jhb171achill

Four; the original maroon & blue also.

It's Thursday now.....

One of the orange locos was on the Taras today....saw it last week too.

I've written what I am guessing on a bit of paper. I'll see how it compares with tomorrow's announcement of MGWR six wheelers and RTR steam!

(Had to look that up myself!) Judging by retrospect and bits and pieces of what Senior had had to say in the past, that itself informed by Inchicore and York Road thinking a generation earlier, it seems likely that had no border ever existed, the overall Derry - Killybegs spine might have developed as more of a "through" route. With Henry Forbes simply being a small cog in a big Dublin-centric organisation, the early dieselisation simply would not have happened, but it's reasonable to assume that the mid-1950s modernisation, as on the West Clare, would have done. Branches and anything north of Buncrana or west of Letterkenny (or Stranorlar) would have had no better chance of survival, but on the proviso that either the Derry Road or the INW line had survived, we might still have a line from Pennyburn to Letterkenny, and from Victoria Road to at least Donegal town, operated by diesels. At the least, an influx of Walker railcars and "F" class diesels would have kept it going until the 1975 closures, at which time these - plus the track - would have been in need of replacement. Goods would have been gone by the early 70s. But of course, nothing but speculation. Donegal 2.6.4T in plain grey, anyone? The cherry red would never have existed at all in the above scenario!

Europe to Tasmania in a week, and in the current circumstances - that IS impressive!

So there’s more downhill heading west?

“Well, I always call it Maryborough. When I joined the Great Southern twenty years ago, it was always Maryborough….” “Nine passengers on, don’t know why they’ve put a second coach on today….”

That's one line that CIE couldn't wait to close; on the day the last train went in there, one account has it that once the loco had run round, but before the train left, PW men working in the station lifting a siding started banging the keys out of the run-round loop just after the loco had passed over it! To be fair to CIE, that's one branch line that never would have survived anyway.

I'm glad to hear that, Skinner. Apart from that time I did those runs I mentioned, which was about 15 years ago, I haven't sat on a bicycle since I was about 15. And the Waterford line is longer than the Achill line. I only got as far as Kilmacthomas by train, so it's one to do. Then there's the North Kerry Greenway, or whatever it's called. (G S Trail). That's maybe a step too far for one of my worn-out and decrepit state.

Thank you for your comments, Mike. The flyaway cabs must have been an absolute punishment for crews - absolutely, totally and utterly useless as crew protection - especially in horizontal Connemara winter wind and rain!

A superb collection - pity he didn’t do colour, though! I spent much of January going through the entire collection (again!), making copious notes…..

“Will yez get off your backsides! I’m not unloading this van on my own…..”

“I’m tellin’ ya - THIS size it was. But the poaching man was about so I had to throw it back into the river…..” ”OK, a minute to go, c’mon. Yer man will give out if we’re late at the junction….”

Many thanks, airfixfan!

Then it's maybe 2661. Hard to make out, and I think that the number has got worn off a bit anyway.......

The non-stop one goes to infinity and beyond......

Folks - I forgot to mention that in order to comply with covid regulations regarding numbers attending, can I ask anyone planning to go if they can just fire off a RSVP to info@railtoursireland.ie. Many thanks, and see you there.

Superb articles!

Correct. Ghastly looking things, rivalled only in their ugliness by NIR 450-class things! I think the railcar is 2641?

The railcar is one of Bullied’s monstrosities. But is the location not the Ardnacrusha siding?

Hattons have “new” Murphy stuff on pre-order!

VERY nice. Thats quite like one 1890s design. Was planning to do that myself eventually. Regarding six-wheelers getting the black’n’tan livery, no passenger-carrying ones ever did. Six full vans did, though, the last two withdrawn in 1968 & 1970. All six were 1880s design GSWR vans - nothing midland survived. The last passenger-carrying 6-wheelers, a mix of GSWR & Midland types, were withdrawn and scrapped in Cork in early 1963, all green, as the BnT livery was still only on a very small handful of main line carriages, plus one GSWR full van on the Ballaghaderreen branch. BnT had only first appeared less than a year before.

It's parked in my drive, at a secret address. I set a red signal against it. Once I've unloaded a few "A"s, and some GSWR bogies and six-wheelers, I'll let it go again. No need to thank me. The crew have been unharmed.