jhb171achill

With the loco in "Supertrain" livery, you're looking at 1972-87. I'd say mid-70s probably, as I think the B & I ones weren't in that livery by 1987, if they were even on the railways at all.... I'll try to find it, though the one above is a much better shot than mine! As far as I recall, the only other place I saw a Lyons container on a 4w flat was in Heuston goods yard, where the car park is now. Aha! Look at the 4w flat it's sitting on - silver! Painted thus for Asahi containers.

I took a pic of one of those navy blue Lyons ones in Limerick about 1976, but I'm 99.999% certain none of the Jacobs ones (other than the small boxes) ever went by rail. If someone might show otherwise I'd be interested to know.

Is that a manure wagon?

Test runs today. A DWWR 071 rounds Bray Head and Dublin & Drogheda Railway No. 082 potters into Malahide, as the driver has been told that Baseboard Dave still has some cake from upstairs.....

“Sligo”

”THIS one’s small THAT one’s far away".......

I will correct my post above. I was thinking of the J30 class steam engines.... I will rephrase my FIRST sentence above by saying that I am UNAWARE of a G going to Mitchelstown! As already mentioned, it closed in 1954, a year before the first three G's came, so I'm not sure. If anyone else can confirm, please do. My other comments about their wanderings stand.... I'm getting old and senile.

It did. One was trialled on it when they very briefly reopened it for goods. I’ve a nite somewhere of which one. I was unaware of the forays to Kilmessan, but now that you mention it, I remember the article. In 1962/3, G’s briefly shunted Dundalk and Ballina, and of course for many years Tuam BFS and factory. It is likely, therefore that one would have shunted Galway at some stage.

Yes, and trials at Foynes... but they also shunted here and there, as did the G611s. I think one of the 601s also did a stint on the Banagher branch, and Mitchelstown as well. One spent some time shunting Glanmire Road too, though I have no evidence of it ever going across to Albert Quay. They would have been as useless as shunters as they were as branch engines! Having driven one myself, I can attest to what others know anyway - they can't pull this skin off a rice pudding, and while you can get them going, if they've anything more than two bogies behind them, they sometimes don't like stopping.....

A gricer-spider....

I wonder where Sharman's layout is now?

At least late 80s, I suspect. The red and yellow Freightliner livery on those containers way up the far end would suggest this. An essential for the 1970s would be B & I Line containers......

Theoretically do-able indeed, and what an interesting thing it would be. About fifty years ago I read an article about a man in England (I believe his name was Mike Sharman) who had (WELL ahead of his time) built a layout based on the very early GWR broad gauge. Naturally, like Cyril Fry he had to make everything from scratch himself. So, a D & K layout with original-type track, original Westland Row and do in, would be quite a thing of beauty! Waterford & Tramore, LLSR broad gauge, Finn Valley Railway, Dublin & Meath, and of course the Ulster Railway would be great fodder for a layout too.... Fry has a beautiful model of an Ulster Railway 0.4.2 in GNR green livery in his collection.... Other "old" stuff in the display are two W & T locos, a Dublin & Drogheda one, and a little beauty from the Ballymena, Cushendall & Red Bay Railway.

It absolutely is. The entire collection consists of the following. 1. Irish prototypes made by Fry 2. NON-Irish prototypes made by Fry - the bulk being ex-LNWR and some LMS, LNER and GWR locomotives and coaches, but with some continental and USA examples as well. 3. No more than one or two fictitious vehicles made by Fry. e.g. a very continental-looking coach (a bought model) painted in GSR livery by Fry 4. Irish prototypes made by other people for the Malahide Castle layout (long after fry's time; these were made by Inchicore man Tonny Tighe, Des McGlynn, and Harry Connaghton. 5. Bought models (e.g. Hornby wagons). Most of these non-hand-made vehicles are British wagons made by Hornby in the 1950s. Some are in poor order. 6 Scenic items and road vehicles, both "bought" and home-made. The display is based on Fry's Irish stuff, thus (1) is entirely on display, bar two or three duplicate vehicles where he built more than one example of the same vehicle. At any one time, a few of (2) are also on display. Lists 3-6 as above are in storage. With 3-5 being nothing to do with Fry himself or his layout these items will eventually be carefully stored away in air-proof boxes until or unless some future use may be found for them. I have suggested to the organisers that they ought to get one more cabinet (though it's hard to see where they'd put it) to rotate a full "Irish Mail" LNWR train and a selection of his road vehicles and scenic items. The organisers are considering a book about Fry's photographic collection, and also featuring his models as a guide book which they would sell at the Malahide complex. If they decide to do that, I'll probably get that done over the summer. That's about it - my next "consulting" museum thing will relate to a new canal museum in the north........

Nearly there. Met Patricia, Cyril Fry’s daughter today. Hopefully she might attend the opening.....: Theres an “invitation only” opening next Tuesday evening and it fully opens to the public on Wednesday 22nd.

Going through the last remnants of my grandfather’s stuff, I find this. Interesting stuff, interesting for the time. Anyone want it? €10 including postage Ireland or U.K. I also have a pile of 0 gauge coarse scale track. It’s off senior’s long-defunct attic railway. €25.

Didn’t know you were doing MGWR times! Irrespective of anything, though, an extremely excellently done model. Actually, your model is of a fairly common type of MGWR water / coal facility. I wonder, though, does anyone have pics of GSWR or GNR equivalents?

