jhb171achill

Not at all discourteous, David! Yes, my grandfather designed these things to carry cattle after the Killala, Achill and Clifden lines closed. I put a drawing of it in the Achill book and the same one is going in the Clifden book, as it's relevant there too. I had never seen a photo of one before. It is, as far as I know, the only road vehicle he did any design work for - such matters were around that time all transferred to the "road people" in Broadstone. All I know is that they initially built four, with presumably more to follow later. I think, but am not sure, that it had a Leyland engine.

Putting decals on first, then very heavy weathering, is probably the easiest option for now....

Very much so. On the Achill branch at first, normal trains were "E" class tanks, but Newport and Mulrany fairs and seasonal harvester's emigration trains brought in the 2.4.0 tender engines.

I fished out the magazine, Old Blarney. The journey was from Dublin Airport to the RDS, so it might be at the start, rather than the end of the journey. The "headline" issue was the idea of taking livestock by PLANE! I suspect it may have been conducted as an experiment of some sort.

It does look grey indeed - but it could be a combination of coal dust, wear and tear, and length of time since it last saw a paint brush - the lettering suggests that wasn't yesterday! The GSWR had black wagons entirely, as far as can be ascertained, until the late 1890s or early 1900s, and by degrees they were painted what might have been the same very dark grey as locomotives, though by 1925 the more "normal wagon grey" seems to prevail. From what I have seen the Midland was something similar. If you look at Ernie's book on page 98, the picture of the "soft-top" No. 937 shows what is closer to the truth for pretty much all railway wagons. These things were pushed and battered about - they were basically boxes on wheels, never taken care of like locomotives and carriages. Look at this wagon and you'll see that the freshest paintwork, such as it is, just under roof level, seems way darker. On the framing, it is battered and faded to show bare wood in many places, and clearly very faded. When you get down to chassis level, it's just a jumble of dirt and brake dust. In all reality, to make a goods train look realistic, very heavy weathering to the point of almost obliterating the actual painted livery is the most realistic finish. This, of course, means that crisp white numbers, logos and lettering looks garish; I wonder if the likes of Railtec would do sheets of "barely visible" letters and numbers....

Could have done, Flange; it’s going into a book, so I do want to find out exactly what it’s doing, for the caption!

Yes, I believe so.

Hi Mark To answer the above, my thoughts for what they're worth... 1. Blue livery - very few. The origin of the blue livery was the idea of having a special livery for the "Tourist Express". It was never meant to an actual change of livery as such, for the whole railway. But when you dedicate a livery to one service, you need a few spares, so perhaps 15 or 20 carriages received it - though there appears to be no record. The vast majority of coaches remained brown, and the majority of locos remained green, though, and it would go without saying that this included the tank engines. I suspect that no locos were blue other than a few "A" class for the main line. There is a lovely painting showing a 2.4.0 at Ballynahinch in blue - it will actually be the cover pic on my forthcoming book on the Clifden line - but I strongly suspect that even that is artistic licence. 2. If you want to go for a branch which would have been primarily operated by the 0.6.0 "E"s, you're looking at Achill 1895-1905, and Athboy and Kingscourt mostly; probably Crossdoney - Killeshandra also. Other lines, such as Ballinrobe, Killala and Loughrea, and the Cavan branch, tended to live on a diet of tender engines due to occasionally heavier goods traffic. You have good "excuse" to have an imaginary branch run with "E"s only. 3. If you manage to get anyone to do a few credible six-wheeled carriages (a minimum would be a first or compo, a third and a brake or 3rd brake) I would definitely be in for a few. 4. If having a blue engine is a deal-breaker (and why not!), you might model a junction station with a tank engine on the branch and a blue 4.4.0 passing through on the main line. That's my tuppence-worth...

The platforms signs are GSWR - many such survived until quite recent times in obscure places. I think there's still one at Clonmel inside the building.

Hi BTB - the first is one of Cyril Fry's of A19 and a van in the old Limerick / Waterford bay at Limerick Junction. It will appear in a forthcoming book (if we ever get out of the virus "internment"!). The older lower height of GSWR platforms is evident (Mallow was still like this well into the 1980s). The second pic is from a 1947 CIE magazine showing a GSR truck recently repainted into CIE green. It is taken at the RDS where it is delivering cattle for the Spring Show.

