jhb171achill

Which is exactly why the guard has it in the Guard's van. He will put his packet of egg sandwiches in greaseproof paper on top of it, so those white-hatted busybodies won't go near it.

It’s thirty years before the Northern Bank robbery, of course……

“What have you got in that package?” “Never you mind. Don’t tell yer man a THING”……

Finally, a lonely J15 has been shoved into the former loco road following a leaking boiler tube…. Tomorrow the Castletown pilot engine will be summoned to rescue it.

109 takes water before taking the early morning train…. While, five years later, B165 prepares to depart with the same service. I’ll see what I can do! Doesn’t seem to want to download here….

B165 shunts incoming wagons of coal, then disappears light engine back to Castletown West. And leaving light engine….

Doings at Dugort Harbour….. experimenting with images as much as shunting…. There’s the panoramic, as in the first pic. Hard to do this at ground level due to lack of depth-of-field. The third pic is tinted to look like an old colour slide from the mid-60s.

“Look, I don’t CARE if your brother is still in O’Donoghue’s. And I don’t CARE if you write to Lemass. I can’t hold the train!….”

Good to see the track still there........ it was, of course, double track until (I think) 1928. I was over it myself many a time.

Wow - spectacular as always! Absolutely one of my favourite layouts....

Can it be Friday more often, please? Superb photos, superb angles, very well composed, and amazing scenery. That's the sort of layout I like, where you can lose yourself in the entire scenery and background...... excellent stuff.

That's looking VERY impressive!

The BR van with single white stripe - early 70s to early 90s. Double white stripes - 1990s to early 2000s. For the 1960s (indeed, late 50s to early 70s), the four wheel tin vans are really the only show in town on practically ALL trains. The six-wheel ones were only seen in main lines. I saw them on the Enterprise and on the Cork line. Never saw a 6-wheeled one on the Midland, though I can’t say it didn’t ever happen.

Yes, it would match cravens perfectly. I have one of these but I’ve found it to be very prone to derailment….

Yes - I must do that one with steam, soon!

Fiddling about with images, while trying to keep a mobile phone the scale size of the Titanic from damaging delicate scenery! It’s 1964 again, of course.

Yes, indeed, it looks superbly realistic.

That superelevation looks so realistic - don't remember seeing that modelled before. Superb.

That was precisely the thinking behind it, David. I COULD have jammed it with track. There are actually signs of a lifted siding, and a disconnected turntable road. There’s room for at least two more sidings plus a bay platform line, and a two or possibly even three-road engine shed. But the sort of places it is meant to resemble were in real life laid out in precisely the manner you describe. I think the code 75 track helps too. Lack of trees assists with creating the impression too. I think that artistically, if the trains are the highest things, it helps create this illusion. Thus, buildings will be few (two, in fact, plus signal cabin), and single-storey. In many windswept western and south-western locations in Ireland, trees WOULD be a rarity. Looking forward to the arrival of the next batch of track which is on order now. I often play about with doodling potential track plans for all sorts of imaginary layouts - this has always interested me. I saw pictures in a very old Railway Magazine years ago of some obscure Scottish terminus which closed a long time ago, and exuded the same sort of desolate, “wide-open” atmosphere as the likes of Valentia Harbour, Achill or Burtonport on the Lough Swilly. I can’t remember where it was, but that’s exactly what I’m trying to recreate.

From the diary…. All sorts of shenanigans today, 26th July 1965….. The cattle fair is tomorrow, so the place is full of cattle trucks with B165 shunting, while B141 has the 07:55 to Cork, preparing to go. Terrible bluish tint on these old colour slides….

Superb!!!!

THAT will be good, Noel! Pints long overdue! See you there, looking forward to it.

I was talking to Jim Deegan today (Railtours Ireland) and it is possible (not confirmed yet) that he will do a combined train to Galway & coach to Maam X deal. Outwards on the 09:35 ex-Heuston, and back on the 19:20 ex-Galway. His railway will be open to inspect - it is right next door to the venue. Looks like the launch thing itself will be mid-afternoon, allowing time to explore the Maam Cross railway first, and get a bite to eat before going back to Galway. I will keep things updated here as it develops.

Now, a GSWR 6-wheel bogie ("Rosslare Express").....WOULD be something!

Here's hoping! GSWR bogie second and Midland 6-wheelers on order........