jhb171achill

Vote early and vote often!

Nice! Bear in mind the colour scheme on the oft-seen model of Carlow station displays the modern IE colour scheme of cream and grey. In the 1990s it was red, white and blue; while in the 70s / early 80s, it was white, black and two shades of grey. Prior to that; from the dawn of time (GSR, early CIE) into the 1960s, cream with leaf green door frames and white glazing bars.

In the late 1960s / early 70s, it was about ten shillings (50p) a gallon. Pre Feb 71, prices in shillings and pence. After that, when decimalisation did away with the shilling, which was 12 old pennies, or 5p, it became 50p a gallon. Litres were many years later.

Her hair is the wrong shade of livery!

I bubbled. Good luck, gentlemen; an award would be well deserved and also assist in the launch of your narrow gauge endeavours in the People's Republic of Brexit!

I'm looking forward to the scenic side of it. I had a great meeting with baseboard Dave today (thank you very much for your time, Mr. L!), and we discussed the whole project in detail. Understandably, he is very busy and actual construction won't start immediately, but the collection of rolling stock will. David Holman, yes, I hear you! - and it had occurred to me to maybe base a terminus on something like Glenties (SHORTER Donegal railcars!) or Ballyshannon. It would run on 00 gauge track and the model would be an appropriate scale to use it as 3ft gauge. However, Railcars 12-20 would need a fair sized turntable and running them backwards wouldn't be an option. Another one on that scale might be one of the mine offshoots of the Ballymena, Cushendall & Red Bay Railway; a couple of converted Isle of Man tanks and a few short wheelbase coal trucks - the passenger train being a twice-daily one-carriage affair. However, what I'm focussing on now will resemble Westport Quay in some details, and Valentia* Harbour in others. The idea is that of a "branch off a branch" extension. Perusal of old timetables shows that Valentia was operated more as a shuttle from Cahirciveen, where the main train terminated, while Baltimore was operated as a further extension of the main line train which went only as far as Skibbereen. Equally, Westport Quay traffic tended to operate only to and from Westport Station. The idea here is to allow very short trains in a terminus setting which is way smaller (and thus shorter) than most - while retaining absolute authenticity. If Murphy Models ever get around to doing a RTR horse, Fintona would fit this bill absolutely exactly. One might allow a little licence here, and assume the GNR pogrom never happened, and Fintona survived until, say, 1968. Had that happened, it would almost certainly very quickly have become just a goods siding, as freight into the town was still quite busy; but had a passenger service been retained, just watch UTA buy the Sligo Leitrim railcar from CIE, or transfer in a double ended thing like NCC 1 or that old GNR Gardner car which used to do the Derry - Strabane locals. It looks, thus, as if this year will be spent gathering locos and rolling stock. The eventual idea is that there will be three separate sets of locos and rolling stock. One will span the 1940-50 period, all steam, with older wagons, many cattle, and convertible "soft-tops". Half a dozen six wheelers, maybe a few each in GSR maroon and original dark CIE green, will fulfil the passenger requirements. Another set of stuff will utilise some of these, but Park Royals, laminates, McAllister "H" Vans and "C" class diesels appear. Tin van heaven... Finally, a motley collection of maybe nothing more than one each laminate of several types, a Craven, Park Royal, Bredin and an stray old GNR K15, a three-car Worsley AEC set (LONG term!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and along come the 121s and 141s; this lot all black'n'tan. Don't hold your breath folks; Rome was never built in a day, and the above will take a good while to build up. There will be wallet-related matters to consider too, of course, plus hopefully successful applications to the Dept. of Domestic Planning, Tidiness, and Fiscal Approval..... The major card I have to play in my planning applications is this: 12.01 Please describe the major benefit of said application for the Construction and Housing of a Layout to the overall domestic economy, with particular reference to the back of the upstairs sitting room. It'll keep him off the streets It will keep me occupied, thus preserving peace and quiet downstairs. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (Administrative use only. Please do not write below this line) Decision: Application Granted. M'lud, I rest me case. I'm off for a cup of tea. Over'n'out. (* The GSWR, GSR and CIE almost invariably called it Valencia).

Ok, Phil, maybe you might pm me with details? Many thanks!

I'm looking for a couple of these, if anyone wants to sell one or two each of the heating van and the luggage van.

