jhb171achill

I think the grey roofs are worse! I recall when those O'Hymeks came out I considered buying a couple, but I was moving towards Austrian 009 at the time.........now that's all gone!

No, the "supertrain" livery was gone by then. AEC cars - I'm pretty certain they were only hauled by C's in push-pull mode. However, while I never saw it, I think the AECs may have been HAULED rather than "push-pulled" the odd time by a 141.

An absolutely superb thread! Watching this develop with great interest - for very obvious reasons, the "Achill Bogies" are among my favourite all-time engines! I had a couple of pics in the book attributed to John Sweeney, a local who is a friend of mine. They were taken by his father, P J Sweeney, and show the grandfather of one of our esteemed members here, who was a driver on the GSR, on the footplate of a D16 at Achill. Some of the detail showing on or around the loco cab, might be of use, although at that stage, of course, they are in GSR condition and details may differ from the days when they were in the MGWR livery which I think you said you'd reproduce them in. Sadly, I narrowly missed getting a bit of stick with actual MGWR loco green on it. Bob Clements told me he would give it to me during a conversation weeks before he died, and I didn't have the chance to visit him again - so presumably it went in the bin when the place was being cleared. An old piece of wood which had been dipped in a pot of paint and wrapped in paper wouldn't have meant anything to anyone clearing out. However, if you go for the very short-lived blue, an original example may be discerned on the end of the of the MGWR coaches at Downpatrick. Someone mentioned also the "Dargan Saloon" in Cultra. This is very probably as close as makes no odds also, although it is not original paint and therefore cannot be confirmed. Off-topic I know, but the Dargan Saloon carries a special livery. No coaches ever ran in ALL-blue on the Midland; locos were blue for a short time, but the few coaches repainted were blue and white with gold lining, rather than plain blue. Their twelve-wheeled director's saloon survived in the MGWR's last livery (1918-25) of dark maroon right through to the late 1950s, but that's yet another story.

Yes, I found pieces of a shoe in on I ate, and an old Claddagh ring in another......while the teabag was a sock.

I'd be terrified to go into their toilets in case I couldn't ever find my way out again!

In some countries, the railway authority there will sell off the building to a café franchise or something, so the station still has a "buzz" about it (meaning less graffiti scumbags, drug dealers and other antisocial morons) - and the buildings of heritage value are owned and maintained by someone other than the railway. Kilkenny has this large covered space. Make it into a restaurant, like Buncrana, or even a night-club - ANYTHING to preserve the roof and building in good condition. It might do also for a covered "farmer's market"-type location.

Indeed. Exact dates are hard to come by, as a loco set aside might still be technically in use, and might even make a reappearance the following year. A good general rule of thumb is gone by the mid 1980s.

Can't see it being the location - if we log onto, say, 00 Works or The Festiniog Railway (an interest of mine), their servers are presumably acros the sea..... I have to say, though, now that I think of it, Hatton's is impossibly slow at times too.

Maybe the IRM lads need to put a 50p in the meter.....

Not QUITE as heavy as the "Green Bible", but it won't go in your jacket pocket!

Any time I log in here, the website will open up OK - but when I click on a link, or a reply to a post, it takes forever to open it up, sometimes timing out. Other websites work OK speed-wise. Does anyone else have this problem with the IRM website, and what can be done about it?

