jhb171achill

Close enough - it was PART of the GNR with the other two, and buses!

Ah! That's 72 pints. Here, they were 88 pints! First round of drink I ever bought, about 1976, was three pints and you had change from a £1 note. 32p a pint. A night out with £5 was quite feasible. 50p to get into a night club, 32p a pint, and a burger PLUS chips on the way home 36 or 38p....

Is the premises of N Johnston there possibly that of a well known railway book publisher? See you in the Tram - it's just sixpence a pint. Up the road in Omagh it's seven pence - ridiculous. How are you supposed to live on £3 a week with that sort of thing? Hornby coaches are now nine shillings* each! (* 45p / €0.50c)

That layout captures better than any, the exact type of rural setting on so many lines in the latter half of the 20th century; perfect. Quite the atmosphere, i have to say, that I will be attempting to emulate with my current project. I'm expecting parcels from Provincial Leslie and several other eminent gentlemen shortly....

Was the old WLWR Director's Saloon (934 or 935) used as such at one time? She ended her days falling apart at Mullingar.

I think if it was me, I'd probably get a trio of LMS 0.6.0s and alter them. At a later date I'd try to add whatever I could best convert to a 4-coach AEC set.

Had I youth's blood And thoughtful mood. And heart of fire once more........

Stupid money. and it's not even steam......

Beautiful scene - the fact that they're great models is reason enough to run them anywhere!

I met James Boyd forty years ago on an Indian narrow gauge railway, and got on with him like a house on fire. He was known as a reserved, indeed prickly and extremely private individual but we had a great time - shared interest in the T & D helped greatly! Tantalisingly, many of his photos have not been catalogued, let alone published. I know who owns them now and have often offered to assist in listing them. Time, however, is of the essence...........and the current owner of them doesn't seem in a hurry. Most, of course, is of British subjects by far, and with a strong emphasis on Welsh and Manx narrow gauge, as you'd expect.

Very interesting, thanks! Imagine if the GNR, NCC and BCDR had all been one company, between them owning all the yards and dock sidings in Belfast. You could imagine them getting a class of short-wheelbase but powerful shunters from H&W....

It's a better bet than the 2.6.0. As mentioned by others, an LMS 0.6.0 probably needs least work, though I would think there are a number of 0.6.0 tender locos that could be at the very least "botched" into a reasonable approximation, and others that a more ambitious conversion would be suitable for. In your period of modelling, (1950s, if I'm not mistaken) locos of this type would have practically monopolised goods traffic, so 0.6.0s of some sort are essential. In the fifties, the NCC locos had yet to appear on the line at all.

It was indeed..... and the hotel too. This is where my parents met: she worked in the GNR's hotel, and he was the District Engineer based at the time in Enniskillen......

The "whitish" band on some A and C classes was the eau-de-nil light green. Most had this line, though many didn't. On locos without the line, such as that above, a mid-side number was included instead of a "snail".

Always single track. Despite appearances, there's not quite enough room for double track plus necessary clearances. I am unaware of any plans, even tentative, ever being made to double any line in West Cork. With just two main line trains a day in each direction, for almost all of the line's life, and no commuter service on the outskirts of the city, there never would have been any need for it.

If I went into N, those Ivatt tanks alone would tempt me towards the railways of the People's Republic of Brexit...... I'm probably in a minority here, but I thought that the BR standard designs of the 1950s were very attractive. Did yiz know; the BR designs owe at least something to Inchicore. In the dying days of jhb171VerySenior's time at Inchicore (he retired in January 1945, 2 weeks into CIE), a deputation of LMS engineers were received as visitors. Seniorx2 himself had been with GSR delegations during his career, to Dahhby, (in Dahhbyshaaa in Brexitland) and also Dundalk and York Road. It would be an exaggeration by far to say that they spent their time on "jollies" like nowadays, but occasionally visits were made to discuss engineering and locomotive design matters of mutual importance. The LMS visit set the tone for several more visits in the late 40s and early 50s, when BR engineers from all four constituent companies were putting their heads together to come up with what would become the BR "standard" designs. I was told that several features used routinely by Inchicore were, as a result, incorporated into the BR designs. Unfortunately I don't know what they were, though I think that there was something to do with cab layout as one.

In UTA days they'd probably both have been galvanised silver/grey, heavily stained with coal smoke!

That NER 0.6.0 could, with a little alteration, be a basis for a reasonable MGWR J18 lookalike, while one of the Bachmann railcar sets looks very NIR-CAF-ish.

A little bit of adjustment to the front running plate, and a simple job on the cab and its a reasonable approximation, certainly! I've seen very convincing conversions of Fairbairn tanks to NCC "WT" class.

The water tower was an interesting one, with both broad and narrow gauge sides to it. Not too many of those about....Ballymena, Ballymoney...anywhere else? Ennis, possibly?

No, he had the other one. When they do that or short-change, I never give them a tip the whole night. In Dublin a pint can be anything from €4 to €6.80.....!

Both black Both white top Both "G" Perfection.

Now THAT would have been a sight to see!!!!

Top class. I love the faded and scruffy look of the green paintwork - exactly as I remember it in Westland Row, Amiens St, Strabane, Lisburn, Great Victoria Street and so on in the early 1960s! I'll never forget being taken up into signal cabins by jhb171Senior who knew most of the signalmen. There was always a smell of coal smoke from the crackling coal fire, and the teapot simmered on the hearth. The shiny brown lino floors and the bell codes, then the signalman lifts his cloth, wraps it round the levels, and crash! crash! crash! the signals and points are set for whatever's coming. Moments later, smoke drifts past the window as an unidentified, and filthy, steam engine passes underneath..... good memories... I think I've told this story before, but on one occasion in Kildare cabin (they were never "boxes" back then!) the usual clatter of bells and levers and "one of the new engines" came roaring through. It was, I think, a 141 straight out of the Murphy Models box, with a long rake of a motley collection of green carriages behind it. The very last, or second last, was black'n'tan. jhb171Senior: "Oh! Is that the new carriage livery?" Signalman (sounding unimpressed): "Yeah...... ye'd think we'd seen the last of the black and tans......"! Incidentally, if anyone is interested, visits may be arranged to both of the cabins at Downpatrick for photographing, measuring, etc.

I suppose that fifty years' neglect hasn't helped, Tony. Lisburn station survived intact, as did the road underdridges near Lambeg, which are the oldest railway bridges in Ireland, dating from the Ulster Railway Company. And - they're made of sandstone, which is about as durable as custard for making bridges with! Omagh was a fine station building, as was Strabane; it would be nice if they had survived even if no longer in railway use.