jhb171achill

It was a standard GSWR design, used almost only by them. The solitary example of another company using this design that I’m aware of was the T & D. I know from photos that there were at least 3 or 4 examples. My father photographed one at Castlegregory when he went there just before the line closed. Tralee has another at Basin Halt (I think), and there was one at some level crossing.

Great stuff!

Yes, Woolwiches and “A”s. As for train make-up, I don’t know exactly, but any wagons would be fitted ones, obviously. Coaching stock on the Midland main lines would have been bogie corridor stock by the 1950s, both of old wooden varieties (no two alike!) and by degrees Bredins, laminates and PRs. Six wheel passenger brakes would still feature large, of course, along with new tin vans. Maybe someone else can comment on exact make up of “perishables”?

Depending on how sturdy my wallet is at the time, I would LOVE a Midland "cattle engine". Leslie is about to do CIE cattle wagons, so a long line of those with a CIE brake van at the back - perfect. Coming sooner, I have to deal with three 121s, four A's, ten Provincial cattle wagons and a G2 2.4.0 from Mayner - coming on top of two of the excellent J15s from Roderick........ $£$€€€€€ but WELL worth it.

They’d need to remove vegetation from this and other old buildings on the railway of the stonework will be irreparably destroyed.

Internal layout now finalised and approved by the design team. Out of the vast collection of Fry’s stuff, both models and “railwayana”, it has been separated into several groups. 1. Items for rotating display which are (a) primarily relevant and (b) in good condition. 2. Items not in good condition, but restorable. Will be restored by degrees and displayed. 3. Items either irrelevant or in very poor, incomplete or damaged condition. Subject matter for display boards is now partly chosen, with captions being written up, while there is still some display material to be chosen and illustrations chosen out of a “pool” of relevant material. Some illustrations have been chosen but await permission to display from copyright holders. The layout is under construction.

That’s a fake, without a doubt.

Yes, there were several variations. Michael McMahon’s book on GSR locos has the best account I’ve seen of GSR tenders. This may be taken as the definitive work on such things.

DART, apologies; I have only noticed this question now - I'm a very slow learner.... Train make-up. When the Midland operated with separate portions in steam days, we're looking at a Woolwich with separate portions, each consisting probably of a two passenger coaches and a six wheel van, maybe a mail van for one or more portions. The passenger coaches would be a mix of bogie and sixwheel, corridor and non-corridor. A diner would only be on Galway portions. In 1960, it's going to an "A" class on a service like this, probably in green, but may still in (by now) VERY heavily weathered "silver". In modelling terms, a dull light grey weathered so very heavily that it really isn't that evident what the base colour actually is. Behind it, the "portions" would be a mix of Bredins, laminates, Park Royals, and wooden coaches. A few are still MGWR but the majority by far of ex-GSWR design. Mail vans will be about a 50/50 mix of new "tin vans" and old wooden six wheel passenger brakes of Midland and GSWR designs. "Birdcage" brakes have gone by now, but what Midland vans are still running might have their origins in that design, but are now running with side duckets instead of a "birdcage" roof. Needless to say, none of the older stock has a clerestorey roof. The Midland (like most Irish railways) didn't use them, and the handful of GSW ones were elsewhere. On the back, a fitted cattle truck or goods van (newish CIE "H" van) is a possibility. Horse traffic doesn't figure that much now, but the odd one still occurs. Open wagons - no. They would go by goods train, as they were loose-coupled. Liveries: Locos - as above. Carriages - mostly green, but with the odd older wooden one in the older darker green with the more elaborate lining - or - a few carriages which by now are in secondary stock, are the older green with NO lining. A few new laminates (but nothing else) are in the poor silver livery all over, though with extensive weathering at least to the roofs and bogies. Resist the temptation to paint their chassis black. Black'n'tan is over 18 months into the future, as are black "A" class locos. ALL wagons are grey all over. Roofs and chassis also grey. I hope this is helpful, albeit belatedly!

Clogher Valley, 1936/7. David Holman & Fintonagh might like this one! On the CVR at that time, as you can see, almost the whole service was operated by the one railcar, which (for modellers’ sake) was mid brown with a white roof. Occasionally the diesel “Unit” deputised, hauling one coach and a four wheeled brake van. With the steep (albeit short) gradients, it couldn’t really haul more. The one daily train above which isn’t marked as being railcar, was the solitary daily steam train by that time. It carried all the goods and ran as a mixed train.

