jhb171achill

Amazing photos on that website, but unfortunately the captions are absolutely riddled with errors. The O'Dea stuff with the NLI - the captions are even more full of errors. When I went through the collection in total some years ago, they took me up on an offer to voluntarily go through the lot and correct things like "B141 train at Limerick" for "B141 class locomotive at Limerick JUNCTION"! Unfortunately I haven't had time, and it ain't gonna happen any time soon, with 4 railway books and one non-railway under construction......

A J26 would have been of use at Downpatrick. Perfect if the line were ever to be extended, too. The GNR 2.4.2T in Cultra would fit the bill there too....

Trouble is, in preservational terms, they’re useless! So the other one wouldn’t have added anything. If there IS an obvious “one that got away”, it’s a Midland 4.4.0 or a “Woolwich”!

You’ve better eyesight than me, Paddy - I was trying to make that out!

A final visit to Enniskillen just days before it all closed. The first picture was on the very last day, with one of the newer SLNCR engines over near the SLNCR shed. The other shows either Lough Erne or Lough Melvin during shunting in the SLNCR bay platform.

I'm not sure when they were withdrawn. I have seen a pic of one with "G S" on it, but they were only new when the GS came into existence. I would guess 1955-60-ish but as I say i don't know for sure. I never saw a pic with a "flying snail", though.

The MGWR always had an eye for a bargain. They bought a set of these ballast wagons as a job lot, but only two had this compartment, thus - while such things were common in mainland Europe - they were unique in Ireland. One went at each end of the set of wagons. In Ireland a separate guard's van was used. I wouldn't fancy being a ballast guard travelling in a thing like that through a winter rainstorm on a hard frost morning in rural Co. Sligo! I'm sure the men would have refused to work them. They were built in Belgium originally for a Spanish line, hence the broad gauge dimensions, which would have taken little tweaking here.

Just more recently replaced. This picture was taken nine years into GSR days (1934) by Henry Casserley, so the paintwork will be very tatty indeed - which, of course, was typical; pristine wagons never look right on any layout, though I'll happily concede that not everyone likes weathering things! The wagon number is shown as 523. In reality, by this stage, it was 523D. Sometimes on wagons you'd see the originating company letter added, without a full repaint, but this one doesn't even have that. Railway staff would have reported any defects on it as 523D, as the GSWR doubtless would have also had a 523, and a Midland one would now be 523M.

I love that shed with the NIR logo. Is that a raised logo or painted on? Where did you get it or is it scratch-built?

Yes, a few observations about the above photos, which i forgot to add. They DID use a shorter wheelbase then - not just vans, but cattle trucks and open wagons too. Also, a more pronounced curve to roofs, which were a lot lower. Look in the pics above, many of which date from the 1920s and later. NEWER wagons were higher, with roofs flatter. Photos 1 & 5 show "soft-tops" as the railwaymen called them, or officially convertible wagons. I am unaware of these being used in any country outside Ireland; hopefully someone might educate me here on external examples? The top photo of the DSER one (a long way from home at Achill) shows where the open centre part has been subsequently covered over. Like conventional vans, roofs were timber, covered in heavy canvas, sandwiched in between layers of pitch. This was then painted - I did this myself on early carriage repairs at Whitehead in the '70s. But economy often resulted in corrugated iron replacements - these were especially prevalent on the County Donegal Railways but can also be seen here. In photo 5, you see the three stages. In the middle and older "soft top". To the right, a van of the same or slightly later period. to the left, a later one still, more in keeping with dimensions used from about 1915/8 onwards. The purpose of a "soft-top" was that with a tarpaulin across the middle bit, it could be used for general goods, as a goods van, but with the tarp removed it could be used for cattle. Being a primarily agricultural country, with no huge coal or iron ore mines, no massive steelworks, oil refineries or the like (we did not HAVE the minerals and raw materials in the ground!), cattle was the mainstay of most rural Irish railway lines for many decades, so these wagons made sense to build economically. Also, the third last pic shows the difference between "ancient" and "modern" dimensions very well.

Indeed - it's FAR from cheap - but as we all know in the model world, it's well worth paying for quality.

The IRRS has indeed published a lot of drawings - I don't know the full extent as I only have the GSWR book myself. Richard McLachlann is your man on that one - he spent ages scanning the originals over some years. He was, as I understand, the driving force behind pubishhing them (along, sadly, with the late Anthony McDonald). I was just looking to see if i had a spare copy of the IRRS "pic album" which I could have sent you - but I've just realised on searching for it that I donated it to the RPSI last year on the May Tour!

