jhb171achill

And proper order. It's been said here over and over again, but we owe you folks a great deal - keep up the excellent work.

The GSWR had similar cranes, as far as I recall one being in Cork and one in Inchicore. The WLWR had theirs at Limerick and of course the Midland had one at Broadstone. All were fairly standard Cowans Sheldon products as far as I am aware. As Mayner says, two ex-British Rail ones of 1960s origin were bought by CIE in the 1980s - I saw one in steam at the 1996 Inchicore open day, which I am almost certain is the last time one was steamed. I believe one was by then already withdrawn and the other was not long afterwards. For the modeller, the two BR ones were yellow. Previously, the GSWR one(s) would be black, with grey in GSR and CIE times. The DSER's Grand Canal St one, the Midland one and the GNR one - all grey. No black bits, no dayglow jackets, no yellow stripes or hard hats! NIR painted the NCC one maroon in the 1970s - it's at Downpatrick now. The UTA painted the GNR one (now at Whitehead) red, though it had been grey most of its life. CIE's were all always grey, until they got the two Brexit ones, which were yellow. In answer to another question, none are in use; the 1996 outing for display purposes at Inchicore was the last as far as I am aware. Any photos of any steam cranes after about 1950 show them with a very heavy amount of rust-wash weathering necessary!

True, I'm aware of that indeed, Railer. Before commenting further, it must be said that without the likes of yourself there would be no genny vans at all anywhere, still less any steam locomotives to haul them! I was on the (first or second?) Railtours Emerald Isle Express, and the thing had to be seriously nursed. I believe it died totally just as we finished the trip. As long as it exists, of course, the possibility of it being restored is available. The Downpatrick one, 3189, has good generators in it, but the bodywork is a sieve. That thing needs a total body rebuild - it's long beyond restoration.... same as 3185. But at least the DCDR one isn't required to operate in a moving train.

Just seen it!

Yes. The two Dutch vans will be dark green to match the Whitehead set - or that was the plan last time there was any discussion about it. The maroon BR van will stay maroon, in case of operation at any stage with the older heritage coaches. The other BR van, as I understand, will be blue or else blue and cream. Two points I might make about the RPSI livery for the Dublin set, as occasionally they have been commented upon.... Firstly, it's cream on it rather than white, secondly it is not GNR livery as is occasionally assumed. The GNR livery used a very much darker blue, and did not have a blue line above window level.

What an absolutely magnificent work of art! Exhibition standard stuff, with bells an'whistles on!

Note, too, for the purists, the different styles of lettering for "U T" and "C32" stencils, as opposed to the more UTA-esque style for "12T" and the tare weight below.

Correct - it was taken away to Dublin, presumably for export. An ancestor of mine was a manager in the Deerpark mines nearby.....

That looks truly superb. Love the mural of Ben Bulben behind it. It really captures the essence of remote termini like that. The weed-strewn track just brings me back to the remoter branch-line visits in the earlier 1960s, which I just about recall, and the weighbridge and bicycle are just the bees knees. Note taken to shtick a bicycle on my own thing when it's ready. Railway staff didn't generally own cars back then, so they came to work o a bike or on foot. The porter delivered parcels off trains by bike. jhb171Senior recalled arriving in some place in the Backwaters & Boondocks of the Shticks in the 1930s, and watching the driver unload his OWN bike from the guard's van so that he could cycle home!

Not so much mix and match, as all of these had their own well-defined liveries. I can't help with exact details, but I'm just mentioning that there have been three distinct shades of green for An Post. They used a dark leaf green for vans from 1920-something up to the mid 1970s, when they started using orange and white for a while on vans, with a lighter green on letter boxes, and green & cream phone boxes. More recently, a lighter green replaced within the last 18 months or so by whatever rainbow of shades they use now. So, for post office vans, it's important to know first of all what period you want to cover.

I’d say they came in as chassis..... bodies built by An Post, same as CIE building bus bodies at Spa Road.

That’s a completely new one to me - many thanks! I’ve a notion I saw a pic of two Hunslets double-headed on it at Castlerock one time - would that be correct?

The one which appears to be "topped and tailed" is most likely something to do with a breakdown. I doubt very much if they ran like this (both powered - no suitable control gear) - it's probable that one loco is towing the other dead.

Fair enough. Yes, it looks more like a toy. Better to repaint a 4mm scale model!

So, unsuitable for 00 scale! Pity. Nice looking little thing, which apart from the fact that I remember them, would look well outside a railway station building on a layout.

Does anybody know what scale this thing is? You can buy them from An Post..... http://www.irishstamps.ie/Shop/p-830-model-van.aspx

The caption on the pic (which I lifted off some website) said it was taken in 1993 - caption clearly wrong in that case.....

Any idea who copied who? Who had it first? The Irish version dates back to 1987.

I, too, saw a single 121 on a fert once, but only once; it would have been an exceptionally rare one indeed. In terms of livery queries earlier, as seen in photos, yes, BnT locos ran with them. In fact, when the ferts were introduced, the majority of locomotives were still black'n'tan.

What's this all about? In the Algarve....

Ah, the pixels. We were infested with them too. You can get some sort of spray which kills them off, I believe. It's their chattering at night that does my head in.

I had another look at it. It was printed by their own printing works - where they made their bottle labels. The print font used was common enough back then; before the days of the all-encompassing "arial" which seems to have pervaded just about everything, worldwide, from the late 1960s. It actually fell out of a book that I was consulting for something else. I have hundreds of books, and even more railway documents and timetables, and it's amazing what pops out of them now and again - I found an original 1947 GNR "Enterprise" brochure last week! I had forgotten I had it, as I sold three or four that I DID know I had, some years ago....! It's coincidental in this case.

Wow!!!! That is a VERY nice-looking beast!

The attached may be of interest, from another of the (extremely) occasional posts of stuff in the “catacombs” in the study..... I well recall the ”Lady Patricia”, the ”Lady Gwendoline”, the ”Grania” and the “Miranda Guinness”, the latter not yet built when this booklet was produced about 1959/60.

Indeed. It is reminiscent of the even crazier scheme to build the Ulster & Connaught Railway in 1909. This would have had a railway line running from - wait for it - Greenore - to CLIFDEN!!! Over 200 miles of NARROW GAUGE track, serving not one single solitary place of any significance or size along its entire route, except Newry. Tempting though it is to any railway historian, it is a good thing it was never built.