jhb171achill

I could have added a few more which Senior told me about years ago - I should have paid more attention at the time!

What did you use for the point rodding and associated gubbins?

That’s like the famous railway company initials….. SLNCR: Slow, Late & Never Comfortable DSER: Dirty, Slow & Easy LLSR: Lazy, Late & Slow

"...absolutely no idea. It appeared here overnight." "It's too heavy to move, and when I touched it I got a sort of electric shock, so I'm not going near it...." "Must be them Martians or something.... what does that writing mean?"

Light green IRM box on the top….

I can leak that the customs paperwork lists the contents as follows; Bottom left pallet: Tupperware containers with panda designs Centre left: red biros Far left: tweezers and sewing thread Distant left: dog food Distant right: cat food Centre right: angling magazines Near right: Models of “A” class Mercedes cars…..

Forgot to add, there’s evidence of very occasional jaunts over the line by a “C” class too - but as you say, the line existed on a diet of 141s mostly, for years.

Thus c.€10?

Superb stuff, Noel. And you're right - the "A" class did indeed work the line, though not so much in the 1960s - more so later. Also, the 121 class appeared, as well as very occasional visits by both 121s and B101s. Of course, one must not forget the short-lived forays of Westrail's "E" class haulage as well!

No, they've arrived OK along with the GSWR bogie coaches and six-wheelers - they forgot to put in the "A" class locos, though.

I should have added - that internal high-ceiling in Drogheda station is clearly of the same family resemblance as the interior of parts of Connolly Station, including the boardroom, behind the scenes. I understand that a historian is currently carrying out a major job of research into Irish railway architecture. The results of that will be interesting.

What's in the boxes, I wonder? Now THERE'S an idea! The "A Class Jig"! We have a tune called the "Silver Spear"; shortly, perhaps, the "Silver Locomotive"!

You've just made me spray-paint a fig roll in CIE green, and attempt to put a waterslide flying snail on a poached egg.......

Yes, superb stuff! And I too was (am) a big fan of liquorice allsorts.....

And I can highly recommend the wagon stock of Provincial Wagons.... if I'm ever going to get this layout finished, I will be seeking Domestic Funding for more.... I have several old GNR vans, H vans, Bullied opens and CIE cattle trucks, with two old GSWR brake vans as seen on many western backwaters until about 1962.

Indeed; precisely my point!

In 2070, yes.

Rather than speculate, a serious point. Any railway model sell more if there's something to run it with. Doesn't matter what era. Make a RTR carriage and nothing to haul it, or a locomotive without a single suitable item of rolling stock? Doesn't make sense. We have various locos ranging from the early 1960s to the mid 90s, with 121, 141, 181, 071 and 201 classes. We have Cravens, BR vans, Mk 2 & Mk 3 stock. We have fitted container flats and other post-1975 goods stock, ferts and bubbles. All fine so far, and sensible. But there are gaps in this alone, and tin vans are the glaringly obvious one, in all reality. Now the "A" class are about to appear - and who knows, in the long run maybe a "C" or a "B101"; Silverfox already do them. The gaps in suitable rolling stock - both passenger and goods - for the period within which the long-lived "A"s spent almost HALF of their working lives, are many and huge. To look at an "A" class loco as something which hauled double decker beets, fertiliser bogies, and Mk 2 coaches is to ignore much of what else they did in an earlier time. Joking aside, it's not THAT long before they could be seen in Youghal with a summer excursion of fifteen 1880s six wheelers. They were to be seen sharing sheds with any amount of steam engines - 00 Works addressed this with their beautiful J15s, but they're "out of print" now. For half of an "A" class loco's life, wooden coaches of one sort or another were behind it as much as Cravens were. To look at an "A" class as something which belongs to an era of bogie fitted freight, "tippex"-liveried carriages and beet is to forget that when built, every single thing was grey, green or silver; the black'n'tan livery even in its earliest iterations was some eight years into the future. The BIG gap in the market - being practical and factual here - is in the earlier stuff. Now, that's not to say there's nothing yet to be covered in the 1980s and 90s, but the biggest gaps of the lot are earlier; I need not list them, it's already been done....

Ah, but he might have been a pronoun……

Yes, and have been since Methusalah was learning her spellings….! Roughly half of the fleet remain in the old livery. Quite a few still have the old “three pin plug” logo, as well as the new “origami” one.

I already have…..

Drogheda. The darker brick common on this line is used in the main building, but a Mills-designed outbuilding is included too. The station interior here was also similar to many elsewhere on the GNR, albeit not always with such a tall ceiling. Note, too, the wooden building in the 2nd last picture. Pure GNR; horizontal board, and typical GNR eaves and windows.

The almost standard GNR platform canopy supports had “GNRI” interwoven in them. These may still be seen at many locations; Lisburn, Dundalk, and a number of places south of Drogheda. But not all did. Malahide - standard Mills architecture and standard GNR columns under the canopy. This iconic architectural style also had curved tops to windows.

More of the above. Many GNR stations had their standard type of wooden structure on the platform opposite the main building. Most are gone now, but a number of northern line Dublin suburban stations still have them. Even the survivors are not always (or at all) in use, thanks to the destructive pond life that frequents unstaffed stations in the evenings. Note the original door on this, and curved ornamental top to the doorway, another common GNR feature. Another at Skerries. Many stations on this line, and the Oldcastle branch, had a dark brick architecture, mixed and mingled with the standard “Mills” designs. Again, curved topped doorway. Note the columns….

Customer trains in Drogheda this evening. Different colours….. The NIR one is the 18:05 Belfast - Connolly.