If it's motorised, presumably it was built to operate - but did it? And if so, dare we wonder where the rolling stock is that ran with it?

Now THAT, Mr Holman, exceeds excellence! That brickwork is amazing, the whole thing looks SO realistic! The paintwork is just the right colour for 1950s CIE. In MGWR days it was red paint. The GSR used a darker green, but not on tanks, which I think were a dark grey. With CIE, some tanks were dark grey, others green just as above. Often it got faded to a wish-washy greenish colour with much rust showing.

Wowww!!! A Cork, Blackrock & Passage (narrow gauge) loco in original condition! Larger scale than 00, looks good.

Ah sure Leo and that lot sez ye can't even mention the black'n'tans these days. How will I ever describe the CIE liveries agin.......

Yes, I get that OK. It was just a thought. Actually, what Ihad in mind would be more tramway than railway-orientated so the sleeper spacing mightn't be such an issue - but buffers.... I actually hadn't thought about that! I had an idea - dunno if I had put it up here or not - this would be bought chassis with plastic-scratch-built bodies, of a fictitious branch of the Blessington Tram. Just a diorama thing, as space would be limited. The thing rattles up a road (like to Crooksling) and there's a stop with a siding at a crossroads. Like the D & B, it carried goods too - the loco & passenger car could have a van or open wagon behind it. It can drop it or lift it from that siding. Must speak to Baseboard Dave about an off-cut bit of board.... It would be called "Lamb's Cross"...... Unsure whether to get a spare bit of 00 track, or do 21mm. Maybe 0 gauge, hence my earlier comments. 0 scale Irish gauge would be 36.75mm....that WOULD look good. Space is the issue, though. Really, I'm dreaming here. First thing to do is get the Dugort Harbour thing all up and running.

The details.... that's the beauty of "O" gauge. Out of interest, suppose one were to use 0 gauge track to represent 5'3". If my calculations are somewhere close to being correct (and I'm aware we have one former maths teacher here!), that would presumably mean that in order to use 0 gauge track as 5'3", you'd be working to a scale of 6.26mm = 1ft, is that right? Very long term future, thinking of some sort of diorama but with 0 representing what we have here..... Does that make any sense?

Hello Simon. To go through your post, there's quite a lot in there, so here we go. You refer to GSR initials - I'm wondering if you mean the large letters "G S" on wagons? These can be determined by the number of planks they cover. Even on the smallest of narrow gauge vehicles (e.g. the Schull & Skibbereen) they tended to use the same large size. These were white when applied, but would become off-white very quickly, as apart from the (considerable!) weathering, chemicals from the wood preservative leaked through and took the "whiter than white" look off the white paint within days. Low plank wagons did indeed have smaller lettering, as befitted the plank. On these, they would make the letters almost as tall as they could within available space. The CIE logo went through three stages. 1. 1945 - early 1950s: Painted in light green, as on locos, coaches and road vehicles, but painted, not transfers. Numerals the same, and on a background of a dark grey like the GSR - i.e. same as British LMS wagon grey. 2. Early 1950s - late 1950s: Same as above, except painted in white. 3. Late 1950s until replaced by the CIE "roundel" from 1963 onwards: Still white, but wagon grey now considerably lighter, and both numerals and "flying snail" stencilled. After that, once we're into "roundel" times, this was always white except on "H" type and "Palvans", and the 1954 GNR cement vans. On these the roundel bit was tan, with the letters white. White numbers always. Once the all-brown started appearing from about 1969/70 onwards, without any exceptions whatsoever, logos and numerals were always white. Again, brake dust and general gunk tended to tone this down within days in traffic. The narrow gauge lines all used plain white for all wagon markings, though the C & L had at least one (something makes me think three?) open wagons for ballast which were painted yellow (a century before the time when ALL PW stuff is now painted a ghastly garish yellow!), and these had, as one might expect, black letters. The GS actually continued this for a time with black "G S" on these wagons. The Isle of Man Railway, which you mention, had white letters and numbers, shaded black. Metalwork on almost every type of wagon on all lines was body colour, not picked out in black like the zebra-like GN brakevan at Whitehead! Finally, and most importantly for those seeking accuracy, with regard to CARRIAGE markings, these were ALWAYS pale green, lined in black and gold, or (in the case of the C&L) pale green without edging. Carriage numbers on the WCR were also pale green without lining. CIE did not, ever, paint either "flying snails", lining or any numerals on any carriages, in white or gold or cream or yellow. Always light green. the "flying snails" were transfers - same as applied to buses, road vehicles, railcars and the tenders of steam locomotives. There is, of course, an exception to every rule. While it is hard to ascertain, one old Bandon bogie third, still in use at Albert Quay in the late 1950s, has been painted locally about 1955. It was in the recently-replaced darker green, but without any lining at all, and with flying snails which LOOK to be a white colour. I cannot be sure of this - it could be the normal light green, but they are placed differently and it's obviously a "local" job. With weathering, on a model whit coach markings just wouldn't look realistic even if they had been used. Two C & L coaches, by the time colour photography was in vogue, have lines above window level that are so badly weathered and faded that in a photo that old, they look whitish - but they were light green. In terms of a "wish list", I think that if commercially viable, a transfer sheet of stencilled, and weathered, white wagon "snails" would be a good thing. Modelling the 1955-70 period requires stencilled snails, again if accuracy is desired, and on a layout the white looks way too pristine. I hope this helps.

Well, proper order too - highly deserved.