jhb171achill

Nooooo, he didn’t bring his camera that day!!! He wasn’t impressed. What loco hauled him? “Oh, it was just that railcar....”

Hi Tony With "N" scale, a repaint of something British into an Irish livery - if such a thing exists as to be suitable - would become exceptionally fiddly.... I know that you can buy a modest number of Shapeways 3D-printed kits of Irish stuff, like 141 class diesels and some railcars, which is the good news. However, their 00 gauge stuff, as you may have seen from some posts here, appears to be quite coarse, let alone N gauge. You mention what Omagh would be like today - it's reasonable to assume that the CIE goods which ended up (after 1965) going over the NCC, would instead have gone from Portadown probably to Strabane, but probably not stopping at Omagh, until goods ended a few years ago. So, in the 1960s / 70s, you're looking at a diet of AEC / BUT (ex-GN) railcars, gradually replaced by 80s. It is reasonable to assume that 70s would have stepped through there too. It is possible a through Dublin - Derry passenger might have been trialled at some stage - cue an ICR set! So, like anything else on NIR, from 1970 on it would have been "Railcar City"! With IE having followed suit over the last 15 years, we now, of course, have an entire railway system, IE and NIR, 100% railcar operated bar some of the Cork sets and the three "Enterprise" sets - and even they are railcars since the coronavirus started. If you are planning to model Omagh in N gauge, perhaps a few random thoughts might be: 1. 1960s - Is there an LMS / BR 2.6.4T which might be used to represent a "Jeep"? It is a certainty that had the "Derry Road" managed to survive 1965-70, "Jeeps" would have appeared increasingly regularly, to the extent that by the end of steam, they were all there was. Some wooden-panelled LMS, or Stanier "steel" coaches of standard "bought" provenance will bear a good resemblance to some NCC types. Again, of the surviving steam stock 1965-75, over half was of NCC parentage. Quick lick of UTA green, and they'd be what was on steam-hauled passenger trains. It is possible that one of the Craven variations of British railcar (like what Silverfox models "repainted" in pseudo-irish liveries for sale a few years ago), might be OK to repaint in UTA guise. Wagons - well' opens and vans OK - after 1965 it's all CIE stock, and you can get British Railways goods vans which are very close to CIE "H" vans. Paint grey and you're fine. In 1970-5, you could do a few in brown too for variety. I wonder is there a British 0.6.0 which with minimum alteration might be made to look a bit like a UG? 2. 1970s - We're looking at 80 class sets here, without any doubt whatever. BR Mk2 stock is available - but a bit of botching to make a power car really would be essential. Steam is now gone, so a CIE loco is needed for the goods, with everything else railcar. Maybe an NIR "Hunslet". Had the line survived they might have bought more than three. But really, suitable railcars are absolutely essential. You could keep you UG and Jeep on the basis that an imaginary preservation society had made its home in the old goods sheds in Omagh. Goods goes over to liner trains about 1974/5 - someone more knowledgable about modern stuff might point out suitable long-wheelbase 4-wheel container flats, or something British to resemble CIE's 42ft flats. Container gantry at Omagh? 3. 1980s - Same as later part of the seventies, but you can introduce the "Castle" (Cattle!) class railcars. Being based on a standard British design of body, there is a British railcar set (is it a "150"?) which isn't unlike one of these awful things. It is a scary thought to think of travelling from Foyle Road to Central in one of these awful things, but they appeared in Waterside from time to time, so it was possible! We'll need a CIE diesel in orange and black now, as well as one for earlier in black'n'tan. Maybe you can get round that by just having a Hunslet.... 4. 1990s - probably the same. 5. 2000 onwards. I wonder is there a British equivalent of the NIR CAFs? In all reality, if that line was open today, it would be a bit like Antrim station - passing facilities for railcars, and the two main passenger platforms. the goods sheds would have long been sold off or levelled for a car park - or that imaginary preservation society? For maximum artistic licence, I would have some sort of Derry - Dublin ICR passing through, and possibly Donegal - Dublin (or Waterford!) timber trains - could that allow a 201-class loco? In "N" scale, a slight conversion of a British class 66 might suffice for that.... Just a few thoughts.

