jhb171achill

A very interesting concept, flowcoach. What sort of technology are you thinking of? I know people in the track department I could link you up with.

Indeed - plus the fact that once painted and put into traffic, they were never cleaned and rarely repainted, so they ended up a nondescript dirty brown colour as a result of being caked in brake-block dust, like just about everything non-passenger that the UTA possessed. Gave a new meaning to "brown van"!

Indeed - there are three styles of architectural design in Ireland which stand high among all the rest. Mills’ GNR designs must top the list for sheer individuality and good proportion, closely followed by the GSWR’s elegant, almost castle-like stone architecture, and the GNR’s “ecclesiastical” style as seen on stations between Dundalk and Enniskillen, Portadown - Clones, and Belturbet.

Hi Darius Seriously excellent work. They were brown with the NCC, but the UTA did indeed paint them unlined green exactly as you have. In fact, since the later ones were built after 1949, these ones would never have been brown at all, starting life in green. NIR, of course, painted them maroon after 1968. Your weathering is superb too.

Superb stuff, Wayside, that is most impressive! My daughter’s “other half” is a crop farmer too - I’m well aware of the pressures of this occupation which many of the public just don’t see or understand….. And he has a huge unused shed. Once their male heir is born next year, maybe a layout in that shed is in order!

Genuine DSER Pringles!

Yes, I think a couple of days?

Welcome R&L! You’ll find a great community here.

Interesting! Must have been that, indeed, as it becomes 001 even in all the publicity photos….

not in traffic, I believe….?

Correct. When they re-engined them, they were designated with the “R” after this, but no sooner were they all done than the supertrain livery appeared (1972) and a new numbering system brought in as they were repainted into the new livery. This involved dropping not only the “R”, but the class prefix letter too, and on all classes. So what had originally been A1 - A60 became A1R - A60R when they were re-engined, then 001 - 060 only once repainted into supertrain livery. At the same time the B101, B121 and B181 classes became 101, 121 & 181 classes, and so on.

Just like as if this was an old Kevin Murray pic in a 1960 IRRS Journal!

Yes, snails should also be light green - I don’t know why they keep using white ones, they are wrong. I can’t imagine anyone making a model of a BR blue loco and putting light green BR logos on it! The A46 green, as on the IRM model, is exactly right - as is the lighter green on their other “A”. Railcars had both greens at different times, so take your pick. Snails were normal generally, i.e. as in my avatar thing above where you’re reading this. I think, however, I’ve seen at least one pic of one facing the other way round on the OTHER side of a power car.

The ends are curved in on these, or many other British GWR or Midland Railway vehicles. The only Irish company which used curved in ends was the Waterford, Limerick & Western Railway, which had very few bogie coaches. None were clerestory and all were built in the 1890s. Two lasted as late as 1953/4, plus their former directors saloon to about 1960 before it ended up in departmental use. I have one of these, long awaiting a flattish low curved roof - you’ve beaten me to it! Luckily, this model is very reminiscent of one of these WLWR prototypes. That AEC needs a repaint. The green is wrong. It should have pale green lining, not white. No green coaches ever had white lining. The roof should be black, too. You’ve done a superb job of those “WLWR” carriages - you could do a great job on the railcar!

The models you’ve painted yourself are way more accurate than the stuff you’d bought!

Bog Road IMG_0638.MOV

Absolutely brilliant day out with good company, and meeting so many old faces for the first time since the lockdown.... great layouts - I was particularly impressed by Bog Road and TTC's diesel depot. But all were good. Naturally, I came back with yet a few more Provincial Wagons......... Well done Wexford!

An excellent job. Looking forward to Wexford!

Superb job!

Spot on, bufferstop. I'm sure I've a Midland rule book or appendix somewhere - I will delve and report back!

Looks like a "P" van - thus fitted.

Yes, there was indeed such an instruction. However, there's more to it than that - the Hall family were involved too. I wasn't aware that the Polloxfens were too - we live and learn! However there was indeed a siding right onto the quay way back, but it was removed, from memory, even in MGWR days. The Westport Quay line came across the causeway shown in pics above - it's now a road - but two sidings to be worked only as tramways as you suggest, continued alongside the quay. The last days of the Quay branch had the siding shortened to just the "causeway" bit, then shortened again when I became familiar with it in the late 1960s. At that stage, the "causeway" bit had just been lifted, the level crossing fenced off on the railway side with a stout fence of old sleepers, and the lower level siding within the station which connected this to the run round lop only recently removed. As we know, the Quay branch mouldered on, seeing occasional traffic only, for another decade or so. The Jerry Walsh photo dates from this time. The actual lines ON the quay appear to have been disused by 1930 and probably removed then. As well as Hall's Mill down there, there was another called Maude's, no details of which - as far as any railway interest is concerned - appear to have come to light.

Yes, it was a mill - owned by people called Hall. And there was a siding right down there, reached off the end of the Westport Quay line. The trackbed was still visible into the 1980s.

Surely you can get an authentic Australian Crossley sound by simply installing the chip upside down? (I'll show myself out....)