jhb171achill

And look at the goods vans....on the right..... CIE, GSR, CIE, GSR, CIE x 2.....

And by myself..... looks like I’m a stage further advanced in my dotage. Soon, I will be frolicking in the meadows with the Sweetie Mice and the unicorns.....

There are, I know, more than a few on here who did the Derry Road, the County Donegal, Sligo Leitrim, and the Leitrim & Clare narrow gauges.....! Maybe a thread about best memories from closed lines! For me, that would be the madman on the Athlone - Mullingar line on the late night mail train, or the graffiti on one of the seats in the Loughrea carriage two days before it closed.....in biro, “FAREWELL TO THE DUNSANDLE EXPRESS”! And then there was the leaking carriage roof (a clapped-out laminate) in a violently torrential downpour somewhere north of Tuam.......about a quarter of the coach had to move seats! Lucky there were only about twenty-five passengers on it, and two carriages and a tin van!

In my case, only the half-mile from Navan to Tara Mines and the Sligo harbour line.....

Very briefly, timber came through en route from Westport or Ballina to Waterford. I have timings somewhere - it was during the night it came in, reversed, and continued via Clonmel.

Me too. They don't run on rails. They have long bits sticking out of the sides which would foul any loading gauge. Despite jhb171Junior having been in the aircraft industry and having had me in aircraft cockpits, he was unable to show me a single orifice in which coal was to be put in a moving aircraft, nor injectors operated. None of these things appear to have even ONE connecting rod, and I'd lay money on it that they have no firebox. They have no obvious receptacles for coal or water, and I know for a fact that they aren't wood or oil burners. Airports do not, in any event, appear to have coaling facilities, and I doubt very much if there are coaling facilities in the air. Junior has not said or demonstrated anything to address my doubts. He talks about "wings" and "jet" something....... Strange.

All goes to show that well over a decade later, CIE's judgement, or rather that of their political masters, was (for once!) proved right!

It’s a GOOD idea, certainly! However, given the individuality of the lines you mention (and no actual railway ever reached Rostrevor...), what might be better is an imaginary branchline with, perhaps, a distillery-related private siding? In a city setting, maybe an imaginary single-platform terminus, closed some time between 1930 and 1955? Something “Street”, “Road” or “Place”, likely in Derry, Belfast, Dublin or Cork? Given good research results and photos of what would have run into and out of the imaginary location, the only big thing to think of is what era, and whether UTA, GNR or CIE?

Yes. There was a serious body of opinion in Inchicore in favour of putting GM engines in B101s. At this stage I can’t remember the persons involved, but it’s irrelevant niw. The 071s appeared as a result of varying opinions in the early 70s. Had history been only slightly different, noisy (beautiful!) GM noises would be coming out of plain grey 101s today, hauling Ballina containers, Wood-sticks, and oddball sundry yellow things full of gravel about a handful of lines, away from the graffiti, concrete, litter, cider parties and steel fencing scenic beauties of Dublin.....

Best wishes, Patrick, delighted to hear you're on the upward bound!

Indeed; Lemass, quite rightly, didn't want us to end up depending on ANY one other country, colonial power or not. CIE did, of course, continue to use British firms if they could step up to the mark; a certain Cravens of Sheffield being a prime contender! British firms continued to be used for new rail and for much signalling equipment. Exactly.

The other replies above regarding reliability are exactly right. Basically they got a very good deal, as EMD already had an unrivalled reputation, and the financial pigeons were already coming home to roost in terms of the shockingly bad reliability of the Crossleys. They considered German stuff too. Clearly, they made the right decision, and therefore stick with them. Had Dick Fearn's railcars not come along, I daresay we'd now be seeing the "251 class" in traffic, whatever they might be. British Railways were hamstrung, as they were tied to buying British products, long after it was clear that the American stuff was better quality and more reliable. The Americans had way way more experience, having largely dieselised over a decade before anywhere in Europe. A former friend of our family was a senior engineer with the GNR in Dundalk, and he knew my grandfather in Inchicore. Through this connection I am aware that CIE's senior figures in the fifties were talking to BR, Dundalk and various others about the pros and cons of American versus British technology. As others have commented above, when you buy a widget from Tesco and it won't widge properly, you go to Supervalu next time.

Yes, that’s the way an “unboxing” video should be! I can never understand the mentality in making an epic “war and peace” out of taking something out of a box! .......seems like making a documentary about opening a tin of beans, or a seven-part series about opening a cupboard door..... Surely nobody buys a model just to take it out of its box....

Take one plank, three times daily before meals, until it’s a flat wagon..... Do not drive while taking this medication.

That's EXACTLY what I was thinking for a possible future project....

That's not water, Galteemore. That's poitín, all the way from Wisht Ciarraí, boy! It is an interesting thought that the likes of IRM, neither British nor large, might have seriously rippled the waters of Bachmann Hornby Overdrive & Hattonsheffield Corporation PLC Inc., and had them summer-salting over their smelling saults over high-quality standards.....

So all of them about 3m or 10ft high, thus in 4mm scale 4cm?

