jhb171achill

There are a number of books. next time there's a model railway show, the IRRS (Clifton Flewitt) will probably have a bookstall. Ask him - Clifton is extremely knowledgeable about books and he should have something at least. Ernie Shepherd did a good history of the MGWR some years ago. Ebay or amazon might be able to help with this.

jhb171Senior was out with a PW gang one foggy night between Dundalk and Goraghwood, at the Wellington Cutting. Minor track maintenance was in progress. This is about 1951 or 2. As he approached the gang they were running towards him, scared stiff, after two of them claimed to have seen a man on a white horse riding along the railway track in the gloom. This story has actually been reported way in the past by engine crews; I wonder if any modern NIR or IE drivers have ever seen or heard of it! Senior wondered if they just wanted the night off, as it was a really heavy freezing fog, and that neck of the woods is not exactly known up there for tropical heat and sunbeds. But if they walked off the job they wouldn't be paid, and money was tight back then. There were about 6 or 7 of the men, and Senior recalled that he could tell that they genuinely WERE terrified, whatever they had seen. The work was postponed until daylight, when another possession was obtained. As our good American friends might say, "Go figure"!

Wasn't aware of Alan Gee's! Superb. There was indeed a ghost on the Carndonagh branch; the same identical one to be found at a crossing somewhere between Donegal and Killybegs. In each case, just after the line closed and the track was lifted, the gatekeeper heard a whistle for the gates. He went out without thinking to open the gates, then realised there was no track and no train. And, of course, his wife heard the engine whistle too.... In the Donegal version, he sees the train pass, closes the gates and ambles back into his cottage, then tells the wife "that's the 6:35 through...." She says "what are you talking about? The railway's gone!".

The Midland had a standard station colour scheme. Exteriors were red - apparently a cherry red. I’ve seen a sample and it looks about right for that. Larger areas (lighter) colours on the likes of signal cabins or other wooden buildings or sheds were a sort of creamy light beige or stone colour. On a layout, slightly weathered light cream or off-white is probably best. Station fencing was this colour too, or possibly white. Interiors were mostly a light mid-brown (Lower) and cream (upper).

Re both those pics - I’ve never seen a layout based on the Lough Swilly, though several CDR ones exist. I always thought something based on Tooban would make a great layout. Heavy goods trains and eight-coupled engines..... and a compact but interesting station Junction. And that tram depot - perfect architectural size for a city-type small terminus building, like a ground-level Harcourt St.

Beautifully sunny here too in Dublin, Leslie!

I wonder if it was as heavily one-sided as it is today!

Today’s visit takes us to the the wild and lonely Tooban Junction for the Case of the Strange Signal; mind you, many of the Lough Swilly’s signals were odd one-offs..... ....and back to the Shelbourne Road tram depot, DUTC, Dublin.

Up the glens..... Senior managed to poke his way through the weeds up as far Rathkenny on the Ballymena, Cushendall & Red Bay Railway about 1940 in the cab of a light engine which went off to find a wagon somewhere. The line was as good as closed but still saw an occasional goods working. He explored the rest by bicycle and Shanks’ Mare....

Another Derry Central from the Catacombs. I think it’s probably a 1944 visit.

I was doing guard this day, so the second two are Noel-esque shots, as the train approaches Tara..... I mean, Downpatrick North Junction. A family affair; Nephew-the-Elder was firing LPHC No. 3. I took the first two on an earlier date.

Found these..... The first few show the hard work that goes on behind the scenes in all weathers, year round. The last two show restoration work which is the less obvious, less glamorous but absolutely necessary work that also has to be done.

It was much the same as it is now, and if it's in Midland days it'll look very colourful, as they painted their stations red and cream......

You're going for MGWR livery? Very nice! The blue was dark, midway between navy blue and "royal" blue.

I love that layout - a little cameo. It absolutely oozes atmosphere. The weathering on the tatty oul hut is very realistic and really adds atmosphere.....

If the colour on the coach is as it looks in your pic, it's pretty close indeed but a little bright, but the "Bredin" green may be seen in reality in Malahide (once it reopens!). Talking which i was talking with the manager of it and the actual castle today and he says that it won't be "for the foreseeable future".

No logos were ever on locomotives, as such, only on SOME tenders. (Thus, no tank engines ever had "flying snails"). The official liveries were grey, with "flying snail" on tender, lined green with same, or (last few years, and a few engines only), black with snail. The snail was always "eau-de-nil" light green, lined gold. If you mean the CIE "broken wheel" logo, no, no steam engines ever got that. However, many tenders in all three colours were also to be seen with no logo or any markings of any kind. However........... very often, tenders were repainted without a "flying snail". The last two steam engines to be actually newly repainted (in grey) were in 1962, just as the "broken wheel" was being invented, but thay had nothing on their tenders. In the grey livery in the '50s, I would hazard a rough guess that maybe a quarter of locos had no flying snail on them at all, whereas with the green livery, just an occasional tender had no snail. I have seen at least two photographs of green tenders that appear to have no lining, though that could be dirt. There was never any livery variant with anything brown, nor red lining on a green background. Grey, green and black did run together but only 1956-62. Prior to that, grey and green only. It is also worth pointing out that according to Bob Clements, "overall, only a few engines were repainted black". Many classes, thus, did not have any black examples; indeed, most of them. Your summary is much more concise than my efforts!

