jhb171achill

So many of these vids......half an hour fiddling with a box, then half an hour talking about the packing, then the model is put on a bit of track. It sits there and sits, and sits, while the commentator gives us a lecture on the GX-3452/67.09 Version 4.3 sound chip. The poor loco still has not budged. Then, the headlights go on. Still, it sits, and sits and sits - motionless. Now there is a distant recording of the real thing revving up. There will be four times the time taken to rev it up as on the real thing. STILL it sits. Next, A lecture about the spare coupling. Now we’re back to the damn box it’s in. The loco waits patiently, flashing its headlight, revving up a notch higher and hissing and grunting. It does not budge. Now, and we’re an hour and 24.56 seconds in, the model revs up again and after an eternity, BARELY, just imperceptibly starts a frustratingly, and unrealistically slow crawl out of the station at a scale 2 mph. After 11.6 seconds, it’s just about made it to the end of the platform it was sitting at, as the camera turns to our host, still prattling on about bits of polystyrene and boxes. Well, I hope you enjoyed this “Unwrapping” today, folks! Tomorrow's tutorial will be about turning up the speed control to a scale brisk-walk, and having the train move away from a platform in less than three times the time the real ones take! Thank you for watching. Rant over; I’m going for my smelling salts.......!

I’ve included a piece on the U & C in my next scribblings (“Rails Through Connemara”), as it would have headed from Clifden, somewhat north of the MGWR line, possibly through Leenane (SPECTACULAR scenery) and the Maam Valley to Cong. Now, to get it published!!!! The closedown has actually delayed it badly.

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Senior recalled being somewhere in the country years ago, possibly on the Blessington tram line (I don't remember), and there was a goat tethered by a rope to a running rail. Presumably the owner took it aside when the steam tram came along!

Hi Ken If you're looking at the early 30s, a six wheeler will be lined VERY dark maroon, when weathered looking like an almost Guinnessy brownish-black with a deep maroon tint; in other words, the incredibly drab "crimson lake"! (And some think that grey locomotives looked dull!) From about 1933-35 onwards, they started painting them the same as LMS / NCC / BCDR maroon. A deep burgundy red, also seen on the Clogher Valley and pre-1925 Cavan & Leitrim. If you use what modellers in England use for the LMS or (English) Midland Railway you're ok. LINING consisted of a waistline 1/4 inch yellow / black / yellow, the middle black line slightly thicker; in fact exactly what the LMS used too! Thus, if someone does press-on LMS lining, it's the same. Also, and again the same as the LMS, above window level there was a single yellow line, with another single yellow line directly below cantrail level. Crest was centred, as far as doors allowed, and each compartment door had a large yellow shaded "1" or "3" on it, almost without exception. The exception was on some older stock which even to the uninitiated was abviously all third - usually there would a crest off centre and a big "3" at an equivalent position at the other side; maybe it mightn't describe it better to say that if you looked at the side of the vehicle and divided the side into thirds visually, the crest and "3" were at the two places in between the three thirds.....of that even begins to make sense.... For a GSWR example, numbers on all doors and a crest in the middle. Unlike CIE, when coach ends were inevitably BLACK, in GSR times, coach ends were the same colour as the sides, thus, depending on whether you're in the land of 1931/32 or 1934-39, for example, the relevant shade of either crimson lake or maroon. Be prepared, of course, for coach ends to be covere in brake dust and gunk of all sorts, with the weathering merging into the nominal grey of the roof, and the nominal black of the chassis. Lining was the same on both shades. From about 1940 onwards, most narrow gauge and some six-wheel and secondary stock was turned out in unlined maroon, but same crest and class numbers on doors. This was particularly prevalent on stock repainted at Albert Quay, and possible Limerick too. Hope that helps.

Will there be black taxi replacements for the buses, for Belfast-based layouts?

Fascinating thoughts, RichL. There was also the Bessbrook & Newry narrow gauge, and you mention mixed gauge track. The Dundalk, Newry & Greenore line COULD have ended up with this, if a scheme which appeared to be very near to becoming a reality had progressed in (relatively late) 1909. The Ulster & Connaught Railway would have had a 300km main line right across Ireland from Clifden (had it become a transatlantic port), and Galway, up through the midlands, Co, Roscommon, and meeting the Cavan & Leitrim end-on at Dromod. From Belturbet it would head in a north-east direction, meeting the Clogher Valley about halfway along its length. At Tynan, it would head across South Armagh to Bessbrook, where it would join up and a terminus in Newry would then feed into a dual-gauge section of the DNGR, to allow access into Greenore Port for Trans-Irish-Sea crossings. Had it been built, it would have passed through not one significant town en route, and would probably have been the single biggest commercial failure of any railway ever built. It is highly unlikely it would have seen a tenth anniversary, even if it HAD been built. Once the border was created it would of course have had to remain independent - mind you, had the GSR somehow inherited it, they would have lost no time in disposing of such a monumental, and useless, millstone around their necks. I am very much enjoying the above comments about your proposal. If you do like the idea of a small railways, well, you've the Dundalk, Newry & Greenore Railway, with its LNWR-esque locos and carriages - add in the Ulster & Connaught, and there's your dual-gauge scenario. A complete through journey would have taken some twelve hours coast to coast. Locomotives would be very probably something like the lough swilly 4.8.0s, and corridor carriages of the sort of dimensions of County Donegal ones would probably have prevailed.

