jhb171achill

Correct, Vlak - and the brake van was a departmental one never used in normal traffic. I think I saw it in Limerick.

Could well be, yes!

Yes, like any livery change anywhere, there will be a period during which each item gets a normal routine repaint, and thus the new version. If something is newly painted the day before a livery change comes into being, it will be pottering about in the old livery, probably, for years to come. The IE position was generally not to put the new "set of points" let alone the later "three pin plug" on anything. Plain brown instead. There were a few exceptions, like a handful of the ballast wagons shown by IRM above - but generally no logo. However, vehicles with old CIE "roundels" were to be seen for a ling time, most notably among the ferts. Some of these were still to be seen with CIE logos on them right until fertiliser traffic stopped. With pre-fitted stock, that is prior to 1976 in the days of four-wheelers, there were still a good few wagons still in grey (from before 1970), and even a small handful not only in grey, but with flying snails - which were pre-1963! So, say you're running ferts - even in IE days there will be a good few still with "roundels". Prior to 1987 there would be the odd one WITHOUT any logo, as they just hadn't put one on! The ballast wagons - if you're in the 1980s either plain or with CIE. The few with IR logos would, of course, be mixed in with these - exactly as the new release of wagons shows - after 1987. A word on the CIE logo here. Someone asked me recently which CIE wagons had a pale brown roundel, or a white one, in later days - as they had seen one on an IRM fert. The answer is very categorically NONE. Unless someone can show me a single, experimental, lime green, tartan and pink one, ALL CIE roundels after 1970 (i.e. on brown wagons) were white. However - as highly realistically shown on both the IRM fert which carries it, plus one of the latest ballast wagons, these got dirtied / weathered with brake dust (like the ends of carriages) to the extent they LOOKED brownish - same as the way Donegal steam loco domes LOOKED black, despite being painted red, or CIE steam engines looked black, when they were grey under twenty layers of filth. The weathered brownish one on these two IRM wagons looks most realistic. While on the subject of wagons, this recalls something else that came up in another recent conversation - WHY some wagons were brown and some grey in the 1970s. There is a perception that this was something to do with which ones were fitted or not - no - like black wagon chassis this was a British Rail thing. On the GSR and CIE, wagon liveries were all plain grey, though the shade lightened in the 1960s. Nothing brown - not a single vehicle - though many were weathered so much that brake dust made them look brown-ISH from a distance, on a dull day. Fitted or unfitted didn't matter. Plough vans also. The Downpatrick plough van - incorrectly painted brown and black, seems to have given rise to many imitations - but again, dull oul grey. Ballast wagons also - no yellow before the 1990s or so. The brown was simply a livery change about 1970s. Thus, if we model pre-1970, the whole lot is grey. If we model after that, a mix of grey or brown. If it's after 1976, all brown. I digress; I'll get back in me box.

Phew! To be fair, though, that was probably not intended to be a serious "restoration" - just a "tidy-up", as it had become very tatty!

Irish "follies" tended to be a lot smaller, and often just small structures in the grounds of the "Big Houses".

Not really - it's more Tudor (English) than Norman / Irish, architecturally. I had though of some sort of old tumbledown "11th century ruin" in a corner on an extension of mine - but the pic of Dunamase above (a lovely place) - shows that not a window is even necessary!

Very important to "buy Irish" in these times especially...

Interesting to see the rare "set of points" logo - exceptionally few wagons ever carried them! I only ever saw them on these wagons and a low-sided PW wagon of some sort. The vast majority didn't have them, so a nice little addition to a rake. The ferts never had them, of course.....they were just gradually repainted plain brown. Another nice touch is the one with the "hand-written" stuff on it, and the one with the "dirty weathered" logo, like on one of the IRM ferts, if I'm not mistaken. Completes the realism!

Very keenly priced - but is that stuff any good made in that way?

Red chimney and black dome - shouldn't it be the other way round! Sorry - I'll get me coat........

For what’s it worth the one I recall wasn’t an a/c one.... it had ordinary windows.

That would be a credit to anyone - suberb build. The subtle rust looks very real too. The design is such that little would be visible in the cab anyway, though I’ve no doubt you’d do a TOP class job on that too!

I'd say so. Looks like it all right.

The one I was in was definitely later - on further thought, possibly about 1998. It had not been in use much - I only saw it a few times. For good measure for about a week it was hauled by a sole 141 from IE to replace a (regularly sick) 111; possibly the Dundalk pilot engine - with a load of nine bogies PACKED with commuters! It was a brake 1st with a pretty big brake compartment; that's all I know.

I’m no expert on NIR stock - a bit modern for me - but on the last fling of those things, the 08:00 Portadown - Belfast (Maysfields Cattle Sidings), which I believe was the last REGULAR use of the 111/071 class anywhere, there was a side corridor brake 1st (used as a standard), which I would guess I was last in about 2000/1/2?

Absolutely classic stuff, Ernie - you've obviously been carefully browsing a certain "massive photo archive", given the great levels of realism!

So, you'd need two packs of those to make one bogie vehicle and one four-wheeler.

I'm assuming yer man in the wedding is a railway enthusiast - anyone know? Does it have...... ... (No, better not.)

We're OK with many CIE models now for good stock - but the NCC & UTA have always been neglected! Like CIE or the GNR, British parallels are few and far between. Most open wagons are fine - if not perfect - but cattle trucks and goods vans are different - and brake vans are totally different. Scratch building for "0" gauge, I suspect, is really the only option for much goods stock. But a shunting layout won't need much of it - half a dozen or 8 wagons, one brake van, and a "Jinty"?

The GNR ones had quite different panelling styles - I often thought, though, that a number of GNR (England) coaches could either be "kitbashed" into GNR(I) "2ft-rule" types, or as bogies. If Hattons also decide to release the chassis of these things as a separate item, scratchbuilding of other Irish types would be made a great deal easier. The NCC, MGWR, BCDR, GNR, GSWR, WLWR and DSER all had their own very distinctive styles. And then you get to West Cork....the Hattons "genesis" isn't hugely unlike one or two of theirs. There's a Roxey 48ft third that is half-ways close to one MGWR bogie - might get one some day! But that's a different issue. For the "genesis" thing, it resembles GSWR types best. Naturally, SSM kits provide ACTUAL GSWR types.

If the "C" class were as successful as these GSWR tank engines, they'd still be in traffic, Crossley engines an'all! Imagine - today - a "Raccoon"-liveried "C" on the Nenagh branch with a two-coach Mk. 3 push-pull...........or one on the Junction shuttle or the Ballina branch........ on Cobh locals painted silver again, like a 2600? No. 42 is a beauty! And SLNC Coach. No. 4 was always a favourite of mine, although my one and only jaunt on the SLNCR was in Railcar "B", and a few days before I was born!!!!!!!!!!!

Any thoughts on whether the new lock-down Covid rules might impact deliveries this time - or is it done'n'dusted?

That is just SUPERB! A real treat to see it in motion!

Those had curved sides.......any flat-sided BCDR stock was all 6-wheel, and all dating from 1880-1885. The two you refer to were actually built with a distinctly LMS-style side profile! .....and as you say, gone by '64. The first four behind the loco are BNCR, and the rear four - well, hard to tell, but the one next to the BNCR ones appears to have an NCC-like roof profile....possibly ex-GN, though. Too far away to tell for certain.

Yes, it certainly looks like her, but in 1956 she was supervising the “housekeeping” staff in the GNR hotel in Bundoran, so it’s possible but unlikely....