Fantastic stuff, Patrick! Pity about the gawd-awful music, though!

Out of idle curiosity I did a similar search regarding the 400 class (plus 502!), and while this is a very small sample, it seems to follow the above pattern. In order of years.... 1948 502 green, 405 green. Nos. 336 & 342 noted by J Macartney Robbins as "next in line" for green. 1954 409 very dirty grey, but running with a green tender off some other loco (NOT without precedent; I've seen evidence of this elsewhere). 1954 402 grey, also later in 1960. 1955 406 green, but absolutely filthy. 1958 407 grey. 1960 402 grey. 1960 401 either very dirty grey or black. I saw a colour slide some years ago showing two of the species at Inchicore. One was either extremely dirty grey or black. The other was barely discernible green; not just filthy, but badly faded. Now, here's an interesting thing. I had always assumed that engines painted green after 1947 more or less all kept this. But there is clear evidence that many reverted to grey; it is possible that some of the classes mentioned were never green at all. Despite the advance of dieselisation after the AEC cars were introduced, and especially after the A, B101 and C class diesels appeared, and the resultant fact that more and more steam engines were cosmetically very much neglected, repaints were taking place through the 1950s, even as late (in Cork) as 1962, within the closing months of steam. No. 802 "Macha" was twice repainted in the early 1950s - first into an experimental lighter green (the details of which have not survived) and then back again to normal CIE green. But as can be seen from the last 2 posts, some large engines, noted green in the late 1940s or early 50s, went back to being green or, after 1956, black in a few cases. Such is how I am occupying my enforced confinement. Tomorrow I'll do a bit about the liveries of dining car tea bags.......!

Probably best not to open the kegs, though.....

Dublin trams, undated but I believe about 1936-39. In the top picture, the vehicle on the right is a wagon for inspecting overhead wires.

True, though that would have been pre-rebuild, i.e. about 1922. One can only wonder how much (or little!) coal was being scraped out of the bunker once it got as far as Skibbereen..... It seems the Irish ones had slightly bigger bunkers that the British variants, but not that much.....

Can't find the post, but someone was asking the other day about whether "Woolwiches" were grey or green (or black). From 1947, the green began to appear on main line locos and then tank engines used on Dublin suburban services. This included the GSR "Woolwiches". However, something in the back of my mind suggested that I had seen pics of these in grey too in the 1950s, so I had a look at what photos are in the first half-dozen books that came to hand, and they are actually more of a mixture than I thought - in fact, more seem to be grey than green during the 1950s. Of the last three in traffic, they all ended up black (or possibly very very dirty grey). Like most engines at the very end, they were allowed to get into an absolutely deplorably filthy state. I have omitted details from some photos, as it is plain impossible to tell what they are. One green one appears to have a plain green tender, with neither lining or "flying snail". What follows is a small table to give an indication. This is quite simply a list of photos that at various times show SOME (not all) of the class, and the livery noted is what they were in the year to which the relevant photo is dated. It is clear that some became green, but reverted to grey in the 1950s. A similar story is the case with the 400 class, by the way, too. Anything black would have received this livery after 1956 - nothing was black before that. Another thing that shows is that more did NOT have "snails" than HAD them. No. Year photographed Livery Last five in use withdrawal date 372 1947 1960 Green (reported in "Cuisle") Black or grey (No snail) 1960 373 1951 1955 1956 Green Looks to be grey Looks to be grey 376 1961 Black (No snail) 2nd LAST 1961 377 Mid 50s Exceptionally dirty - no livery visible 378 1953 1959 Green Green 380 1953 Grey 382 1954 Grey (No snail) 383 1955 Grey 385 Mid 50s Grey 384 & 385 1960 388 1956 Black LAST 1962 393 1949 Mid 50s Green Grey 395 1954 Grey (No snail) 396 1950 Late 50s Green Green 397 1949 Green

VERY nice job, Dr.!

Very nice! The exact position could vary - what you have looks perfect. If accuracy is preferred, the roof would be a very dark grey, almost black, same as carriages. Ordinary wagons had grey roofs if grey body, and after 1970 brown roofs with brown body. In painting it green, presumably it's representative of the handful of vans used for Tralee - Cork mails, and would be stuck on the back of passenger trains.... nice job indeed.