Years ago, I saw a picture of a model someone had made (or repainted!) of a (British) LNER J72 which he had tweaked a bit - I can't remember how, but it involved filing a few bits and gluing on some small bits - not a huge conversion job. Now, it was most certainly not an exact model of a Midland "E" class, but painted grey and with a big number "555" on the side, it looked convincing enough to pass at least the "three foot" rule... The British equivalent of the K class (the Southern Railway's N class) 2.6.0s can be adapted as Irish, if you can't get an actual Bachmann K class. Mind you, all of these entered traffic just after the MGWR had become but one part of the GSR, so reference to them as "Midland" engines is stretching things a bit, as in addition to this many spent most of their working lives nowhere near the Midland - used on Waterford - Limerick, Waterford - Cork and Dublin - Cork. Naturally they were also regulars on the Galway and Sligo lines too. So a GSR-era layout will have those. While I have not researched it, there may be some Bachmann or Hornby 4.4.0 which might warrant conversion to half-reasonable approximation to an "A" class 4.4.0, and a J18 goods / mixed traffic 0.6.0 could be made up by altering some "bought" 0.6.0. JM Design (John Mayne, here) is offering an extremely nice brass kit of the G2 2.4.0. A model of a D16 4.4.0 would have me running to sell the car! There's a model available of several South Eastern & Chatham bogies which if you shorten them a bit bear a vague resemblance to some MGWR bogies of 1900-05 type of design. The six-wheel carriages, though, are the killer. A MGWR layout based on anything pre-1960 will need them in some shape or form. I asked questions here the other night about the Shapeways 3D prints, and replies from those who know about such thing were far from complimentary about them. Plasticard, in reality, seems the best option here. Drawings are readily available.

A road bridge over a cutting was my (unoriginal) way of dealing it with it in the past, and also in the forthcoming "Dugort Harbour" a similar theme, a tunnel mouth in a cutting.... I had been thinking about a small diorama-type thing in the future, too, based on a small wayside station alongside a road, a la Courtmacsherry, Castlegregory or Arigna branch. At one end the road would rise up and turn over the railway on a bridge, but I thought at the other end if the line disappeared among trees - any thoughts on that, anyone? At each end, of course, a small fiddle yard. I'll be discussing this with Baseboard Dave at some stage soon.....

Worth every cent. I've two ordered.....

That engine is an absolute beauty - as are the carriages....

Ex-GNR (and NCC) Locos awaiting scrapping at Maysfields, Belfast c.1961.

In 1939 or 40, Senior spotted this.... I wonder where! Over the next few visits to the catacombs, we’re in GNR territory.

You’d have arrived at Athlone, then through Moate to Mullingar, through Amiens St (Connolly) and ended up at Westland Row (Pearse). ”Flying snails” were still reasonably plentiful on wagons by then, and probably notices or signs, though no longer locomotives or carriages.

Possibly unshifted stock - or do they print them to order?

Many rural lines were built with higher hopes than realised - even today we hear of schemes like the Larne - Scotland tunnel or bridge; back in the 1880s - 1910s period, before the war. numerous schemes were put forward which even then could be seen as fantasy economics. This is good for the modeller, as it gives good excuses for very small termini with (as seen above) two to three trains a day and minimal rolling stock. Some of the branchlines I have posted timetables for above could be operated with one 0.6.0, two six-wheel coaches and a dozen wagons, running between the terminus and a fiddle yard. Someone mentioned using the 3mm scale somewhere above. In doing this, virtually all stock would have to be scratchbuilt. One can obtain kits of open wagons, and a LNER J72 class tank engine which might just about pass the 3-foot rule as a Midland J16. There are not, to my knowledge, and goods vans, guard's vans, cattle trucks (ESSENTIAL for ANY Midland layout!) or coaches which would come close to being suitable. Motor bogies can be obtained, but going down one more scale to N gauge would be easier if space for 4mm is unavailable. Worsley Works do "scratch-aid" kits of several modern CIE carriages in 3mm, and a G class diesel. So if you went for the 1960s you could, like the Loughrea branch, have a "G" and a one-coach train, hauling wagons back and forth..... but even these kits need a lot of work.

Here ye go! Both of Clara’s branch lines.

Indeed - nor did I, though I couldn't help wondering. Senior used to mention an oul boy in Enniskillen who took small parcels from the station round the town - I suspect he was probably one of the porter staff.

I'd be interested to see a pic of "Naomh Eanna" with a snail - when I saw it years ago it didn't have one then, nor in any pic I saw - unless it had one when new? I had forgotten to mention the cruisers at all above.... Makes me wonder now - I wonder did CIE have any delivery bicycles in small towns, like the GNR did?

OK, to show service levels on Midland branch lines, these are from the GSR 1926 Working Timetable. I’ve a couple of actual MGWR ones but they are not handy to access, and tell 99% the same story anyway. These are typical not just of the Midland, but the great majority of the GSWR, DSER, CBSCR, GNR and NCC also, and the narrow gauge lines. Trains marked “Mail” were mixed. They were only designated as such on branch lines because they connected with main line up and down, day and night mail trains at junctions.

Yes, a common feature. For loading hoses into horse boxes.

Do we mean Killala here, north of Ballina, or possibly Ballina itself? Ballina certainly had a turntable. As for Killala, I would have thought it did too, as it was operated by 0.6.0s. This was a system in use at a number of locations. Few, though they did exist. Useful for modellers!