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Hopefully! Good thinking.......

So as of now, anything I get in Brexitland goes to a relative in Wales, who will accidentally bring it over now and again……

I believe they were no stranger to the 70s on the Cork line.

To muddy the waters further, a friend of mine IN Britain now finds extra charges between the U.K. and AUSTRALIA!

PERFECT for a RTR! Travelled widely, versatile, and long lived. Once the "A" class are all sold............?

That is an EXCEPTIONAL bit of micro-engineering! Very impressive!

Ernie - do you have much other foreign stuff?

VERY well spotted! I'd say it's certainly Tullow. There's one more view: The lamp is visible in the IRRS shot. It is certainly Tullow.

Tullow’s top of the list, then. I found one more view which I’ll post later but the rest are old family photos. Must start soon on the “ordinary” negs which are 1935 onwards. Indeed they were! Inchicore’s heyday….

Found another......... The oul fella had a thing about 4.4.0s....... this one is Cobh, I believe in 1920 or so; this shows the grey livery started (1915) in GSWR times and was carried over into the GSR after 1925.

Is that thing still running? I'd love a trip on it...........

Damn yellow machines….. where’s the 071? “PROBABLY…….”

True

Roscrea is certainly very likely. They also went to Killaloe the odd time, but it doesn't look like there. Did Birdhill have a turntable?

Genny vans and TPOs, of course, were exempt; many of these got so filthy they could have been painted pink and lime green with tartan stripes for all anyone could tell! I remember seeing a tin van at Limerick one time, at the back of a two-coach train at the platform, which might have been for the Nenagh branch or possibly the Limerick - Ballina set. (The Rosslare in those days tended to have 3, 4 or 5 coaches). The patina of brake dust and general gunk all over it was such that ends, gangways, chassis, roof, sides and windows were all the one dull brown colour! The two laminates with it were spotless..........

Currently I am going through a huge collection of glass plate negatives of a family farm in Co Offaly over 100 years ago. This is not railway related at all, so no need to post them here - but ONE railway view popped up which is worthy of sharing - my grandfather took this some time about 1910-20. Can anyone assist with the location? The scan doesn't show it, but just barely visible on the left is a stone-based water tower. The stone base is whitewashed. The Dublin contingent of the family used to go by train to either Nenagh or Birr to stay on the farm during the summer holidays. So it is most likely to be somewhere in that general area, even Ballybrophy. But no concrete info.

Square ones, I think…..

True!!!!! D'oh! OK, not sure what it was then. Maybe he was planning to do a 60-class - something lurking in the back of my mind!

I'll take the chocolate. Someone else can have the silver "customer pipes".

I forgot to mention that due to ventilated sides, cattle trucks were occasionally used for transporting boxes of fish.

My grandfather (1879-1951) started building this (live steam) model in the 1910s. He never got it finished. Too busy working on boiler drawings in Inchicore Works! I think it was intended to be a 60-class 4.4.0. I believe that at some stage he was working on improvements to these locos. Sound familiar? How many of us never manage to get a model finished!

This is a model of a GSWR "soft-top" which my grandfather built about 1910. The scale ends up with a track gauge of about 7 inches.

Hopefully this goes ahead and isn't stymied by the new variant of covid....... excellent experience. Last years' took place with "staycationers", at whom it was aimed, as are those for this year, as there aren't exactly going to be droves of Americans coming here. This train is not to be confused with Railtours' "Emerald Isle Express" of a few years ago, which used IE 071s and the RPSI Cravens set. That one is unlikely to return for the time being. The harsh reality is, as others have commented, is that the LOCAL market for a luxury train is small; and what there is, is fraught with whingers and typical Irish begrudgers! We need the 'Murricans back before many aspects of tourism can walk and run again.

Ventilated vans were used, and the fish were carried in long flat wooden boxes, packed in salt. While I cannot put my hand to any photos, they were like standard goods vans of the day, with slats at the upper or lower parts of the sides. Fish were also sometimes carried in "soft-tops" - convertible goods vans with the tarps open on the roofs. Livery - soft-tops - grey, standard wagon livery. Ventilated vans, depending on type or railway company, could be the standard wagon colour, or possibly a coloured livery - often that of carriages on the same line. I have a notion that MGWR fish vans were at least at one time a lighter colour to reflect heat, but I'd have to look up details. Since my house move there's a load of stuff I just cannot find! On the GSWR, you're safe with the wagon livery of the day, a very dark grey, sometimes almost black - not unlike what locos would end up having from 1915 onwards. I cannot say for certain whether any GSWR vans carried the passenger dark lake, but I wouldn't be surprised. Do you have any drawings or pics of such a van? If so, let's have a look at it..........

A PROPERLY restored “shell” would be fine as an exhibit, but it would have to be kept covered, at the very least with a roof. Out in the open simply is not an option long-term for a yoke like that…..