jhb171achill

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.

Yes, the flat sides prove BNCR - I'm interested in the 1878 date though, and where it was used - probably everywhere. Must check Des' book.

I was thinking that very thing! I’m not sure. I think a clearer view of the photo would be necessary to be sure. Certainly sounds right, though.

Killeagh was one of quite a few stations which never got a GSR bilingual nameboard, let alone a CIE one. The Patrickswell and Askeaton ones are standard GSR, and I took them to show the font. Standard enamels with off-white lettering on a black background. The white-background CIE ones appeared at most stations by degrees after 1966, which is when I think the first appeared - I stand to corrected on that but it was around the time they were re-naming stations after the 1916 guys. These were white PLASTIC, with black plastic letters glued on. Pretty much everything had to be “plastic” in the 1970s to show how “modern” it was! How times have changed..... These white signs had spread to most places by the early 1970s and would remain through most of the 1980s. ”Killeagh” is standard GSWR design.

Hard to tell. It’s a GNR goods engine of some sort - fairly modern looking tender, to such extent as a blur can tell.....could it be a quite new UG? Do we know the date?

I’d love to know what this little beauty of a passenger brake is. Senior caught it at Ballyclare in 1947, and said it looked as it it had been there for a long time, stuffed up against a buffer stop.

I never realised that place had so many sidings.....

There’s a nice shunting layout to complement “Capecastle”! Found a few more NCC pics. Locations unknown but all around 1947-50. These are poor prints but while the negatives aren’t the very top drawer, they’re a great deal better than these. However, I’m including them here as I think they give a sense of the NCC main line, 70 years ago. Note how many flat-sided coaches are still evident. These are former Belfast & Northern Counties Railway stock.

Wow! Absolutely outstanding work as always!

I think nuns have some very bad habits. Some don't fit well, if they gain or lose weight..... If you go this side of '56, you can get away with a black steam engine! Looking forward to seeing this all finished!

Fair play to them!

Which disproves that PW Inspector's idea that none of them ever went there bar the lifting train! They were very rare, though, as you say!

Correct - the article is riddled with errors. The CDRJC did not, as you say, have anything to do with this line - they had nothing to do with ANYTHING 5'3", even though the original Finn Valley line had started off 5'3". The station was indeed on the "Derry Road", but it was not a commuter line - it was a major secondary main line all the way to Porteedown. It was operated by the GNR until October 1958, when it became part of the UTA operationally, though the very short stretch in between Strabane and Derry which lay in Co. Donegal was owned by CIE, hence the sometimes-quoted quiz question - "what CIE railway station never had any CIE-operated trains?". The UTA were in charge, of course, when the vehemently anti-railway Stormont government closed the Warrenpoint and Portadown - Derry lines in full. For Derry Road modellers, by this stage, only in the last few years, NCC "W" class 2.6.0s had started working the goods in, and AEC / BUT railcars handled most of the passenger trains, aided and abetted by a GNR 0.6.0 on the Portadown - Dungannon local, and a couple of very filthy "S" class 4.4.0s. 171 was one of them, can't recall the other without looking it up. According to the former PW Inspector who knew the line well, Wm. Thompson, a friend of my father's, "Jeeps" never appeared on that line, even in UTA days, until after the line shut - one hauled the lifting train for a while! A curious thing just now. I went into the page to correct it, and posted the edit. Within minutes I get a message (to which I cannot reply) saying that the edit constituted vandalism of a site and I would be banned if I did it again etc etc. This appeared to come from some sort of moderator (?) or original poster (?), whose own personal page was covered in all sorts of loyalist regalia! I've just corrected it again, using my actual ID on wiki, rather than anonymously. Does anyone know how this thing works? I have often both posted, occasionally corrected, and referred to posts of wiki, as it's supposed to be a source of info, into which anyone can log on to add, subtract or correct information if they are in a position to do so...... if someone posts that the "Derry Road" was part of the CDRJC, and it's impossible for anyone else to correct it, then what's the point of Wikipedia?

Alan is a mine of information for locomotive drawings.

Hunslets. I remember their unique “whistling” sound, sounded very strange among CIE GMs and AEC and MED railcars! 1. Carrickfergus, 1985 2. Belfast Uncentral, c.1976 3. 1970, taken from an official photo. 4. Derry fertiliser at Lisburn, date uncertain but probably c.1985.

Is that still about? Heard about it years ago..... where is it?

Marks Models, Dublin.

The 2.2.2s were VERY early on. They were green. carriages in those days were little 4-wheelers with small windows. You're looking at when the line from Dublin to Athlone first opened, and on into the 1850s.

Yes, she was the last! I think she got her first coat of grey paint in the mid-1930s. I have the date somewhere - Bob Clements gave it to me years ago.

Yes, the "bunchlo" font is by far the nearest I've been able to find, anyway. I'd be inclined to put the English-language version in bold, though.

NCC narrow-gauge time, and NIR about 1972. GVS pic 1974.

I wonder if that girder IS at Carrickfergus, but destined for Derry Central? All I have is a note which says "D Cent"...... or, were there any stations on the "D Cent" with such sheds? I would defer to superior knowledge! If Ciarán Cooney is about, he's a good man for identifying stations!

I posted a long post on midlandman's post the other day regarding MGWR liveries. PM me if there's anything specific you're interested in. Regarding the blue locomotive livery, this was both short-lived and also only confined to a few locomotives, mainly those 4.4.0s which operated on the Broadstone-Galway main line. The various 0.6.0 goods engines would have remained green before, during and after the few "blue" years (mid 1910s) and afterwards. It is unlikely that any of the "G2" 2.4.0s were ever blue either. Only a small minority of coaching stock was blue & white. Locos were green, coaches brown, as explained in detail on midlandman's question. After 1918 there was new livery. Black locomotives and very deep maroon coaches; mind you, many remained in the older livery after the GSR takeover in 1925, when locos all turned grey and carriages dark "crimson lake".