It tried to give me the option to "open in a spreadsheet".... ????????????? In truth, Bantree, you can never weather anything too much. Pavements, fenceposts, buildings, sheds, track, ground surfaces, locos and rolling stock in REAL life are ALWAYS weathered. Tha building looks fantastic. Look at any layout that strikes you as especially realistic scenery-wise, or in respect of the trains running, and I'll guarantee you that weathering has been liberally applied to everything. For those aspiring to accuracy, it's actually a much underrated aspect of our hobby, I think.

At last, a new year and a new layout, after a gap of many years with a garden railway dismantled some 6 years ago, and the Austrian 009 in boxes for longer. I'm really starting from scratch here, and plan to show bits and pieces as this develops. It truly is at start stage now, as all i have are two coach kits, a signal cabin kit, a 141 and a J15. The layout will be based on an imaginary GSWR outer terminus, something like Valentia Harbour, inspired by Westport Quay, Baltimore, and the like. The idea is that there's a long branch from somewhere civilised, where the Dublin trains arrive, and this outer outpost was probably built in 1890 with thoroughly unrealistic expectations as to how busy it would become! Result - it's become a backwater off a backwater, surviving only because of beet and maybe (like Westport Quay) to bring an oil tank full of diesel for CIE buses down every so often. It's the mid 60s, and the line hasn't long left - it will eventually succumb to the 1967 round of closures which killed the Mallow-Waterford and Thurles-Clonmel lines. That's the setting. I had agonised for quite some time as to whether to resurrect my 009 stuff, as German and Austrian narrow gauge has always been a big interest of mine. Using 9mm gauge would have allowed a significantly sized terminus for long distance trains - a Corris-type thing with a few tiny slate wagons was never of much interest to me personally. On the other hand, as Leslie, Murphys, SSM and others here brought out more and more "proper" Irish stuff, I became tempted. Trouble was, like so many others here, space was at a premium, and the only way to do a "round-and-round" 00 gauge was to go into the garage. This place is used by daughter's car, so it would be necessary to have it on some sort of electric hoist when the car was in. After some consultation with one of our experts here, it became clear that this is only going to happen when i win the Euromillions. Since I don't buy tickets, I have to concede that this is unlikely to happen any time soon. So it was back into the house. A chance conversation with someone in the 009 Society (of which I am a member) suggested selling the lot of Austrian stuff - in fact, I advertised them here too. I am also a member of the Austrian Railway Group, and I advertised them there too. So it was back to the area once reserved for an 009 layout. It became clear that a shunting / fiddle yard layout is all that's possible here, so there it is; the genesis for the idea. What it will lack in operational possibilities (in terms of a continuous run and terminus shunting), it will hopefully make up for in other ways. Small outer termini like those referred to above tended not to change much through their lives. We see Arigna Road, Bantry and so on - you could put stock dating from typical scenes in the 1930s there, and 1960s, and neither would look out of place. Thus, to provide interest, I intend to eventually have a set of stock around 1945 (GSR maroon gives way to CIE dark green era), another set to deal with mid to late fifties; this allows laminates, early diesels and Park Royals to appear, and by degrees, we're out of the grey'n'green era into the black'n'tan. So what it lacks in operational variety, it will hopefully make up for in rolling stock interest. Things like J15s and six-wheeled coaches will span all of these periods, as will many wagons. I'm currently in discussions with Baseboard Dave and others - updates will be posted as things develop during the year. I post this initially as I'm aware that there are others here with issues about space, and thoughts on how to deal with it. I did consider N gauge, but until and unless there are a good range of high quality kits, or better still, RTR stuff, this isn't going to happen for either myself or many others. Maybe, in ten years time, there will be enough N stuff - for example, one might expect 3D printing to improve drastically in quality, but we'll see. I intend to have this finished to a high exhibition standard and displayed. But that won't happen overnight, and will involve me perusing in great detail the scenic works of a number of maestros, like the Holmans of Arigna, for example.

Tis a mountain railway, Broithe.......!

I'm no expert on buses, so I seek guidance. Current layout in preparation involves a rural location mid fifties to mid sixties. So a double decker with "Drimnagh" or "46A" on the destination blind won't cut the mustard! The old half-cab single deckers in rural areas - were they P class? - where would I get two 00 scale models of these, one in CIE green and one in red and cream; also an E class as seen in late 1960s in rural locations?

Got it! But it won't download..... keeps going on about loading it into Dropbox, then nothing happens.....

Draught Bushmills!! It's your round, Leslie, and everyone's invited!