That's the beauty of N gauge, Tony. As Airfixfan mentions above, many items can be bought which "look the part". A Fairburn tank, "off-the-shelf" and LNER coaches (ideally if you can get ones of (British) Great Northern origin) in teak, would do a nice job - as I'm sure you're aware, many ex-GNR carriages still carried their old brown livery for a good few years into UTA days. Maybe there's a little 0.6.0 which could function as a UG?

Hi Mark For the period you are modelling, almost all wagons and rolling stock, unfortunately, would have to be scratch-built, if accuracy is required. If you have got Ernie Shepherd's book, you will see the typical "soft-top" convertible van which abounds. Some open-top cattle trucks might still be seen, though they were meant to be covering them up. Only open wagons were broadly similar. Horse boxes - you are aware of the kit. Locomotives - again, scratch-building, I'm afraid. If you ever heard of the late Richard Chown's "Castle Rackrent", a famous "0" gauge layout, he did all that, and some sixty years or so ago to boot. His layout was primarily WLWR-orientated, though of course this line met the MGWR at Athenry, Claremorris and Collooney. But it gives a nice flavour of the period. I'll post some photos in a moment - all taken from Ernie Shepherd's book, the IRRS "picture album", and "Rails to Achill".

At this stage the GNR was installing concrete on the main line (Amiens St. to Gt. Victoria St.). Senior tried out a short stretch somewhere between Dundalk and Ballybay - just a quarter mile or so. He was planning a submit for extending this along a lot of the INW when the lines were closed. He also got hold of the GNRs brand-new tamping machine and this was trialled on the INW too.

In the heartland if the GNR’s Western District, Enniskillen Station is viewed a few days before closure, at the end of September 1957. The top picture is from the Sligo Leitrim yard, and shows that state of their track compared with the immaculately-maintained GNR track in the lower picture. jhb171-Senior said that had the SLNCR stayed open, its entire track, end to end, would need to be relayed as a matter of priority in a very few years, and many bridges renewed. Like the Co Donegal, both would have required root-and-branch modernisation as a matter of urgency. In a more normal world, like the GNR they would have been divided between the UTA and CIE. Black’n’tan Donegal railcars, anyone? Within a very short space of time, laminate coaches and 141s would have been seen in Enniskillen.....

Presumably if coal and 08s are the thing to use, you're going for a British rather than Irish prototype. Many of the coalfields in South Wales had quite cramped sites in the valleys, compared with, say, Yorkshire. Nice scenery in the Welsh valleys isn't in short supply either. Perhaps some sort of coal yard, rather than a large and bleak-looking mine? A coal merchant's private siding complex? A privately owned steam engine would be possible, with BR's 08s coming along with laden trucks to be sent in there to be unloaded.... Larger BR locos (not sure what class in that area) could come in and out too with trains, and a 2-car railcar set could serve a nearby small halt..... If Irish, we didn't have coal mines like that at all, in that timescale, other than the narrow gauge Cavan & Leitrim, which wouldn't be suitable for 08s.... A British 08 in N scale isn't hugely unlike a CIE "D" class shunter. Instead of coal, why not something very concise with a North City Mills-type industrial siding? Using goods vans obviates the need for the messy and fiddly transferring of loose loads in such a small scale.

Yes, indeed it is, or brown paint. I only ever saw two with a brown chassis, though in both cases you'd have been forgiven for thinking it was just muck! When new, they had galvanised bodies, which would never be painted ANY colour until they were "double-decked" in their final years for beet, when they got standard wain brown. The chassis were originally the same normal grey as all wagons, and virtually all remained this way until the "doubling". The above brown was probably done in the early 70s, by which time actual painting of these was in truth, an exceptionally rare event; and clearly a handful got a touch of brown on the chassis - but again, nothing on the body.

Sadly, Senior's notes are as brief as his photographic list! I have made notes over the years before I forget of everything I know - those who knew him would have known that if you asked him something, he would answer - but he would rarely initiate a conversation, as in "I remember the day I went to Dungiven....." If you didn't know he had been there, any story about it went to the Great Locomotive Shed in the Sky! One trip he did was this: Kingsbridge - Mallow - Tralee. Overnight. Next day, out to Castlegregory, back to the junction, on to Dingle (or maybe the other way round) and back; night mail back to Dublin. This is the full text of the entry in his diary (let's say it was a Saturday 22nd, I can't remember): "Sat. 22nd. Tralee T&D" And that was it! Entries in his diary in the late 1950s and early 60s read like this: 2nd Duncrue St 3rd Hillsboro 4th A St* 5th H'boro 6th Strabane 7th K'begs ..............you get the idea! (* "A St" = "Amiens St Station") So, I am afraid a note is unlikely, but I agree with Lambeg Man that the comments this has thrown up are indeed fascinating - many thanks to all involved. What next for discussion? Next few days is GNR, but there's more to come......!

