jhb171achill

Folks, anyone who hasn’t visited this place ought to. It’s a superb museum, all the more so because it was all privately funded. You’re guaranteed a super-friendly reception too.

Absolutely excellent stuff! Well done! Love the wagons lying about awaiting unloading, just like the real thing.

Possibly a Fry model? Must check the list, though I don't remember seeing one among the actual models.

Well done Ernie, and Leslie! If I had the money I'd have gone for them too, though a bidding war would have been to nobody's advantage. Richard was very helpful to me with several research projects in the past.

Hi Ken Yes - main paintwork (large surfaces like wooden-boarded buildings like signal cabins), corrugated PW huts - cream. Doors, frames, etc., a leaf green colour quite like what would become CIE green. Railings and ironwork in stations, fencing etc, the same green usually. I have an idea occasionally dark grey or black but I could be wrong. Bridges were painted in red lead primer, and over that were painted a dark silvery grey.

Pure art! Excellent!

Same colour, normal orange. See photos above with carriages and an A class for comparison. All orange, all weathered! A point for the purist; the bogies painted black with blue and green bits is a modern variation. When operating with the CIE containers, B & I or Bells, the bogies were all brown. Presumably variations of both are included?

They were always orange, never yellow. As they aged, they began to look yellowish, as per the photo above taken at Mallow. Some looked slightly brownish, like the derelict one at Whitehead. But always orange, same as on carriages and locomotives, rather than the post-1990 brighter shade. Answering the other post about colour, this is exactly what they looked like in traffic. Initially painted the same orange colour as the lower half of carriages, they received less attention than carriages did, so they faded to the above. Outside my era but I might need one or two!

A well-known presenter on this forum, and excellent modeller, confided several years ago that one of his iconic layouts was possibly going to be in 145 shades of grey. The reason was uncertainty about correct liveries for the models, but his research led to the (accurate) full colour version!

Thanks, Eoin. I'll check what decals of Des' I already have, as I bought a load of them some time ago at the Stillorgan show, I think. The one I'm looking at is in the original BnT livery, so the numerals are (a) the large ones on the sides, and (b) not shaded.

The RPSI Whitehead set is painted a colour close to UTA green, though it wasn't matched as such when devised. UTA green was darker than CIE. The Bachmann green isn't far off the mark - while inaccurate for a new-paint, like the cie orange / tan, weathering could dull it down. The Bachmann green is close enough to the weathered version that many of us remember.

Greetings I recently got another Murphy 141. I have two already, carrying different numbers, but the one I recently got is a duplicated B141. I want to change it to B145 or B147. The numbers on the ends are so small that I'll deal with these by judicial weathering; in real life, numbers often became obscured. I remember seeing one locomotive at Claremorris with the number on one end being completely unreadable. My question is this: regarding the numbers on the sides, what's the best way to remove the final "1", and with what transfers might a "5" (or whatever) be added instead?

I don't know if this is possible, but if anyone can download my "flying snail" icon to the left, it is from a good quality daylight photograph of an actual snail on actual CIE paint. My late father got a transfer and mounted it on a board painted with paint in Inchicore. This is the shade used on any steam locos that were green, on buses and road vehicles 1945-62, on railway station paintwork until about 1960/2, and on carriages and horseboxes 1945-55. After 1955, any NEW carriages and repainted older ones, plus diesel locomotives, would get the lighter shade.

Nun of them were harmed in the making of this diorama.

This was a GSWR Inchicore design only. Anything and everything that isn’t GSWR, with a few exceptions, and even a few that do say GSWR, are fakes. Total, lock, stock and barrel, fake. One exception was the T & D. My father took a picture of one at Castlegregory station when he travelled there by train. I’ve seen a photo of one somewhere in Tralee as well. I have a distant idea that the WLWR might have got Inchicore to make a few but I am not at all sure. I've never seen a photo or any reliable report of one.

That locomotive is an 0.0.0.....

Not really.... the big NCC ones in use before closure would have to be hand built as they were unique. Original BR stock was all 6-wheeled. Again, like virtually everything Irish and narrow gauge, scratch building would be necessary. The BR did get a bogie vehicle or two eventually, though they too looked different.

I like the point rodding. It adds a really realistic touch, as does the backscene blending into a low bank at the back. The wagons look great too - such vehicles were almost never pristine! It would be a pity to "dirty up" that locomotive, but perhaps you've considered it?

I don't know what happened to Senior's survey of the line - I don't think it survived the UTA's purges of paperwork in the early 1960s. I saw a one-page carbon copy of a summary of it, though I don't know where this is now - I certainly haven't got it. Also, he told me about it. Basically, about 1947 - I think - the NCC wondered if it would be worth converting and just sent a civil engineer over it. Senior's report said it was perfectly feasible, with a few tweaks to bridges. Despite the narrowish loading gauge of the original Ballycastle stock, the bridge dimensions were quite generous, allowing the (by Irish standards, huge!) ex-Ballymena & Larne corridor coaches to go to the line later on. (I'd love to have seen those carriages!). The last paragraph gave a summary of costs. These were deemed by the pen-pushers to be too much, given the likely traffic. Had the conversion been completed, the UTA would have closed it anyway. It might have bought the line a few more years, say until 1955, but that would have been that. Station nameboards were black with white letters in earlier NCC times. I think, but am not sure, that station paintwork was green and a lighter colour at one stage, and a buff colour with maroon later. In that case, it is possible that station nameboards changed to buff with maroon edging and writing. If I can dig up more on this I will post it, as I'm unaware of an NCC-era layout.

A vital beast for IRM to measure!

Interesting.... without seeing the full width of the van it's hard to tell which gauge it was. Some of the camping coaches at Ballycastle were old (broad gauge) Belfast & Northen Counties six-wheelers.

Let's see how the grant application goes before writing it off. The success, or lack of it, of this application (which I have seen) will either make or break the whole thing. Lack of volunteers in such a remote location is the major problem for this particular operation.

If there's another run, and correct UTA lining I would take one.

Do we know the origin of the van body - was it a Ballycastle van or a broad gauge one?

It's surprising just how many unusual sets of points were to be found in the past, as well as, of course, square crossings at Dundalk and Limerick junction. There were curved points at several locations, and diamond crossings, slips, and three-way points to be seen here and there. None were common, though, certainly compared with England.