Roughly what dimensions would be appropriate for the large billboard advertisement hoardings normally seen on the likes of railway embankments near road bridges, etc.? Roughly 2.5 or 3m high, perhaps?

Many of us would need to go on diets to stand on THAT platform!

They ran in what nowadays would be called a “block train”, but artistic licence might allow a four-coach set? The brake van was a standard 6-wheel passenger brake. The “3”s on the doors relate to the GSR’s livery which includes the passenger class 1 or 3 (2nd long gone by then) on doors. Probably non existent in many cases as the coaches were scrappers. I think they had already been withdrawn. This was in normal open wagons - but - layout “artistic licence”. Very much so. The sides were all boarded up, doors and all. It’s possible an odd foot still worked, but they were loaded and unloaded by a squad of men flinging the turf pieces over the sides! Labour was cheap then..... Yes, any old grey paint - or just about anything. Some with bare planks too probably. Re. the few W & L vehicles, that’s true, and there were almost certainly a few DSER examples, but GSWR stock formed the bulk. To run on a layout, in reality you’d need a set of them to be realistic - even 3 or 4, plus a van. Turf in small quantities just went in normal open wagons.

These "wagons" were converted from withdrawn six-wheel coaches (no bogies). Doors were locked shut, and door handles removed for the most part, though the odd one might still have one! Some had random planking filling up doorways, some had wooden boards inside windows, some outside - the pics show that these were scrap vehicles resurrected IF the brakes could be made to work. They were used from the mid-1940s to the late '40s. Most were of GSWR designs - certainly all that I can make out in the above picture are of that origin, though I know I've seen Midland stock in this state somewhere else. Really, no two were alike. In some cases, the footboards have been roughly hacked off, leaving broken or twisted brackets, in others the brackets are gone. Some have mostly coach panelling, some have most planks instead. Many have part of a side made up by several old doors strung alongside each other - look at the picture above and see how many "3"s there are along the side of some - the number "3" indicating third class, on that type of carriage was carried ONLY on doors. Livery - very very badly worn GSR "maroon"; by this stage, a faded, peeling or streaked salmony-pink colour, very heavily weathered with brake dust. Thus a brown shade to the weathering. The planked bits are likely to be either unpainted, or a rough coat of wagon grey. None were actually PAINTED in any livery - they were basically taken off scrap lines, on which some of them had sat for some time. This one's a GSWR brake or brake third. Double doors - but replaced with two passenger doors - hence the "3" on each, and the erstwhile guard's lookout ducket removed and planked over. Still has its door handles! Footstep brackets hacked off.

I was just looking for that brochure, which I have somewhere! Obviously, I've already posted it here before! And yes, I suspect that's exactly where Bullied got his crazy idea for churning out diesel locos and coaches (AND, of course, the corrugated wagons!) in plain bare metal.........

The Summerhill terminus had a single platform, and it even had an earlier temporary incarnation in the form of what was probably a temporary wooden structure out at Tivoli. There is a small piece of wall remaining, if you know where to look. Obviously, it was built by the Cork & Youghal Railway, as StevieB says, not the GSWR who later took it over. I believe there was an accident in this station at one time, where an incoming train failed to stop. As mentioned above, while the last passenger train departed just after Glanmire Road was opened, it was used to store spare rolling stock for some years afterwards. A single siding into it remained as late as the 1950s, I believe, and each year CIE ran an inspection car or something down it to preserve the legal right-of-way.

That really is quite an eclectic collection of stuff, Sean! I'm following your endeavours with great interest! The "Little Giant" and (red) "Hornby" 0.4.0s are, as you point out, the same as the green one with the CIE logo. A lick of paint on both of them and you've three "CIE"-ish engines. Paint 'em dark grey - and the green one is your "passenger" steam loco, and the other two are "mixed traffic" or "goods" locos.......

Interesting take on it, Buz, and I suspect you're not alone. The reality is that ANY niche interest - and railways are one - will carry a price tag; the meter's running! Much as I'm on record here for extolling the virtues of times long past, and having little interest and less knowledge in anything after 1980, it has to be accepted that something like a cheap ready to run ICR (I know, I know) is what young potential enthusiasts SEE when Favourite Uncle takes them for their first trip ever on a "REAL" train. My earliest memory was a first class compartment in a musty old wooden bogie behind the GNR's no. 207 "Boyne", and seeing the vastnesses of the old ("proper"!) Portadown station, not the shamefully ugly concrete bunker heap that's there today. But to be fair, I realise that this is utterly irrelevant to, let's say, a 13-year-old who is now getting interested, and whether we all like it or not, is the future of the hobby. For him (or her?) it's an ICR, yellow machines or a Mk 4 or "Enterprise" set. There's nothing much else operating on almost all railways now; NIR CAFs are an even smaller market. But to GET the youngster in - maybe a generic round-ended cheap railcar which comes in ICR livery or NIR livery. Once smitten by THESE, they can be gently introduced to the goodies of our well-known manufacturers. MY first "layout" was a circle of super-4 track (or whatever it was called), a Hornby "Polly" 0.4.0, two wagons and a guard's van. Gawd knows what I did with them over the years - think I gave them away............my point being that at THAT time, no "serious" modeller would have given such items a second look.....