jhb171achill

He told me he much preferred steam, not these diseasel things. He has a soft spot for J15s on Kerry branch lines, Donegal tanks in the Barnesmore Gap, and big Midland 4.4.0s thundering through Knockcroghery........

Yes.... if you try to cram too much into a layout, there's no room for scenery! Looks just about right the way it is.

An absolute beauty! Looks well made.

Looking good, Tony!

I'm actually looking at one of the earlier photos, Tony, which had a turntable at what I think is the narrower end. If I'm correct, the track to its right divides into two lines. If you were to run a loco from one track forward, then change points to make it back onto the adjacent line, it needs extra space if it will be transferring wagons attached to it, from one track to the other. I'm looking at the photo following the one showing the signal cabin. A suggestion: in between the two turnouts left of the turntable, you might bring the furthest one away back towards the nearer one by swopping it with the short hit of straight track in between. This will lengthen the headshunt, which is the name for the section of track beyond the points, leading towards the wall. This enables more trucks to be moved across at a time.

Is the headshunt beside the turntable long enough for a loco and one or two wagons?

It's BS18 BS29 Raven, I'm reliably informed. This is what is on 186 currently, and when painted this way all eye witnesses who saw her, and who remembered the original, agreed that it looked correct.

They were long-wheelbase four wheelers.

This is model engineering on the very top level. (Even though it's narrow gauge! )

Indeed, Dive.....now that you mention it. Models to date have all sold out, and standards increase all the time, thanks in part to Messrs Glenderg, Garfield & Co. A high quality RTR laminate, tin heating and luggage van, and Park Royal would cover the mid 1950s to mid 1980s, an era with much interest. Available in weathered unpainted silver, green, and black'n'tan would cover everything; indeed, revolutionise passenger trains on layouts. More RTR wagons are needed from the 1940-1980 period, as many many superbly excellent layouts still rely on British Rail goods stock among good quality CIE / GNR / UTA locos and passenger stock.

Imagine a model of work like that taking place!

I'm sure the new model will also be available in the Donegal red livery it carried while in use on the Cootehill branch, and both with and without pantograph, when it is released on the morning of the first anniversary of its announcement?

They certainly do, no doubt about that! It's unreliable though - as indeed are just about any photos I've ever seen of that thing...... ...and I should add, in model form it would be realistic to make it look that way, of course. I never saw a decent colour pic of it newly painted and wouldn't be surprised to hear that none is known of. Also, see how "yellowy-greenish" the green paint looks.....

Eau de nil.... but faded! Early colour photos show it originally in what may possibly be a mid grey. It looks as if it was repainted at one stage, despite its extremely short career. Possibly the first trial run was in works grey undercoat.....

Thanks, Kevin.... What would really get the grey'n'green era going would be at least one RTR 6-wheeler, a C and a J15 (the latter in progress). I can, however, understand that not much from the 1950s would be commercially viable.

The guards van is indeed a standard GSWR type.

If the U & C had been built, and survived into the 1950s, you've joint CIE and UTA ownership. Ballycastle 2.4.2T tanks mingling with C & L, Dingle and West Clare types? It couldn't have functioned without the type of large tender engines the Lough Swilly had.... Food indeed for thought.

Excellent addition to your range, Leslie. Best of luck with it.

Those are looking great! Not sure when they started painting them yellow, but probably after they covered them in steel sheet. In this guise, either a slightly darker grey all over (inc. chassis obviously), or brown all over..... The DCDR one, as most will know, is completely incorrect in its livery. GSWR markings, but CIE brown on sides; and black chassis - a mix of the unmixable, and the never-used! SSM have suitable snails or roundels.

I think that this would certainly have improved them, and I also think it likely that they were unstable at speed - CBSCR track wasnt GSWR standard anyway. If it did occur to the CBSCR to alter them, it's unlikely they had the money spare.

Most Irish narrow gauge lines carried smallish amounts of traffic, so a shunting layout wouldn't prototypically allow much action. There were exceptions - I always thought Letterkenny (CDR) might be suitable. The beauty about the CIE lines is that if based in the later part of the 1950s, stock from a number of lines can run together as on the C & L and West Clare. Depending on space, maybe an Arigna / Drumshanbo set-up with coal trains being shunted? Something based on Ennis, Dromod or Belturbet allows the added interest of a broad gauge interchange. Dingle allows busy periods with cattle trains shunting, while Castlegregory was a very compact terminus. While it closed long before CIE days, a little poetic licence might see it survive later, receiving stock from other closed lines too. The same could be said of Schull.

I meant to add.... re the level crossing gates. They were worked by a large wheel in the signal cabin, a common enough arrangement where the road was busy. You can see the signalman turning it if you look at the cabin in the clip. The train makeup, looking at it slowly, is first, a Bredin in GSR livery. Second, with the vents, what looks like a MGWR dining car, hence the extra vents. Next two are a pair of MGWR composites or thirds, both of different design. Can't make out what's behind that but it could be a six wheel second.

They did on some stock but not all. Today, we have only a handful of carriage designs (ICR, DD, Mk 4 - only three in the entire country!); and in the railcar world 22, 26, 27, 28, 29 class plus NIR's two very similar styles, plus a few darts. And none of them ever are mixed in one train. You'd have got more variety that that in a single train well into the 1960s. In fact, through all railway history on all lines, a uniform train was the rare exception rather than the rule - passenger OR goods. If you look at that vid clip you'll see that no other vehicle in that train is like the one you mention, and indeed no two are alike.

Tony, perhaps you might PM me with details of wagon kits / "bits & pieces" that you have?

Now, can I teleport myself to that meeting and back again in one night!!