jhb171achill

Superb, Jimmy! I missed that...! An “A” also did a trial run in Wisht Caaark..... I think it got to Skibbereen, but unsure about Baltimore or Bantry....

New one to me! I knew 141s did.... have you details?

Out of curiosity, are all these varieties with a white roof?

Absolutely - the best and most realistic option, and perhaps easier to scratchbuilt than most alternatives. Another possibility, though not so easy to scratchbuild, would be if the UTA, rather than CIE, had ended up with the Sligo Leitrim railcar...

I was discussing recently with a friend the possibilities with "micro-layouts" and Fintona cropped up. It would be perfect. A bit of goods shunting - one loco all that's needed. Obviously the horse tram bit is an issue, but had the place survived, it would have gone goods-only pretty quickly, giving something very like Brookhall Mill indeed - or possibly a single car railcar (like an MPD or BUT car) would do a "passenger shuttle", probably to Omagh. Brookhall Mill is a great inspiration - I have suggested to my friend that he log on here...........

In all reality, as an operational model IN a moving train, a thing like this has somewhat limited prototypical use - but then so does many a thing.

Departmental stock is not my strong point; once something's out of normal traffic, it has always gone off MY radar, but I'm sure others here can fill in the details if I'm missing something. My understanding is that they spent their post-service time in the weedspray train. I am unaware of any other use, but if there was one, it would be perhaps on some sort of maintenance or PW train. As PO vans, their use will be in the 1960s on mail trains, such as Dublin - Sligo, Galway and Cork. They will have travelled alongside other PO vehicles; mail trains generally had passenger accommodation in the form of one coach in latter days. By the mid 70s, four were converted to a standard passenger brake, fulfilling the function of an "ordinary" "tin van". On pages 55 & 78 of "Rails through North Kerry" you can see one of these, showing both the "window" and "non-window" sides. By 1976, at a guess, they were withdrawn. So the two "departmental" ones at least, saw a new life as tool vans. They were painted in the Dublin bus "desert sand" beige colour, rapidly faded with the assistance of weedspraying chemicals. I presume they were painted yellow later at some stage, but I'm not even certain of that. The one at Downpatrick had been out of use for many years - as far as travelling in trains was concerned, anyway; it appears to have been used in a static position at Heuston Station for a long time too. When I mentioned it to the Downpatrick Railway first, it had been sitting in the same position for a number of years, and that was probably five or six years ago. Thankfully it is saved now. Myself and another DCDR / RPSI member have hatched a plan to go up there and work on it, once the lockdown is over; it will make an excellent passenger brake there, and will match the restored Park Royal 1944 very well. It will also be used for carrying wheelchairs / prams / dining car supplies / Santa presents / Easter eggs, etc. As an aside, nearer the time, I will post a note here, to the effect that if anyone wants to accompany us from the Dublin area, we can all go.... Incidentally, the vans that John Mayne is doing are goods brake vans, rather than "tin vans".

The Tool Vans (I think there were two) were or were not “tin vans” depending on what way you look at it! Under what is now understood as a generic heading, there were four variants of “tin vans”; the four-wheeled luggage van and heating vans making up the vast majority. There were four (maybe 6; I’d have to check) 4w TPOs, two of which were eventually converted to passenger brake vans; plus, in 1965, a small number of six-wheeled heating vans. HOWEVER, the railway staff only referred to the luggage vans as tin vans. The others were never called that at all - they were called heating vans or “hot water bottles”. The yellow yoke in your pic is one of two TPO vans converted as such, the final survivor of which is now at Downpatrick. You can tell the TPO ones as they’ve windows on one side only.

Several possibilities, all right. To me, a micro-layout (while it can be successfully operated with one engine and four trucks) is at its best with a modest array of stock to give variations in operations. In GN times, one of the 00 Works GN locos bumbles in and out; it's the Antrim branch engine, and it does a local trip working to the mill, let's say it's about three miles from the station. A railcar can do a run in there in the morning with mill workers; and goes back to collect them later; once a week due to diesel maintanance a steam loco with one brake third does this. In UTA days the same sort of thing. By NIR days, it's a "Jeep", or maybe an NIR "1" class diesel shunter which lifts a wagon off the CIE goods and shoves it in and out - or - the CIE loco does. he leaves the main goods train in Lisburn and shuffles a wagon (container on a "Lancashire Flat"?) or a couple of CIE "H" vans in.... You could even have the MPD car which started the re-opened Antrim branch service in 1976 appearing with an NCC "Brown Van" or a CIE van dropped off the Derry goods...........