Now that I've mastered the dark arts of uploading pictures on something that isn't steam-powered, the attached is ACTUAL GSWR / GSR / CIE loco grey. The model was made by HJA, i.e. Jhb171Snr.Snr., about 1915, not exactly sure when. It's "0" gauge coarse scale, and unpowered. He graduated from making this model to doing the draughtsman-work for the 800 class! 186, as presently seen at Whitehead, is in this livery, and apart from the fact that they've deliberately let the smokebox get "blacker", in a thoroughly misguided attempt to make it look "more normal", the shade is absolutely correct. Lets hope they never repaint it black, as the RPSI had it some years ago - completely unauthentically. For those interested in correct grey as seen under all three administrations 1915/8 - 1963, the attached should be of interest. I have deliberately shown the model both in full light and shadow. As you can see, the grey is in between wagon grey and extremely dark grey. I might add to the above that Seniorx2 took a small jamjar into work with him one day, went to the paint shop and filled it. Several locos were in for painting. Senior recalled seeing, on a single occasion, a J15 sitting outside the paint shop at Inchicore with the paint hardly dry. Unusually, it was in noticeably lighter wagon grey all over. Probably a bit like an 071 today. Once in use, it wouldn't have looked too pristine for very long!

I was told this in the mid 1970s while on a CIE "Runabout" ticket in Tralee. I had arrived behind an "A", three laminates and a tin heating van, probably one of the last in service. The yard was busy with another "A" shunting in preparation for the up goods. All loose-coupled, mostly "H" vans. i went walkabout to explore the still very much intact T & D station, Basin Halt and Blennerville station - all intact, though Blennerville was roofless. Basin was by now a well cared for house, but the platform (full height if I remember correctly; highly unusual for Irish narrow gauge and unique on this system) was still there. I met a man who walked with me much of the way. He had been s track worker on the T & D, later in the "broad gauge" station. He recounted a summer evening about 1940, just after he started on the railway, obviously by this stage under GSR auspices. Sadly, though I'm glad to say practically uniquely, he had a poor opinion of Americans. (How VERY wrong he was!). When he started on the railway, passenger services had ceased only about nine months earlier, and the railway still LOOKED as if it catered for them - especially with a rake of maroon passenger stock parked in the station just opposite the platform. Our friend and his colleagues were carrying out routine maintenance work on the platform road and run round loop. By now, there was but one goods train per day to Dingle; the two daily passenger trains were history. A well dressed American enters the station and approaches our track-fixing friend. "Say, buddy, I was told this is the railroad station. I'm looking to travel to Dingle. Do you work here?" (The answers to all of the above were quite obvious). "Yes". .....Pause.... "Say, how long does it take by train?" "Lasht time I was on it, a couple hours". "Oh, ok, I didn't realise it took that long...." "Ah but sure the express is quicker". "There's an express? How long does that take?" "Jusht twenty five minutes", said the heavy Kerry accent. "But it's away now. Ye'd be better coming back tomorrow".... The American gentleman thanked him and left.... He never saw him again.

I was told this in the mid 1970s while on a CIE "Runabout" ticket in Tralee. I had arrived behind an "A", three laminates and a tin heating van, probably one of the last in service. The yard was busy with another "A" shunting in preparation for the up goods. All loose-coupled, mostly "H" vans. I went walkabout to explore the still very much intact T & D station, Basin Halt and Blennerville station - all intact, though Blennerville was roofless. Basin was by now a well cared for house, but the platform (full height if I remember correctly; highly unusual for Irish narrow gauge and unique on this system) was still there. I met a man who walked with me much of the way. He had been s track worker on the T & D, later in the "broad gauge" station. He recounted a summer evening about 1940, just after he started on the railway, obviously by this stage under GSR auspices. Sadly, though I'm glad to say practically uniquely, he had a poor opinion of Americans. (How VERY wrong he was!). When he started on the railway, passenger services had ceased only about nine months earlier, and the railway still LOOKED as if it catered for them - especially with a rake of maroon passenger stock parked in the station just opposite the platform. Our friend and his colleagues were carrying out routine maintenance work on the platform road and run round loop. By now, there was but one goods train per day to Dingle; the two daily passenger trains were history. A well dressed American enters the station and approaches our track-fixing friend. "Say, buddy, I was told this is the railroad station. I'm looking to travel to Dingle. Do you work here?" (The answers to all of the above were quite obvious). "Yes". .....Pause.... "Say, how long does it take by train?" "Lasht time I was on it, a couple hours". "Oh, ok, I didn't realise it took that long...." "Ah but sure the express is quicker". "There's an express? How long does that take?" "Jusht twenty five minutes", said the heavy Kerry accent. "But it's away now. Ye'd be better coming back tomorrow".... The American gentleman thanked him and left.... He never saw him again.

