jhb171achill

I have just this minute heard an 071 go past the house (slowing to approach Malahide in the down direction). 00:44, Tue 16th. Bit late for empty Taras, I thought, as the other empty dawdled through a good couple of hours ago. So I peered into the gloom, and I see strange lights; what appears to have been a set of Taras with small lights strung along the side of each wagon. Too long a train to be one of those inexplicable yellow things, and they don’t sound like 071s anyway. Can anyone explain? No, I’ve had no beer.

Yes, it does! Yes, I'm aware that they are very flexible regarding individual orders and that they have a range of stuff that nobody else is doing. All very positive and beneficial to the hobby. The re-tooled railcar is a great deal better than the original - but to be fair to that too, IT was the only thing of its kind. As I said, they've a particular niche in the market, very welcome to many of us.

I'm a big fan of the Silverfox stuff - it has its own place in Irish model railways, I have several of their coaches. I have several items on order too at the moment and I look forward to getting them when ready. However - you mention liveries - there are many errors in their liveries, most notably CIE green things. All seem to have light grey roofs; they should all have either very dark grey or black roofs. Coaches and railcars alike never had light grey roofs...... Easily put right, of course.......

Looks brilliant, Ernie - excellent stuff.

Dreadful to see it like that. A few sidings, and loads and loads of fencing, gravel, graffiti and dayglow warning signs.......

Best description of a UTA AEC ever!

Yes, I identify with all that too. When one is young, things stick in your mind and become the stepping stones for nostalgia; for me, my earliest memories are very late 1950s, so I remember steam just about, and green UTA coaches and buses, and green CIE everything! AEC railcars, of course, on both the UTA (GN section) and CIE were the norm in those days too - I will always remember the throaty roar of those beasts as they did their best to accelerate away from stops......

VERY much of interest, murphaph; my mother was from there and I have very early memories (late 50s) in the old family home there, with my mother, grandmother and great-grandmother - and being made to stay away from the beehives..... they had a quince tree; quite a rarity. Hardly model railway stuff for here, so if you know Athy or much about, ping me privately.

Hi Tobin OK, a number of interesting questions there. For ease, I have edited out the points to be answered, as above, so in order: 1. "Emerald Green" is indeed what Clements (Bob, not Jeremy) described it to me as, or grass green. The last time i spoke to bob, Midland loco liveries were one thing we did discuss at length. I asked him if it would have been a bit like the green on Isle of Man engines in the Ailsa era, late 1960s. he said it was distinctly darker than that, but not my much! Much discussion suggests that the green used by the British Great Central, or something very marginally darker, might be the best estimate. Bob told me he had a paint sample which he would give me, where he had been in Broadstone one day and found a tin of it, opened it, lifted a bit of stick, swirled it round in the paint, wrapped the stick in newspaper and brought it home. He told me I could have it - but two weeks later I got the unfortunate phone call that he had passed away, so I never got it. 2. Regarding the blue locomotive livery, Bob Clements distinctly told ME that the lining was black and yellow! I think, but cannot be sure, that I heard GOLD and black somewhere else... Yet Michael and Jeremy quote Bob as having told them red and yellow. If someone of the stature of Bob had two separate memories - I can't be sure. It's hard to tell from black and white photos, though at least one I saw somewhere shows one very light colour which might be yellow or white, and one dark colour which could be red or black. Personally, I've tended to go with black and yellow, but no definitive proof appears to be to hand. As to what locos were repainted blue, it was indeed applied to the "A" class, but the "D-bogie" ("Achill Bogies"), or GSR D16 / 530 class saw a trace of it too - in 1900, No. 37 "Wolf Dog" was briefly painted thus as a "guinea pig". This engine was initially put to use on the Sligo line but proved hopelessly underpowered for it, and like its 5 sisters, ended up spending most of its time on the Achill branch. Despite it being noted early on that this livery did not wear well, and a fairly prompt repaint into green for "Wolf Dog", the Midland painted up a few main line engines. I cannot state that (other than "Wolf Dog") that nothing but the "A" class were blue, but it is known that they stopped painting locos blue after only a very short time, reverting to green. The 2.4.0s (G2) on the Clifden line and the 0.6.0s which followed (J18) certainly, as you infer, would not have qualified as priority, but if one "Achill Bogie" got the "blues", who can say? Bob C told me that at all times, green locos were in the vast, vast majority. The blue shade may be seen on a scrap of paint on the end of one of Downpatrick's unrestored six-wheelers. It has been suggested that a more obvious idea is to examine the "Dargan Saloon" in the UFTM; however, this is a 1950s CIE repaint, and while probably close enough cannot be verified. To my eyes, the small original sample is, though, more than adequately similar to the Dargan Saloon, so if I was making a model in MGWR blue, I think it would be more than satisfactory to colour-match this vehicle. Yes, I agree that Ernie's comments about blue at Clifden refers to the coaches. As far as goods engines in blue are concerned, I am aware that a very large amount of Ernie's research was from the MGWR's Traffic Minute books, which I extensively trawled in the past. He will have picked up, I guess, a reference to a goods loco being painted unlined blue. Clements' comments suggest it was the exception. 3. Sorry, I know it's a bit of an essay by now; but bear with me! The pic of "Titanic" (a FINE beast!) is unfinished; I suggest that it's blue, but lining, lettering and crest have not yet been applied. The postcard in a lime green colour, like almost all postcards, is not correct. I looked back at my notes of what bob Clements told me just now. he mentioned the green being put back "as before", but when I spoke with him he did not mention it being lighter. Having said that, it could be simply because i did not ask him! Several other sources suggest a slightly lighter shade, but not exactly a "light" green at all - maybe "grass" green instead of "emerald" green (Clements used both those terms). The green livery would also start disappearing in 1915, when just Inchicore was abandoning black lined in red for all-over grey, now Broadstone starts painting locos black; plain if goods, with red lining if mixed traffic / passenger! Bob Clements did say, though, that repaints into black did not take place at a fast rate, and at the time of the amalgamation many engines were still green - one as late as 1932 before the GSR sheep-dipped it grey. 4. Regarding "Celtic" and the Royal train......yes, I would agree that the artist has used his famous "licence" with regard to the postcard; such things can never be taken as an accurate livery guide. The locomotive was almost certainly in the dark blue livery, and the carriages definitely were. The "Royal" or "State" Saloon, later No. 346 with CIE, actually spent most of its life indoors. Long after what few carriages HAD been blue and white were repainted brown again, this vehicle retained the blue and white livery until it was eventually repainted in the Midland's post-1918 maroon livery shortly before the GSR took over. If that postcard is taken from a photo, this will presumably show the coaches clearly in black and white. This will account for the fact that the postcard painter appears to have the brown upper panels looking a bit lighter then the lower ones; and he is presumably aware that at the time, MOST trains had green engines and brown carriages!

