jhb171achill

The few left, yes, plus the BUTs! Forgot to mention them - and then a bit later some of the MED centre cars became parcels vans for a short time.

Finally, (7) - No 99, above, mid 1980s. I recall standing with another RPSI person in Belfast non-Central around then, and I was introducing him to Sir Myles. Our RPSI colleague had a great wit, which he still retains; let us call him Tarquin*. The conversation went like this: Me: ”Myles, this is one of our regular travellers and a long-standing member, Tarquin”. MH: “Hello, Tarquin, good to meet you” (They shake hands, ignoring social distancing). Tarquin: “nice to meet you too! I think I’ve seen your name on a railcar somewhere!” Sir Myles nearly burst laughing......! (* Not his real name. Do not try this at home. May contain traces of nuts. This call is being recorded for etc etc)

NIR - Some railcars: The one showing the “Enterprise” is 1985. Not often is the driving trailer end seen.... 1. A 70 newly painted at York Road, c.1979. 2. 80 No. 87 in ORIGINAL style of end white marking. They had no end logo. This is about 1974, the first year that the first batch entered traffic, and remaining AEC cars were set aside to be de-engined for a very short career as loco-hauled stock. 3. After their first repainting, they got the “diamond” white patch, with NIR symbol included. This is 86 on an unknown date. 4. 69 newly painted with “citytrack” stickers, c.1979. These were put on MEDs too. I don’t recall seeing them on 70s, but I might be wrong on that. 5. I think this is 68 - the mid 1980s livery. The sets hired by CIE were in this livery. 6. We don't often see the business end of an “Enterprise” push pull driving trailer. Not the most beautiful things on the planet. 1985.

Wowwww!!!!!! I think I had sold it to a guy in England at the time but I really can’t remember who, as I sold a large amount of “railwayana” at the same time.... He must have sold it on....

Yes, the T & D is a curious one. Roadside halts, yes, but not so much stations! And the North Kerry, as you say. Collooney (South) had the navy blue enamel English-only WLWR one to the end, and it lay there long past closure. The whole Collooney - Limerick line had very few. Attymon & Woodlawn still had small MGWR enamels on platform seats until c.1980 at least.

Bagenalstown, yes, and I paid CIE £3 for it in 1977, when I found it lying in the muck inside the former loco shed. CIE put it on a goods train to Dublin, and it went by NIR parcels to Lisburn, where I collected it. Regrettably, I had to sell it in the 1990s. I’d love to know where it is now! Incidentally, the Belmullet area today would be bilingual rather than a true Gaeltacht area. The South Wexford didn’t have GSR enamels, I think. That had to await CIE days. Maybe some of the stations did....? The Achill & Clifden lines never had GSR enamels anywhere.

It matches it, to be fair, and in fact I think it’s the only thing that did - but they never seemed to keep them clean, either....

BEET, 2005. The second last season, and the last I personally saw of them. A recent post elsewhere referred to the fact that the cabs of the 121s were considerably higher than the 141s. Here we can see this. Plus, a 201 at Cherryville with Mk 2s in that ghastly orange, yellow and black livery......

Could be. I wonder did the railwaymen ever call it the “quarry”...... it actually wasn’t a proper loco depot or shed at all - more just a set of loco sidings.

No. They were entirely a GSR thing, and carried on by CIE and IE. All railway companies, without any exception, that were pre-1925, and all after that date that were not to become part of the GSR were always English language only. Even in Irish speaking areas, like Cahirviceen, Valentia Harbour, all stations west of Rosscahill (“Ross” on the Clifden line), and probably Baltimore, they were English-only, because Irish was seen as “backward” and English “civilised” by the then-management of the railway companies in their lofty offices in Dublin! The GSR never even got around to changing them all. It is worth documenting lines which remained English past GSR times, and even past CIE times, to closure. Please feel free to add to this, but from the top of my head.... The T & D Most of the C & L, if not all Mallow - Waterford Fenit branch Waterford & Tramore Most of Youghal Line, if not all Cobh branch mostly What about Wisht Caaark? Certainly a lot of their stations never got GSR enamels. Incidentally, the Belmullet area today would be bilingual rather than a true Gaeltacht area.

Question: who invented the name “Rocksavage”? I don't think it ever was the actual name of the locality,

From the CIE magazine “Cuisle”, August 1949.... And a fascinating aerial view of Kingsbridge! From the same magazine......

