jhb171achill

Hello Victor, and welcome to here - you will find much help with every aspect of Irish railway matters here. Regarding the above, for the period you have chosen, yes, station colour scheme was as you say. Goods stock lettering was a pale cream colour too. In the period you have chosen, goods stock was a very dark grey, bordering on "weathered-black" looking when old and tatty, but cleaner when newer. After probably about 1910-1915 it was a more "wagon grey" colour; LMS wagon grey is a good standard for this, and indeed for most Irish railway companies prior to 1960, when a somewhat lighter shade appeared. Locomotives will be a green colour, perhaps marginally darker than Isle of Man loco green, with carriages painted a mid-to-dark brown, perhaps a slight shade darker than 1950s British fitted wagons. Lining was gold on carriages, black and white on locomotives.

WOW!!! Words fail me! Absolute (and typical) EXCELLENCE personified! Spare J26, MM - you'd need to buy a kit, I would think....

I think the Sligo Leitrim had at least one "road van" type also. Must investigate - I have a pic somewhere. The NCC narrow gauge used them, especially on the erstwhile Ballymena and Larne.

Thank you - if your photos of your layout are anything to go by, I think I will get this stuff - it looks very natural and realistic. That transformer thing - do you attach a plug to it and just plug it in? Is that the way it works?

An absolute beauty, Galteemore!

Oh, that is truly ghastly - a very tragic loss indeed to us, to the IRRS and to his family. Anthony, you were an absolute gentleman, and always super-helpful with any IRRS queries I had. Rest in Peace.

That one's a standard CIE 20T guard's van, as used everywhere. No doubt the locals will tell us that "it was built specially for Kinsale" or something! There used to also be a heavily-altered old six-wheel coach there too, and a corrugated open wagon - are they still there too? Exactly! Boxing in one end almost seems more bizarre than boxing in both! Mind you, it brings one issue into focus: even as Inchicore was churning out standard 20T and 30T vans in abundance, the occasional oddball or one-off was still kicking about, like the sole-remaining Timoleague & Courtmacsherry item of rolling stock, guard's van 5J, which wasn't withdrawn, I believe, until 1960. At first, I thought the above beast might be something similar, but as other say, it's probably an ex-GSWR one.

This strip lighting - excuse my ignorance, how does it work? Is it some sort of plug-in thing? Is it good for lighting up a layout where the natural light isn’t great?

No, unfortunately not! Though he will certainly have been familiar with it, as it was sitting about within Inchicore when he worked there.

There were a number of these, several adapted for 3ft gauge. The Achill one was a different design and a “unique”-looking one-off! It survived out of use well into the 1930s, gradually falling to bits....

Yes, there's a chimney, thus a stove. I'd say it must be in use as a brake van still, otherwise I would have thought they block both ends and out double doors in the middle - or use the chassis for a rebuild maybe.

GSR Inspection Car No. 4, c.1940. And a free pass, “access all areas”!

Yes, indeed - I always thought that at the very least, Cork - Bandon should have been retained as a commuter line....or Cork - Clonakilty.... And then there's the light grey roofs......

Folks, I was perusing two photos of the fascinating but little-known Polloxfens Mill siding at Ballysodare. The track layout there was extremely compact, and as can be seen from the attached rough doodle, achieved but means of one of Ireland’s few three-way sets of points. With seven adjacent, but short tracks, as a shunting layout exercise you could play about with about a dozen “H” vans at a time, with an oul J18, a “C” class or a 141, depending on what era you were interested in. This sort of thing would fit nicely into any tight layout corner.

Main line services, West Cork, summer 1935.

This is the timetable mentioned above Regarding West Cork. This is September 1960 onwards, the last timetable issued for the section before closure six months later. It was much the same as for many previous years. The two return passenger trains to Bantry were AEC sets, normally three-car. By this stage, the branches and goods trains were all “C” class diesels.

Hopefully there will be some day a model of one.... they are a completely essential item on any GNR, GN-area of UTA / NIR or CIE layout of the 1950-70 period.

I like the cloud of coal smoke hanging over the loco shed area in the distance! There could have been a dozen locos in steam in there at any time.....

The AEC 2600 cars were very comfortable seating wise and very solid and steady. Like all older railcars they were noisier, though, especially in later years. They did all the routes you mentioned above, plus others. The GNR used them in Belfast - Clones and Belfast - Portadown - Derry as well as Dublin - Belfast. CIE used them to Kerry, both the Mallow route and the North Kerry Line, also Waterford - Limerick and Limerick - Sligo. They appeared on Dublin - Wexford too and, of course, Cork to Bantry. (They only did that one route in West Cork). Indeed, immediately before the “A” and “B101” classes were introduced in 1955/6, they were the principal main-line power.

In the mid 1930s there was MUCH less traffic on the roads compared to today. Or - is the coronavirus in full swing?!! This is Glanmire Road, exact date unknown but likely to be 1936-8. The station, of course, is on the right. The two carriages were across the river at Albert Quay station. Such were the necessities of “austerity” in those days, that rolling stock could often be just “touched up” instead of completely repainted. These two will be in the maroon GSR livery, though mostly faded and dulled - no lining, as befits much of the secondary stock.

Indeed, right enough..... I wonder why? New one to me!

There was some sort of half-hearted local idea some years ago (maybe in the 1990s) when ACE funding was obtained to build a replica of the luggage truck for display at Fintona. The lower deck of an old Belfast tramcar was also found in a field somewhere and brought to Fintona to be rebuilt as a sort of "Fintona Tram". It would actually have been a very nice attraction, if a "Dick" could be found! The tram was vandalised, but has later been restored and is now on display at the former Clogher Valley Railway's Maguiresbridge station not far away. Had anything some of it, the station site is now a Tesco car park, but a bit like the reincarnation of the station at Downpatrick, a replica building of sorts could have been provided at the "throat" end of what had been Fintona station, and the track relaid on the original route of the 1.5km line to the junction. It would seem that the junction platform remains, buried under sixty years growth of bushes and trees, and a run to there and back wouldn't take people anywhere - just a "spin". I was tempted to think that it would have made (and possibly still could make) a nice little low-cost (and very unique) "preserved railway". If anyone knows who owns the land, I'll assist them with the grant application!

Yes, nothing more than that - local traditions!

As Wrenneire has said, "if it looks to good to be true, it probably is". In my previous life as a collector of Austrian 009, I got stung a couple of times, in one case buying a locomotive whose motor was banjaxed, and beyond repair...... Less than €50 for an 071 or 201 looks - - - strange.

Can anyone throw any light on what this is? The picture is taken at Newcastle West, apparently c.1953 and is on page 46 of “Chasing the Flying Snail” by Anthony Burges. Appears to have van doors (?) at the far end?