyone else) who simply ignore texts or emails and don't answer them. Sadly, I've come across a few in the model railway world, though the above is not someone I've dealt with.

Love those scenes - pure "little England"! An excellent backdrop, I'm thinking, for a SR "Radial" 4.4.2T loco and a couple of old SECR bogie coaches.........

On the NCC / UTA, GNR and CIE all alike, it was common practice in the 1950s and early 60s for railcar sets to tow “hauled” stock - including six wheelers, other random wooden and/or non-corridor vehicles and even goods vans and cattle trucks! I saw a pic somewhere of a Tralee - Cork train in the 50s consisting of a 3-car AEC set with two cattle trucks behind it….

And in all reality, while this "livery" only lasted three years or so, many of them were still running about like that (albeit in a filthy state) until the early 60s.... so for a 1955-65 layout, they're a perfect buy alongside the lighter green one. Surprises me, actually, that A46 - attractive as it is - sells better than the lighter green one, as the dark green was only applied to one or two of the class plus one C class, and was much shorted lived.

Could be - if it was he has no excuse now.

Was reading up about him - apparently he had a fire in his premises.......

Up there with the very best kit finish I've ever seen in any scale.

I wouldn't place any great store on RM web either!

That is truly outstanding work, Darius. The lining is exemplary. How did you do that?

It also had brake problems - I think that's why Senior set it aside. A puncture would certainly not have helped its case either! he said that's why there was a "prop" against it, as far as I remember.

In that photo of No. 2 / 8177, the cantrail has gone as have several uprights on the side. That vehicle is rotten and only fit for scrap, which is of course what happened! The GNR blue has long fadded away, so it's been out of traffic by the time that photo was taken, by a long time. The reason they considered converting any railbus was that 8178, which the UTA had inherited, was successfully being used as a civil engineer's "runabout" on the ex-GNR lines in the north, and CIE thought that they might employ one likewise. Wasn't to be - and jhbSenior used (variously) either 8178 or a loco hauling ex-GNR saloon 50 (now in Whitehead) on engineering inspection trips between approx. 1959 and 1962/3. 8178 sat down one time at Goraghwood and was shoved in a siding there until the Warrenpoint line closed and then taken to Witham Street, where it fell to bits before being rebuilt (incorporating many historical inaccuracies, as it happens, but a good job technically) in the 1990s before going under its own power to Cultra from Poyntzpass or somewhere round there.

There were various local variations as seen in those pics. The Whitehead version only has yellow lining on the cabside and cab end, but is closest to the way MOST were delivered. Red buffer beams were normal, but red buffers as such most certainly not! One of many "one-offs" or local variations. The Belturbet one is too light a green - but then again, with industrial engines there was rarely any "correct" livery. Those ungainly looking things seem to me to be missing only one thing - a great big clockwork key sticking out of the side of them!

A lot of Rustons started life with that livery - it was probably a "factory" livery. The restored Carlow one at Whitehead gives a good idea of it.