jhb171achill

Superb info, Airfixfan. I'm always fascinated by the "back story" to many old photographs, whether railway-related or not. Many thanks.

Sadly, I belong to the era where the only steam engines I ever saw in use in Ireland - anywhere - were so neglected and filthy they could have been painted lime green, tartan and fluorescent pink underneath the grim, oil, coal dust and rust, that nobody would have been any the wiser! Seeing immaculately polished working steam in Austria, South Africa, India and other places in the 1970s was a tonic! I footplated an Austrian loco on the now-closed Grunberg branch, and the driver had WHITE overalls; they stayed white throughout the journey. You could have eaten your dinner off the footplate floor.... Sorry to veer off topic.

Snail is right way, BTB. Registration appears to be HZC 542. Interesting, Minister! Never saw a pic of one of those before. Any ideas what they used it for?

Both are do-able, of course - the MGWR stopped painting engines green in 1918, and used black; though a large number started into the GSR era still green...and at least one of the G2 class managed to be repainted black by CIE in the last few years.... Personally, I prefer grey too, even though it could hardly be described as colourful! Even a CLEAN 071 nowadays, to my mind, looks fine. For years, 186 and 461 were painted black at Whitehead for the sole reason that the volunteers working on them didn't like grey......"the man with the paintbrush in his hand" rule, of course. Been there, dunnit.

Looking through old tickets, why do greenways and bus substitutions come to mind!!!!

Amazing stuff, DSER. The carriage you mention with the half-compartment - if it was only one half-compartment and the rest full height, it was an old MGWR coach which seems to have taken up residence on the line about 1930. I don’t know it’s number. Dundrum - that was for milk traffic. The family who owned what is now Airfield Farm loaded milk churns there; Senior recalled them being unloaded on the platform at Harcourt St. where local dairies collected then by horse and cart. This continued until the end, with apparently one (up) service a day backing a couple of empty vans in, to be picked up later by another train. For modellers, if we ever are lucky enough to get the essential AEC railcars as models, this is but one of numerous examples of them towing either an ancient six-wheeler for extra passenger accommodation, or a couple of goods vans. Regarding the shunting procedure at Heuston that you mention, I don’t know, but if they allocated an “E” to the service you mention, it is probable that a steam pilot preceded that. Unlike Clifden or Killarney trains, The gullet had a nasty gradient. Had a coupling broken during propelling in, an unholy mess would have ensued.... Closed lines - the sun sets on the Loughrea line, two days before closure as I stepped off it for the first, and last, time.

July 1976 - a pair of 121s about to leave Heuston on, as far as I recall, a stopping Cork train. They were quite newly painted.

I posted a few typical GSR and for ones some time ago, but I dunno where I put them..... With a month to go before closure, Gort still had a standard GSR enamel in March 1976. With two days before closure, Loughrea has the then-standard 1965-80 era CIE plastic.

Yesterday, DNGR carriages on the GNR. Today, Greenore, 1939/40. One that could have seen a lot more use for goods in the container age....

Will do when I find it, Steve! The man on the track will have hopped down off the up platform. I remember station staff scuttling back and forth across platforms here and there - Lisburn included! I did it myself.....

Yes, very much so. A GNR coach of 1940s / 50s origin.

Which Marks Model do you mean - I'm unaware of one that resembles this coach?

Wow, cab detail and all, Galteemore - that loco is an absolute beauty - well done indeed! Another little lady that would have been great at Downpatrick!

Gawd bless your eyesight, NIR! Maybe a "flying pitchfork"? Or a Scandinavian beer bottle opener?

Yes, the date seems to be 1944; it is with other photos from that year in sequence. On the same day he took a picture in Lisburn. I wonder if the people on the bridge are Orangemen? Do we know for a fact that orange events were curtailed that year? My understanding is that had not been since a time when the British government actually banned them for a few years in the 1850s or something. This might explain the carriages, and the loco running round. maybe there's a wartime shortage of GNR stock all over the place, and the GNR has borrowed secondary stock from the DNG to deal with a party from Newry to Scarva. The loco is running round, thus will reverse onto the far end of the train to go back. Maybe the people up on the bridge are coming to get back onto it. The man in the flat cap could be a porter?

Now that's a very interesting possibility, Airfixfan. It could very well be - I hadn't even thought of that. Were orange-related matters curtailed in those times? I didn't know that. It could well be something of the sort. Was there a military base anywhere near Newry? Whatever is happening this day, a tank engine is running round the train, by the look of it. The branch was still open, but it would have used the platform on the left. I sent the pic to a gentleman this afternoon who would be the leading expert on the GNR nowadays, I'll be interested to hear his views.

Yes! that's the one.... listen to youtube clips of those beasts revving up.... I think there may be preserved examples in Norway.