Superb! SO atmospheric......... (I'm sending this to Barry.......)

Mainland Europeans use that notation - what we know as as 2.6.4 is to them a 1.3.2!

THREE wheelers?

Wow! You'll have me reaching for me smelling salts!

It's a bit like the British "Hymek" done up in a faux-CIE livery about thirty years ago - in an example like you mention, probably just re-livery the existing thing.

That's what interested me. Thus, for (say) an ICR which could withstand being dropped on the floor, or stood on by the toddler, would cost almost as much as a high-end model? If so, that would almost certainly settle the case against it as a commercial proposition, because you'd hardly let a small person near anything which cost that sort of cash............. If some sort of, say, 3-car ICR was possible to produce, with an oval of track and a controller, for the sort of money a few computer games cost, that's the only way it could work. It's been suggested here before now that such a thing isn't financially viable for our sort of market.....

This will not just suit a potential "preservation" site; it is a must for any sort of layout on CIE in the 1950s and 60s; a few lasted into the 70s (and therefore brown livery) too. I await a few of them myself!

I will selflessly volunteer my services to consume the contents of any such boxes in order to advance their recycling into useful layout stuff..........

A steam loco in NIR livery! Now THAT'S imagination! Well done, Tony..... Had steam lasted a bit longer in the south, we'd have seen black locos with CIE "roundels" on the tender.....

While it's not my thing at all, I do feel that an ICR set would be potentially successful, especially if it was only produced to "2-ft rule" standard. Maybe out of curiosity, one of our IRM folks could answer this question; does the superbly high standard of detail on IRM or MM products contribute much to the finished per-item cost? Would a rough-an'-ready ICR, maybe a re-liveried British or mainland European tube on wheels of some sort, end up retailing for a similar price, when manufacturing, design and transport had obviously been covered by the producer, or would it be not much cheaper than a high-end model? As some here will know, I recently moved house. My former neighbour had an 8-year-old boy, who sees a train as a DART (and if he lived in the Land of Rural Culchies, it would be an ICR). He, for one, is a little guy who would be interested in a train set of something he knew. A British HST, Flying Scotsman, or Dutch EMU wouldn't cut it for him. This is the sort of young gentleman we need for the future. Right now, he'd need something he recognises to play with. When I was about 5, I was given a circle of old tinplate 0 gauge track with three trucks which were wooden blocks painted by Senior to look like a diesel shunter and wagons, on old "scrap" 0 gauge four wheeled chassis. For a child that age, nothing could break. It was a push-along thing - in terms of developing an interest in railways in general with me, it worked........... And outside - in the far distance - if the wind was blowing the right way, I could hear the steam-hauled up goods puffing along the GN main line late at night...........

Sure they're on the way!

Looks like FB is becoming a resource for oul fogeys like me! The nippers are all on insta-twitterogram.........

Me oul GNR "S" class, GSR J18, D14, D16, D17, D19, GSWR bogies and Midland six-wheelers must be in the post from IRM Towers! Yippeeeeee!

Health warning: On the RCTS list, I note that most of the captions they have are wrong, some very significantly so!

Very interesting set of pics there, 800 - I hadn't seen all of those! Non-passenger-carrying vehicles especially - well into the 1990s - seemed to get way less "TLC" than passenger-carrying ones! So that's the Hornby coach - it'll be interesting to see the Hattons one too.

If that red one was a few shades darker, you've a perfect late 1940s view with that one coach still in GSR livery behind a green engine! You've actually three "eras" there, a bit like the black'n'tan, followed by "supertrain", followed by "tippex" and finally the lighter "orange"; albeit a generation earlier! Loco & 3rd coach in 1945-55 green, red coach (if darker / GSR) in 1933-45 livery - though a few maroon were obviously kicking about a few years more, and the post-1955 lighter green.......... Looking forward to seeing Mullingar develop - looks superb. I'm assuming that's one of the Hattons' 6-wheelers? Looks good - very convincing GSWR, though as an Irish one the lower footboard would also be needed. As you say, an Irish-liveried one would be the business.