jhb171achill

Those look like tar tankers. No wonder the Park Royal Guinness tasted like antelope poo.

Anything inside it?

Bet you'd rather have an AEC set drifting down into Bantry!

It’s because the box is still with it....

That’s of big interest to me with a small South African shunting layout in progress.....

Did they clean the novichok off the seat?

Maybe it’s the pills I’m on, or advancing senile bewilderment, but even I would be tempted to buy one of those silver pipes on wheels, as a curio to remind me of regular travel between Galway and Dublin in recent years. But it would have to have a working model of the tea trolley, its Eastern European staff, and REAL kitkats.

Rather than grain wagons....? I think some of those opens with the curved tops to the ends were still kicking about in the 1930s, and possibly longer - you'd never know what you'd find hiding long forgotten in some nook or cranny siding in West Cork.

Absolutely superb stuff all round. Love your realistic brickwork texture.

That is precisely the reason. Once they were in use, daily grime became the livery. All railway companies had their own “corporate image”, just like today. Manufacturers often dolled things up to look good in photos (e.g. locomotives with elaborately lined “works grey”), but these were not the way they went into traffic, as companies wanted them in their standard colours. Painters wages were cheap! The first-ever “Woolwich” was repainted in full twice before it ever turned a wheel.....

We'll let them off with it!

While my personal knowledge is almost non-existent of these coloured pipes that run along railways in England, I am well aware that they've a following - and will do even more in the future, I would guess. Surely it's not beyond the wit of man to do a basic bodyshell, or possibly a suitable profiled end that could be stuck onto a British one as a replacement end to the correct profile? We can make a very good conversion of a steam engine from one type to another completely different prototype by changing the cab and side tanks........

Maybe they're not high enough in the Pekking order for the magazine to spel corecktly?

Nice job!

While it was conventional to paint horse boxes in passenger livery, this was usually without any lining! So you're safe on that front! Just lettering and number; in the case of both the MGWR and GSR, a gold-yellow colour, shaded. I think I've seen a pic somewhere of one of these with a GSR crest added, but it would not have been typical; maybe a one-off, so you're safe there too! Because its passenger livery, black chassis / wheels / solebars is correct. If you wanted to have it in wagon livery, obviously the whole thing would be grey.

From photographic evidence, Mansell wheels on anything appear to have been varnished wood when new. However after a short time in traffic (like white lead carriage roofs), it was anything but - just a dirty grey / black colour. It is probable they were painted black or grey (depending on body colour, perhaps) at first repaint, as I inspected up to half a dozen samples years ago which were all of either MGWR or GSWR origin, and found what appeared to be black paint under all the gunk. The Ranks' grain trucks would as you say be a totally different animal, and didn't stay red long; apart from that, I was unaware of them visiting West Cork - if so, a rare visitor, I would think, as grain was carried generally in standard wagons. The CBSCR appears to have generally used a dark grey for all goods stock, somewhat darker than CIE. Older vehicles, back in CBSCR days - varnished Mansell wheel centres and white-rimmed wheels would have been delivery livery. After only days in traffic, that was no more to be seen! And, as I say, inspections of the real thing plus photos suggest early paint applied to these wooden bits. Black ironwork on wagons is an invention of Welsh preserved lines and Hornby. While examples of "oddball" one-offs and the very few private owner liveries in Ireland did have this type of embellishment, normal wagons in normal traffic would never have had ironwork picked out in black. Regarding the ones you describe - did you mean the CIE Ranks ones? For 2mm gauge, these vehicles - all of them - are quite simply the very best modelling in that scale that I have EVER seen. That pic would do credit to 0 gauge! The undercoat colour you have would indeed suffice, though it's lighter than the grey used. If you weather it badly - which would be absolutely prototypical - it'll match perfectly! As to the horse boxes - the chassis is fine. Horse boxes and carriage trucks were very usually painted by most Irish railway companies in passenger livery, hence MGWR ones were brown initially. After 1918 they were maroon, and from what I understand, it would fade quite quickly to match exactly what you have. So, the above is correct either for 1918-25 MGWR livery, OR GSR livery. Chassis would be black, as these were in passenger livery. The general rule for most irish companies is - goods livery has chassis same colour as body and ironwork; passenger livery has black chassis. So that horse box is fine as it is. SOME horse boxes could be wagon grey in CIE days, but most seemed to have passenger livery. (Laterally this meant exceptionally badly worn, bleached and faded remains of CIE green - and some grey).

Approaching Malahide this evening.....

Even by your “Almost-impossible-to-equal” standards, David, that is an absolute masterpiece in every way. Superb.

Dang. If I was 40 years younger.....

Small hint - "Portaferry" would do just fine on its own - it would only have "Something Road" or anything else added if there was a second station in the town - to distinguish it (as in "Portaferry North" or "Portaferry South").

At an absolute stretch, a 141 in black'n'tan MIGHT (hypothetically, anyway) have been seen with these things, but i don't think an "A". I took a film of the trial run of them passing Kildare one summer day, yes, I believe 1978. During the same week on a runabout ticket, I think I still saw maybe only one or two locos not yet "supertrained", but they were 141s. But I never saw a black'n'tan loco after that. Either that, or I'm mixing it up with summer '77; at which time no ammonias.

You’ve a great scope for variety there, Billycan. With those four, you’ve covered 1963-2003 - forty years!

I am not sure what Midland guards vans had the green livery, whether any that did were this shade, or as suggested in another source, something lighter (could have been this, badly faded). Fry was in Broadstone when vans like this were being painted, so I suspect the dark shade shown here is certainly how they started. This green livery was not applied to any other vehicle - only goods brake vans / drovers vans such as this. WLWR goods stock was, I believe, plain dark grey. The varnished wagons seen in Ernie's book were pre-WLWR, in W&LR days, and probably only like this on delivery.

Perfect! Here goes, then: IMG_7921.MOV IMG_7922.MOV IMG_7923.MOV IMG_7924.MOV IMG_7926.MOV IMG_7929.MOV IMG_7930.MOV IMG_7936.MOV IMG_7937.MOV IMG_7938.MOV IMG_7943.MOV IMG_7944.MOV IMG_7946.MOV IMG_7948.MOV IMG_7949.MOV IMG_7950.MOV IMG_7951.MOV

I took a whole pile of videos this afternoon, but none will load! I'll try this one. Someone let me know if it works. IMG_7921.MOV