OK, now I've read it. Took a few days! LOCOMOTIVES OF THE GREAT SOUTHERN & WESTERN RAILWAY by Jeremy Clements, Michael McMahon and Alan O'Rourke (Collon Publishing, Collon, Co. Louth) As would be expected, given the previous works of all three authors, this work promised to leave absolutely no stone unturned in terms of research, attention to detail, and the covering of all aspects of any issues which might have had several different research sources. At the start, in keeping with this thoroughness, the authors point out that not all records have survived, and thus given the passage of time, some small gaps are inevitable in the information covered. Nevertheless, the content is very detailed, as one would expect for a work which draws heavily on the copious notes of the late R N Clements, arguably Ireland's greatest ever expert on Irish steam traction. Many of us will be familiar with the "Big Green Book", or "GSR Bible", and this book is set out in much the same way. The authors refer in the introduction to the necessity to have a standard way of notation for all locomotive classes, given the bewildering array of styles used by the GSR, the GSWR of the immediately preceding era, and earlier GSWR notations. R N Clements' own system based on Roman numerals is included - once one takes the time to get one's head round Bob Clements' logic, it all falls into place. Many of the locomotive classes covered are obscure one-offs, but the efforts made to standardise some practices and components is well covered, as is the relationship between the early component companies of the GSWR, with their differing localised traction requirements. Naturally, the acquisition of the Waterford, Limerick & Western Railway by the GSWR in 1901, and the attendant absorbtion of its own locomotive fleet is well covered. Illustrations are many and varied, all in black and white bar one on the title page, which is worthy of note in itself; it shows a large scale model locomotive (now in the headquarters of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in London), which is the only known example of exact GSWR green paint, and the lining style used from about 1870 or so to the mid or late 1870s. This was used as a model to glean details for the accurate livery now portrayed on GSWR No. 90 at Downpatrick. Of interest to many is the complex story of the evolution, development, and later improvements, alterations and rebuilds of many classes of locomotive, as these were many and varied. I was personally very interested in the information relating in this regard to the J15s, probably the most versatile Irish locomotive ever - it's no coincidence that many of these which dated back to the 1870s managed to survive until the end of steam traction in 1963. This is, overall, a reference work of the very highest quality, like its predecessor. It will be the standard academic work on the complex, and fascinating, locomotive history of this, Ireland's biggest pre-1925 railway company. If I was to have any criticism, and it's a tiny one, it might be that a slightly more complex index be included - but in the grand scheme of things, this is a small detail. This book is an absolute must to any student of Irish railways, and is released at a time when interest in the pre-diesel era in Ireland is, thankfully, rapidly growing. If you haven't bought it, buy it! It isn't the cheapest book you'll ever buy, but the quality and depth of the information between its covers makes it absolutely worth every red cent. Congratulations to all three authors!

No, indeed! If you mean the pic above, with the viaduct in the background, the loco and wagon are not on a former railway premises - the viaduct is actually the closest place that ever had rails! Carlow had one - that's the one at Whitehead. Thurles had two. I believe Mallow had two, and Tuam had at least one. So that's six at least. There had been ten steam engines - a vertical-boilered yoke at Carlow, plus the nine locos of the type at Downpatrick, so six diesels, plus the occasional borrowed "G" class from CIE, would be a reasonable equivalent.

That's actually true!

Ah! OK

Is warehouse collection possible? Or mail order better?

No, no four wheelers. For modellers of the pre-1960 period, and indeed the pre-1950 or 1940 period, it’s important to remember one very fundamental difference between Irish and British coach design. The long-wheelbase 24ft to 30ft four-wheelers which ran on MANY British lines, and advertised both above AND by Hattons, were ENTIRELY absent in Ireland. Also, WE may have kept six-wheelers in traffic longer than Britain, but we disposed of OUR four-wheelers, which were of a very much shorter wheelbase (about 20ft), LONG before Britain. Never plentiful in number anyway, the vast majority disappeared by the 1890s, though the MGWR appear to have been using one, and possibly two, as late as the mid 1920s. So none of either the above, nor Hattons FOUR wheelers are remotely suitable for anything Irish. But the 6-wheelers of both have more than an acceptable resemblance to several GSWR types. Not GNR, not NCC, not MGWR, not BCDR, though. The good news is that some stock of this type lasted on CIE until 1963, and a small few of the full brake types only (not passenger carrying ones) made it into black’n’tan livery, largely on Galway mail trains, until 1966/8.

There was a third livery too, with pale yellow lining! Next book will have pics....

Yes, and with model 071s, soon joined by A class locos - and Leslie’s corrugated open wagons, SSM or JM design guards vans, a whole model of a beet factory is now possible! Now THERE’S a shunting layout!!!

Now THAT would be a find.....

No, that’s a well wagon. Different beast entirely. Very important to make the distinction between a WELL wagon, as shown above with equipment on it; and BOLSTER wagons, which were flat wagons. Neither were common and neither were used much. In particular a well wagon would almost never be in any sort of routine traffic; such vehicles were mostly used in maintenance.

That's EXACTLY what I mean! Disgraceful "stewardship" of railway "heritage" by IE. There's a thing called "bunchlo". Seems closest to me. There appears to be nothing that truly is VERY close to it.

It would seem around the time it was actually taken out of "trial" "service"....! It also appears to have been repainted in a dullish shade of green instead of what originally looked like a greeny-grey colour. Possibly they were preparing it for service but the traffic department had other ideas. It worked a trial goods train as well, I believe, but I can't place the details.

No, that’s a well wagon. Different beast entirely.

Whew! Thought it might have been "preserved" in - a bar in Manhattan or Chicago..............