jhb171achill

Once the 10:40 mixed from Ballysomewhere rolls in! Hopefully not far away.

Is that the original train shed roof? I agree that the GNR line would have been better - more hinterland, and Omagh could have fed in traffic from even as far as Enniskillen. While freight would have still gone, it's tempting to think that the Derry / Donegal traffic would have lasted longer and been heavier with Strabane as an interchange. The former CDR narrow gauge station, if levelled, would have provided ample ground for a container yard. Local traffic Derry - Omagh might have been a little more feasible too. And 171, 461 or 4 with an RPSI set on the Carrickmore bank???? Strabane and Omagh would at one stage have been familiar to 071, 141 and 181 classes... maybe 121s too..... (Idea for layout: Strabane, 1995?)

My understanding is that there had been a view within IE for some time that having the Galway line as a "brand" might assist in generating tourist traffic, and possibly local too. This seems to have developed when they had the BREL "International" set - possibly the most comfortable carriages ever to run in modern times. The livery was supposedly based on the influence of the yellow bits on the 201s (which, personally, I thought was hideous), and continental practice with class numbers higher up beside doors, rather than lower down on them. This would become the "branded" Galway stuff, the logic would seem to go. A full set of Galway Mk 2s looked quite well when new and clean, but they seem to have deteriorated - possibly because the administration were running down Mk 2 stock anyway.

Yes, they were the only type of coaches painted thus. They were initially intended for the Galway line but they ended up appearing in other places too, and they got mixed up with coaches in “ordinary” livery. I saw one (and a very grubby example at that) at Heuston in the consist of a Westport train.

That looks right indeed. Ii suspect there were differences here and there. Undeniably, the one above is gated. I do believe though, but can't (yet!) prove either way, that some were open. Possibly not initially, but latterly. A gated one couldn't have been in order to fill it up, as all the coal would have spilled on the track when you opened it - that's IF you could open it with the force of the coal against it - unlikely. In MGWR day's station paintwork and ironwork was "post office" red and cream, or possibly a light buff beige colour. Station building interiors (MGWR) were mid brown lower, cream upper. Once the GSR took over, green and pale cream inside and out. In the interiors only, booking office or waiting room walls were green to waist height, cream above, with a 1 inch black line separateing them. No black line externally. I think SLNCR buildings were always a dark leaf green with very pale grey / white. I've no idea what the internal station colours were on the SLNCR, but I think possibly green also. If doors to coal bunkers were painted, and they almost certainly would have been initially, they would certainly have been all rusty and grimy internally. In Midland days, I can't see them painting any if these red - maybe black? I don't know. Rust would seem a good idea, perhaps!

Love the Portadown roundhouse! Superb. I remember UTA steam well!

Exactly - so that they can whine about the cost of retaining it for annual three trains; this will be taken as justification to close it. They've been using this trick for sixty years.....

And is the track REALLY so worn out that it needs to be closed entirely and lifted? With a service of two trains a year, and lengthy closures? One wonders how long it will be closed. I hope someone who is better informed than I can come on here and give credible reasons why this, and the Junction - Waterford line, have to have so many bustitutions; and can any reassurance be given that IE, and Shane Ross-Bus, are NOT determined, absolutely determined, to undermine any focus on getting more people to use it.....

Years ago, I travelled all round India and Java, chasing operational steam of course. I have often tried to find any site (or models) dealing with Indian railways, in particular a metre gauge YP or YG class model, or anything steam era PJKA (Indonesia). No joy. Any ideas?

Must delve..... I think I took a pic of it some years ago. It’s still intact.

I can't place a source, but I've seen a pic somewhere which shows coal just stacked up inside one with no doors. Whether this was typical - and I suspect it probably was - I don't know for certain. Perusal of the one at Clifden might give the answer.

You mean the original wooden buildings? They're actually a good bit older. The utilitarian-looking shelter in the pic with the MPD railcar is a mixture - much older pillars and supports but 1960s roof & awning. When the narrow gauge went, few changes took place for over a decade, but once they disposed of goods traffic (1965), they had the usual UTA "rationalisation"....!

That's OK, saw it on your other pic showing the board. Just interested to see what the van was!

Interested in that photo showing the loco about to leave (into the tunnel) with a van behind it. Can you show this? Where did the photo come from?

Same as loco tenders.... One of the photos above shows the "wrong way round snail" on the driver's side.

Not sure, but it certainly looked better in the 1950s!

