jhb171achill

Perhaps he might climb into one of the boxes he's taken a model out of, and spend two hours closing said box?

It's from the Msgr. Reid photographic collection. Some amazing old colour stuff there, but that's the only railway one; a gem, nonetheless.

Many thanks, Keith. For projects like that I have always gone to Oakwood (now Stenlake Press) for this type of thing, or Colourpoint (now Blackstaff) for colour "picture books". One has to pick and choose publishers in terms of paper quality and photographic reproduction. Over the years many an excellent publication that I have seen has been spoiled somewhat by indifferent colour rendition or sharpness of image. Oakwood have, of course, one of the oldest pedigrees of the lot for railway books, going back to the mid 1930s, I believe. Of the two principals in Oakwood, one retired shortly after I started Clifden, and she rang me to tell me they were being sold out to Stenlake. The other "half" of Oakwood still works with / for Stenlakes, specialising in railway books done in the Oakwood style, such as this. Stenlake's other books, in their own "house style" is very different in format. Nothing wrong with it, just different. Hope you enjoy it!

"Unboxing videos" are almost by definition "waffle"! I generally avoid them like the plague - the only thing comparable is youtube videos of some supposedly spectacular train (I was unfortunate enough to come across one this evening) where you're staring at a tunnel mouth or a field beside a railway line for 10 minutes and 28 seconds, and then eventually for the last 17 seconds the train appears and rushes past - and the "photographer" cuts it off before even half the carriages have been seen!

So we can skip the first 4 minutes! Excellent. Just watched it. You can skip through to the last quarter, when you see the thing actually running.

.......? What are the items?

me too!

Sounds odd importing sleepers here from Russia……as does the imperial coat of arms depicted - on a sleeper! Is this an urban legend or is there evidence of it?

They're actually much worse now, sadly. Less windows, more slime, a lot more graffiti.

You'd need a strong stomach. Covered in graffiti and mould, most windows smashed. Similar to, or worse than, the stuff at Moyasta.

Fascinating pictures! I wonder if there's a list anywhere of exactly what went in there? I've never heard of the Macroom story, nor the one of Russian symbols on sleepers!! (Sleepers wouldn't normally have any symbols on them...)

OUTSTANDINGLY realistic! I'm curious about the cast iron signs on the two station doors. they are pure GNR(I) pattern! How did that come about?

Brilliant stuff, Ernie. Love the GN railcar at Omagh.

I love that hint!!!!

Quick, indeed - full marks to the postal service. I’ve yet to see a single copy yet myself, and nor has Barry!

As Galteemore says, a very nice model. I saw one in Wales in the mid 1970s behind a class 26 or 27, I think, at Aberystwyth. Wondered what it was, at the time.....

Many thanks!! It would be interesting to know how long that takes, John. I recently posted a small parcel (model coach) to the USA, which I would have expected to take maybe a week. It took over 4 weeks….. I assumed it lost in the post….

Very good cause indeed, Jimmy; the very best of luck with it. Great to see the Donegal railway heritage centre thriving.

The owner passed away? Sad - but at least he saw it finished. Any idea what will become of this work of engineering excellence?

That is seriously good!

Superb!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Certainly would!

Yes, she got the dark colour after that - but it would have soon been replaced by black.

I was in Sligo on a runabout ticket once. I had travelled back in the cab of 135, I think, piloting another 121, a few weeks earlier, so I thought I'd do the same again. It was a beautiful warm sunny summer evening, probably 1975 or 1976, and I went walkabout in Sligo. Too young for bars, and only £5 in my pocket, so walking about was the order of the day - and back to the station. JUST in time to watch the tail light of a Dutch van disappear off the end of the platform. No money for food or an overnight, and my aunt ready to collect me at Amiens St. in pre-mobile days..... so I rang her from the station landline and told her I'd make my own way. The mail was due to leave, I think about 7 or 7.30pm. One side-corridor brake standard - and old 1951 Bredin-design CIE coach, plus mail vans. One old GSR one, one CIE one, and 2 or 3 tin vans. I've an idea there was a BR van on it too - by far the newest thing. Can't recall the haulage, but probably a 141. There was one other passenger, a lady who got off at Collooney. Then just me. It crawled and swayed along, stopping everywhere for five minutes or more, crossing here and there with at least one long wait (Longford?). It appeared into Athlone about 11pm. I was exhausted. I was told the train would be here an hour as it had to await the up Galway, so I wandered about the station, over the tracks and all without fear of dayglo jackets, PTS, uproar and prison, or steel-capped boots........ Eventually the up Galway mail hove into view and I transferred to that. The only passenger again, it seemed. The train left at midnight and would be due in Connolly about 1 am. So I settled across the seat for a sleep. It was an old laminate. Next thing a tall man in a long almost ankle-length coat walked past me; another passenger! And then he walked past again, then again in the other direction. He had a large bushy moustache, through which he incessantly mumbled incoherently. Up and down the one carriage about ten times, as we passed along the Midland main line via Moate. Then he sat down opposite me, continuing his mumbling and not acknowledging me (thankfully). I'm trying to sleep. The train guard came along, looked at me and nodded, then looked at Mumbling Moustache and said something to him which I did not catch, but did not sound complimentary; I got the impression that he knew him. I got to Amiens Street, and walked back to Ballsbridge - a fair oul hike. It probably took me until about 2.30 am. I later discovered that my travelling companion was well-known on the railway, and I've a notion someone told me that he would turn up on IRRS tours from time to time(!)....................but that was the Sligo mail story, anyway. Hard to think it's almost fifty years ago.

I had a look at this - shows several interesting things. First, on p30 / 31 you've three locos in the lighter shade, including A42 in 1966 - clearly light green! And yet it is equally clear that it shows as dark green in the pic posted above; it's obviously been repainted right at the end of the "green" era, from one shade to the other. It does occur to me that somewhere in the depths of history, I picked up somewhere that A46 was only dark green a short while too. Again, the dark paint was non-standard by then, unless Broadstone had over-ordered bus paint. You mention the following page, DiveController, with A4. That and the C beside it are the light shade - heavily muckified. Some lovely pics of Barry's - he just missed the green era, as he took his first picture in 1964, and his second and subsequent from 1968 onwards. But he has some black locos and a few black with yellow ends in his collection. I'm not sure he even has green carriages, though there were still a few about at the very least in 1967....but that's another story!