jhb171achill

Very nice! Works well with the backscene too.

Some varied stuff here from Brexitstan. First we've LMS, then we go south. The IOWR is in there too. The Mersey Railway gets a look in, as does the Festiniog, which he visited pre- and post-preservation, the last time in the 1970s. An interesting aside is that Senior's father paid a semi-official visit to the Liverpool Overhead while the Drumm trains were in design stage. I am unaware of whether Dr. Drumm was with him, but since Seniorx2's job was the bodywork design of these things, the electrical aspect of it had nothing to do with him. Could it be that the GSR was actively considering a system similar to the Liverpool Overhead trains for the Bray - Amiens St., and Bray - Harcourt St. lines? THAT would have been interesting; had such a system been put in place, it would have been running into the 1960s, thus the Harcourt St. line would likely have avoided its 40-year closure. Senior's first visit to the Festiniog was, I believe, in the late 1930s. In 1942/3 he was working for the LMS, based in the Civil Engineer's HQ in Blackburn (where he saw "the new engines" (Black 5s) passing along). While in England, he did a number of side trips, and on frequent returns home to Dublin would have passed through North Wales frequently. The visit to the Vale of Rheidol was at some stage in the early 1950s - I do not know the circumstances as by then he was on the GNR, based in Enniskillen. The several bridges here are of interest; doubtless someone can identify them. Modellers of things British will be interested to look at the wagons to be seen in these pictures. The picture of the Southern Railway 2.6.0 shunting wagons appears to be at the side of a canal wharf about to overflow! Any ideas where that is? The miniature railway - could that be Ravenglass?

Much appreciated, Ernie! Your superior knowledge will come in handy once I post some of the British stuff too.......

Leslie - thanks for that! Given Senior's meanderings at the time, Vienna is a very good bet - I don't think he was ever in Dresden.

Could be. Much of this stuff I'm posting has few if any notes. I want to find some sort of appropriate historical body to give it to - my sister lives in Switzerland so I'll ask her to poke about.

Funny you say that; the Island of Wight appears in tomorrow's stuff, which will be from the People's (well, Boris's) Republic of Brexit! Good spot. Any ideas about the miniature one? Romney?

Continuing the alpine theme, plus a miniature railway (in Britain?). No idea where the first pic, a harbour view, is - any takers? That big 4.4.2 is a tasty looking thing!

So it is - my error.

I have. Its marginally bright, but I’ve seen worse, and decent weathering sorts it out.

The six-wheeler.

It normally DOES have 6 or 9 of them - dunno what happened today! IMG_8747.MOV

"....I normally put my sandwiches in here, but one o'them damn cheapskate tourists has taken them...." "Ah, y'see, you should have brought them up here. I keep mine in a little fridge here with my beer".

So from the Isle of Man to the "mainland"; Switzerland and possibly Austria in several cases - some of you folks will have a better knowledge of things continental than I have. I think this lot must all be 1956, though it's possible some is earlier. I notice my late aunt sitting facing us in the first picture - this one will be about 1951/2.

I'm sitting at home today working on more signage! (Plus two Provincial wagon kits....)

I’ve only been a couple of times - 1973 and a few years ago. HIGH time I went back.

I have two of them, Leslie. One has a more "pristine" livery, as if it's a rare example of a wagon newly repainted in the late 50's, but it's just posed in that pic as it has no couplings yet. The other has, and has been weathered a bit. I'll eventually weather it even more. I'm well pleased with the Provincial "H" vans, cattle trucks and Bullied opens! I must have several dozen between them....

Boyd said that exact thing to me when I toured with him in the 1970s; his particular favorite, as might be expected, was the T & D. Regarding the similarity, the modern IOMR is maybe what a section of the CDR would be like had it survived! But jhb171Senior ALSO said, when we were there in 1973, that the then IOMR reminded HIM of the CDR. The rocking and rolling of creaky carriages over shockingly bad track (at that time) was pure Donegal, he said. The Welsh lines couldn't even compare with the 200 miles of 3ft gauge track in Donegal; it would be like comparing a funfair fifteen-inch-gauge with the down Cork Mail on a Monday morning behind "Maedb"! Forgot to add, the pic of No. 3 "Pender" is a rare enough one to start with, but the loco is shunting the siding on Ramsey Quay. That's something very rarely surviving in pictures.

My grandfather - the GSWR & GSR's Chief Draughtsman until he retired in 1945, H J A Beaumont. He took some of the earlier pics among my dad's stuff. Yes, a plain brown, somewhat darker than that used by the GNR. Some older stock was still in the earlier two-tone livery.

As referred to in another thread, I will post here a selection of material from the above places, taken by jhb171Senior or (in a few earlier cases) my grandfather during the mid 30s to mid 50s. I hope these are of interest. Starting with the Isle of Man, which includes the Ramsey Pier Tramway, a rare beast in photos. Foxdale features too - even then, it was little used as the mines had closed. The man on the platform at Peel with camera, is Inchicore's own H J A Beaumont...... he is seen lurking in Ramsey MER station too.

So I've got several very excellent and informative answers to locos and locations in Switzerland and Britain, just by posting three pics. First, many thanks to those concerned. Secondly, by degrees I will therefore post some of Senior's other 1930s-50s British and mainland European bits on the "overseas railways" section of this website. Hopefully they will be of interest to modellers of these places. Some very nice Isle of Man stuff too, which is probably among the older material - I think they were there when Senior was a teenager, which would make it mid 1930s. I'll start a new thread for that stuff.

Later than I thought! Excellent, thanks.

Exactly - and these fell into three categories, in terms of how many there were / how common they were: (a) the various iterations of what are now generically known as "tin vans", officially "heating vans" and "luggage vans"; both with guard accommodation and brake; (b) rebuilt 1951-3 standards as brake gennies, and (c) the few six-wheeled "tin vans" (which were all heating vans - these tended to be seen almost entirely on main lines (my own personal recollections were only of seeing them on the "Enterprise" or the Cork line). Then, of course, the Dutch ones in 1969 and the BR ones in 1972. The last four wheeled tin vans to be seen in passenger traffic were on the three routes out of Limerick; Ballina, Rosslare and Ballybrophy, and on Dublin and Cork suburban services, where I believe they lasted until about 1977. The last I personally saw were in early spring 1976, on the Limerick - Ballina train of two laminates plus van. That service ended about 2 weeks later.

Actual GSWR paint, livery & lining on this model in Cultra made by Inchicore apprentices over 100 years ago.

I'm wandering off topic in that while the above is "from the catacombs", it's not Irish! So, to ease us back home, here's one taken in Switzerland and one in Ireland. The Swiss one is 1956, as Senior was on his Funnymoon. That's a serious looking electric loco..... I remember seeing an elderly one something like that, with "steam"-era wheels and connecting rods, in Austria in 1979..... funny to hear it clanking past but no steam or smoke. The Irish one is one of Cyril Fry's (this particular one c. Hassard Stacpoole), and is the mixed train at Cahirciveen, about to depart for Farranfore. It is this type of scene that I will eventually want to emulate on "Dugort Harbour" once IRM get the "C" classes out! That MGWR Cusack-era six-wheeler is a long way from home.

Ah! Superb! Very many thanks, Stephen. I'll post some more of his British stuff by degrees. What is that coach with the loco? Also, what few notes I have suggest it might be earlier even - possibly HIS father took it in the mid 1930s. I wish he had kept proper notes, though I'm one to talk regarding my own stuff.......! Here's another from the Union of Brexit Republics......this one is 1930s. I have an idea they were over there about 1937, but again, no confirmation. For modellers interested in British private owner wagons, this place would be heaven......