I think most of them were removed after goods traffic ceased in 1965. To Johannes again: Re-reading your original post, I note that your period is 1950s, and I forgot to mention initially that this is easier to model. If you are in there before it's railcar-time, there are actually more options with ready-or-nearly-ready-to-run. You can buy various types of English LMS coaches, both steel and (mostly) wood-panelled, which are as near as anything to NCC types. get them IN actual LMS livery, which was the same as the NCC, except for lettering. You won't even have to worry about crests on them, as most post-war carriage repaints didn't carry the LMS crest. If there's someone who does "LMS NCC" transfers of a suitable scale, that will cover a lot. By 1951, you're looking at roughly half the carriages in LMS maroon, and half newly repainted into the UTA's dark green. It's possible to get 00 scale UTA crests (the pre-1960 "roundel" or "red hand" type). Wagons - Leslie's "brown vans" - you'll need a lot of these for your parcels traffic! Some in bauxite brown with NCC markings, some in plain UTA green. Any oul open wagons will do, and you can buy LMS shade wagon grey from Humbrol or whatever they're called now. Locomotives - there's bound to be a British 0.6.0 which will approximate to an NCC 0.6.0 (X class, I think). LMS 4.4.0s can be altered to look like an NCC"U2" class. If there's ever a RTR "Jeep", buy six - yes. it'll be well worth selling your car. (Ye listening, Pat?) You'd need a "boat train" of NCC corridor stock, plus a couple of three to four coach local trains, of old wooden bodied stock.

That's the one, David - fairly standard Midland structure. The one at Clifden survives complete (as does Achill).

The Midland tended to build to last, and had the Belmullet line existed, you're looking at a platform-level bunker adjacent to the water tower (as opposed, usually, to a water column), made of cut stone with brick edging. Examples at Clifden. Achill, Killala, Loughrea, would be good models to replicate. Can't recall right now, but it was probably the same at Athboy, Killeshandra and Ballinrobe.

The station plans, or some of them, may possibly be in the IRRS collection in Dublin. If they aren't there, I'd say you'd be relying on photos. In any event, it's unlikely you'd have room for the entire complex of all buildings made to scale. On most layouts, buildings are scaled down to at least some extent. Those colour 1960s photos are great!

Johannes, you ask what colour stations were painted then. Woodwork was a darkish leaf green an cream, or occasionally darkish leaf green and a very light grey. Doorframes, window frames and doors darker green. Station nameboards yellow with black letters. Ironwork of gutters same dark green, downpies too. Metal supports for, say, notice boards or station name-boards, black or dark grey usually. Sometimes cream colou with bottom half-metre black. If you had any small corrugated iron huts at the lineside, these were usually light grey painted, possibly with lack at bottom near ground level.

It is indeed a crazy price for those. However, even then the design of those carriages is nothing like the one train set here that ran in that livery. OK for a "fantasy" layout - I don't know what level of accuracy you would prefer to go for - but as suggested above a kit-build would be needed for total accuracy. Maybe one or two of those coaches might pop up on fleabay individually some other time?

WOW! SO realistic - excellent. I am always greatly in awe of your scenic skills!

Hello Johannes, and welcome. You ask about authenticity of models for Larne Harbour. It depends on what period you are modelling. From the mid-1950s, passenger multiple units have monopolised, with locomotives rarer. General goods traffic ended by 1965, but parcels traffic was retained, sometimes in container wagons, on into the 1980s. If you want a pre-1950 scenario, the dual narrow gauge track is essential - you don't have to have narrow gauge models, though! Steam engines were supreme. You can amend several British (LMS) prototypes to make a decent approximation of the standard 2.6.4T tanks engines which operated on the line. Equally, an LMS 4.4.0 can approximate, or be amended to, a "U2" class 4.4.0. Few other steam engines were ever seen there after 1950. Bachmann do several LMS (English) coaches which are very very similar to several NCC prototypes, so steam-hauled carriages won't be a problem. In terms of wagons, Provincial Wagons and SSM do several wagons which might have gone there - an occasional CIE "H" van - VERY occasional - might have worked into there between about 1958 and 1965. Provincial's GNR goods brake van would suit, in extremely dirty condition. Ballast trains and (poetic licence?) the UTA / NIR's "spoil trains" might make an appearance (1967-70). Other than that, the big challenge is passenger stock. In the 1950s, 60s, 70s and early 80s, the various MPD railcars reigned supreme. There's no way round scratch-building these, as hardly two were alike! Then, from 1974, the 80 class railcars would monopolise all services, with the assistance of the ghastly "Castle Class" sets, until about ten years ago. Nowadays, the CAF railcars - a half-reasonable approximation can be had by a repaint of some British prototypes - don't ask me, as I'm not a "modern railcar person"! But I've seen some models which look very convincing. The NIR "Hunslet" locos would hardly ever have turned up in Larne, and when they did only with maintenance trains. The same is true of the three NIR "111" (or 071) types. You could employ another bit of "poetic licence" and have a Hunslet (there's a kit somewhere) with a three-coach push/pull Mk 2 set. The very last time I travelled behind a Hunslet was in the early 1990s with 101 pushing a three-coach Mk 2 set on a suburban all-stops from Central to Lisburn. Such a set could have gone to Larne at that time. Nothing to stop the odd RPSI train turning up. Maybe a set of RPSI Mk 2s and a "preserved" steam engine? Hope this is useful.

An aside - years ago, I was discussing with jhbSenior what times he travelled that line. Was there a "C" class on the train? --- "Not at all. It was a "J" class". (Translated meaning "what on earth would I want to go in a diesel train for?") "What type of carriage was it" --- "An old GSWR bogie". "What sort of upholstery had it?" (Me being always interested in colours / liveries) -- "No idea. I always went on the footplate...."