I defer to your superior knowledge, BTB - I know not the first thing about motor bikes! I wonder did the all-encompassing green paint extend to it!

?? There was only the one, and it actually never ran in traffic - it is now at Downpatrick. A "preserved" vehicle which was a one-off and never actually operated in service at all! It remains today in its original (standard NIR-of-the-time) livery.

Superb info, Airfixfan. I'm always fascinated by the "back story" to many old photographs, whether railway-related or not. Many thanks.

Sadly, I belong to the era where the only steam engines I ever saw in use in Ireland - anywhere - were so neglected and filthy they could have been painted lime green, tartan and fluorescent pink underneath the grim, oil, coal dust and rust, that nobody would have been any the wiser! Seeing immaculately polished working steam in Austria, South Africa, India and other places in the 1970s was a tonic! I footplated an Austrian loco on the now-closed Grunberg branch, and the driver had WHITE overalls; they stayed white throughout the journey. You could have eaten your dinner off the footplate floor.... Sorry to veer off topic.

Snail is right way, BTB. Registration appears to be HZC 542. Interesting, Minister! Never saw a pic of one of those before. Any ideas what they used it for?

Both are do-able, of course - the MGWR stopped painting engines green in 1918, and used black; though a large number started into the GSR era still green...and at least one of the G2 class managed to be repainted black by CIE in the last few years.... Personally, I prefer grey too, even though it could hardly be described as colourful! Even a CLEAN 071 nowadays, to my mind, looks fine. For years, 186 and 461 were painted black at Whitehead for the sole reason that the volunteers working on them didn't like grey......"the man with the paintbrush in his hand" rule, of course. Been there, dunnit.

Looking through old tickets, why do greenways and bus substitutions come to mind!!!!

Amazing stuff, DSER. The carriage you mention with the half-compartment - if it was only one half-compartment and the rest full height, it was an old MGWR coach which seems to have taken up residence on the line about 1930. I don’t know it’s number. Dundrum - that was for milk traffic. The family who owned what is now Airfield Farm loaded milk churns there; Senior recalled them being unloaded on the platform at Harcourt St. where local dairies collected then by horse and cart. This continued until the end, with apparently one (up) service a day backing a couple of empty vans in, to be picked up later by another train. For modellers, if we ever are lucky enough to get the essential AEC railcars as models, this is but one of numerous examples of them towing either an ancient six-wheeler for extra passenger accommodation, or a couple of goods vans. Regarding the shunting procedure at Heuston that you mention, I don’t know, but if they allocated an “E” to the service you mention, it is probable that a steam pilot preceded that. Unlike Clifden or Killarney trains, The gullet had a nasty gradient. Had a coupling broken during propelling in, an unholy mess would have ensued.... Closed lines - the sun sets on the Loughrea line, two days before closure as I stepped off it for the first, and last, time.

July 1976 - a pair of 121s about to leave Heuston on, as far as I recall, a stopping Cork train. They were quite newly painted.

I posted a few typical GSR and for ones some time ago, but I dunno where I put them..... With a month to go before closure, Gort still had a standard GSR enamel in March 1976. With two days before closure, Loughrea has the then-standard 1965-80 era CIE plastic.

Yesterday, DNGR carriages on the GNR. Today, Greenore, 1939/40. One that could have seen a lot more use for goods in the container age....

Will do when I find it, Steve! The man on the track will have hopped down off the up platform. I remember station staff scuttling back and forth across platforms here and there - Lisburn included! I did it myself.....

Yes, very much so. A GNR coach of 1940s / 50s origin.

Which Marks Model do you mean - I'm unaware of one that resembles this coach?

Wow, cab detail and all, Galteemore - that loco is an absolute beauty - well done indeed! Another little lady that would have been great at Downpatrick!

Gawd bless your eyesight, NIR! Maybe a "flying pitchfork"? Or a Scandinavian beer bottle opener?

