jhb171achill

I’d say that will work a whole lot better. Presumably multiple unit operation primarily, or push-pull?

I know another individual with a collection like that, which I am aware that it is deteriorating. There’s no talking to him at all!

Wow - that’s got to have been a one-off! Would he share his picture?

No trolley on this 3-car, and none on an NIR 6-car I was on some weeks ago. Gawd be with the days when 4.4.0 No. 207 could be produced with a fine set of wooden GNR carriages, as per my very earliest Enterprise memory (I guess about 1962)…

Yes - you’ve hit the nail on the head. No tea trolley even, on this jam-packed oul crate. Was looking forward to a cooked breakfast!

I’m sitting in a so-called “enterprise” right now. Supposed to be a DD, but of course it’s a 3-car NIR railcar, jammed with people standing before it even leaves Connolly. Wish I’d taken the bus.

I’ll have a look! Thought it might have been here but can’t find it….

Geographically limited too - almost uniquely for a CIE diesel. They were very much “southern” engines and rarely strayed off the GSWR. As far as I’m aware they were completely unknown north of Connolly, and appearances on the Midland were zero on most of it, and limited to maybe a weedspray on other parts.

IE announced it….

Summer 1957, and there's still steam on the midday mixed. Soon, "C" class locomotives will take over for good, and the old GSWR six-wheelers will only be seen on GAA and pilgrimage days....

We're back to normal now, as the Crossley's back the next day. Here it arrives with empty wagons. There's a consignment of turf to be loaded, to go to Abbeyfeale or somewhere up there, so Pat says.

Third class rolling stock........

Saw that!!! AWFUL!! Eight new trains announced today - in service 2029. Wonder if the DDs and 29s will last till then!

Sitting outside Patsy O’Donoghue’s bar at Dugort Harbour, just the sound of seagulls. Behind me, the smell of fish and seaweed, as it bobs up and down on the ebbing tide over the quay wall. Nearby, a fisherman tinkers with the engine of an antique Fordson Major which refuses to start. Anotherpint. Yes, I know, it’s an hour before opening, but there’s a “local arrangement” for the lobster men who have been out since dawn. The guy from the fishing tackle store approaches the potholed station approach road with his donkey and cart. He’s collecting something from the morning mixed train, which took a connection from the Tralee goods in Castletown. Turf smoke drifts from the two cottages across the road from from the station. Biddy and Sarah are opening up the paper shop. They’ve spent all their sixty-plus years in that shop, since the pair of them were born in the room above it. In the distance, we hear the unmistakable sound of a locomotive horn. That’ll be Tully gates he’s approaching. He’ll be here in under five minutes. It sounds like one of those new American ones, not the usual Crossley. You hear that? Very different sound, isn’t it? Probably the same one that was on yesterday. Let’s get the telephoto out and see what sort of picture we can get from here. Here we are! Got a snap of him just coming round the bend. Finish that pint and we’ll go over the road and watch him shunting. I think the two vans in the goods yard will be going. Something on the wireless about the President of America bring shot. Did you hear that? Sure he was only here a few weeks ago, in New Ross. We’ll have to get the paper tomorrow to read about it.

Just as I seem to be the one and only person who ever liked the “Desert Sand” Dublin bus colour, I may also be alone in liking that short-lived Westrail red and cream livery!

Oh, I see what you mean - I thought you meant the heritage stock - the Bredin, Laminate & Park Royals. The green the RPSI used on lower panels was anything that was handy, and was simply done as a temporary measure just to distinguish their stock from those Cravens still in company service. The idea was to put them in CIE green, but there wasn’t time, not enough volunteers handy. And no, nothing ever carried anything like that as a livery. Most were done with leftover “proper” green but several used something like that Mk 3 primer - as you say very likely the same stuff. As for a “poor” job - yes, it was slapped on in a hurry and only ever meant to be temporary.

It’s also the same as the final colour used on diesel locos and coaches 1955-62.

I'm the same - I have people in the north who can receive stuff! Very convenient...

Do you mean the reddish one? Could be one of the two Executive Train coaches. I think the coach at the military platform is one of the 1951-53 CIE stock, based on GSR designs, which were in traffic until the mid 70s to maybe 1980s-ish on passenger trains, with some converted as CIEcoachbuilder says, to luggage vans and also the 32XX series genny standards. There were one or two actual GSR Bredin full brakes which lasted until the 1980s too, on mail trains, but possibly not as late as the post-1987 (IE) period.

Third quarter 2026 is what he told me....

Evidence of this catastrophic political decision spawning even worse offspring….

Indeed; one of the many hangovers of Boris's brexit..... hopefully in the long run these restrictons will be reversed.

We could employ that Scottish consultant to design one, perhaps ….. and he might come up with a 29 class railcar with seven wheels….

When the Malahide Model Railway Museum was in planning stage, Fingal Council had employed a Scottish "consultancy" company to do much of the design and layout work. It was left to me to liase with the representative from this company, who infomed me that he "didn't know the first thing about trains or railway museums". Yup, you heard it. With difficulty, I persuaded him NOT to use a logo for the museum which would have clearly shown an indian "YG" class 2.8.2............................ Yup, you heard that too. I despair.

Absolutely top class stuff. Hope to see it some day!