Even closer to reality. In the early 1970s, there were still QUITE a few linen mills going - Barbours in Lisburn, one of the biggest, went in into the 1980s at least. And - the RPSI DID make a serious attempt to resurrect the GNR Banbridge - Scarva branch line. They were eventually put off by the cost, estimated to be £250,000..........

Mid 90s and four liveries, yes. While not my era, would be ideal for a “micro-layout” for those with limited space. A thirty year period also helps. They have been used on branch, commuter and even in main line settings (Cork-Mallow currently).

Excellent list regarding what goes with what; I think that for any scale model (as opposed to “toy” train set) it will encourage both manufacturers Tierra and buyers to produce a model if (a) there is widespread knowledge of what ran with it, and (b) there are models available of suitable stock. The list above is very informative for the later liveries, from the late “black’n’tan” era onwards. For the “grey’n’green” era, we have the silver liveried “A” class examples, the green ones and the black ones. A suitable list for them would be as follows: SILVER A (& C & B101) All coaching stock green except any brand-new laminates and (briefly) Park Royals; mostly lighter shade but some older vehicles still darker shade. 1. Wooden bogies (almost all GSWR) by this stage 2. Bredins 3. 1951-3 CIE stock 4. Cork - Youghal excursions: old six-wheelers of GSWR & MGWR origin. 5. New (silver) “laminates”, especially for silver locos. As the silver locos were repainted green, so were the silver carriages. 6. Like the above, Park Royals. First ones silver when new and quickly repainted green, but later ones green (with silver bogies) when new. GREEN locos All of the above, but in the last few years of this livery, a minority of coaches now starting to appear in black’n’tan. Once the locos started appearing in black or black’n’tan (the two overlapped to an extent), green carriages are about 40/60 green/BnT. By c.1967/8, all green gone. Six-wheelers (apart from 3 or 4 full brakes) vanish in early 1963, just as the black’n’tan livery has started to spread. In the black or black’n’tan liveries of the 1960s, the “A” class are used mainly on goods trains, with AEC railcars and the 121 / 141 / 181 classes dealing with passengers. WAGONS In all of the above, all wagons are grey. All guards vans are grey, with extremely few exceptions; red Ranks grain wagons or black tank wagons being the only exceptions I can think of. There were no brown wagons or vans at all, until 1970.

It's time for your medicine, DJ!

Eh, wow....... enjoy them.....! Not sure where this little grey machine was pictured - found it in Senior's stuff, but no record of it. With several Wisht Caark, boy, and Midland fans on here, thought it might be of interest.

Saw this large green tube or pipe in Malahide station today. It was making bus noises and there were people in it. I’m old enough to remember seeing trains in the same place years ago.

Love the Dublin bunting in the street! Superb model.....

If there are no bits on them that a small animal could swallow, I will offer €5 for the lot for the dog to chew. He's chewed all four limbs off his toy rabbit.

Senior would have been involved in maintaining that track in the mid 1940s. It's a wonder he didn't end up in a padded cell in the Home for the Bewildered.............

I very sincerely hope that did not sell. I know that something is worth whatever someone wants to pay, but someone taking even a third of that amount for a crude, broken old toy like that is just plain obscene.

For reasons of security, the movements of this vehicle were never included in the weekly circulars; they were arranged ad hoc at the last minute. I am unaware of any "heists" ever having taken place! The bank counter - yes! And all those branches are shut now...........! And yes, staff walked up one side of the carriage end steps, got their money, and down the other side.

The W & L was made up of a multiplicity of different companies, so by the time it became the WL&WR it is probable that there were barely two vans alike. Personally I am unaware of the survival of details of any of them. If I was undertaking your project, I would probably use an early GSWR one, as these would been interchanged with their own after 1901 anyway. Sorry, that's the best I can do!

A neat looking thing, indeed, with a distinctly "Irish" look. While the grey is too light for GSR, it gives an idea of what a GSR derivative would look like. I am not sure of the dimensions, but a cursory look makes me wonder if, given a bit of jiggery-pokery and a "two-foot rule", it might be possible to make it resemble a WLWR D15, a GSWR D2 or D3, or a MGWR D5, D6, or D7? Apart from the splashers, actual length of loco would be the biggest of a number of issues with many of these.

Must be the colour scheme!!

In my far-off 009 days, there was a Japanese manufacturer of brass kits called Jo Works. I got a kit of a tank wagon which I was assured would run on 009 track. It did, but I suspect that the prototype was 3mm scale, as the Japs had some 3ft gauge lines. Looked too small among 4mm scale stuff running on 009 track, so I sold it......couldn't get the couplings to stay on it either.....

I'll pay more attention!