Couldn’t agree more!!! And the endless twisted supermarket trolleys, settee cushions and burst bin liners, invasive weeds, groups of scumbags under bridges and graffiti.........!

Tis a horrible lesson to learn; with better planning I could have done a few more. My biggest regret is never doing the Derry Road. I could SO easily have done that, the Burma Road and at least part of the North Kerry..... but I wasted too much time instead.....

When you mention the mothballed South Wexford, I find it depressing to think of places that I HAVE been, which are now no longer possible and in some cases almost completely obliterated!

That is correct. The UTA in its last days was very impressed with the 141s and 181s and there were thoughts of getting several. In those days the spoil trains were running, so with that AND the “Enterprise” in kind, an order of half a dozen of them would have been possible. If they were to be used on Derry trains too, and the cross-border goods, up to twelve could have been needed. That, in turn, would probably have resulted in somewhat fewer 80 class railcars, and no “111”s or second-hand “C” class locos.... Black 141 with UTA crest, anyone? Or maroon NIR ones?

Yes, and utterly disgraceful it was (and is), too.

Senior managed that - on the footplate of one of the 4.8.0s! I think I posted a pic some time ago..... Sadly, I didn't, Mick. Had I done so I would probably not have remembered as I was pre-school - though I do remember a visit to my great-grandmother's house at the same time (non railway related!) so I like to think that I MIGHT have remembered! I think that my earliest railway memory was the inside of an old wooden GNR carriage, hauled by steam.... and another - no idea where - of standing beside a steam engine, having been told to stay put, and the driver chatted to me while Senior had gone off to talk to someone......

I wonder is there any ENTHUSIAST alive now who travelled on any of the lines closed in the 1930s, like Achill, Clifden or Muskerry? A tiny handful of "ordinary" people, but I dunno about enthusiasts.........

The narrow gauge track seems to be cleared away, so it's 1960-65. Probably nearer 1960 than '65, as all the wagons have "flying snails"; if later, one might expect at least one to have a "roundel" logo instead.

And look at the goods vans....on the right..... CIE, GSR, CIE, GSR, CIE x 2.....

And by myself..... looks like I’m a stage further advanced in my dotage. Soon, I will be frolicking in the meadows with the Sweetie Mice and the unicorns.....

There are, I know, more than a few on here who did the Derry Road, the County Donegal, Sligo Leitrim, and the Leitrim & Clare narrow gauges.....! Maybe a thread about best memories from closed lines! For me, that would be the madman on the Athlone - Mullingar line on the late night mail train, or the graffiti on one of the seats in the Loughrea carriage two days before it closed.....in biro, “FAREWELL TO THE DUNSANDLE EXPRESS”! And then there was the leaking carriage roof (a clapped-out laminate) in a violently torrential downpour somewhere north of Tuam.......about a quarter of the coach had to move seats! Lucky there were only about twenty-five passengers on it, and two carriages and a tin van!

In my case, only the half-mile from Navan to Tara Mines and the Sligo harbour line.....

Very briefly, timber came through en route from Westport or Ballina to Waterford. I have timings somewhere - it was during the night it came in, reversed, and continued via Clonmel.

Me too. They don't run on rails. They have long bits sticking out of the sides which would foul any loading gauge. Despite jhb171Junior having been in the aircraft industry and having had me in aircraft cockpits, he was unable to show me a single orifice in which coal was to be put in a moving aircraft, nor injectors operated. None of these things appear to have even ONE connecting rod, and I'd lay money on it that they have no firebox. They have no obvious receptacles for coal or water, and I know for a fact that they aren't wood or oil burners. Airports do not, in any event, appear to have coaling facilities, and I doubt very much if there are coaling facilities in the air. Junior has not said or demonstrated anything to address my doubts. He talks about "wings" and "jet" something....... Strange.

All goes to show that well over a decade later, CIE's judgement, or rather that of their political masters, was (for once!) proved right!

It’s a GOOD idea, certainly! However, given the individuality of the lines you mention (and no actual railway ever reached Rostrevor...), what might be better is an imaginary branchline with, perhaps, a distillery-related private siding? In a city setting, maybe an imaginary single-platform terminus, closed some time between 1930 and 1955? Something “Street”, “Road” or “Place”, likely in Derry, Belfast, Dublin or Cork? Given good research results and photos of what would have run into and out of the imaginary location, the only big thing to think of is what era, and whether UTA, GNR or CIE?

Yes. There was a serious body of opinion in Inchicore in favour of putting GM engines in B101s. At this stage I can’t remember the persons involved, but it’s irrelevant niw. The 071s appeared as a result of varying opinions in the early 70s. Had history been only slightly different, noisy (beautiful!) GM noises would be coming out of plain grey 101s today, hauling Ballina containers, Wood-sticks, and oddball sundry yellow things full of gravel about a handful of lines, away from the graffiti, concrete, litter, cider parties and steel fencing scenic beauties of Dublin.....

Best wishes, Patrick, delighted to hear you're on the upward bound!

Indeed; Lemass, quite rightly, didn't want us to end up depending on ANY one other country, colonial power or not. CIE did, of course, continue to use British firms if they could step up to the mark; a certain Cravens of Sheffield being a prime contender! British firms continued to be used for new rail and for much signalling equipment. Exactly.