jhb171achill

Funny, tonight I was perusing photos of various wagons for a forthcoming book and there were two I looked at (1950s) that while historically I know what colour they were, they are so utterly weatherbeaten, tatty and faded, dirty etc... for anyone who wasn't familiar with Irish railways you could tell them the thing had a pink chassis, lime green body, yellow buffers and a tartan patterned roof - and no-one could be any the wiser! I will be getting out my own stuff in the near future to weather it - I will practice on two tatty old GWR cattle trucks. If I could achieve half of the weathering skills of some of the folks here, I'd be well pleased. Since "Dugort Harbour" will be set in the mid-50s to mid-60s, and will be intended to represent somewhere on the very top of Todd Andrew's list for the chop, the weathering will almost be more important than the livery!

Looks just right - a liberal coating of gunk, dunduckety mud and brake dust! For about five seconds after leaving the paint shop, CIE and GSR wagons all carried the body colour on the chassis and roof too. Never black. Over time, the whole vehicle just got grubby looking all over, with rust showing on metal bits - all exactly as you've done above. In black'n'white photos, rust-covered metalwork has in more recent times misled many who never saw them in use, to see the BnW photo as depicting the ironwork in a much darker colour, assumed to be black; but not so. Roofs got darker due to loco exhausts. What you have looks good - I might try to disguise the roof a bit more as if it was initially painted the same grey, if I was to be absolutely obsessive! But it looks a great job - excellent weathering as always!

It would be great to see these two out again. Obviously the IOMR has to prioritise what brings money in, and that's steam engines and old wooden coaches, but the other side of the coin is their use in certain events, off-peak services, and what surely by now (with most work seemingly done) must be a reasonably low cost of finishing the job.... Put them in heritage CDR livery too!

Scooting along the main line near Hazelhatch..... I don't have dates or details for these, but they are mid 1930s. In the case of the third photo, the location also is unknown. Possibly on the Midland, looking at the vans. The leading coach in th it a train is of interest to me - I can’t quite place it. The second, an interesting clerestory 3rd, is GSWR of 1901/2 origin.

It is at Hilden Halt, just on the Belfast side of Lisburn. The vehicle about to be towed away is a 70 class driving trailer, which had been the rear vehicle of a three-coach all-stations to Belfast train. It had stalled there, first stop out of Lisburn, and a following train (which was an 80-class set) rammed it. Thankfully, it was a lightly-loaded service and nobody was killed (not as far as I recall, anyway), but had that been the 08:23 Lisburn to Belfast, it would have been packed-sardine-like to the doors, standing room only - and the result would have been unholy carnage. Without checking my notes, I think it was 1978. Around then, anyway. Once the police and railway officials had investigated the scene, the Hunslet, which had come in from Belfast, backed up and towed it away - slowly! There was another accident around the same time, about 18 months or so earlier, just a short way to the right in Lisburn station, when "A" class 010 on the up CIE "Enterprise" ran into the back of a stationary, and thankfully empty, 80 class set parked in the up platform in Lisburn station in its way. The driver had no time top react - he had a green signal. Signalling was manual then, and an error had been made in this area. A member of Lisburn station staff had the presence of mind to jump into the 80 when he heard the Dublin train coming and release the handbrake, to lessen the impact. Despite this, the "Enterprise" driver (from Connolly) was tragically killed as the cab of 010 just caved in. I saw that too - it was an extremely gruesome sight which I will never forget.

Old GSR / CIE Road Vehicles. These from a 1947 Cuisle. The older truck looks very like a thing my grandfather drew up for the GSR road services as a rough sketch of the sort of vehicle they could build to deal with cattle traffic following the closure of various branch lines. I reproduced the drawing in “Rails to Achill”. Apart from a larger wheel, the drawing of one of these things seem to bear some resemblance.

I love this. A GNR man through and through who was born and bred deep in NCC land, but was never polluted in thought by York Road! ’Tis your parentage, Galteemore; it’s in the genes.....

This model is photographed in a 1940 mag, MM, so it refers to 1939. So the jury’s out! I would completely agree. Fry’s model, also, is of 800 in CIE livery, whereas the above purports to be 801, and in GSR livery.

You might have hit on something there, Lough Erne, although my understanding is that GSWR No. 36 and “Maedb” were the last models made by Montgomery - he never finished either internally, so his model is probably too late....

I wonder what became of the model of 801. A puzzling thing is that the painting, lining and lettering is not to Fry’s normal standard.

Interesting...... 1976 appears to be what's in my notes.....?

I do have notes, airfixfan, but his notes became disconnected from his pics at one stage. At some time I will try to marry up captions and pics. I daresay he has recorded the place, but I'm unaware thus far. I don't know - but if I find out I will post it here!

Yes, you’re right - it IS indeed Claremorris - I didn’t mean to write Castlebar! Me being stupid. .....caption corrected accordingly, thanks for pointing it out! I had arrived there from Ballina (a 141 + one laminate + one Park Royal + Tin Van) to change into the up Westport..... I seem to recall CIE cement lorries there. I think I may have a pic to back this up, so I will check. I remember the original grey bubbles on the GN main line heading for Grosvenor Road in the 1969-72 period. I wonder how they were unloaded there too? By 1976 when I took that pic, the Burma Road was still fully connected and signalled at Claremorris (and the other end, I believe), but nothing had been along it for the previous nine months since closure. Could well be....

