jhb171achill

A number of engines were to be retained, rather than preserved, in case of emergencies. There were probably about that number or thereabouts - I've a note somewhere. No. 800, by this stage had already ben donated to the Belfast Transport Museum, so it wasn't one of them. Apart from the 1964 7-day enthusiast's tour, the last steam in normal use ended on CIE in 1963, and NIR in 1970. The CIE locos were stored and officially withdrawn in 1965. 184 and 186 were among them; 186 going to the RPSI straight away, and 184 following some years later, along with 461.

They did, but far too small fuel capacity for the RPSI!

I suspect you're onto a good thing there, Galteemore. However, the big issue for future steam is turntables and restricted speed for tender-first running. It surprises me that the RPSI, if it must build a new engine, didn't go for a second "Jeep", because though not my own favourite engine, it is undeniably a very good design, very versatile, and not called a "jeep" for nothing. A second one of these would perhaps have been a better bet in practical terms, albeit perhaps with a larger bunker of that was possible. One hopes that 105 doesn't inherit the one Achilles' heel of "Jeeps" - their injectors' ability to dump a tank of water on the ground! I have no information on how "W"s performed in that area - one assumes the same equipment. While I am not the expert, I have been told by those who were that much as a BCDR "Baltic" tank might look the part, and have speed and strength, these engines were heavy on coal and unreliable. So, is there any other tank engines out there? Perhaps Bredin's never-built 850 class?

Staying north, here’s the Giants Causeway station, about 1944/5. And staying narrow-gauge, here’s a convertible road / rail wagon on the Bessbrook & Newry Tramway the same year. And I got them ALL the right way up!

As always, Noel, an absolute masterpiece of detail!

Sadly, there's nothing remotely close to the money available, nor anything close to the manpower. There aren't the workshop facilities. I'm on your page, though, in terms of "wish list" - we may all keep buying euromillions tickets! Of locomotives not currently in working order, the easiest and smallest will have a price tag to restore of €50k - €100k each. Bigger ones and you're edging very close to a million. Also, in some cases the work would take many years. Oho! NOW you're talking - what a sight. But she still couldn't go to Westport or any of those places because she's too big to fit under the bridges. There probably is no turntable in Ireland left that is suitable for her. And you're looking at a VERY big bill to restore her, as she was in woeful order when CIE withdrew her. Needless to say, she wouldn't be too economic to operate at Downpatrick!

Dunluce Castle is the “one that got away”. In the late 1990s, as RPSI Treasurer, I was approached by a member who I also knew outside the RPSI too. He was a man of means and had just seen No. 74 in Cultra. He recalled having been taken by his parents on one of those old Sunday School excursions in the 1930s (poor man has gone to his reward now) and on arrival, been invited up onto the footplate of that very engine, which he had remembered. What they put an engine like that on a presumably heavy excursion for is beyond me; while fast, these engines, in the words of the late Harold Houston, probably the greatest ever authority on NCC engines, "couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding"! Our friend told me that if the Society sought grant aid, he would match it pound for pound. At the time, the ERDF funding was in full flow, as was IFI funding. I informed the Society's Loco Officer, and a major inspection was organised. The report was brutal. Like No. 30 beside it (the BCDR engine), the UTA had absolutely run it into the ground. Polished up though it is, from memory, this is what No. 74 "Dunluce Castle" looked like 25 years ago; it's condition won't have improved since. 1. Boiler - scrap. Straight to skip; new one needed. 2. Smokebox - not good, probably better replaced. 3. Cylinders - one scrap for sure, other one looks ok, but just about ok. 4. Driving wheels - one scrap, other 3 badly worn. 5. Tender - from floor up, scrap, entirely; floor down in need of serious TLC. 6. Motion - while I cannot recall the details now, there were major issues here too. There was more, which I can't remember. I have a note somewhere, probably. Basically, the loco requires a total, and very substantial rebuild. It is held together with shiny paint and Mr Sheen. Once restored, No. 74 is not a strong engine - they were not one of the NCC's finer moments design-wise. Whereas, the 2.6.0 "moguls" very certainly WERE. Thus, yes, you're right, a new "W" class 2.6.0 would very certainly be a much better bet operationally. but also no more expensive. The bill at the time worked out at £250,000. Recent rebuilds of 4 and 461 had cost less than £100,000. At today's process, you're looking at the guts of a million euros / sterling. The new No. 105, if that's what it will be, will come in cheaper! I agree that 184 and 186 are unlikely to run again, though it's a pity. I have always had a soft spot for 186. They are too small for mainline and too big (only in a coal consumption sense) for Downpatrick. Often, in the preservation movement, hard decisions have to be made and the stark reality is that 27, 184 and 186 are museum items. Unless the Society literally wins the EuroBillions, there is zero financial case to be made for restoring them to working order. Whitehead train rides can adequately be taken care of by the Guinness loco, or (if you're wearing sunglasses!) the Derry engine No. 3. Talking of "soft spots", in my carriage restoration late teenage years, all shunting at Whitehead was done by the clapped-out suitcase-sized Planet diesel No. 23. I'd love to see that quaint little thing operational again! ANYWAY........ I applied for and got the approval for the funding. Our generous benefactor, God rest him, was unperturbed. But the paperwork..................................the PAPERWORK!..............to get a loan agreement drawn up with UFTM and approval for the RPSI to gain grant aid for something it didn't own, was so interminably drawn out, that the funding offer period had expired by the time outline agreement was reached. By now, funding rules had changed and it was no longer possible (this is still the case) for anyone to get any grant aid of any sort from any fund for something they don't own. So that was that. Given the great limitations of this loco, it was probably as well in the long run. 131 is much better machine.

