jhb171achill

The late Sullivan Boomer was chairman of the RPSI during the years I was treasurer. When I went to email him - which, given our roles in the society, was at least once a day (no such thing as texting back then) - my ancient computer inevitably tried to change his name to “Sultan Bomber”……

Superb articles, Airfixfan.

The cattle vans await, as the shunting begins.....in an hour, the station will see about the only really busy period in the month....

Shunting in progress; it's fair day today, but the cattle men are shtill drivin' their bastes along rural roads, aided by a teenager with a shtick. Still early, daybreak. There's always a spare guard's van here, and empty cattle wagons were brought in yesterday for today's bargains at the mart. The morning passenger train arrives. It will return with an extra coach due to market day traffic. Next, the goods arrives. Its return trip will be a lot heavier, as thirty wagons of cattle will be added to the normal half a dozen vans. It pulls into the cattle platform loop, to allow the midday passenger train to leave.

It’s a viciously cold morning with a freezing fog, as B141 arrives in Dugort with the empty stock for the 7.55 local to Castletown…. Anyone remember frosty mornings?

I think it stayed at Portadown longer than that?

Possibly, but one at least that he went on had a Mk3 genny, two Mk 3 coaches (all CIE) plus an NIR dining car. He did the Derriaghy bridge too, but he has separate pics of that - must dig them out. Who paid for that bridge? The bus side of the UTA probably charged the railway side of it, though I don't know for certain!

A few more at complete random..... modellers may find some inspiration in some of it! 1. Details for container modellers! 2. The last surviving item of rolling stock from the Ulster Railway Co., grounded as a store at Portadown from - I believe - about 1905, until rescued by the DCDR. It is currently undergoing full restoration! 3. Train in Lisburn, early '60s. Could be a Warrenpoint - G V St., or it could be an excursion (probably from Portadown) to Bangor, before the Belfast Central Line shut. 4. A grey 121 and filthy "silver" tin van at Macmine Junction, 1961 or 2.

One special charter for the Permanent Way Institution train operated with CIE stock and an NIR dining car. As far as I am aware, it was an absolute one-off; certainly, if it DID happen any other time, that was an extreme rarity.

Senior took a pic of a 1980 PWI jaunt on exactly the same spot; I mixed them up when writing the caption without the benefit of my Dealz €1.99 reading glasses! Hence the error. Must post the other one! Sure does! That carriage ended up at Whitehead but weather and vandals put paid to it before there was ever a chance of restoring it….

In which case this must be a Lough Derg pilgrimage train! 141s also very briefly appeared on these in 1964.......

A very small few of them will!

Love the subtle weathering too - adds to an already exceptionally high standard of realism.......

That would fit perfectly. Senior was in charge of that job, and some of the old black & whites are also of that location, I think.

That last pic - PURE Achill!!!! Turntable an'all! Absolutely beautiful - top class in every respect. Wow factor.....

Charlie Watts would have been in his late 70s then.........

(All c. H C A Beaumont). 1. One of the very few bogie coaches owned by the Waterford, Limerick & Western, in ex-departmental use, still bearing "Camping Coach" livery, awaiting scrapping at Mullingar in the 1980s. The bow-ends, for modellers, are the tell-tale sign of WLWR stock; while this feature figured a lot in the GWR & LMS in Britain, only the WLWR used it here. A crying shame it didn't survive - perfect for DCDR! 2. CIE railcar set, mid-60s. Location unknown, but the GSWR brake 3rd in the middle is interesting. Both CIE and the UTA tended to use "re-purposed" old steam-era wooden stock in their railcar trains, this being perpetuated into NIR days. As late as 1980/1 a single GNR K15 was in a 70 class set on NIR (No. 727, the last GNR passenger vehicle in traffic anywhere), and the venerable wooden-interior 526, an old 1920s NCC third, was in an MED set. IRM will be bringing out a ready-to-run GSWR main line bogie coach this week, I think. 3. MPD railcar out'n'about on the NCC main line. Not sure where, but Senior was involved with the bridge rebuilding adjacent to it. 4. Three GNR railcars, three liveries, somewhere on the DSER. Date unknown but obviously early to mid 1960s. 5. Drogheda. 6. Macmine Junction. Might put that in a forthcoming book. I think this is about 1961. The branch closed 18 months later. 7. NIR 595, a former GNR brake 3rd; this, too, ended up as a railcar intermediate and later a loco-hauled brake standard. It was withdrawn about 1974, one of the very last steam-era coaches in use. And yes, that's supposed to be MAROON livery; see what weathering does! 8. WLWR 935, the company's beautiful Director's Saloon, at Mullingar. I took this one in the 1980s, just before the passage of time, lack of care and vandals put paid to it. I had already surveyed and measured it up as a possible Whitehead restoration project, when I was more involved with the RPSI. Had it survived, another PRIME candidate for Downpatrick or Whitehead Train Rides. 9. Side-on, CDR "red wagon" at the ill-fated museum in Derry. Still in original condition. I took this one in the early 1990s.

