jhb171achill

He was lucky it survived - an enamel surface on a steel sheet! I’d love to have that one!

Nice little exercise! I’m doing something similar with a light plank, which is 7’6” x 18”, small 12mm gauge terminus for South African H0 scale; one steam loco, one carriage and half a dozen wagons (typical 1980s branchline). But it needs a (tiny!) fiddle yard. Your scenery treatment looks superb.

I think Harcourt St did have GSR bilingual. I knew about Macmine, but not some of those others you mention - interesting, shows that there quite a few variations. When I explored Woodenbridge in the 1970s, there was an old sign inside the then-disused building. I saw it through the window - too big to retrieve! It was a DSER one, so unless Woodenbridge had a GSR on the other platform, then it remained original till closure.

Sounds great! It's a superb build. I do think that plastic is nowadays often very underrated! The "G N", though, would be gone - the UTA put paid to that! Looking forward to seeing it.....

I agree, Tobin. It’s hard to tell. Whatever livery it is in, it’s unfinished as there is no lining, no crest and no “M G W R” on the tender. Blue has a habit of appearing as a very light grey or a very dark grey in black & white pics depending on the daylight in which it was taken. GSR / CIE grey is also 57 varieties in old pictures, even if it reasonably consistent in real life. The loco above could be green or blue.... Pity the lining isn’t on it, as that would give a clue.

In your time, Galteemore, I believe the few left were NIR maroon! At least one was. But a THICK coating of brake dust, grime and rust made them look different! In GNR days they were obviously grey when new, though since the GNR (unlike CIE) started painting fitted vans brown, it is possible this was used. I think the UTA painted them brown but I am uncertain. Certainly I don’t think any got the UTA green. For NIR, brown or maroon. I am unsure of chassis colour - probably black except in GNR days, when it would be largely body colour. Of the “P” vans which CIE inherited, most were scrapped within a few years without any repaint beyond “CIE” stencilled on the ends. At least one was painted full passenger green, centre line included, though I’m unsure if it had a “snail”. Either this or a different one even managed to be repainted in “black’n’tan” full passenger livery, in which it looked odd but interesting! It doesn’t seem to have lasted long, though, before withdrawal. But they lasted into NIR days just about, in the north. Livery details above! I would go for NIR maroon sides and ends, mid-grey roof, black chassis. Lettering (number) in mid-yellow, no edging; NIR logo was the normal transfer on one I saw (gold, white edging) but it’s possible yellow painted ones were used too.

Absolutely superb! If that's your FIRST scratchbuild, there's some mighty stuff ahead, I'd say!

It's possible I've posted them before, Steve - or perhaps ones like them. What I really need to do is catalogue and list all of his stuff. I can never remember what I've posted and what I haven't, exactly! As long as nobody "colourises" them, which would result in a blue and yellow locomotive hauling orange and pink carriages, on yellow track, but with perfectly textured realistic green grass beside it! And of course, Donegal tank engines would be purple with lime green chimneys, while BCDR carriages would be red and turquoise.......!!!

Same location today, different train.... Note that all of the carriages are Belfast & Northern Counties flat-sided stock.

I’m sure they’re still travelling about the place....... —————————————— Some of senior’s “reject” photos over the next few days; all are from the 1940-47 period on the NCC. First, a “W” at speed - dunno where exactly, but obviously somewhere between Belfast and Ballymena.

I escaped from my employment world too at age 55 - and it's just as well, as the type of job doesn't exist any more.................

I'd say it's something that someone has just made up. Can't see it being some sort of "official" railway-made thing. Looks too crudely made anyway. Unless anyone knows a better story? What size is it?

This is exactly what I meant - in the colourised version of Roger’s pic, it’s impossible to tell what colour the train is supposed to be. The “C” class loco is actually green, and that particular coach was also the lighter green, matching. Indeed - and if they get their inspiration from in incorrectly painted preserved vehicle (the majority!), the myth perpetrates...... Yes, I know that in the grand scheme of things nobody will give a toss in 200 years’ time, but when it’s as easy to record history accurately as otherwise, I think it’s a shame not to.

