jhb171achill

Yes, the numberplate was completely non-standard, in size, shape and font. The GSR may well have ordered it from from a foundry in Cork, but as everything down to printing tickets was done in-house, my money would possibly be on Limerick works.

I’m tempted!

Nothing was ever either white or off-white - everything was the same eau-de-nil. Most of what appears whitish in photos is the deterooration of the photo (or low quality of iriginal film used to take the picture*), and the rest would be due to fading, like the door numbers on the MGWR 6-wheel first that was on the Loughrea branch in the late 50s. (* Sadly, while Cyril Fry was a great modeller and also took a number of highly interesting pictures of some very interesting subject matter, he scrimped and saved with colour film! Much of his colour stuff - in fact, most of it - is so poor now that it's beyond redemption - there is very little that reliable livery details could be gleaned from, if those doing the gleaning didn't already know what was correct....!)

It seems clear from the 2nd last post that it DID get a grey coat at some stage - I was unaware of that. Anyone know what RTR model might approximate?

I’m the same! So far I’ve about 12 six-wheelers and the makings of another couple of freelance ones….!

Is the siding the salt works?

I don't get the location - where's the main Larne line? Behind the photographer, or away round the corner to the left?

So is this a siding off the actual Harbour branch? If so, I did not know there were any. Your dad would know chapter and verse, I'm sure.

Just found this. Senior took this in the 1940s. I do not know where, but the buildings style strongly suggests on the NCC somewhere. A nice example of a small industrial sidi9ng (I presume!) (H C A Beaumont collection)

I have two of John Mayne's tin vans and can confirm that by far they are the best models of these vans on offer, and they are completely essential for any sort of 1960s scene.

Correct on all railways in Ireland - possibly even higher than 80% were standard covered vans.

A scratchbuild for one of these, yes. Nothing on the market is even remotely like one.

Most ingenious, yes!

Exactly. A variation on the theme is what I'm considering for "Dugort Harbour". As will be seen from accompanying diagrams, the "real" scenario imagined for this line was a semi-main line (like the North Kerry, or Mallow - Tralee) which ends up at a place called Castletown West (Newcastle West / Castletownbere?). A bit like Cahirciveen to Valentia Harbour or Skibbereen - Baltimore, there's a short extension built later with government assistance, somewhat extravagantly worked almost as a separate branch. Now; how to fit in private sidings, which themselves justify acquisition of grain vans, and also generate interesting shunting moves. Goods train arrives in CW, and the local pilot engine (a last outpost of a wheezing J15 in the early 60s, as Crosleys and (AEC railcars (IRM??) increasingly become the oprder of the day) shuttles wagons for two private sidings "up the line". This is imagined to be perhaps a mile away; think Fry Cadbury Siding / Shannonvale - i.e. not actually IN a station or within a built up area. So when the goods arrives, vans will be detached and taken away to each of these places and empties brought back. I always think that some sort of "reason" adds interest to a layout. Since I don't really have room for an actual private siding for either, the best solution is that both the private premises are, in reality, the fiddle yard itself off-scene!

Now that is interesting. No traces of the original green lined livery on that - could it be that it eventually DID get a lick of grey paint? Senior's picture (with lining) was likely taken a long time before the above, possibly on his first visits to the area in the 1937-43 period.

1 & 2 fine for slightly different weathering shades; 3, 4 & 5 way off. Excellent research!

Adelaide would be much bigger than a “micro” layout….

When planning a small operation like this, it’s handy if the type of traffic would have been in covered vans or open wagons! You can’t see whether a covered van is full or empty, but if you’re modelling some sort of operation which uses open wagons (beet, ore, coal etc) you need to be empty going one way and laden in the other! To justify recent acquisitions of IRM grain wagons, Dugort Harbour will have a mill siding somewhere - haven’t quite figured out how to include it yet!

Genius!

On 1st April 1985, the Chicago & North Western Railroad took over Irish Rail. However, by noon they were tired of it, and went home. The loco was a light engine en route to the North Wall to pick up a Cork liner….

Fast forward; it’s 1990 now. Happy new decade!

"Trumprail"?

It’s 1970; the re-engining is under way. Crossley and GM versions can be seen side by side - for a short time. Nearby, in 1957….

“What have ye found there?” ”A ten cent coin…. no, it’s a TWENTY!”

Blue and green are notoriously fickle for their varied appearances in photos. Colour slides do not last, as the emulsions decay at different rates. Green can adopt a bluish tint very easily - just look at grass or plant leaves in many old pictures. Fewer and fewer of us now directly remember old colours of things, and even then people’s recall of colours varies, like our eyesight or hearing in later years, from the absolute 100% accurate to the completely incorrect. Flange & Mol’s RAL examples shown above are spot on for newly painted vehicles. In faded, everyday state, they looked like that pic of the two Cusack six-wheelers in Cork, which Mol posted, above. Never, ever believe the oft-quoted urban legend that CIE had as many green colours as Joseph’s technicolour dreamcoat. That tale is incorrect and dates from a certain group of Belfast-based enthusiasts in the 1960s, who knew little of CIE!