jhb171achill

Hard to believe it’s almost 7 years since I posted these extracts. Somewhere amongst the voluminous content I threatened to dig up earlier episodes going back to 1947, so I’ll dig some of this out tonight….

Dirty, Slow & Easy, even, when Snr. commuted to school on it from 1923 onwards!

Those bushes really look the part. Substitute yellow, and you've gorse too. How did you make them?

Maybe some people in more rect times, like people involved in the 1998 peace treaty, or maybe some President who had broad popularity and cross-party support?

This, of course, raises yet again the question of who or what will operate anything on the Foynes line? There is not a single solitary clue of ANY traffic on this, beyond vague fantasy and theoretical ideas. I've said it before and i'll say it again; I strongly suspect this line "reopening" may end up being a great big Green Party white elephant. I very much hope to be proved completely wrong. I'll just put the kettle on.........

It will once the new toiletless white things are in traffic. Talk is of a ten-minute service; though that seems a pipe dream of an NTA with no concept of congestion at Connolly!

What about a Luas-type thing from Derry to Letterkenny?

Me too. Next time any of us vote in any country in any election, it’s worth bearing in mind that there isn’t a single example in history of where tariffs have done anything other than damage economies, including the ones that imposed them.

Until now, I must confess that my overall view of the 29 class has been extremely unpositive. The lowest point was a brutal journey about a year or more ago from Rosslare to Dublin in one - it was internally as bad as any I've seen (and I've been in Myanmar and India). It was full of litter, worn dirty seats, filthy blocked toilet (do IE not employ ANY cleaners at Rosslare????). Add to that the painfully slow journey. It seems that nothing on the DSER gets much above jogging pace. But today's jaunt in a 29, I must confess, left me quite impressed. When those seats (few as they may be) are clean and new, they are actually very comfortable - far more so than their NIR cousins. And it's nice seeing a clean floor, all one colour and with no patches.

Sounds correct, yes! The brown paint was of course reasonably new then.

Pic was mine - I think I took it at Kilkenny about 1974.

As is watching paint dry! Sums it up perfectly!

FULL MARKS to Enda Byrne on these models. Bright sunlight is absolutely unforgiving on any 3D model - ANY model, in fact, but these certainly have nothing to fear from bright light. Prompt service, very reasonable price, and excellent models. VERY highly recommended.

Summer 1965, Dugort Harbour…. and there are gricers about! "Saw these things being built in Inchicore at the IRRS Open Day! First time I've seen 'em in traffic!" "The guy in Castletown station sez they'll be replacing the last of the old wooden vans, y'know, the Great Northern and Great Southern stuff...." "They're tall, aren't they? Good bit higher than normal vans?" "Yeah - full loading gauge..." "Funny havin' the door at the side..."

A very valid point. Noticed all the new building today. It’s a very obvious no-brainer for a few station, as is Dunleer!

Went to Belfast today. Up in a DD, back to Drogheda on an ICR, and onwards locally in a 28 class. A pleasant day, visiting a friend in Belfast, and four observations. 1. Great to be able to get a meal at a table and in first class; there really ought to be equivalents on IR. 2. DDs are vastly superior to Mk 4s in comfort. 3. If I could turn back the clock in a Time Machine, my second choice would be to take a train from Broadstone to Achill. My FIRST would be to seek out the future parents of “skem”, whose unsightly graffiti stretches from Connolly to Belfast, and have them both neutered. 4. I did my last leg in a 29 class. It was spotlessly clean inside, had clean windows inside and out, no graffiti, no Lino patches on the floor, clean upholstery, and the seats seemed comfortable. First time for everything! So, question, have some of these been internally refurbished in recent times?

Correct - Fry didn’t model a “big boy”. Changeover from EdN to white “snails” and numerals was mid to late 1950s, often coinciding with the change from dark to lighter mid-grey. And yes, as far as possible Fry’s liveries were 100% accurate in all respects. Out of whim, though, he painted two GSR locos in 800 class green - even though these were grey all their lives! Even with Fry, “Rule 1” applied!

It’s certainly those dimensions! But like EVERY goods vehicle in Cultra, and almost every preserved one anywhere in this island, the livery is catastrophically (and inexcusably, for a museum) wrong! This thing is the wrong grey, wrong style of lettering, even wrong colour lettering; as is the guards van beside it. But at least the dimensions haven’t altered!

Unfortunately, during a huge clear-out of Inchicore Works in the early 1960s, thousands of diagrams of coaches, wagons and steam locomotives, many going back to earliest times, were all destroyed. We are actually lucky to have what we have!

Yes, exactly. A VERY occasional snail logo too; I saw just ONE in the 1970-6 period (at Ballina). In 1970/1, a very occasional brown one but obviously these increased in proportion. By 1976, two thirds were brown, but at the very end of loose-coupled goods, a good 20% were still grey.

I haven't got exact dates, but parcels activities were still carrying newspapers at the very least into the 1990s, as I saw these in a Mk 2 (or 3) guard's compartment on the Waterford line during the RPSI's May Tour one time about 1994/5, I think. As for NIR, I think the early 1980s.

Sadly, I think Tara is history….

Superb weaterhing. You've absolutely nailed how they looked in their later days!

The GNR did too, but I don’t have the details.