Yes, it is No. 3, and 22. I suspect the railcar is up the DCR section somewhere.

Back to the 1940s in NCC land today. Firstly, a few years before CIE’s 1100 or D class shunters saw the light of day, York Road (and, the BCDR) had a small but interesting collection of early diesel shunters. To a GSR man, this must have looked odd..... As indeed the railcar did. Same car he used to tour much of the NCC on an inspection trip. Not sure of the location but possibly along the Derry Central, or else Larne line. (Copyright H C A Beaumont collection)

Yes, pity about the station roof! The magazine ran a series detailing the daily life of different CIE employees, from a Dublin bus conductor to a man who loaded and unloaded goods wagons in Cork (Glanmire) Good yard. If it is of interest i might start a thread about CIE staff interviews - anyone?

A once common sight all over Ireland, loading mailbags are rural stations. This is Claremorris, 1976. Any thoughts, anyone, on the mailvan?

Very possibly. He inspected both, but I have a notion he did the other in the cab of a light engine or an empty wagon special, cattle or PW working or something.

Work in Progress 1947 Oil buying steam locomotives, and the genesis of the “1100” or “D” class shunters....

Function “7” sends a grey one down the Mallow-Waterford line with a string of oul loose-coupled trucks! (I hope...!)

What happened to THESE models, I wonder? From 1947 Cuisle.... I never heard of these. Anyone? Interesting that both articles use the English version of the locomotive’s name.

It’s a GSWR bogie, originally built for main line use Dublin - Cork. In modelling terms, there quite a few differences in design with the English GWR - most particularly the latter having bowed-in ends, a feature the GSWR never used. Your comment got me curious about it, so I did a bit of delving. The clerestory roof is the key; Ireland had very few of these, though they were common in Britain, especially on the MR and the GWR. This is a third class coach, either one of three open but non-gangwayed examples built in 1901, or one of 12 of the exact same design but with gangways, built 1901/2. Initially, my searches concentrated on composites, because I would have considered it much more likely it contained first and third class accommodation. It probably did normally, but why a coach like this was on it on this day, I don't know. It is not a composite coach. It is not possible to make out (certainly with my eyesight) whether it is one of the ones with corridor connection (not that they'd be any use on a one-coach train!) or not. The van with it is very hard to make out, but looks like a particular CBSCR brake six-wheeler that I’ve seen pics of. Senior did indeed do modelling - he had a massive coarse scale 0 gauge layout. Like most modellers, he never got it finished - and he lasted until almost 98!

I’m having fun going through them..... many I haven’t even looked at in 10 or 15 years..... I will have to get the colour stuff scanned. There’s not much of it, and little is “groundbreaking”, but if anyone knows someone who knows someone.... Same with the black’n’whites. Judging by (MANY more) family photographs, as well as these, he only got the colour camera about 1961 or so. Given the memories he had of what you’ve been seeing, it’s easy to appreciate that an A class, silver or not, on an Enterprise of mixed GNR and CIE laminate stock - interesting as it is to us - just didn’t even begin to float his boat! And with four young children, a wife and a resident mother-in-law to provide for, he hadn’t time to go gricing! I do remember going to Dungannon with him one day - no photos. And standing on the footbridge at Stranorlar just after they’d lifted the track on another. No photos. That day, we also visited Strabane (up on the footbridge again) and Foyle Road station in Derry, where he showed me the crack in the platform from when the runaway train in the 1950s had walloped the buffers - and continued! Noooo photos.....!

Found this, summer 1938. Relating to senior’s trip on the West Clare when he took the pic of the loco above, this was his guide for the day: I suspect he went down on the 7.15 goods and came back on the 11.40 passenger from Kilrush.

Draperstown, I believe, but possibly Dungiven; can anyone advise? Again, I haven’t the notes. Some day I’ll dig them out. I might do a talk to the record society on this stuff if I EVER get time to properly put it together. So, today a few station views emerge from the mysterious depths: 1. This is on the Derry Central, but I’m not sure where. 1944, I believe. One of the NCC railcars is parked next to the line of wagons. Senior is out on a line inspection, and this is his chariot for the day. 2. Dungiven, I think, but see above. Same inspection trip; railcar at buffer stop. I think this was the car which was also used some years later for an IRRS trip, but I doubt if it got to here, though I am not sure; any clarification on this point welcome. 3. Banbridge, 1956. Line about to close from Lisburn, the service now ending here after a short time ago they truncated the service on to Newcastle. Newcastle and the main station are straight ahead. Lawrencetown and Scarva are behind. The line to Dromore, Knockmore Junction, Lisburn and Belfast, curves sharply away to the left. All around are track materials recovered from the Scarva branch. 4. Bantry, Co. Cork. The passenger set sits at the platform, and consists of a van along with a beauty of an old GSWR clerestory-roofed vehicle, evidently still in the early very dark brownish nation of the GSR. This picture dates from about 1937-9.