ALBERT QUAY 1953 Some impressive trackwork there.....

No, GNR Brake Tricomposite No. 19. Built 1910, withdrawn by UTA 1959. Pictured in a field near Banbridge in 1985,. It was broken up within the following year.

I think it IS on the DC, but I cannot be sure until I match up Senior's notes with his pics.

Yes, only at the very end.

Thank you, Lambegman - it keeps me amused too! I have most of Senior's negatives. I have many much older ones, taken on a family farm in the 1900-20 period - but they're of people, picnics, the pet dogs and donkey, and cows! About ten or twelve years ago I left all of his railway negatives into a developer. Some prints came back ok, a few good, but let us say he didn't get the amount of money he wanted a single they were a mediocre-to-bad job. Then again, some of the negs were t the best (though most were), and some pics were not, to be fair, composed very well. But an average photo of something historic is better than none. So that's what I'm sharing. The reference to that coach being a slip coach came from senior. But I did read it somewhere too, I am nearly sure. I think it was an old GNR list somewhere. I will try to find it at some stage. It has a gangway at the "passenger" end, and clearly had never had one at the guards van end. The van interior was perfectly preserved, with "TO CARRY 7 TONS" stencilled on the bulkhead. If you walked in from the gangway end, first you're in a vestibule. Jax on left, but curiously nothing on right, and no door. Now, go ahead. You're into the 1st, which is open (centre corridor), with two seating bays each side. At the end - and you can go no further; this gangway only allowed access to a third of the coach, is a full-width bench. The rest of the vehicle was non-corridor. There was a 2nd compartment next, then another, then a 3rd. I can't remember whether the middle of these three was 2nd or 3rd. Thus, it was either 1-1 2 2 3, or 1-1 2 3 3. And at the end, a 7ft guards compartment. You can see the gangway in the pic on the right hand side. Given the interior design, it clearly always had one at that end, and none at the other.

Yes, the rails have gone. There was a very early piece of Ulster Railway bridge rail that was also given to them. It was, from memory, about three feet long. I wonder where that went!

Today’s contribution is a few old relics. (The pictures, not me...) 1. The original Belfast Central Railway Station, near Oxford St. in Belfast, c.1947. 2. Original Dublin & Kingstown Railway track, which my father found secreted away at Inchicore; my grandfather had remembered it bring out there. Senior arranged for it to go to the then Belfast Transport Museum. Sadly, after being set down beside the GNR railbus which was then quietly decomposing outside, it disappeared, never to be seen again (so far, anyway). 3. Unique tricompo brake No. 19, built by the GNR in Dundalk (about 1910, I think), as a slip coach. It was slipped as it came into Dublin so that it would trundle down to the LNWR station for ferries. a remarkable survivor. Withdrawn in 1959 by the UTA, it was still in GNR livery when I found it in a field near Banbridge in 1985. It had “U T” still stencilled on its end. It had a corridor connection at one end only and was still good structurally. I alerted the fledging Downpatrick railway straight away, but they found it had a 1ft deep concrete floor, while used as a chicken house, thus preventing lifting, and therefore preservation. It was subsequently broken for firewood by the farmer.

I wouldn’t be too happy about the residents, though.....

Well, we might build a layout based on the remote town in Co. Sligo called Slievesneasin (In ancient Munsterulsterese, that means Sleeve Sneeze In). The railway approached the station on a sharp curve and steep gradient, so in 1912 they decided to flatten that curve. And they all lived happily ever after. I'm just ringing Stepaside Garda station for a menu for tonight.....

Yes it is, NIR! There were a few lying about still at that stage.

Yes, I'll fish out a few tomorrow.

York Road, Belfast, 1988 Short lived Larne container traffic. Some containers had black bands, others maroon. Any ideas what the difference was? The “Red Star” was for the parcels traffic of that name. Only two of those English Electric shunters the light grey livery. The other went through three different slight variants of an all-maroon livery. The standard gold NIR transfer can be seen on the the containers. That bean-can-on-wheels, the “Castle” class as they were known at first, is in original livery. It was pretty bright, so it got dirty quickly,

Yes, they still make them. Contact Des Sullivan in Ennis, address somewhere here on this website, SSM (Studio Scale Models). His kits are excellent. He makes them in "0" gauge and "00" gauge anyway. It is my understanding that once he has the pattern done, he can enlarge or decrease it, depending on demand.