jhb171achill

Wow! Very many thanks for that - I’ll email you this evening.

The only difference in the original DART livery was lining and logo. Both shades of green have always been the same. Dublin buses were the same green(s) in the early 1980s.

Yes, you have. Only full brakes, though, or mail vehicles. The 800 class would never have pulled passenger-carrying six-wheelers, as these were gone from main line expresses by 1939.

Will do next week!

Didn’t know that! But it certainly looks the part!

And me!

Hope you're recovered OK!

Brings back memories. My introduction to model railways was the 160 foot circuit in the attic of our stable, on Senior’s 1930s tinplate layout. I was about 11. Big clockwork engines rattling round a barn with un-insulated track on wooden boards, and clattering coaches clicketty-clacking behind them….. to do one full circuit, you’d wind the loco fully, and it would just about coast to a halt at the right spot. Heavy trains, as in real life, had to be double-headed. The best option was an old 0.4.0 tender loco which was an absolute flying machine and could haul pretty much anything you put behind it….

The stuff you meet on the roads these days….. where’s the traffic gardaí, I’m wondering?

Big time, yes! Great to see this and one of the 071s at Ballina, like a throwback to the 1990s.... Now we await an ICR set in 1950s dark green with flying snails! Or one of the new Dart Pluses in GSR Drumm Train livery........???

IMG_1193.mov

IMG_1196.mov IMG_1192.mov

I have to say I never liked that livery - didn't think the yellow suited the orange and black - but there's no denying that looks really well.

A terrible shame, but you’re a million percent right. A relative of mine regularly uses the ferry as a foot passenger (through necessity - long story) and it’s an absolute ordeal.

If they haven’t withdrawn them. It seems there’s nothing for them to do any more.

Good thinking….. it’s something I hadn’t thought of. No idea, but yes, those and the D’s did seem to often carry oil lamps….

Last week’s operations IMG_1195.mov

“Oi! You can’t park that here!” IMG_1196.mov

Had a closer look. Yes, that’s a bit more to the point. The other picture didn’t show as much detail. In the absence of much else, in CIE green they’re a good idea.

I thought they looked smooth-sided, no? Meant to add, the six-wheeler on the right of that picture is ex-MGWR six-wheel 3rd, No. 13M. Its chassis survives at Downpatrick.

Those two were wooden-panelled, too. The one on the left was one of only three surviving coaches at the time from the Waterford, Limerick & Western - l think it was 934 or 935. Only one survives today - the unrestored 6-wheel family saloon No. 900 at Belturbet. On the right is GSWR 1110, also long gone.

Unfortunately very unlike anything that ran here…. The right livery, though, and it’s a convenient thing!

Anyone remember the old LMS boats that were still plying the Irish Sea in the mid 1960s?

Indeed. In days past, that's the way it was. But it's changed times now. Before the Mk 2 yokes were forcibly retired from use on the main line, this issue was being discussed anyway. It does seem likely that the RPSI would be hit with this sooner rather than later. Another nail in the coffin for any chance of northern trips becoming self-supporting, as the cost per coach is apparently high. I recall a figure being quoted - can't remember now what it was, but these vehicles would have to be putting up a high mileage to make it viable. And, seemingly, there isn't the market for that.

Long gone, I understand. Never proceeded with.