jhb171achill

The only ones above not likely ever to have been hauled by an "A" class would be a SLNCR vehicle of any sort or NCC "Brown Van", though a very slim possibility might exist of the latter. These vans were not much used in goods trains. A UTA "Spoil Wagon", or the "2459" van - no. In all of the remaining cases, all liveries would have hauled them, as follows: Silver, green or black, early black'n'tan, or black with yellow ends - all of the wagons bar the exceptions above, the skeletal flat and double beet, and all wagons grey at the time. Supertrain - in either grey OR brown, CIE Bulleid Open CIE Bulleid Covered H Van CIE Sundries Double Height Beet CIE Gunpowder Van CIE 20ft Skeleton Flat Guinness Beer Tanks GNR 15T Coal Wagon CIE Cattle Wagon GSWR 10T Brake Van - PLUS the palvan, if a model appears. After the "tippex" stripes appear, it's all bogies and modern stuff (shale, fert, bubbles, etc) in brown.

True, but a “what-if”.

First, a risk assessment would be carried out on the matter of holding an enquiry. Protective hats, dayglo, PTS, PPE & steel-capped boots would be needed for the people who wrote the report, with a three month line closure if the report exceeded the normal seventeen 2000-page volumes. Secondly, (do you have an hour?)........

The green started being replaced when the grey and yellow 121s appeared, and the following year the first Black and Tan appeared. For several years, through the 1960s, the norm was a mixture as the next few pics will show. This was in 1963. The first vehicle is one of quite a few wooden-bodied brakes or mail vans still in use. This one is of obvious GSWR parentage. It’s in faded green - non-passenger-carrying vehicles never got the cosmetic attention that locos and coaches did - it’s as if they were treated like wagons. Then comes the obligatory tin van. Also seen are laminates and (I think) a Bredin, in both the new and old liveries.

Very true - I had the misfortune to board a Portadown train in (the old) Gt Vic St one time, in which there was a swarm of them. Politics aside, and I won’t go into the details, they were the vilest excuses for human beings I ever saw in any train anywhere. They trashed the train. I got off at Lisburn.

Seems to have been random, Popeye. Some always seemed to have them, others seemingly never did and others again were seen in both forms - but it’s worth remembering that both the lines, and numerals (and “snails” on the “A” class were light green, rather than white)....

More tomorrow.... From P Dillon / C Fry collection

Since the next lot of pics I'm posting are not "A" class, I will post them instead on my thread "From the Catacombs".

In their exact form, only Irish railways. However, the Americans had (not sure which line) an almost-lookalike bigger 121 with six-wheel bogies, and several countries had designs based on, but not looking like, 071s. I am unaware of anything anywhere else even remotely resembling a 141 or 181. An interesting quirk was five 121 types built as (shorter) six-wheeled shunters; I believe the remains of one is still lurking at the back of a depot in Argentina. An interesting future scratch-build model, and any old six-wheel chassis would do, as protective guard rails along the lower sides hid the wheels from view!

That shorter wheelbase type of van was almost standard prior to 1910 or so, and thus many examples lasted until the “H” vans were being produced at a serious rate of knots in the early 1960s. The West Cork system had loads of very old vans until closure in 1961.

Old GSR stuff such as Bredins - and much earlier (GSWR) all-wooden stock, with old double footboards, even a few non-corridor ones, were used on Dublin and Cork local services until 1974; even longer in the north, with the very last GNR and NCC coaches (now converted to railcar intermediates), in use until 1980 / 81.

Exactly! I always think 70ft coaches look downright peculiar on 2ft or 3ft radius curves. Behind a “C”, two six-wheelers, three goods vans and a guard’s van is more than adequate, and many of the wooden bogies seen behind them, or the A or B101 class were 50ft or even 48ft.

More realistic rendition of post-1955 green. In background, a "silver" "E" on the left, and on the right a wooden GSWR bogie and what I think is the end of a Bredin.

Yes, black bogies (with green or blue bits, things, and oddball Lego bricks amongst them) were only seen from the early to mid 2010s onwards - on anything at all.... Prior to that, brown.

Got a nice package today.... IMG_8204.MOV

Moving from “A”s, let’s hope for a 101 in the future!

There ya go, Jim!

RTR bogie coach needed next! Common until the late 1960s, still about until the mid 70s!

Yes, agreed regarding RTR passenger coach! Offered in "silver-muck", green and black'n'tan..... What did they wash them with? It would be tempting to say buckets of mud! yes, yard brushes and water, mostly... I'm not sure when the first carriage washing plants were installed, but I don't think they were to be seen 1955-60........

Only a few years old then, and possibly with lining too, as I think they were fully lined on delivery. Not later.

At the bottom of this image, from Headhunters Railway Museum in Enniskillen, you see actual NCC lettering on actual NCC maroon paint. So that's the carriage colour, and that's the lettering style and colour. Often, the gold got faded to a wishy-washy creamy colour, and at the same time the shading was worn off. The NCC tended not to put lining on much secondary stock, narrow gauge included, and often no LMS crest either. Certainly in later years, the Ballycastle stock had neither lining nor crests. The above collection is worth looking at - many of the board backgrounds are in actual railway company paint, including the Dublin & Blessington; almost without doubt the only surviving example of their colour of green. Ditto the BCDR, UTA, Clogher Valley and T & DR (the huge garter on the left above the Donegal one). Gavin, regarding the lettering of the gangway COVERS, this looks to me as if it was handpainted on; thus pale yellow.

You’ll also note the usual eclectic mix: on the left, an equally newish Park Royal, to the right an elderly GSWR coach, by then some fifty years old.

A “silver” laminate, a short-lived idea in the late 60s. And THIS is a cleanish one. The entire chassis, ends and roof are caked in a mix of general grime, brake dust and drizzle, and the only reason the sides aren’t is carriage washes. The odd one survived like this until about 1965, going directly to black’n’tan. Most were repainted green after a short time.

Nocturnal meanderings..... LONGFORD, Summer 1974. Down Direction 0016 Down Night mail from Mullingar (Connection from down Galway night mail) 0121 North Wall - Sligo goods (loose coupled) (Tuesday to Saturday) 0305 Mullingar - Sligo goods (Monday to Friday) 0635 Mullingar - Longford local goods (Tuesday to Friday; stopped only at Mostrim). 1107 Down day mail / Passenger Up Direction 2211 Sligo - Mullingar goods (Monday - Friday) 2232 Sligo - Mullingar Mail (usually had an old Bredin brake on it for nominal passenger accommodation; I travelled in it once). 0020 Sligo - Dublin Empty Fertiliser path. (Opposite direction was during daytime) 0312 Sligo - dublin goods (Tuesday - Saturday) 0750 Longford - Mullingar light engine 0910 Sligo - Dublin passenger My own early "sounds" were loco horns heard at Westland Row / Lansdowne Road, and GNR steam whistles at Knockmore Junction.......

They're out spotting the Lilt cans that run up and down the line! If they want a J15 and six-wheel coaches, they might have to wait a bit longer......