jhb171achill

Crew cars! Genuinely, when working out in a remote and exposed bog in the midlands, and it starts pouring and you'd get up to your waist in mud....... and the tea breaks, and transporting workers to remote sites.... But - I get ya!

Yes, you wonder where "railway vehicle" ends, and where "random bits of half-welded buckets and bits of worthless unidentifiable scrap on wheels" takes over!

Perhaps a sample stretch of line might be kept somewhere of 4 or 5 miles.....for such an attraction.

An excellent book, though!

That's what we get for running them on track which isn't 21mm.......

First pic - three locos, three liveries...... green "C", grey "121" and black'n'tan "A"! Second pic - deliciously filthy! Third pic - 861 - first coach I ever worked on in the '70s........ it still had original first class GSWR horse-hair-stuffed upholstery in the compartment nearest to the camera..........

Sad, but I suppose inevitable. Anyone with a bit of a field will be able to buy track, a working locomotive and find wagon chassis soon! They can’t ALL be preserved..... If I had a bit of land, I’d be off to the ATM!

A fair bit on several systems but get there quick, as its days are numbered.

In the Achill area, where I have many friends and contacts in the tourism industry, they were able to tell me that the greenway there brings in some 50-60,000 people a year on top of what they had. Most eat and drink there, and while Achill and Mulrany experience a modest increase in overnight stays, Newport and above all, Westport, have benefitted more. Several pubs along the way - Nevins at Tieranaur, Daly’s in Mulrany and the Ostán Oilean Acla (“Alice’s”) at the bridge onto the island, have had their daytime meals take off BIG time. Bike hire firms along the way, and several souvenir and coffee shops en route, have created about fifty new permanent jobs, over half of these in Newport and Westport.

Hope they're not associated with slavery!

I did the Newport - Achill bit when it first opened - but I didn't dress in day-glo lycra! Must do it again, actually..........

How did they get onto it? It is, as far as I am aware, clearly marked as private property...... Presumably, Jim would be well within his rights to advise them into which nook or cranny they might place their lycra-carbon-fibre €5000 bicycles........!

Very true - but gimme the railcars any day!

One wonders is this why the West Clare was turned down for modest funding recently? Why not just close the whole railway network and give it over to the Lycra mafia.....who will STILL cycle along narrow twisty roads adjacent to empty greenways....!

Looks great. Weathering and general dirt - especially in later days - did darken them to the way you have, although the grey was a uniform colour when clean. Some light weathering now would make it look “heavily” weathered very convincingly.

Might get down weekend after next.

In theory, yes, but a locomotive that size would be woefully uneconomic to operate on a line like that. In addition it is only being cosmetically restored: a full return to working order would cost many hundreds of thousands of euros, with possible a complete new boiler involved.

Jim is organising work parties most weekends, if any is interested. There is a nice hotel 2 minutes walk from the site - Peacockes - who will offer a decent overnight rate. I'm planning to go myself in the next few weeks.

You’re looking at 1975/6.

Always plain grey up to about 1971. For the last few years (by which time few were left) all brown. ”Wasp stripes” on ducket ftom sbout 1964/5, thus being plain grey before. ”Flying snail” until c. 1963/4, with “roundel” gradually replacing this during the 1960s, and continuing into the post-1971 “brown years”.

I checked Ernie's book and while there are several obscure carriages that at first glance might fit the bill, closer inspection tends to discourage comparison....

True, and the beading isn't totally right either, but the windows are. If this thing turns out to be narrow-gauge, the only possible explanation would be a very heavily amended one like that - I just throw it in as a very outside possibility. My money's on Macroom!

Did a bit more delving. My initial thoughts on it being an "oddball" were based on the fact that windows with curved tops and square-cornered bottom corners were the stuff of the MGWR and, on some stock, CBSCR. The side curvature and beading is most in-MGWR-like. The height of the windows, and the side curvature are not very West Cork-like, either. The W & T don't appear to have had carriages of this window design - the above vehicle has comparatively wide window panes for an old coach. That COULD suggest a Tramore vehicle, but none of them as far as I am aware had curved tops and square (ouch!) bottoms, nor did they have any sort of beading or ventilators like the yoke above. I tried to find decent shots of Macroom coaches this evening to compare, but there's so little to be seen on that line. However, the beading certainly reminds me of a photo I've seen somewhere in the past, as does the side profile, and the ventilators above the doors appear to be of that type. In the absence of anything else, I'll stick with my initial hunch that it's from the Cork & Macroom Direct Railway. I would be interested to know more. I should add that all of the above is on the presumption that it is clearly of the 5'3" gauge. What width is it? Is there and end view of it? If it turns out that it's narrow gauge, we've another issue entirely on our hands; with Cork & Muskerry Railway being the most likely contender. I'm not sure it IS narrow-gauge, though.

I don’t think it’s W & T - windows different.

The one on the left is of Waterford, Limerick & Western design, while the one on the right (green) is classic GSWR of 1910-20 period. However........ That holiday home one is a VERY different animal! Looking at that second pic you’ve put up, I am inclined to think it’s a Macroom coach. If so, it will only be the second known to still exist. VERY rare, VERY interesting.