Any idea what the reason is for this?

I’d like to reserve 135, 131 & 125. One grey & two BnT.

Superb, Tony - well worth the time to build it so perfectly.

A fascinating little loco with a unique history. Being one of the comparatively few “private owner” locos in Ireland, and a one-off at that, makes it of particular interest. Something like its original home, a distillery siding, or its latter home shunting dock lines in Cork, or indeed a fictitious “one-off” like it would make an interesting shunting layout concept for those short of time of space. Long run I’m thinking of a 21mm gauge small shunting outfit like that with maybe a G and a few wagons... That loco will look great when it’s covered with weathered gunge!

My ultimate lot would be perhaps 3 - 4 each of J15, diesels A, C, 121, 142. I already have two 141s. So I suppose I’d be in the same boat Interesting to see if those in the know consider them commercially viable.

I would be up for just one or two more, if different numbers and somewhat under prices recent,y seen on fleabay. One or two for me, and maybe half a dozen others, wouldn't even come near to being remotely commercially viable, but if collectors and perhaps a good few large layout operators and general model world all weighed in too, who knows? My sole point being that while for me 1 or 2 more is enough, if I'm not the only one thinking this way, maybe..... anyone know what the minimum commercially viable "print run" is?

A thing of beauty; well done!

A J15 with bubbles! Well, if the bubbles had been a mere two years earlier, and steam less than two years later, could have happened...... In May 1980 I watched an 1879-built wood-burning 2.4.0 tender engine, built by Sharp, Stewart & Co., Atlas Works, Manchester*, leave Madiun (Java, Indonesia) to head off to a modern military air base with a tanker of jet aeroplane fuel in tow.....! Ye couldn't have made it up. The same locomotive lasted in traffic until as late as 1987 - one of the last steam locos of the PJKA in use. (* before they moved to Glasgow)

That's exactly it - by this time Mullingar was one of the major centres for scrapping anything from track materials to carriages, wagons and locomotives.

Very few pre-standard-CIE guards vans lasted after 1962/3, due to the closures of rural lines and the great output by Inchicore of the new 20T and 30T vans from the mid-50s onwards. I'm unaware of any definitive information as to when the last Midland van was withdrawn, though I'm unaware of any being in traffic after maybe the late 50s. CIE had perhaps as few as 2 or 3 GNR vans in use after they inherited them in 1958 until 1963/4. They also had several ex-GSWR vans in use until the mid or late 1960s. DSER vans appear to have been very long gone by these times. There was one Timoleague van, I think No. 5 of theirs, in use at least occasionally until the West Cork closed in 1961. It looked a bit like a normal goods van but with a door at one end.

I'll take ten to start you off! (But I don't want any live cows....)

I was actually thinking, Galteemore, that the style of numerals you used look very much correct - too often, many of us have little option but to use inaccurate styles of font. If that’s GWR style you’re using, it’s worth noting as suitable for pre-stencil-era CIE lettering.

Remember, as a Midland van, it’ll have “M” after its number.....! Ex GSWR - number only Ex DSER - D after number Ex MGWR - M after number Ex Bandon - B after number Many others too. C for West Clare, T for T&D, L on the C & L, etc.

Very few pre-standard-CIE guards vans lasted after 1962/3, due to the closures of rural lines and the great output by Inchicore of the new 20T and 30T vans from the mid-50s onwards. I'm unaware of any definitive information as to when the last Midland van was withdrawn, though I'm unaware of any being in traffic after maybe the late 50s. CIE had perhaps as few as 2 or 3 GNR vans in use after they inherited them in 1958 until 1963/4. They also had several ex-GSWR vans in use until the mid or late 1960s. DSER vans appear to have been very long gone by these times. There was one Timoleague van, I think No. 5 of theirs, in use at least occasionally until the West Cork closed in 1961. It looked a bit like a normal goods van but with a door at one end.

That's as good as REAL! Excellent job. While logos, lettering and numerals were often actual white when applied, virtually 2 or 3 outings had them off-white. Thus, pure white anything on a model never looks realistic. What you have done is super-realistic!