Nooooo, no photos from this day either! To Strabane by the CDR line..... Larne Harbour to Strabane AND BACK..... I wish I had more information about this outing. The ticket is undated but given what I know of his travels probably mid 1940s. "First Class", my eye! If possible, he'll have been in the cab.....

Nooooo, he didn’t bring his camera that day!!! He wasn’t impressed. What loco hauled him? “Oh, it was just that railcar....”

Hi Tony With "N" scale, a repaint of something British into an Irish livery - if such a thing exists as to be suitable - would become exceptionally fiddly.... I know that you can buy a modest number of Shapeways 3D-printed kits of Irish stuff, like 141 class diesels and some railcars, which is the good news. However, their 00 gauge stuff, as you may have seen from some posts here, appears to be quite coarse, let alone N gauge. You mention what Omagh would be like today - it's reasonable to assume that the CIE goods which ended up (after 1965) going over the NCC, would instead have gone from Portadown probably to Strabane, but probably not stopping at Omagh, until goods ended a few years ago. So, in the 1960s / 70s, you're looking at a diet of AEC / BUT (ex-GN) railcars, gradually replaced by 80s. It is reasonable to assume that 70s would have stepped through there too. It is possible a through Dublin - Derry passenger might have been trialled at some stage - cue an ICR set! So, like anything else on NIR, from 1970 on it would have been "Railcar City"! With IE having followed suit over the last 15 years, we now, of course, have an entire railway system, IE and NIR, 100% railcar operated bar some of the Cork sets and the three "Enterprise" sets - and even they are railcars since the coronavirus started. If you are planning to model Omagh in N gauge, perhaps a few random thoughts might be: 1. 1960s - Is there an LMS / BR 2.6.4T which might be used to represent a "Jeep"? It is a certainty that had the "Derry Road" managed to survive 1965-70, "Jeeps" would have appeared increasingly regularly, to the extent that by the end of steam, they were all there was. Some wooden-panelled LMS, or Stanier "steel" coaches of standard "bought" provenance will bear a good resemblance to some NCC types. Again, of the surviving steam stock 1965-75, over half was of NCC parentage. Quick lick of UTA green, and they'd be what was on steam-hauled passenger trains. It is possible that one of the Craven variations of British railcar (like what Silverfox models "repainted" in pseudo-irish liveries for sale a few years ago), might be OK to repaint in UTA guise. Wagons - well' opens and vans OK - after 1965 it's all CIE stock, and you can get British Railways goods vans which are very close to CIE "H" vans. Paint grey and you're fine. In 1970-5, you could do a few in brown too for variety. I wonder is there a British 0.6.0 which with minimum alteration might be made to look a bit like a UG? 2. 1970s - We're looking at 80 class sets here, without any doubt whatever. BR Mk2 stock is available - but a bit of botching to make a power car really would be essential. Steam is now gone, so a CIE loco is needed for the goods, with everything else railcar. Maybe an NIR "Hunslet". Had the line survived they might have bought more than three. But really, suitable railcars are absolutely essential. You could keep you UG and Jeep on the basis that an imaginary preservation society had made its home in the old goods sheds in Omagh. Goods goes over to liner trains about 1974/5 - someone more knowledgable about modern stuff might point out suitable long-wheelbase 4-wheel container flats, or something British to resemble CIE's 42ft flats. Container gantry at Omagh? 3. 1980s - Same as later part of the seventies, but you can introduce the "Castle" (Cattle!) class railcars. Being based on a standard British design of body, there is a British railcar set (is it a "150"?) which isn't unlike one of these awful things. It is a scary thought to think of travelling from Foyle Road to Central in one of these awful things, but they appeared in Waterside from time to time, so it was possible! We'll need a CIE diesel in orange and black now, as well as one for earlier in black'n'tan. Maybe you can get round that by just having a Hunslet.... 4. 1990s - probably the same. 5. 2000 onwards. I wonder is there a British equivalent of the NIR CAFs? In all reality, if that line was open today, it would be a bit like Antrim station - passing facilities for railcars, and the two main passenger platforms. the goods sheds would have long been sold off or levelled for a car park - or that imaginary preservation society? For maximum artistic licence, I would have some sort of Derry - Dublin ICR passing through, and possibly Donegal - Dublin (or Waterford!) timber trains - could that allow a 201-class loco? In "N" scale, a slight conversion of a British class 66 might suffice for that.... Just a few thoughts.

I defer to your superior knowledge, BTB - I know not the first thing about motor bikes! I wonder did the all-encompassing green paint extend to it!

?? There was only the one, and it actually never ran in traffic - it is now at Downpatrick. A "preserved" vehicle which was a one-off and never actually operated in service at all! It remains today in its original (standard NIR-of-the-time) livery.