jhb171achill

Excellent and informative pics, DiveController. Yes, you are right - IRM did absolutely painstaking research into every detail of anything they've done - liveries being but one detail. I can't recall whether it was in the old IRNs or in IRRS Journals - both well-researched by contemporary eye-witnesses themselves - that i read comparatively recently that as many as 12 "A" class had the dark green. That simply isn't true - and photographic evidence bears that out. Ihad long been under the impression - again, gleaned from reliable contemporary sources - that apart from A46, only one other (presumably A42 above - and with no waistline whereas A46 did have one - had the dark green, and not even all sources agree on that. Some sources have suggested only A46 appeared like that. One "C" did too - the preserved C231. I am unaware of any other "C"s which got the dark green. It must be remembered that for several years before they started repainting any diesel locos (or coaches) from silver to green, the railway had standardised for several years on the lighter shade. The dark shade was by then confined to buses and the cabs of lorries. Thus, painting anything the dark shade was something of a "retro" thing, a bit like NIR still putting NIR logos on their three 071s, some 25 years after "NIR" ceased to be the public logo of the railway there. All of the locos seen in your pictures, and all of the coaches, are of course in the lighter shade. As to the footbridge, around 1960 they started painting some stations in non-standard schemes. Grange received a scheme of pastel colours, as did Amiens St. about 1963-ish. Several stations received a MGWR-esque red scheme, particularly in Wisht Caark and several locations on the Waterford - Limerick line. But I am unaware of any which used the lighter railway green - the majority of stations remained green and cream or green and light grey, and the darker shade was used. So, to that footbridge - hard to tell; I suspect it's badly weathered and faded darker green. Pristine green on station woodwork at that stage on a model is barely prototypical at all - like a clean "silver" tin van - so would need to filthyfied. (Is that a word?) Postscript; at least one IRRS Journal or IRN reference suggests that 100 standard "H" vans were painted green and fitted, for use tagged onto the back of AEC railcars or the like. Some four were done like that, for sure, specially for Tralee - Cork mail traffic. but a full hundred most certainly were not. Either the source material was wrong initially - even the most well-researched or reliable sources CAN make mistakes - or else it might have been planned to do this, but it never actually happened. This is not to put anyone off these two journals as sources of information, notwithstanding the above the IRRS one is highly recommended, as is reference to the other, which is out of print almost half a century. It would actually be easy enough to apply a waistband to the light green A....... Same as the "C"'s; some had waistbands, others not.

Another visit to this layout today, and I caught the 14:25 goods going past. IMG_0930.MOV And standing by.....

Another visit to this layout today, and I caught the 14:25 goods going past. IMG_0930.MOV IMG_0931.MOV

Beautiful! Is that inspection saloon a kit, scratchbuilt or off-the-shelf model? Can we see it close up?

Quite possibly more common on the first of them to be repainted from silver to green - which I think was about 1958/9.

I doubt you'd get that yoke on a car trailer, unless it had a 141 class engine in the car, right enough..... Could it be 10 1/4" gauge?

Thanks, TimO!

Hi TimO Thank you for your comment - it's published by Colourpoint / Blackstaff Press, Newtownards, Co Down. Rails Through Tipperary: Limerick to Waterford | Blackstaff Press I don't actually know what the ISBN is yet, as I haven't received my own copies yet! It was only released on Thursday!

True, though paintings can't always be taken as the best guide... Patterson's paintings in his CDR and C & L books are both incorrect - black boiler and dome on a Donegal loco in the former and brown carriages in the latter... Either way, of course, that big 4.8.0 would look amazing if it was tartan and lime green with yellow spots, and burning blue lumps of coal with pink smoke....!

My impression was that the darker green was on the tender engines from the start (or possibly black?) - but from your info, Andy, that makes the lighter shade possible indeed. It's possible they got dirty - the earliest pics I've seen of them certainly isn't a light colour, but maybe it's under the gunk!

Two bogie wagons there - am I right? I think I read that somewhere.... perfect for a "mini-layout"!

Yes, indeed, it was extremely dark. It is quite likely that it was something similar to what the Harbour Commissioners had in Derry, and may today be seen (original paint) on the LPHC shunter No. 1 in Cultra. Even Fry's model has it wrong.... though livery errors on Fry's models are very few indeed and might - where they exist - be due to unavailability of the right shade when he was making a model......

I could well believe it. It's a monster! That is some serious feat of miniature* engineering genius (* well, not so "miniature"!). Is it privately owned or will it operate on some public line like Fairbourne?

An engineering beauty; albeit completely the wrong livery..... nothing remotely close to the colour it had in real life. (I just had to add that, didn't I!)

I don’t think they do car ferries, yet…….

Second coach there looks like 728 which is now operational at Downpatrick.

Superb!!

Thank you to all for your comments, which I passed on to Barry tonight. He also asked me to pass on his appreciation. Advance orders for this are brisk, to say the least. Yes, we did have an eye on modellers when selecting and discussing some of the views. Hopefully it will assist anyone modelling the (primarily) 1970-2000 period.

Never knew the Pullman bogies had survived that late - wonder where they are now? Presumably scrapped?

Aaaarrrrggghh me too. I was waiting for Santa Claus….

Agreed…. Personally, I never liked yellow mixed in with orange, white & black. Never liked the 201 livery which resulted….

I was holding it upside down to take the pic...........

YOU are getting it right, Skinner, indeed; a pity that many sellers or importers beyond our shores can't be bothered to read the guidelines!

There's a lot of modern-image stuff you'll like, murphaph.... containers and orange locos galore! For "A" class fans, a feast, as this was a stamping ground for that class at one time. The occasional "oddball" working too, such as an 6-car 80 class set at Clonmel on a Sunday working, and four "G"s stuffed in the loco shed at Thurles. Naturally there has to be at least a LITTLE steam in colour.....including 800!

There's a lot of modern-image stuff you'll like, murphaph.... containers and orange locos galore! For "A" class fans, a feast, as this was a stamping ground for that class at one time. The occasional "oddball" working too, such as an 6-car 80 class set at Clonmel on a Sunday working, and four "G"s stuffed in the loco shed at Thurles. Naturally there has to be at least a LITTLE steam in colour.....including 800!