Superb!

That should require a sentence of 40 years hard labour for the “artist”! The serious point is that like preserved things in wrong liveries, a future serious historian can be misled into thinking that things WERE these colours when they were in use.... I’m off to get my smelling salts....

Rock Street goods yard, Tralee, mid 70s.

Which green? 1945-55 or the lighter 1955-62? If it's diesel era, the latter would be way more common.

Yes, indeed - that shows, I suppose, the efforts necessary to do a credible job. The pic of the Timoleague area above shows what can be done, and the above colourisation of the scene on the Cork City Railway is nice - but perhaps easier for the AI to do! Anyway, overall, I watch this technology with interest. I am definitely not a fan of the current rash of "colourised" photos all over the internet, which in reality look like a black and white pic with a mug of coffee spilt of bits of it, and the thought of a bullied railcar with a "desert sand" front like a Dublin bus in 1980, or blue coaches in Kerry, would induce attacks of the Screaming Fits, Multiple Conniptions and Heeby-Jeebies in any mere mortal, but the long term will bring out some beauties, I am sure. "Hey, Sarge! I think I've found him! ..... Come ON out, you, with your hands UP! We're gonna TEACH ye to colourise carriages in BLUE!"

Seeing that is tempting me to buy one in GSR livery............. With six-wheel coaches shortly to be a reality, perfect loco to go with them.

Is that one of Roderick’s CBSCR tanks, the GSR 472 class?

Even then, the entire train and water tank are all the one colour. You would need faded wood colour for the tank support, rust and faded black paint on the tank, grey on the locomotive and maroon on the carriages. This, to me, is the problem with this medium - you’ve got but two colours - green and unintelligible drab..... According to an expert in this technology who I know, with current methods, to do a half-decent job you need the VERY top of the range gear, and hours and hours per image. He has done a book which was released recently to much fanfare, and featured on the Late Late Show. I tried to persuade him to do another one of railway images but he’s no plans to do anything more (yet, anyway!).

Indeed; and their carriages were mostly unserviceable. Had they survived, you would have seen wholesale scrapping of much of everything they had by mid 60s, and the probable purchase of second hand items from CIE and the UTA. The entire track, every yard, would have need complete replacement. The management were deeply embarrassed by the state of the three bogie coaches, one of which was only used in the most dire emergency. I think that all of their museum-piece six-wheelers were done. jhbSenior did some of their civil engineering work for no charge in his own time, as they couldn’t afford a civil engineer, even part-time. The two railbuses were worn out and only one was in use at the end. The Walker railcar was in good enough order, but with a low-maintenance regime and the rough track, it would have started giving trouble before too long. Senior watched a loco couple up to a train of cattle trucks in Enniskillen station one day in 1955/6. As the loco went to move off, it simply yanked the whole coupling assembly out of the buffer beam of the leading wagon. An SLNCR one..... The buses were worn out too. None ended up with CIE! They were all scrapped. The whole enterprise looked very tatty, with almost nothing having seen a paintbrush in years - locos, rolling stock or stations.

The “UTA factor”! Run into the ground, with little maintenance! If you were to look beyond the varnish and Mr Sheen on BCDR No 30 & NCC No 74 in Cultra, you’ll find that both of them are in a very bad state mechanically and boiler-wise too!

The summer of 1977 saw the two B113s in the “barrier” siding at Inchicore. Once CIE started painting wagons brown in 1970, you’d still see the odd grey door (replacements during repairs) or even wooden planked doors off older wagons on “H” vans. This was in the goods yard in Kilkenny in July ‘75 or ‘76, I think. Loose coupled goods ended just after that. Note how much higher the “palvans” were than other vans - there’s one to the right. Also note the “hybrid” end of it.

There’s junior membership available, Westcork.....