jhb171achill

There were many lines in the past that had extremely sparse passenger services - one or two a day - but carried heavy and varied goods traffic. Twenty or thirty years ago, ballina hasd heavy goods traffic, but the passenger service was one Park Royal and a van wandering down to Claremorris only a couple of times a day. West Cork and Limerick - Claremorris (the latter in the 1970s) had lots of gopods going up and down - more in the beet season - and little passenger traffic beyond Limerick - Ennis, and a look at that timetable pre-1976 shows but a single daily passenger each way, but lots of goods. So, a prototype for everything! Going back further, the North Kerry and Mallow - Waterford in their later days had one goods and one passenger each way per day. And guess what - the goods was a lot busier than the passenger!

Worth looking into, as if so, they are less likely to have been published where railway enthusiasts might see them - if at all.

4 a.m. I was tired the next day…..

A 29 class bumbles along round Bray Head this afternoon….

Those look outstanding.

IRM told me only fifteen days ago that their model of it (with REAL hair) will be on sale next month. It can be bought on its own, DC or DCC, with extra options - 1. With a Douglas Horse Tram 2. With real hay 3. With a Fintona Horse Tram. Hooves can be supplied to scale 3ft or 5 fut 3 gauges. The accurascale version has 4’8.5” hooves.

I've see those and other CK Print stuff in the flesh. It is truly superb and extremely good value.

Outstanding picture, yes. I think they are all light green. Very few dark green ones were in use by 1957 anyway (except Cork area!). Yes, 655 is one that was painted black, though that does not necessarily mean the tender is, under that dirt! Most day-to-day trains there at that time were AEC railcar sets, as seen on extreme right, so this will certainly be an excursion of some sort, or else empty stock for one. While only a slight ppossibility, it's possible they are being brought up to lend to the SLNCR for one of their pilgrimage trains. Probably more likely, it's extra stock for a GAA or Knock special/

I've said this before, but I am always interested in exploring possibilities for mini layouts with good operational potential, where a lot of interest both in scenic and operational terms can be crammed into very lirttle space. The W & T must be among the best candidates! In the 1950s, the Clayton pairs and about 2 or 3 elderly antique six-wheelers and three locos; but in latter days a single railcar set in use, with an extra power car and intermediate to extend it to a five-car set - the entire stock on the line! If this line had survived, I'd put money on a guess that today it would be operated by a pair of 26 class 2-car sets. Maybe the 27 class bubble cars would have ended up there at some stage! For someone with very limited space and budget for modern railway models, a combination of a 2 or 3-car Silverfox "AEC railcar" and two IRM Park Royals would be a good approximation. Sets of points expensive? Your whole layout would only need a couple!

I'm sure I had a close encounter with 209 itself somewhere other than Loughrea - you've got me wondering now!

It looks very well, with the detailing a highlight too. A grubby little workhorse! I had a cab run in one on a ballast train in the 1970s from then-closed Clonsilla to North Wall..... I think I had 209 on the Loughrea branch too, still in the old livery.

Only latterly! For most of its life it didn’t.

Wow! That is QUITE a project! Yes, the Claytons and the railcar set would indeed look good. You've obviously done your research well!

I had a very bad case of ovoids one year, but I got cream for it, and it seems OK now. Quite embarrassing in public.

AAArrrrrgghhh I was about to go to bed. Now I can't. I'll have nightmares and an attack of the Screaming Fits, Multiple Conniptions, and Heeby-Jeebes. Where's me smelling salts? That actually COULD become an issue in the long term. Dromod gets away with wood-firing, and Stradbally with some sort of biomass stuff. Possibly, on account of their small size and small loads and largely level and short line, DCDR might get away with firing one of the CSET locos, or 90, with some sort of non-coal material. But the main line is a very different kettle'o'fish indeed.

Bring back steam engines! A J15 and a couple of cattle vans would be an improvement on a suburban 29.....

I had considered a visit north this week; I'll be postponing it.....

Bit like grey steam engines - they looked black so much, and so often, that many thought they were painted black. Same with domes, cab fronts, boilers and so on, with the sky-blue GNR and red Donegal liveries. Yes, some diesels had black roofs, some green. The black line round the red buffer beam was actually a throwback to steam days, when at least some grey locos had a black line rouind their buffer beams in the same way. Naturally, it soon became invisible!

I see even the fuel tank is green, but the roof isn't! Cultra need to get LOTS of tins of paint to correct the livery on virtually everything they repainted themselves!

I’m having nightmares about this contraption, and I haven’t even gone asleep yet. It’s the equivalent of a dinner of blacmange, cabbage, marmite, fish, marmalade, calamari, strong coffee, gorgonzola cheese, germolene and chillies, all mixed up, only worse. In its defence, it’s live steam. Otherwise it would be at best immoral…..

Jayyyysus…..

Bridge styles vary enormously on the GNR, with Dublin & Drogheda ones, solid INWR types, and even some surviving Ulster Railway sandstone. The two at Lambeg are, I think, the oldest surviving railway bridges in Ireland in original condition. GNR(I) bridge plates were oval.

Absolutely! I need to concoct a rationale for an IRM ICR appearing on a layout bnased in 1955-65......! Maybe if i put a "Tardis"-style "police box" in a corner in the goods yard.... The magnets are a very good idea.

Right-hand running, per se, was never used on any Irish line and as far as I know not British either. However, many lines both in the past and today, especially passing loops, were / are signalled for bi-directional working, so there's your "link"! My own layout, Dugort Harbour, is imagined to be in an impossibly remote west Kerry area, because some genius came uop with the idea of making it into a major transatlantic port in 1888 or something. A cursory look at any map shows that had anything remotely resembling it ever been built, engineering works through impassable mountains west of Macroom would have been necessary, doubtless resembling the huge viaducts you have!

Very impressive - was it originally American outline? (Would explain "wrong-lione" operation on double track section?) Love the scenery, and a good collection of models....