jhb171achill

A throwback to steam days, when a couple of oil lamps on the front was the only show in town! Very true - and something that's important for us to still remember these days - buy local!

Guess where we'd have to insert the DCC chip on Dick the Horse!

I think that diesels were still - in Europe - a relatively new thing, with most railway administrations still in a steam mindset, although CIE had railcars on the main lines after 1950. Bullied's influence and spirit of experimentation was still floating about, too. Ireland was never big enough to put massive resources into designing their own indigenous diesels; it made sense to use technology dreamed up, tried and tested by others. Hence the A, B101 and C classes - and later American varieties. To be fair to CIE, our nearest neighbours in BR invented all manner of diesel prototypes which didn't last - they, too, were treading an unknown road. The E421 class actually worked very well, and had the "no shunt" railway and later decimation of goods traffic not come about in the last fifty years, I daresay they'd still be with us. The two at Downpatrick served that line very well until withdrawn for further restoration some years ago, and they were over 40 years old at that stage, and had not seen the inside of Inchicore since the mid 1980s........ One wonders what "off-the-shelf" ones they might have bought; the "G" class come to mind! With BR having so many experimental diesel shunters at that time, some good, some useless, CIE might have looked to Germany....? We might have had the "E" klasse......

Six this morning, and another seventeen by noon tomorrow, I believe....... RTR Blessington tram locos, the Loughrea crew van, Macroom six wheel thirds, and Burtonport Extension goods vans among them......

I'm not sure, PeadarC - but I certainly wouldn't rule it out!

Hybrid steam /electric power? (I'll show myself out...)

I think in later days while there were still 401s “on the books”, as it were, they saw little use. I would g YG ave been bumbling about Heuston station from 1976 onwards, and Connolly long before that - yet I have no recollection of ever seeing a single one in use even then, at either place. Always 421s. Now, I am aware that a few WERE in use at that time; my point is simply that they didn’t feature as much as their numbers might suggest. There was a line of them withdrawn in Inchicore - all with cowls.

Good weathering.

Fascinating, Colm. That's a very nice conversion of a Triang railcar you did. I had one of those and tried to make it look AEC-like by converting the three front cab windows into two. It was about the best one could hope for at the time without scratchbuilding. Unfortunately I've no photos of it - I painted it UTA green with wasp stripes added to a lower yellow end with the aid of a ruler and fine-tipped black marker pen.

Yes - there were, or was; I am unsure of the details. At least one was like that, though they were all originally WITH them. The way to tell was by the windows, if no other details (e.g. the numbers!) are visible in a picture, as with the difference between G601 and G611 classes.

Interesting livery variation on the Park Royals - green ends on those two. They were normally black, as were the ends of other CIE coaches in both green liveries. Naturally, due to the ridge along the side, no Park Royals ever carried "snails".

TimO OK, good questions; let me clarify. Various sources had in the past suggested that only two, A46 being one, got the dark green livery. However, it now appears that up to twelve did, plus several C class too. There were just the two varieties of green. Most were the lighter, same as carriages and railcars. Other shades and variations are the result of different types of (early!) colour film, in much the same way that some photos of carriages in the 1990s appear to show them as a deep reddish tangerine colour, instead of the orange they were. The eau-de-nil waist line was to be seen on both A and C class locos, as was the absence of it! And, of course, the A's also had an eau-de-nil painted flying snail attached to the side. This was a cut-out metal thing painted that colour, rather than one painted directly on. So, A class locos in green may be with or without waistlines, just as black ones were concurrently with - and without - yellow ends; and a generation later, in the 1990s, the 141 class might have the reddish dayglo orange panels on the front, or not. Hope that clarifies.

Yes, just for two months before it closed. Must have worn out a G over an undulating line that length! Limerick - Foynes daily mixed, the only train on the line when the passenger service ended in 1963. The passenger accommodation was an old MGWR six-wheel brake third. There are colour pics of it in my North Kerry book.

Correct - the track was almost ground into the ground, and they used ash and cinders between the rails for the horse to walk on! What little ballast there was, would have been worn and trodden down.

Nice flowing track layout, Tony. With your Omagh goods yard skills, it will give great scope for good scenery as well as interesting operational possibilities.

Absolutely superb finish - very realistic! The original finish, believe it it not was a rich maroon, but it wasn’t just the painter - but more so outdoor storage, weathering, brake dust, the cheapest quality paint they could get, and even poorer undercoat, which got most remaining coaches into this state! The general manager told Senior that he was so embarrassed by them, he would prefer to borrow one from CIE or the GNR, if there was any sort of special train or “VIP” about….

This is what it would have been like. Some guards compartments on coaches like this were only 7ft long, the size of a normal compartment.

Me too, in reality. With many layouts based on branchlines, a “C” should be popular. Through the 1960s when most of the branches they were intended for had closed, they were to be seen on goods trains and shunting goods yards. Thus, one would be ideally suited to a 1960s small shunting layout too.

Sold sixteen of me “A”s to pay for them…..

I got all nine of my IRM “C”s this morning……

Just seeing this now. I have seen a copy of a map - but nowhere is it apparently online - which shows a siding sharply curving away towards the ballast pit further away from the line (now probably buried under the Galway Plaza service station area). However, the other day I went to the spot where the siding would have to cross the road as it left Dunsandle station. Far from there being any clue whatsoever to where this might have been, the motorway is now over anything there might have been. Not only that, but there are zero signs on the landscape of any sort of railway formation in google earth pictures before the motorway was built. To cap it all, despite the overall flattish nature of the surrounding countryside, this longer siding would have had to go round quite a sharp curve and also rise quite a bit in height. Jury remains out, as far as I'm concerned. If I find out any more I will post it here.

The green livery was gone by about 1913, I believe. Black, either lined or unlined (depending on loco type) for some 20 years after that until the blue started appearing in 1932.

Now THAT is one mighty looking yoke.......!

Exactly - and it was!

It was only 4.5 miles from Dromin Junction, with no intermediate station to generate passenger revenue. In the later days of the Loughrea line, more people drove to Woodlawn or Ballinasloe to get the train to Galway or Dublin than travelled on the line. It is likely that more people went even on foot to Dromin, with more trains there to choose from - plus a lower fare than if they went all the way on the train. Every penny counted in those days to most people. I wonder if Ardee had been twice or three times the distance from the main line, would the passenger service have survived? Edenderry was another. Quite big town, but no passenger train since the early 1930s, and even a modest enough amount of goods given its size, in later years. Same with Moate. In its later years it only had one train each way stopping there, and even that in late evening; light years beyond utterly useless as anything approaching a public service - but Athlone station was (and is) just up the road. I daresay the majority of people travelling by rail from Tipperary town today just hop in the car up to Limerick Junction which is only 3 miles away, where you have an hourly service, compared to the L Jct - Waterford route which seems to have two trains per decade, provided there's a good wind and they can find a driver.