jhb171achill

It was at the Tralee end of the station, on the left as you entered. Now, the pier.... I hadn't thought about that - it's possible there was one out there too, though I doubt it.

exactly!!

If ŷou look at the Sheffield or Gloucester railway auctions they will give a more realistic idea. I just hate to think of people who are taken in, and due to lack of familiarity led to believe by this seller that things are worth more than they are.

Sadly, there just seems to be an undercurrent of great, and hopefully unsustainable and unachievable greed about all of this. On behalf of both myself privately, and the RPSI in terms of donated items, I used to deal quite a lot in railway artefacts, and as a result of that I'd be still fairly familiar with what prices are likely to be realised by different types of things in different conditions. For the sake of collectors, I sincerely hope that few of these prices are achieved - much of the stuff on sale might well be bid on by people who don't know the real value, and who might think they're worth what the auctioneer hopes for. If that is the case, if they ever go to re-sell them, they may get an unpleasant surprise....

The three-way point was a great space saver for me too, although they were rare in Ireland. One place that did have them - at least two - was Polloxfen's Mill sidings at Ballisodare, Co. Sligo. This would in itself make an excellent prototype for a shunting layout. There was one at Fenit too, hidden in weeds....

Had that ever been built, it could have ended up being useful post-hard-brexit.... A Sligo - Ballyshannon - Donegal - Letterkenny line resurrected! (Fodder for an unusual layout?)

Me too!!!!! (BTW I'm not wearing a skirt this evening. It was a warm day....)

Strange Piece of Extraneous Railway Running Yoke

That is a seriously impressive collection. I would be particularly interested in the files of material relating to the Dublin & Blessington Tramway Co. I suspect it's more of the late Johnny O’Meara’s stuff. The timetable collections would also be of interest to me, though they’re very overpriced.

It's actually a common repro, and if I may be granted leave to contradict, an extremely poor one! The "weathering" makes them look a bit more genuine, but the font used and the size are utterly unlike that used by the GSWR. This is the case with almost all repros - I have never seen a convincing one of any type of sign. Thats good, though. It would be a very bad thing if ebay eras were able to pass duds off as genuine. I agree with comments above about these things dvaljing the price of genuine artefacts, but the other side of the coin is that they're "fun" ornaments for many - you see them in pubs etc.... Seems to me that the most common reproductions are GSWR gate (square) signs about being fined forty shillings, with various real and fictitious railway company initials at the top, long "LNER" gate signs, and larger GSWR trespass ones. None, thankfully, are likely to be confused with the real thing. Occasionally I see them on eBay offered as genuine. I tend to contact the seller in case they don't know, and give them the benefit of the doubt, but if they don't change their ad to "repro" I have reported several sellers. I would encourage others to do the same.

WOW!! That is seriously good quality stuff.... well done! Great to see authentic goods rolling stock with a steam loco.

More boring railcars...........!! 185, 80 class, ICR, 2700, CAF......wadddever... Like Leslie, I'm a steam person! The thing that strikes me above is the "transdev" word. The idea of Irish railways going down the chronically inefficient and costly privatisation path as in the United Kingdom of Brexit......... doesn't bear thinking about. watch reliability plummet and process soar, as the money is generated from fares to pay fat cat bosses and boards of directors in other countries, with fat salaries. If fares don't cover it, sure the generous taxpayer will assist.

I'm coming late to this thread as I was away all month.... that is a superb job - is it entirely scratchbuilt? What chassis will you use?

I would agree with murrayec. Depends what you want to shunt, I suppose, but with only two sidings, shunting opportunities are limited to virtually nothing......just back and forth. When space is very limited (as with me, too), compromises have to be made!

Good thinking...... yes, I know someone who got an English one recently for “a good price”, though I dunno what he paid. The black is easily weathered to the more authentic grey, though I think at least one was black towards the end. The non-authentic yellow snail can be obscured or replaced easily enough. Was thinking of getting one myself at some stage. Nice locos.

Pre-1955 darker green or post-1955 lighter green?

Toddler plus layout = nightmare! How much are these things nowadays? Good price ye got! (Btw N class was English - K class to us... )

Really? That’s a shame.....

Interesting! Wonder where that stuff is now..... I could never stand yer man on Nationwide with his absolutely ghastly stuck-up BBC-style contrived accent - like Jean Elocution-Lesson-Gone-Wrong Byrne who reads the weather.... aaaarrrrrgggghhh

Red bubbles?

Very interesting thread. I would be inclined to go for one of the above theories other than a loco roundhouse, due to space at least. Since roundhouses were so rare in Ireland, I can’t help thinking that’s its highly unlikely that the existence of one would go unnoticed by some of our most eminent railway historians over the years. If there ever was one, I would think it was in early Dublin & Drogheda days and didn’t last long....

Definitely a railway locomotive boiler.

Count me in!

The green and red coloured upholstery (1st & 2nd class) mentioned in the 1960s had disappeared by, at a wild guess, about 1970/2. The dark charcoal grey with blue fleck became almost universal, though the Loughrea coach had light brown plastic “leather”, and I seem to recall some old laminates with light greyish blue, like Dublin buses. It’s important to note that NONE of the RPSI or DCDR carriages have upholstery which is like the original. A few are roughly similar, but most including those shown above are completely different, with even base colours as different as painting a model ICR in NCC maroon with yellow wheels and a tartan roof!

That's the trouble with ebay, Colin! I had a look among jhb171Senior's stuff, and there's nothing from Stranorlar that's "off the beaten track" as such. For the times he travelled on the CDR, he didn't take many pictures, unfortunately.