You too, sir!

Does it do railway stuff?

Where did you get the Gaelic script font for the nameboard on the signal cabin? It's spot on - most modern Irish fonts are nothing like what the GSR used on those enamel signs.

Leslie, it's NY Day. So - the bubbles you speak of - are they in a champers bottle, or do they run on rails? A very happy and successful New Year to you, by the way!

Tis actually a true story..... the man who told me this was a reliable oul shtick. Passed away in the 1970s.

Me on the Falling-Down Lotion now... I found the pic below and decided to see to see if I could attach it the right way up on this new version of the website - in preparation to looking for the GSWR grey one.... Tis a scandal that not ONE main line loco has been preserved in working order today in Spain. Unless, hopefully, someone can correct me? There was one in the recent sat, but it's grounded now. Imagine this broad gauge yoke in full cry! Magnificent!

Lisburn, about 1943. The second world war is in full party mode, and the American forces are based near Aldergrove Airport. The GNR and the N. I. Government and US officials are liasing at very top level with London with regard to construction of their air base there - always extremely conscious of German or German-sympathetic spies out'n'about. A train load of sand is organised from Belfast docks to Aldergrove late in the evening. Such is the secrecy, the crew are not told until the last minute that they are needed for a "special", and there is no mention in any circular or notice. Dunmurry and Lisburn cabins are notified by telephone, not long before the train leaves Adelaide, where the loco has been serviced. The instructions from the high command are that this train is to be given absolute priority over everything else, with the last down "Enterprise" held for a short while at Goraghwood or Portadown or somewhere on its way north, and local trains swept aside. It is to go non-stop; a loose coupled train of some 30 wagons of sand with a brake van at the end. (I'm not sure what the loco was, but it certainly wasn't one of the faceless blue tin cans of today!). The train enters the back platform at Lisburn, and finds a red signal against it. Within a few moments, the arm has dropped and the train has the road, but not before it's stopped momentarily. The driver is a little heavy handed, having been on the soup in Belfast before being told hurriedly that he had to take the train. He yanks the couplings, and off one of them comes off - on the loco tender! The loco coupling is also damaged. Shock, horror and panic. Up to the signal cabin goes the fireman, and a hurried phone call is made to Adelaide for another locomotive. As the fireman returns to the loco, he sees the driver walking, somewhat unsteadily, along the platform, with the guard, who is his drinking buddy. "We're going for one over the road in the Robin's Nest" they say. "Look after the engine!". The fireman returns to the footplate. Meanwhile, in the station, all hell breaks loose. The Traffic Department are already through their third change of undergarments in Belfast as the US Military authorities are shouting blue murder about where the train is. They try to calm the situation. The signalman tells them that the crew are attending to a "small matter" on the locomotive. "WHAT SMALL MATTER!!!!!!" the Americans, and Traffic Department want to know. After what seems like an eternity, the relief loco appears, and the arriving crew switch to the cripple to take it back to Adelaide. The leading coupling of the leading wagon is also damaged, so the decision is taken to shunt the train and take one wagon off. The fireman is sent to get the driver and guard. The guard is well oiled in the bar, while the driver is way off course, frolicking in the meadows with the Sweetie Mice and barely able to stand. He's put away about six pints on top of what he already had before getting onto the engine in Belfast! They assist him across the road, and get him onto his engine. The crew of the other loco assist. He sits down on the coal in the tender and wants to sleep. They manage to rouse him and persuade him to sit, somehow, perched, on the driver's seat. A quick conference discusses whether the fireman is happy to try to take the train up the branch on his own. No signal checks, he's told, and just keep the speed slow. The plan is made. The cold night air summons some sort of coherence into the driver, who decides he can drive after all. The rest of them suggest he has a cup of tea in the van, or something like that, but the fireman doesn't want to be alone at the front. They prop the driver up and he just sits there, a stupified look on his face. Meanwhile, the phones are on fire, and Captain Mainwaring is going purple and having Advanced Fits of the Multiple Conniptions, Collywobbles, Advanced Hysterical Murmurings and Screaming Fits. So is Col. Uncle Sam Chuck Elmer Sanders III Jnr. from Minnesota, at his desk in Aldergrove. The driver of the other locomotive, who has done most of the shunting, prepares to take the cripple back to Belfast. As he passes the fireman of the sand train, now on his own footplate, he yells across to him, "Say Nathin'!"

You took, Heirflick! Have a good one!