That's correct - it's as good as certain that no SLNCR carriage ever left the line - as you say, they had barely enough for themselves. Senior remarked in the past that E W Monaghan and G F Egan were both embarrassed at the state of their few roadworthy carriages towards the end. I am only aware of two that were repainted at all in the 1950s (one of the bogies and six-wheeled third brake No. 4). Midland Man - you're possibly also thinking of the two SLNC locos (Loughs Erne & Melvin) which went to shunt in Belfast. This was after the SLNCR closed - the UTA bought them and numbered them 26 and 27. No. 26 wasn't used much and was withdrawn by about 1965 but 27 "Lough Erne" of course survived and is now at Whitehead.

Yes, it would. So it must be 13th July 1944. Got to be the only time my father went anywhere that sort of stuff! It would actually be interesting to get hold of a GNR traffic circular for that date to see what was happening. I do know that they brought in excursions from many places during the whole 12th / 13th July period. As a child, at that time of year, we were off to Dublin or Mayo for the holliers.....! On one occasion, Senior saw a train composed of both GNR and DNGR stock in Enniskillen, of all places! A journey across the INWR in those old six-wheel thirds would not have been for the faint-hearted! He did not recall what the reason was, but thought that it was something to do with a pilgrimage. So, the obvious "quiz question" is, how far did DNGR or SLNCR stock get away from home? GNR stock were occasional visitors to Sligo, while any time the SLNCR was busy, they used to get in MGWR / GS / CIE six-wheelers; thus, such things were to be seen now and again in Enniskillen. But CIE and the GN were big companies - how far away did SLNC and DNG stock go? The DNG at one time had an advertised through coach to Belfast, which was hitched onto a GN train in Newry, so we'll discount that one. Answers to that question could be of great interest to modellers..... After the GNR was broken up in 1958, one wooden, brown-liveried GNR bogie worked on the West Cork, of all places, for a short time. Imagine a train with a GSWR 2.4.2T, a brand new shiny tin van, this GNR coach, an old Midland six-wheeler and a new laminate on a train! Possible.

Interesting, NIR. The late Tony O'Shaughnessy had an interest that few knew of in Scandanavian railways and he sent me some vid clips some years ago of Norwegian GMs. They sounded EXACTLY like a 141 to me, but didn't look remotely like a typical EMD product. Any idea what they were? I've long since deleted the clips.

Somebody had that photo on ebay a year or two ago, advertised as a CIE 121 class loco. I contacted the seller to advise that it was, in fact, an American loco, as evidenced by the length, the six-wheel bogies, and the central coupler and absence of buffers, but he insisted I was wrong and he was right. In an effort to make the point that its unfair to a potential buyer to put up wrong information, I persisted for a while and sent him pics of a real 121, but he remained unconvinced. There's some eejits so blind they can't see hard fact in front of them! I wonder does anyone know where the above "larger-121-class" actually operated? It would be interesting to know if any still exist, maybe shunting in some industrial complex in the USA? And it's got handrails - the Irish ones were delivered without!

Contact Mayner, of this website; he is J M Design, who do the very kit you're looking at.

Exactly the same issues or related ones in South America. Some of their lines had mostly British locos, some all-American, and some manufacturers from mainland Europe (Germany in particular) had a presence there too. I saw some British and American beauties last year in Brazil....

Now that I'm looking again at this (the original print is small) on a large screen, I notice a few more details. Look at some of the doors of the DNGR carriages - they have been more recently painted, thus the main paintwork is faded. Look at the roof lines of the carriages - all higgledy-piggeldy, yet they are parked on some of the best track in the country. Thus, their suspension is far from good in condition! This must be a spare rake of secondary stock. The signal indicates the road is clear looking south. Thus, the loco is running away from the photographer to the far end; he will hitch up and go. Nobody is about. Are they awaiting the return of their passengers? There's no sign of anyone in the train - you'd expect some of them, anyway, to be leaning out of open windows. The bush in the distance has foliage on it - it's summer, thus again possibly July. I cannot for the life of me imagine what Senior was doing there that day. He never had any business, nor knew anyone, in that area at that time. The orangemen - if that's what it is -would not be running any events that, let us say, might interest him! However, if the grapevine had told him that a rake of old DNGR stock would be allowed out of the Cooley Peninsula that day, THAT would have piqued his interest!

GNR / DNGR time! An excursion in 1944. GNR brake nearest camera on the right, and a rake of Greenore carriages. I think this may be Scarva, looking south but I am not sure. Other opinions, anyone? I suspect that’s the platform on the left for Lenaderg, Lawrencetown and Banbridge, where it connected with the Lisburn - Banbridge - Newcastle line.