Glad to see they're socially distanced.........

Don't see it advertised - I have emailed them. I need some curved corrugated iron sheet 00 scale for convertible wagons roofs.

More; 1. Lifting train on the "Derry Road" (RIP) between Portadown & Dungannon, c. 1966. 2. GNR Crane tank, withdrawn, date unknown. 3. Claremorris, c.1969 4. Filthy "Jeep" with spoil wagons. 5. & 6. Withdrawn GNR beauties. 7. Omagh, 1961. 8. The GNR weedspray train stationed at Antrim, mid-1960s.

Tonight's eclectic colour selection: (H C A Beaumont) 1. Last ever spoil train, Magheramorne, 1970. 2. Permanent Way Institution Convention special at Lisburn, I think 1980? When Senior passed on to that great Locomotive Shed in the Sky, he was Ireland's oldest PWI member. 3. I thought this was at Ballyvary, c.1977. But given the 071 and the number of carriages it has to be on a Westport train, so I cannot be certain of details. Loco in original brownish livery, with non-standard GM Illinois version of the CIE roundel. 4. PWI trip another time, Dublin - Portrush and back. A highly unusual pairing of CIE Mk 3s and an NIR "Enterprise" dining car. 5. & 6. Family holidays were at Clonea, near Ballinacourty for a few years in the late 70s / early 80s. Guess where Senior went to take pictures. 7. One of two pics showing three GNR coaches in three liveries; Amiens St., c. 1962. 8. NIR (ex-NCC) 53 at a Whitehead Open Day, about 1970. Yours truly in cab, without PTS or day glo socks. The shame...... 9. No. 800 "Maedb" at Inchicore, with dismantling commenced JUST before being saved for Cultra. Some cab fittings, cab windows and nameplates had been removed. 10. Strabane, 1966. 11. Non corridor NCC 3rds awaiting scrapping at Antrim, 1970s. Vandals were doing the job for NIR anyway. 12. NCC Railcar 1 on a Belfast - Ballymena local, about 1962 - I think this was taken near Cookstown Junction, as Senior was replacing a bridge there at the time. 13. B130 arrives in Gorey, 1970; yours truly taking my second railway photo ever. I still have the print I took there - crooked and blurry. Senior's might have been crooked - as almost all of his were - but at least it's not blurred! 14. Strabane, I think January 1960, not long after closure of the CDR. 15. A UTA "Jeep" gets away with a heavy train - Ballymena? This is about 1964. 16. Caark, boy. 17. Narrow gauge thing in the Island-across-the-pond.

Well done!

And finally for now, and equally randomly, as follows: K801, Inchicore, 1971 Tank wagon - someone was talking to me about tank wagons recently, so there it is! The third one shows only one of two pictures I can recall seeing of the step contraption that ex-GNR Director's Saloon had when it was in use as the PW Civil Engineer's runabout. It was devised either by Senior or his immediate predecessor, one W H C Stone. It is seen here in use - the idea was that when the coach was used as a PW Inspection vehicle, anywhere the Engineer wanted to stop he gave a signal to the driver and they stopped, whereupon he got down and pottered about with measuring tape and notebook, before proceeding onward. Here it is seen in action somewhere on the NCC in UTA days - I suspect that it may be Limavady Junction - a long way from the GNR. Next, GSWR non-corridor elegance, withdrawn c.1962. This may have been taken in a siding at Kildare, but I can't be sure. "S" class 174 crosses a bridge under repair during Senior's watch. I think it is somewhere between Lisburn and Goraghwood. Next, spoil train wagon detail (basically, muck), and B144 with new grey bubbles. Finally, the SLNCR's "Lough Melvin" shunting at Adelaide about 1962, still in SLNCR all-black livery, a former 26ft CBSCR third at Albert Quay, and another faded blue beauty at Adelaide. Gawd knows what's next. Oh, it's a British class 47 in green...... but it's 02:45 and it's time I wasn't here.

Filthy Fert passes through Lisburn during the time of the utterly hideous red colour scheme that station was "adorned" in; a Hunslet leaves Belfast Central on - I think - the "Enterprise"; a Derry train thunders past a PW gang on the NCC main line, running wrong line as Senior had a possession on the other line; nice portrait of a Jeep at Adelaide (can't make the number out - could be No. 3?), an excursion coming off the (then closed) Antrim branch at Knockmore Junction, showing the unique Mills-designed brick-built cabin there, and a narrow gauge railbus in the United Kingdom of Blighty.

Started on Senior's colour stuff. An eclectic mix from about 1961 (which is when, judging by family photos, he got a camera suitable for colour slides. They're a mixed bag, in all honesty; many now badly deteriorated, though "my man" worked his magic on them - to such extent as possible - this evening. So, randomly: 1. A Brexit Rail diesel doing BR things on narrow gauge tracks in Brexitland; my geographical knowledge of British railways is virtually nil, and beyond one shot Senior has of Kyle of Lochalsh, and one or two of the Vale of Rheidol, I have no idea where the rest are.