Yes, the date seems to be 1944; it is with other photos from that year in sequence. On the same day he took a picture in Lisburn. I wonder if the people on the bridge are Orangemen? Do we know for a fact that orange events were curtailed that year? My understanding is that had not been since a time when the British government actually banned them for a few years in the 1850s or something. This might explain the carriages, and the loco running round. maybe there's a wartime shortage of GNR stock all over the place, and the GNR has borrowed secondary stock from the DNG to deal with a party from Newry to Scarva. The loco is running round, thus will reverse onto the far end of the train to go back. Maybe the people up on the bridge are coming to get back onto it. The man in the flat cap could be a porter?

Now that's a very interesting possibility, Airfixfan. It could very well be - I hadn't even thought of that. Were orange-related matters curtailed in those times? I didn't know that. It could well be something of the sort. Was there a military base anywhere near Newry? Whatever is happening this day, a tank engine is running round the train, by the look of it. The branch was still open, but it would have used the platform on the left. I sent the pic to a gentleman this afternoon who would be the leading expert on the GNR nowadays, I'll be interested to hear his views.

Yes! that's the one.... listen to youtube clips of those beasts revving up.... I think there may be preserved examples in Norway.

That's correct - it's as good as certain that no SLNCR carriage ever left the line - as you say, they had barely enough for themselves. Senior remarked in the past that E W Monaghan and G F Egan were both embarrassed at the state of their few roadworthy carriages towards the end. I am only aware of two that were repainted at all in the 1950s (one of the bogies and six-wheeled third brake No. 4). Midland Man - you're possibly also thinking of the two SLNC locos (Loughs Erne & Melvin) which went to shunt in Belfast. This was after the SLNCR closed - the UTA bought them and numbered them 26 and 27. No. 26 wasn't used much and was withdrawn by about 1965 but 27 "Lough Erne" of course survived and is now at Whitehead.

Yes, it would. So it must be 13th July 1944. Got to be the only time my father went anywhere that sort of stuff! It would actually be interesting to get hold of a GNR traffic circular for that date to see what was happening. I do know that they brought in excursions from many places during the whole 12th / 13th July period. As a child, at that time of year, we were off to Dublin or Mayo for the holliers.....! On one occasion, Senior saw a train composed of both GNR and DNGR stock in Enniskillen, of all places! A journey across the INWR in those old six-wheel thirds would not have been for the faint-hearted! He did not recall what the reason was, but thought that it was something to do with a pilgrimage. So, the obvious "quiz question" is, how far did DNGR or SLNCR stock get away from home? GNR stock were occasional visitors to Sligo, while any time the SLNCR was busy, they used to get in MGWR / GS / CIE six-wheelers; thus, such things were to be seen now and again in Enniskillen. But CIE and the GN were big companies - how far away did SLNC and DNG stock go? The DNG at one time had an advertised through coach to Belfast, which was hitched onto a GN train in Newry, so we'll discount that one. Answers to that question could be of great interest to modellers..... After the GNR was broken up in 1958, one wooden, brown-liveried GNR bogie worked on the West Cork, of all places, for a short time. Imagine a train with a GSWR 2.4.2T, a brand new shiny tin van, this GNR coach, an old Midland six-wheeler and a new laminate on a train! Possible.

Interesting, NIR. The late Tony O'Shaughnessy had an interest that few knew of in Scandanavian railways and he sent me some vid clips some years ago of Norwegian GMs. They sounded EXACTLY like a 141 to me, but didn't look remotely like a typical EMD product. Any idea what they were? I've long since deleted the clips.

Somebody had that photo on ebay a year or two ago, advertised as a CIE 121 class loco. I contacted the seller to advise that it was, in fact, an American loco, as evidenced by the length, the six-wheel bogies, and the central coupler and absence of buffers, but he insisted I was wrong and he was right. In an effort to make the point that its unfair to a potential buyer to put up wrong information, I persisted for a while and sent him pics of a real 121, but he remained unconvinced. There's some eejits so blind they can't see hard fact in front of them! I wonder does anyone know where the above "larger-121-class" actually operated? It would be interesting to know if any still exist, maybe shunting in some industrial complex in the USA? And it's got handrails - the Irish ones were delivered without!