jhb171achill

Thanks, Colin - if you hear of anything please do let me know! Apparently they've a waiting list. It's just a pity as I had ordered this from them long before they had even made public that they were doing the series at all! And they even rang me up to tell me that they were closing down, literally the day before they went public with it, and I confirmed that particular one with them at that point!

ttc; you've just given me an idea! A plain grey one with a 4xxA series number, and "PERMANENT WAY" stencilled on the side!

Got to the bottom of the pricing and delivery issues with my order. Paid for them today. Hattons, though, appear to have made a hames of my order before transferring it to Rails of S............ so I'm missing the all-important black'n'tan full brake. This is important, because of course a BnT full van never ran with the green six-wheelers! Separate issues. The few BnT ones which survived to get that livery were tagged onto the back of "modern" trains of laminates, Park Royals and eventually (for a short time) including Cravens. By the time those few received the BnT livery, all of the (green) passenger-carrying six-wheelers were finally withdrawn..... so I have a dark green full brake and a light green one to go with them, but I need a BnT one to go with mid-60s BnT bogies!

Excellent.... It is my understanding that currently the entire service is worked by one driver, and that's two return trips a day. If this is correct - and even if it isn't, it could be - that suggests that with only one more driver, four traina day would be feasible. But why stop at Limerick - why not include the Galway service? Surely, there is increased potential for a service like this - especially with students in mind if that is the case - if it were to operate Waterford - Limerick - Galway? Four operations a day each way over that while route, plus several others as at present Limerick - Galway, should surely be achieveable and also desirable. I feel that this would provide a major boost over this whole route, at comparatively very little outlay other than the restoration of a crossing point at Cahir. And put ICRs on it, not those god-awful tin cans with pixie seats and yellow poles that they do use. Hopefully the advent of the Dart+ and new Enterprise trains might somehow result, as a by-product, in a few spare ICRs.

The top one is Dublin United Tramways - very rare! Only made between 1941 & 1945, then when it became the overall CIE logo, the writing disappeared.

Thank you, Fowler, that explains that bit! Anyone know what gets added on here if posted to Dublin?

Folks, can I ask a few questions, as I’m not getting any joy from Rails of S. I ordered one of everything, including the black’n’tan full brake but excluding the set of 4. Rails sent me invoices for the lot - but included the set of 4, but did not include the BnT one, which I particularly wanted. So I am mightily displeased. I’d be interested to know if anyone else had their orders messed up. But more particularly they want £34.95 per vehicle, which is €42. Not a huge bill for a vehicle of this type, but I’m sure I saw comments on here to the effect that people were paying €29 something (or maybe £29). Can anyone comment on this? An example of one of each results in a total bill of over £500 sterling. It’s not a small amount.

Putin's spying on Meechelle and Jeffrey..........

Ah. I’ve always had a liking for class 31s. Might have consider a temporary renaming of Dugort Harbour, Co Kerry, as Little Wolding on Trent, Suffockshire, Republic of Brexitstan…. cue an invasion of BR 2MT, 4MT, Black 5s, and class 101 railcars…..

Very much so, Leslie!

Yes, very much so. And as an added bonus you’ve the right hand one in oven-ready NCC livery (though they were wooden-panelled into UTA days). Stock like this behind a RTR Jeep would fill a LOT of missing gaps in northern modelling, which like CIE modelling thirty years all too idtdn has to be filling by simple repaints of British stock otherwise unlike anything which ever ran here. When I get a moment I’ll post a list of things suitable for NCC / UTA / early NIR modelling.

Which ones? They’d have the body outline if standard NCC / LMS stock, not anything British Rail related.

For Irish viewers, I have dealt for years with Frank Glennon & Co., now part of some multinational, beside the Charlemont Luas stop. This post has reminded me that my stuff is NOT sinured separately, unless under household contents, but the replacement value of what I have would be significant, so thank you for focussing my mind on this. However, in the PAST, I have had valuable items separately listed. At one stage, following a house clearance of a deceased relative, at one time I had a lot of valuable stuff of hers stored in the house for several years pending distribution to other relatives. At the time, Glennons had no problem including specific separate items. I believe my own normal home policy will cover the layout I have now, but this post has prompted me to check.

Question: where did these typically operate and what locos usually hauled them?

Only two, and they always ran together. And as far as I know they never operated in a normal train formation, only specials and special parties. Very nice, i only ever had one run in them though. And the bar only had Harp(ic) on draught......

Interesting! Any pics of the actual loco? Did they paint it grey and all, or just put a "snail" over whatever BR logo it had?

That has to come about some time. The AECs were as impor5tant to the 1950s and 1960s Irish railway scene as the ICRs are today, to the extent that any layout set anywhere west of the Shannon in particular, but also elsewhere, cannot be completely represented in layout form within that period without them. They were all over CIE, from Tramore to Bantry to (even) Belfast*; from Sligo to Newcastle West to Rosslare. the GNR, of course, had them too - all over the main line, but also the Banbridge and Newcastle branch, the Derry Road, and Portadown - Clones and Enniskillen. (* I once saw a CIE, rather than UTA, AEC set (in orange and black) passing through Lambeg. I do not know whether it was deputising for an Enterprise, or what it was doing there. I'm guessing it was about 1964/5).

I've been derelict in many a place, Galteemore, but only once did I get derelict in Antrim, as I wasn't driving that day................

Derelict at Antrim, late 1960s. Aluminium-repannelled 1920s non-corridor NCC suburban stock, withdrawn mid-60s. Incidentally, note the size of the UTA crest. The bought transfers that are available of both the original 1949-61 "roundel" with the red hand, and the later crest as seen here, are both weel over scale size. I must measure the actual ones some time as I have copies somewhere.... maybe someone can print scale sized ones! (H C A Beaumont collection)

Some re-panelled suburban stock had the line quite close to the bottom of the windows….

Depended on the exact coach design but generally about 3-4 inches below the bottom of the windows, or across the nearest line of beading. Lining was a straw colour, rather than yellow. It was about an inch wide and edged both sides with an extremely thin red line. Coach ends black and roofs mid-grey when fresh, but quickly darkened in use.

Activity at Malahide, from light engines to Taras under a stormy sky, to the 1990s Enterprise….. IMG_1814.mov IMG_1813.mov IMG_1814.mov

“Takin’ photographs o’trains? Lads, ye can’t do it from up THERE!”

“This is only the start of it. Next Tuesday it’s three wagons of crates from North Wall, and every Tuesday after that maybe up to half a dozen of ‘em, for Munster Simms….” ”Jaysus, me back’s killing’ me already! What’s in them?” ”Says machine parts on the papers…”

I believe it will be piles of money.