jhb171achill

I had a package delivered today also, addressed to Daughter-the-middle. The UPS man also just flung it and ran...and I didn't even have a mask...... The dog doesn't give a toss. He's not taking it seriously at all. He sleeps in the corner right now....

Yes, your dad and myself between us counted the ha'pennies in the RPSI for almost fifty years! And both of us - your dad more so nowadays, are still involved in the odd bit of fund raising. In recent years, my own activities have been reduced to selling raffles and books on the May tour, but it's cancelled too.....! Strange times.

The DCDR has also had to close down completely for the duration. Easter trains on this line were always a major boost to pay for winter maintenance, track work, loco and coach maintenance and so on. Mayday trains also got the railway back onto an adequate financial footing before the main summer season - coal had to be bought, and so on. When I did the finances there, once I knew what the profit was from May and Easter, I could copper-fasten budgets for different aspects for the season until Christmas. The Santa results comprised almost half of the year's net income. This will place an extremely serious burden indeed on the DCDR, RPSI and all heritage railway operations this season. Malahide is also closed, at the worst possible time - its first year. I have just been speaking with a colleague in the tourism business, who tells me that CIE tours have cancelled everything. Colleagues in Co Kerry report absolute disaster. Let us hope those of us who can, may donate to some of the heritage volunteer groups, but that governments north and south will open their wallets wide.

All are currently cancelled, and Whitehead museum and tea shop are shut UFN.

The May Tour is cancelled. Unfortunate but unsurprising in the circumstances.

Shows how blind I am! There were several of our good folks I missed! Must go to specsavers!

It's about time I made a start on some provincially Leslie cattle trucks!

Nice little scene!

CSE engines - two survive at Downpatrick, though three almost did. But originally there were nine, built 1934/5. Three each at Tuam, Mallow & Thurles. To confuse, instead of numbering them 1-9, each factory had its own 1/3! So you had Thurles No. 1, Tuam No. 1, Mallow No. 1, and so on. I always thought a model of one would be nice, but what sort of chassis and motor to use? Downpatrick has Mallow’s No. 1 and Thurles No. 3 - or maybe it’s the other way round! Carlow had a strange vertical-boilered yoke and the very temperamental diesel now at Whitehead.

True!!!

Carrick-on-Suir, ITG. 611 & 617 are now at Downpatrick, though, but they’re owned by the ITG. The third G on the DCDR is 613, a long-time Loughrea regular. She’s been out of traffic for some years and is privately owned by a DCDR member. So, four out of the seven “G61X”s have survived! The only case, presumably, of the majority of an Irish loco class surviving! (I don’t count “one-offs” here). Or maybe someone can correct this?

Further meanderings in July 1978. Pairs of 121s seemed to be the main power on the “Principal Line” that summer. Views of Ballymote, Kilfree Junction and Ballysodare are from the cab of 133, leading 127. The train was a mixture of Cravens and laminates, about six bogies plus a van if I remember correctly. The GSWR van has a small “flying snail” still.

8th July 1978, Inchicore.

Excellent pic! Personally I am self-isolating. Given my age and a couple of "underlying conditions" I would be among the higher risk people. I've too much to do to get ill! Serious point, all - stay safe.

I'd use a stone-faced one - a wooden one wouldn't last long in a god-forsaken location like that!

So do a few of the politicians................

Yes, an 0.6.0! All of those labels have to be re-done. They were supposed to have had more info on them!

I know!!! Mental!

I'll be VERY interested to see this! Had it been built, it was going to be a single platform with a shelter of some sort, a loop and possibly a siding. I suspect if it had been built, it would have looked - initially at any rate - a bit like Burtonport.

But no hangovers!

Absolute lowlifes. For a businessman trying to make a living out of selling this type of consumer goods, it wouldn't be easy anyway.

I applied for the emergency payment today......

Tis very true indeed, seagoebox, and nobody bats an eyelid! Personally, I never liked the silver and black at all - I think the grey looks better. Like in steam days, it's all-encompassing, bogies and all - same reason - ease and convenience of application and maintenance. The modern 071 grey is just a shade lighter than in steam days. Must be something about Inchicore! I have no information about Inchicore testing blue, but while the paint might have been cheaper, it tended to fade. that's why the MGWR abandoned it almost as soon as adopting it. Maybe the used paints of not particularly good quality. Each railway had its own paint laboratory. One of those I took notes from was the late Marcus Bailie-Gage, who was a former Works Manager in Dundalk, and he had cut his teeth in the paint lab there. You might think, "what's the big deal? Just go to Woodie's and buy a load of paint!" - but in those days paint was comparatively expensive compared with today. railways took care of their corporate images too, so good quality paint of a consistent shade was deemed to be very important. Marcus told me of experiments conducted to get the right shade of brown for GNR carriages. They tried different pigments to make the SAME colour, then subjected them to tests to simulate weathering, wear and tear, and fading. Respective costs would be analysed too, before telling the paint shop what to do. The same applied in Inchicore. Many urban myths have grown up - there were a million types of GNR blue, a million types of CIE green, a million shades of red or maroon with the GSR, or NCC, or whatever, a million shades of CIE coach orange / tan. This simply isn't true. There were indeed variations, and some may have arisen accidentally, but each company has always striven to replicate a particular shade. For the purist, these variations are by now well documented, though to be fair they were not always, so a correct shade can be found out easily enough for those interested in such things.

The grey originated in Inchicore Works when in order to cope with wartime economy, the GSWR started painting locos a flat overall grey, replacing the attractive shiny black lined in read and white which was current. It was quick and cheap. They just sloshed it over the whole thing. Not only no lining, but no lettering, and numberplates not picked out and polished. This appeared, as far as can be ascertained in 1915, but no later than 1918. When the GSWR became part of the overall GSR, all companies within the new GSR (i.e. virtually every single one, broad and narrow gauge, within the Irish Free State), did likewise. The GSWR was the "dominant" partner in the new GSR, and by degrees much work from other companies was transferred to Inchicore, so on went the grey. Major work on narrow gauge locos was no longer done locally, the engine would go onto a transporter and go up to Dublin in its nice old "company" livery, to return shorn of any brass nameplates it had had, and painted grey. Virtually all nameplates went into the melting pot too. When the GSR became part of CIE in 1945, this persisted. The result was that all-over grey locos could be seen from 1915 to the end of CIE steam in 1963. In GSR days, literally EVERYTHING got the grey, bar the 3 x 800 class. In early CIE days, suburban tank locos, main line passenger and (some) mixed traffic locos were given lined green. After about 1956/7, while few steam locos were repainted, many repaints in those last few years (and of only a few classes by then) were black. So it was economy mostly, but it then became, as they say nowadays, "the thing". Just as wagons were assumed to be grey, so were locos. Never mind the polished maroon of the NCC, dark green of the LLSR & BCDR, bright red of Donegal and the famous blue of the GNR; Inchicore was GREY. Limerick Works was GREY! Dull as ditchwater, and disliked by many, but nobody ever worried about cattle trucks being all grey! I'm sure they'd have looked well in varnished maroon too.........! Addendum: Among Cyril Fry's artefact collection are a number of GNR cast-iron station signs, painted bright blue and silver!

With interest now growing in the early CIE & UTA era, this may be of interest. Bear in mind, this was ALL STEAM! Eighty special trains EVERY NIGHT plus shunting - probably 100 engines and crews, steam raisers and cleaners needed.... Model idea: a fictitious beet factory, 1949/50 season! Roderick 00 Works would need to do a huge re-run of J15s! The last two pages below are the wrong way round, but at least they're the right way up!