jhb171achill

If I ever find it, Ken, you'll be the first to get it! For the livery freaks like me, it was also to be the same lined blue/green that the trio of 800s were. Senior believed that five were planned, and they would have been used at least on the DSER section. But we will never know.

I must try to find an outline I had for the proposed 820 class 4.6.2T proposed but never built by the GSR. I don't know what I've done with it. My grandfather did an outline diagram of it - it was basically a tank engine version of the 800 class with a huge coal bunker at the back.

I wish Senior could have seen this develop.........! There would have been compliments about, and reminiscences about the horrors to be found when inspecting the SLNCR's track, culverts and bridges!

Which ones........where......

I must have got it just before demolition, then - it would have been 1969 or 70 when I was in it.

A thing of beauty! Was nice to see it just now - as said above, even better “in the flesh”!

So is Mr Riley in that group photo? Correct. "The King" was used so little she never lost her livery of brand-new delivery! In general, yes, the GSR did melt down nameplates - one must assume that the "King's" were thus disposed of when she was eventually scrapped.

Absolutely superb stuff - cannot wait to see the results! I'll need a few..........

I will advise my niece accordingly.......

Well, "Isabel" appears to have been prematurely named after my niece in England.........

Nobody seemed to have a clear answer to that, back in the day....I don't think they have one now? The Mullingar museum thing was, as far as I remember though, before his time. They didn't have one then.

Sadly, there's been talk about a Republic-based museum for almost fifty years, with successive governments having had zero interest in same. On two separate occasions - the first in the 1980s - when i was involved with the RPSI there were moves made to try to bring this into being. Sadly, neither local or central authorities wanted to know. The harsh reality is, as many of us will be aware, interest in railway history throughout Ireland is very much a niche interest; thus the potential popularity of local authorities coughing up loot to fund same is "nich-er" still. Mullingar would have been the target for both the studies I was involved with, using the loco shed and surrounds as the central part of it, and with the RPSI maintaining a working base there as well as a transport museum. Had such a scheme ever materialised, I'm quite sure that one of these historic diesels would be there as an exhibit, along with the sadly defunct W & L Director's Saloon (934) which fell to pieces on site, thanks to weather, passage of time, and unwelcome attention from some fine vandalistic folks who partly set fire to one side.... But, sure, that's another story!

The The coach is freelance, but the END profile is very unmistakeably DSER design; the side could be anything - though as Galteemore suggests, bears a resemblance to one of a set of old GSWR types which ended up in West Cork. The bogies are freelance too.

Only one?

Ah, Paddy - sure you missed out on those. They sold out in August..........

Superb - eagerly awaited! Good to see the authentic "stencil" form of the "flying snail". This was used from the mid-fifties onwards until replaced by the "roundel" in 1963.

Megabucks. This is house-selling time. Forgot the AEC railcars! Essential - also tin vans, even more so.

Good to know!! (That’s the RTR B101, “Maedb”, “Achill Bogie”, D14, D17, J18, Midland “Cattle engine”, UTA Jeep”, NIR 70 & 80 classes, and a range of DSER, MGWR, BCDR and Wisht Caaark six-wheelers sorted for next Christmas, then......)

106 failed just after that IRRS trip. She was detailed to do some other duty the following day but didn't turn a wheel in traffic again. Great pity! I think I remember hearing at the time that there was an opinion among the ITG people, or Inchicore, or both, that 103 would make a better long-term project, but it's that long ago now! ONE story doing the rounds in the mid-70s was that CIE had considered, or were considering, a "transplant"-like programme to put GM engines in them instead of buying the new 071s. THAT would have been interesting.

The Corrs did an early music video inside the RPSI’s ex-GNR Directors Saloon No. 50, at Whitehead.

Ah, OK, thanks!

There was one - was it the "Blue Max"? which featured a low-flying aircraft going under a viaduct on the now-closed Mallow - Waterford line?

WOW!! Was considering that myself, with an opportunity presented by a recent house move, but went for the attic instead, due to prior claims on garden space by the Dept. of Domestic Matters following a prior, and successful application to the DoDM by Mr. Dog to have use of the space...... Looks amazing - what size is it?

It's a tie! GNR & MGWR! When I were a mere nipper, back in the day, I had a summer job on the Festiniog Railway on a track gang - I think it was 1975 or 6. There were two somewhat arrogant cockney types in amongst the gang of us, which had a crazy guy from Glasgow, me, someone else from Belfast who I never heard from again, and people from both Wales and all over the rest of England. On hearing where myself, the Scotsman and the Belfast fella were from, they proceeded to run down Irish railways, insisting that if it was British it was best, or if it was English it was best. (They were beginning to irritate the whole lot of the rest of us). One of them insisted that the LMS, or was it the GWR, was the "best railway there ever was", after wittering on about it for ages; by this stage I had had enough and broke my silence to just say "Nonsense, it's not!". Yer man, who was in northern terminology a bit of a "buck eejit", says in his cockney accent "Oh! So what is?", followed by, in a sarcastic tone, "I suppose you'd say the Tralee and Dingle!". Instantly, I retorted "That's one of them, yes"....and walked off. For the first time that evening, he was silenced...................