jhb171achill

July 1947, and CIE, still a private company, is but two and a half years old. In these times most main lines had only two or three through trains per day. The writer of the following article would barely understand what Westland Row or Amiens St are like now, with DARTs included less than forty years after the article was written. An interesting insight, again, into the past. Note the train: the coach on the left is a GSWR open third of 1899-1910 era, possibly Downpatrick’s 836 or sister 837. It is still in GSR maroon. Behind it is a main line DSER coach in CIE green. The picture appears to be at Westland Row.

SUPERB stuff, Irishrailwayman. The clerestorey roofed-CIE (green) coaches - what are they?

Correct, and I recall seeing a pile of oul non-corridor coaches there some years earlier, and a whole lot of redundant MEDs some years afterwards! Seems Antrim goods yard was a rolling stock dump for a long time.....

I have been in touch today with an old friend, who would know chapter and verse on these beasts. This from him: "......................the photo of 111 is in Antrim GN yard. That is the exact spot where that car was cut up by Hamills. The building behind is the bus garage and the area is now part of the bus depot......."

Nobody worried about things like that in those days! Even in my time exploring in the 1970s, you could go in and out of most places except Inchicore Works, although if you knew someone in there, it was do-able under certain circumstamces. I was there in 1972 or 3, because my father called in to see someone, so I was just let loose to wander. Didn't have a camera that day, though! I remember seeing two "G" class sitting on a siding and any amount of black'n'tan stuff.....and K801.

I've the captions in the wrong order - I'll correct them now! There! Regarding the footbridge, I think it's a good bit forward of that - and he didn't have a telephoto (few if any did then, of course...).

Another visit to Donegal. These are from 1947, probably, though the loco one could possibly be late ‘30s. 1. Strabane. 3’ left, 5’3” right. 2. Senior is back up on a carriage roof - some like climbing telegraph or signal posts - Stranorlar. I’m not sure what’s going on here.... 3. Symphony in red: “Lydia” awaits her next duty. 4. This one is about 1939 - a big view at Strsnorlar, with a very heavy westbound train.

I have to say, the modern NIR railcars are very comfortable indeed, and certainly rival in terms of comfort the AEC cars, which I would say are the most comfortable railcars ever to run in Ireland. And the NIR ones are WAAY quieter - AECs were noisy when accelerating....

35077 is the only thing I can make out - wagon number....

I posted some random pages out of the 1935 GSR "Appendix" earlier....within these hallowed pages it is "Rocksavage" - yes, the railwaymen DID call it that. I do too, when I must; it just sounds odd!

Found this from 1985...... Can’t remember where it was! Few markings.... even in CIE days, with endless door-swopping, some ended up with no logo. After 1987, when IE took over, normal goods stock including these lost their “broken wheel” logos by degrees. IE never applied either the “set of points” nor the “three pin plug” logos to any normal goods stock, so these yokes ended their days with no logos.

It's a generational thing, MM. Many will see anything in the steam era as uninteresting, others are interested in operational realism, but not scenery. Others again see the scenery as being - if anything - more important than what runs through it. Some seek absolute rivet-counting strct historical accuracy, others want as many trains running at any one time as possible. It's a bit like N gauge versus 00 or 0 - while space constraints are usually the key to deciding this, some have preferences for any of the three. There will come a day when 201s and ICRs are keenly sought after as models, even long after they are withdrawn. I remember seeing an article somewhere, years ago, about how there's some sort of psychological connection with many people to an era that their parents would have known better than they did - hence my father's interest in things 1900-1925 (he was born in 1918) and mine in things fifties; but my very earliest railway recollections are about 1960. The point is, nobody is right or wrong here. It's just opinion. Personally, as you'll have gathered, history is my thing, but I have every respect for other who prefer the modern scene - and as you've seen here, there are many very outstanding layouts to be seen from the 1980-to-date period.

Not every grey tender ended up with a “snail”, MM - some didn’t have anything, including the last two engines ever painted grey as late as 1962. Most did, though.

For those like me who have descended into the parallel reality of incurable nerdism, documents such as these provide a fascinating insight into how the railway actually functioned in the past. What follows is just a tiny sample of the sort of information contained therein.

Sometimes a withdrawal date and an actual scrapping date can be years apart - witness B114 and the line of B101s at Inchicore during the 1970s and 80s, and G601, which spent double the amount of time it was in traffic, withdrawn but sitting upended at the end of the scrap line in Inchicore! The SLNCR by 1957 had all sorts of tumbledown antiques stuffed in sidings at Manorhamilton.....

I had always thought for me personally, nothing after 1965 or so. But in all reality, some of the stuff on the market now is causing a major rethink. The ferts especially, but other stuff too.

And the LBSC was, of course, just narrow gauge......................................

Those look great! 1970s heaven...

They had inherited a large fleet in 1925, which was more than adequate for most of the largely rural traffic. With the growth of road traffic and the depression-era of the 1930s (which we are likely to be seeing again, nowadays!), money for large scale replacement wasn't there - it had to be "make do and mend"!

Here's a loco kit which, while not of Hunslet parentage, could be adapted to make a good representation of 299. http://www.modelrailways.tv/

MORE LOCOMOTIVES FROM WEST CORK These were also taken in the late 1930s, again at “Rocksavage”. 495 had started life as a private-owner industrial, too, at Allman’s Distillery in Bandon. Despite coming into GSR stock, she remained in her maker’s “shop shelf” lined dark green until scrapping, a highly unusual exception to the universal grey. The GSR numberplate is non-standard in pattern. I suspect it was locally cast. I doubt if it ever left Cork - a visit, ever, to Inchicore or Limerick would have seen it sheep-dipped in grey paint, for sure. GSWR No. 37 was a regular in West Cork for a number of years, as were several others of the class. They acquitted themselves very well on the main line to Skibbereen, as well as elsewhere. A steam-era layout in West Cork would need one of these and a Bandon tank in the same way that a 1970s layout would need at least one 141 and “A”.

I'm unaware of that, Garfield, but pictures of all three when working can be seen in "Rails Through North Kerry", page3 112-4. On P112, one is in steam. I am unsure of whether the other two were still in working order at that time. On a related note, several Belfast Dock steam cranes survive. There were, I think, three in Kelly's Coal Yard, where the GNR, NCC and BCDR used to get their coal from. At least two survive, and an inspection of them found at least one to be in reasonably mechanical order about twenty years ago. Very much restorable....

OK, I've counted. I think it's "1"..... .......can't wait for the next one!!!! :-) :-) Hmmmm....cabin fever......

Wonder what happened the plates off it? Looking at Senior's picture and the 1957 one.... it seems to have had sheets of corrugated iron as shelter for crews earlier on, but by 1957 it has a single light steel sheet..... The winds in West Kerry out on Fenit Pier on a winter night would be vicious, indeed.

I had always wondered ( It’s a perfect beast for a shunting layout. I’d be extremely tempted myself if there’s a kit of something similar out there. Given it’s “industrial” origin, and the position of the wheels vis a vis the loading gauge dimensions, I often wondered if (like a number of Irish “industrials”), it was an off-the-shelf British engine re-gauged.