jhb171achill

That is SPOT on. I spent the first 25 years of my life looking at an actual sample (with a flying snail on it; my "logo" here) on the wall in our house. That's exact, whatever shade it is.

It's not 100%, but it's not far off it either. Since a vehicle like this would rarely see a paintbrush, it would spend almost all of its life very weathered looking. Once you've applied the lining and "snails", I suspect it would look just right with mid to heavy weathering on it. The green you've used is fortuitously somewhat "flat" compared with what a newly painted vehicle would look like. That would fit very well with the above idea. Seeing it in daylight is the key to judging it. ....And you're quite correct in not using British SR green - it was nothing like the CIE shade!

While the photo shows a loco too dirty to be sure, I suspect that in UTA days it received the full lining - in such a guise, it must have looked very well. Naturally, in use, a liberal coat of filth as above is more authentic. Nice model, nice atmosphere!

Absolutely brilliant job!! Wish senior could have seen this - he got samples of the paint in the carriage shop in Inchicore for his coarse-scale 0 gauge models (long since disposed of, unfortunately...)

Your secret is entirely safe with all of us here......

It would depend on the track plan, NIR, and the use. If it was a busy passenger station, that’s one thing, but a goods yard could be a ground frame only with no signals.

The one with the 6-wheel coaches intrigues me, as the one extreme left appears to be one end of a DSER coach. The others are either Midland or GSWR. I don't think any DSER six wheelers were still about by 1960, so could that pic have been taken maybe about 1957? I don't think it's Inchicore either but I could be wrong.

Does the bird have kadees, and does it run on 21mm gauge track? The shade of orange is wrong, and the corridor connections aren't the right type........

The armoured RUC land rovers always add a very authentic touch to any northern-based layout of 1970-90!

Remember the republican and loyalist graffiti! I often imagined a 1980s-based NIR layout with one lot of graffiti on one side of the track and “themmuns” on the other!!

Jhb171Senior (whom you may remember) was a big 0 gauge man. All gone now, unfortunately, beautiful old coarse scale 1920s stuff. I could be tempted - but where to put it!

The Derry Road would be a great advantage now. The Donegal scheme though, like many similar proposals, is indeed a pipe dream, and one of the more unrealistic and unviable ones ever dreamed up!

Absolutely professional job, Ken! Yes, the profusion of grey would indeed have been less than colourful, from the mid 1910s until the mid 1970s... But we’ve gone right back to it - from orange, black and “tippex” 071s to plain grey ones!

Can you get those in 00 scale?

The postcard above is indeed a “colourised” one. The wagons would all have been plain grey in that pic, standard GSR ones. Since the loco doesn’t look to be lined, though more importantly when this line was opened, it too will be plain grey, albeit a much darker shade, looking almost black when dirty. The multicoloured wagons are a fiction for Ireland, in all of the very few places coal was handled.

Amazing place indeed, and Sean is a gentleman. Not sure if he’s into models though, but I’m sure he’d be extremely welcome here.

CIE didn’t have actual dedicated coal wagons, other than some GSR or GSWR built loco coal wagons. Out in traffic, ordinary open wagons were used - wooden bodied until early 60s, but from the late 50s the corrugated Bullied opens were used.

Yes, brake dust thrown up on the ends of the wagon. Given the lighter shade of grey used on H vans & “palvans”, it was even more apparent. But four wheeled railway vehicles were more likely to show it up.

Yes, one went to the Tramore line for bikes and prams. Ends & chassis black. Roof either black or a very dark grey. A van like this would be very heavily weathered in real life, as they rarely saw a paint brush!

Well, a van like that is absolutely appropriate for such a scenario; indeed, it's likely its the same one that was on the opening train in 1899! The livery will be well shabby by then - the light green lines in that livery were lined in thin black and gold lines, and the "snail" in gold only. The logo I use beside my name on this site is a photo of an actual flying snail transfer, so use that; the green it is mounted on is authentic Inchicore paint, as now seen on "Maedb" and various preserved buses. Ends black and roof dark grey; both weathered, though, to a nondescript dark greyish dirty colour.... Superb work.

Now that is an absolute beauty! Will it be finished in Midland, GS or CIE livery?

Absolutely superb! The clip in Mayo referred to above was, I think, between 1949 and a few years later.

RIP! It just left the Wisht Clare..... Pitt that didn’t survive (apart from Moyasta, of course)...

It was the pre-55 green, as seen today on 800 in Cultra and several preserved CIE buses. An exact sample (actual CIE paint) is on the “snail” on my logo on this site, which is a good quality (in terms of light) photo of the mounted flying snail displayed in Headhunters Railway Museum in Enniskillen. Jhb171 Senior got this done in Inchicore about sixty five years ago. Lining was the same EDN with black & gold lining, as on carriages and buses. i stand to be corrected on this, but I’m nearly sure that ends were plain unlined green, as you suggest, with the lining on sides only (despite the whole vehicle being like a biscuit tin on wheels). Carriages, on the other hand, had black ends.

I detest that term "international" that the RPSI has used for years - why not call it the "May Tour" like just about everyone does!