To distract from cabin fever, I was delving through Senior’s photos today. Let’s go Northwest in the late 1930s, when he made his only foray to Burtonport just before it closed. No. 12 was out that day, though I’ve an idea he came back on one of the big 4.8.4T tanks the next morning. Footplate ride both ways! View from the tender looking back on one.

I believe that no two were exactly identical as a result, Irishrail201 - is that correct?

And that is.......N GAUGE!!!??? WOW! Impressive if it was 00, but even more as N. The class 50 is the bee's knees. I love the BR blue era.

This one is of interest to a wider audience too, as it shows a very nice example of the standard concrete posts and surrounds for the then-quite-modern black enamel standard GSR station nameboards. Some of these concrete jobbies were to be seen in a number of locations well into the 1970s. I wonder if plans exist. It would be nice little thing for 3D printing, especially if a few of us wanted them.

Are these a new invention? All my stuff has just “traditional” 00 gauge couplings, as on Hornby etc middle 1970s to date. Then we have kadees and Hunt. I’m unaware of any other than what I have, in terms of the pros and cons. What are people’s opinions in the advantages of one over the other?

There’s your 425th from me, Leslie!

Good for measuring up, anyway! Nice find.

Any pics, Andy? Yes, you're right about, say, Valencia. Such a loco had a very limited area of operation, both geographical and time-wise.

A puzzling thing. Unless they plan to amend a British design to look Irish? Anything Irish is to be welcomed, though I suspect the most financially viable Irish steam engines, if any, would be a GNR "S" class 4.4.0 and an NCC / UTA "Jeep" 2.6.4T. If you go to Wisht Caark, you do be lookin' at a Bangdin Tank, boy, as probably the bisht option. I tell ye, boy.

It's getting closer now - only another sixteen years to employ all the consultants, then a 23 year approval process, 15 years "signing off on" things, 67 years testing, verifying and hiring consultants to approve the work of the consultants who are by now dead. Then the compliance stuff, and the health and safety audits. Hey Presto! Construction starts in 3019, and takes only four times the time expected, and only 13 times the budget. First train: 1st June, 3267. I can't wait....................

They were introduced in the summer of 1970. 102 and 101 were the first into traffic, with 103 shortly after. They were maroon at first, as on 102 in Cultra. The maroon is correct, but the yellow bits should have white lining round them. They were initially used "topping and tailing" the "Enterprise" on a 7-coach set, but in winter one push / pulled a five coach set. 103 never seemed as reliable as the other two and spent long periods out of use. The last time I saw one of them in passenger traffic was one evening I think in the early 1990s. Some time between 1990 and 94, as I was travelling on that line regularly then. I'm nearly sure it was 101, and it had three old Mk 2s in PP mode on an all stops Central - Portadown. I got out at Lambeg and off it went. I believe it broke down before it returned from Portadown, and it never ran again. 102 meantime went on, and actually received the darker blue NIR livery, surviving to become 8102 officially, although I'm not sure if it carried that number. It survived as the Adelaide yard shunter, sans nameplates, until about 2002. They were a bad buy. They were underpowered for the work they were called upon to perform, and became unreliable. My sources in the railway at the time took the view that with their genesis was in conversations in late UTA days, CIE's 141/181 classes were seen by those in the loco dept. as the best things to buy. With the 181s only having recently been delivered, it would have been a simple matter to get a few, and they would have been cheaper, with a very good proven reliability record. But there was political pressure to "buy British", so a reluctant NIR ended up having to pay somewhat more for an unproved design. Within a year or two, the loco dept. was saying "I told you so" to the management; and thus it was. Had they bought 141s, they might have taken four. And if that had been the case, interchangeability with CIE examples, as well as double-heading, would have been possible, so it is quite possible the NIR trio of 071s wouldn't have been ordered! Maroon 141, anyone?

Ah, but there are two toilet rolls included! A bargain.....

Bits and pieces in Bill Scotts’s extremely excellent NCC loco book too.

The Rosslare livery was lined black, yes, not red-lined green as I wrote above - this oul cabin fever is getting to me....... lined black, as on the Murphy model, yes. I've corrected the bit above. So, plain grey or lined green for all the others, with a slight possibility (though I can't be certain) of a plain black one - maybe - towards the very end.

Ah, that's better. I couldn't seem to enlarge it that much. You're absolutely right. And we can get a look at the coach behind it too. Looks like a MGWR bogie mail coach, unless my eyesight needs more enlarging!

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Nicely done!

Now that engine is a puzzle. The train is mostly six-wheelers, and elderly ones at that, but the third vehicle is a bogie third in the then-main-line brown & cream livery; this will be a Dún Laoghaire Pier boat train. But the ENGINE! Looks like some sort of saddle tank - I have absolutely no clue what that might be. Any suggestions, folks? So, Broadstone might have been Dublin "Clarke". What about Harcourt Street? And if Broadstone would have become "Clarke", what of Dundalk? I'll get my coat first, and open the door, before shouting "Adams" and running away quickly.....................................!