jhb171achill

An impressive looking thing, even if I would never even begin to understand what all the buttons or for, or the numerous signs and labels. It seems, from the narrative above, that IE staff will not operate this thing at all, but instead a team of people employed by a specially set-up Irish subsidiary of the makers - is that right? Seems over-the-top in terms of administration - and somebody's company CEO salary and dividends. Could this be like the creeping and insidious "privatisation" of the British NHS by introducing more and more "private contractors" and "specialist firms", and "partners"? Just a thought. On a completely different note, any time I see the latest thing that maintenance and PW people are getting, I wonder what my father, a lifelong PW Civil Engineer, would have made of it! Old-school as he was in many ways, he was always keen to embrace new tech, and was pleased to be one of the first to get hold of the GNR's first ever tamper, which he deployed between Dundalk and Inniskeen before the GNR's Eastern District snaffled it........

Then it's got mixed up with Senior's stuff! There's no chance of either copying from the other, as they didn't know each other.

No idea, Steve - it was all in with the same stuff. I will attempt to delve. Looks familiar to me too.

Yes, always way more common in the south-west. Despite being a GSWR (WLWR) line, their activities were even rare north of Limerick to Sligo, though as one might expect, they were somewhat more common on goods trains on both the North Kerry & South Kerry lines. Even with weedsprays, forays onto the GNR and the Midland were as good as unknown. They were never in regular service on anything on those systems.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=william+ulsterman+sketch&view=detail&mid=F76D7DDFAF7E4FC04373F76D7DDFAF7E4FC04373&FORM=VIRE

This is light years beyond farcical, and totally unacceptable. Let's see what happens with MY recent order for stuff from Noo Zealand! What sort of mess will An Post make of it! Anything I order in the Republic of Brexitstan I get delivered to my daughter in Walesland..... so that's ONE solution....

That it truly, utterly DISGRACEFUL. One for Joe Duffy, in all actual seriousness.

Ah! There we go; mystery solved!

I thought that too, though I wondered if the platform the photographer is standing on is a bit wide? It certainly is not Hilden, Dunmurry, Derriaghy, Adelaide or Balmoral. So we’re narrowing it down! I would be less familiar with the Bangor line halts at that time. It’s not Knockmore either, nor anywhere west of there.

I thought it might be Lambeg, on the down line, i.e. heading for Central / Bangor - but no footbridge is evident.... somewhere about there, yes, no doubt.

Thank you, northroader! I'll add to it next time I'm bumbling about Malahide station - there are a few more details I should be able to add. Pity blue 4.4.0s aren't among them nowadays!

That's exactly what it's doing. I travelled on that set at the time. 101 was on the back.

It's 106 that I got a cab ride in - I believe it was the last of them in traffic, though 103 seems to have been kicking about late on as well. Latterly, the last survivors were rarely used. Incidentally, I saw a pic the other day of one at Kingscourt. That was a VERY rare outing; forays north of Dublin were almost unknown.

I've a pile of these things which I got in a house clearance - I'd pass them on for whatever it costs to post them, or a token donation......

Indeed!

That's the same Berridge family I referred to the other day, and in the book! Interesting. There's a distant relative still about, in Wexford.

That Askeaton one is certainly a one-off, as were several on the CDR, C & L and T & D; also Island Road on the Kilfree Junction - Ballaghaderreen branch....

Interesting! Where did that come from? What is it?

Love the "faded" paintwork on the brake van!

Unfortunately I don't have dates... but, yes, you'd be right. The red nameplates on the SLNCR only applied to some locos - others had black backgrounds. While I have no way to confirm it, Senior thought that at one stage one of them may have been with a background of blue or green!

On the whole GNR they were red all over the system too - the white was a CIE thing, rather than "north / south".

Not sure if I posted these before; from Senior's stuff. The SLNCR's "Lough Erne" is shown both in SLNCR (unlined black) livery, and later lined UTA black. The "Mogul" running wrong line is doing so because Senior had "possessed" the other track for relaying or something. I don't know for certain where it is, but the first carriage is GNR.

One of Fry's 4-wheeled LNWR coaches. None of his English stuff is on display, due to space - but it is hoped to rectify this in due course. The "makers plate", which is on most (but not all!) of his models reads "CLF 3.46", which means he made the model in March 1946, 75 years ago!

That's exactly the reason. They were fitted like that for Mallow - Waterford primarily, I expect. I was only in the cab of one once (and over a short distance, maybe 5 miles) and was struck by the lack of room in the cab - every bit as bad as a 141, and poor visibility ahead - the windows are pretty high. Must have been hated by drivers when shunting.

Some details on brickwork. Note the fluted detail either side of windows, and on SOME but not ALL corners of buildings. These did not go the whole length of the relevant corner. Note, too, the recessed downpipe. If you REALLY know what you're doing, you'll spot a place in the small remaining piece of brick wall on the down side of Adelaide Halt in Belfast, where the recess for the downpipe may still be seen. It is also evident, as far as I remember, on the up side station building at Dunmurry. (What? you didn't know that building beside the station entrance was a Mills-design GN building?). Downpipes were square in cross-section - the one shown is Moddern. Note the brick lining. From top to bottom, red / black, black / red. This varied somewhat in many locations. Compare this (Dundalk), Lisburn, Ardee and Malahide. Finally, have a look at the next pic and the above on. At the bottom of each wall, the wall gets wider and there's a sloped course of brick bringing it outward. In many pics it looks a different colour. It's not - it's DIRT. Like supposedly "black" domes on blue GNR locos, red CDR locos, grey CIE / GSR locos and green CIE locos, it's DIRT! A heavy caking of brake dust, which rusts and turns dark. That line of sloped brick behind the seat (below), about a foot off the ground, is the same colour as the rest of the yellow brick. Now my cocoa's cold. Good night!