jhb171achill

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 I'm unaware of any definitive information as to when the last Midland van was withdrawn, though I'm unaware of any being in traffic after maybe the late 50s.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 I'm unaware of any definitive information as to when the last Midland van was withdrawn, though I'm unaware of any being in traffic after maybe the late 50s.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!

RIP

Depends on whether we want to risk offending "girth-challenged" citizens....... (hmmmm, me!)

Exactly. Notwithstanding all the above, this is why for certain of us oul fogeys, railway interest came to an abrupt halt about 1972! OK, I'll just finish watching the bluebottle in the nursing home window, and get me coat...........!

Pretty clearly, cattle trucks and horse boxes are essential aspects of a pre-1965 layout - in some areas up to pre-75. In other words, before and during the entirety of the grey’n’green and black’n’tan eras. Certainly in the case of cattle trucks, just as essential as a corrugated open wagon, a J15, a 141 and an “H” van. Now for a Midland six-wheeler!

That’s a perfect line to model for a rural feel, and as you say absolutely J15 country. Good luck with the project!

The BCDR were also keen on lattice posts.

Tis indeed - it has big gantries on it when in use. A very heavily- built thing; great modelling project for someone with 9 days a week, 28 hours a day to spare! There was a whole train of special vehicles.

That survivor was a Midland wagon - probably the last such in service (or existence, anyway).

I must consult jhb171Senior's photos of Enniskillen.....and the NCC..... The SLNCR, and nearby Donegal railways, had all manner of oddball signals, some very home-made looking. I recall seeing two photos of strange looking shortish posts on signals on the Cavan and Leitrim somewhere.

The GNR used the telegraph pole types alongside "square" ones, in many locations. Mostly, telegraph pole ones were out'n'about, with "square" ones mostly in stations - but this was not exclusive.

Very much so. In the 32 counties, square (and the occasional lattice) were absolutely the norm always. CIE introduces the round versions which started becoming common on the CIE network in the 1960s, when (also) the reflective surfaces started replacing red (NOT orange) and white paint on homes, and yellow and black paint on distants. Lower quadrant signals were universal (whereas upper were in Britain usually), with the NCC alone using lower quadrant “Somersault” types.

Correct, and I agree totally. If there’s some way of contacting them I can give them some old timetables of the line.

Are we talking about bolster type bogies here, or short wheelbase flat trucks? I was referring to the former.

As with other wagons, anything brown would have been a post-1970 repaint. And cattle ended in 1975.

I'm unaware of any on 5'3" or narrow gauge...... I doubt it very much. There never was a huge forestry industry here, as far as rail was concerned, until comparatively recently.

Probably a quarter of the fleet, maybe more, got the all-brown livery, but most stayed grey till the end. I saw a line of them in Cork about 1975/6 and a few still had flying snail stencils. Naturally, none ever had the dreaded black chassis or white roof!

First pic: in the far right distance, I wonder what is that contraption of a road (?) vehicle? Second pic: there's one of those gunpowder vans in Cultra..... (incorrectly painted, of course!) Excellent pics, most interesting. That long wheelbase "accommodation van" was still in use on lifting trains in the early 1960s.