jhb171achill

WOW!! That is seriously good quality stuff.... well done! Great to see authentic goods rolling stock with a steam loco.

More boring railcars...........!! 185, 80 class, ICR, 2700, CAF......wadddever... Like Leslie, I'm a steam person! The thing that strikes me above is the "transdev" word. The idea of Irish railways going down the chronically inefficient and costly privatisation path as in the United Kingdom of Brexit......... doesn't bear thinking about. watch reliability plummet and process soar, as the money is generated from fares to pay fat cat bosses and boards of directors in other countries, with fat salaries. If fares don't cover it, sure the generous taxpayer will assist.

I'm coming late to this thread as I was away all month.... that is a superb job - is it entirely scratchbuilt? What chassis will you use?

I would agree with murrayec. Depends what you want to shunt, I suppose, but with only two sidings, shunting opportunities are limited to virtually nothing......just back and forth. When space is very limited (as with me, too), compromises have to be made!

Good thinking...... yes, I know someone who got an English one recently for “a good price”, though I dunno what he paid. The black is easily weathered to the more authentic grey, though I think at least one was black towards the end. The non-authentic yellow snail can be obscured or replaced easily enough. Was thinking of getting one myself at some stage. Nice locos.

Pre-1955 darker green or post-1955 lighter green?

Toddler plus layout = nightmare! How much are these things nowadays? Good price ye got! (Btw N class was English - K class to us... )

Really? That’s a shame.....

Interesting! Wonder where that stuff is now..... I could never stand yer man on Nationwide with his absolutely ghastly stuck-up BBC-style contrived accent - like Jean Elocution-Lesson-Gone-Wrong Byrne who reads the weather.... aaaarrrrrgggghhh

Red bubbles?

Very interesting thread. I would be inclined to go for one of the above theories other than a loco roundhouse, due to space at least. Since roundhouses were so rare in Ireland, I can’t help thinking that’s its highly unlikely that the existence of one would go unnoticed by some of our most eminent railway historians over the years. If there ever was one, I would think it was in early Dublin & Drogheda days and didn’t last long....

Definitely a railway locomotive boiler.

Count me in!

The green and red coloured upholstery (1st & 2nd class) mentioned in the 1960s had disappeared by, at a wild guess, about 1970/2. The dark charcoal grey with blue fleck became almost universal, though the Loughrea coach had light brown plastic “leather”, and I seem to recall some old laminates with light greyish blue, like Dublin buses. It’s important to note that NONE of the RPSI or DCDR carriages have upholstery which is like the original. A few are roughly similar, but most including those shown above are completely different, with even base colours as different as painting a model ICR in NCC maroon with yellow wheels and a tartan roof!

That's the trouble with ebay, Colin! I had a look among jhb171Senior's stuff, and there's nothing from Stranorlar that's "off the beaten track" as such. For the times he travelled on the CDR, he didn't take many pictures, unfortunately.

This might be of interest.... https://www.ebay.ie/itm/STRANORLAR-RAILWAY-STATION-CO-DONEGAL-RAILWAY-IRELAND-IRISH-POSTCARD-No-863-2/223314446398?hash=item33fe94083e:g:XB0AAOSwxSZbufBt:rk:21:pf:0

If anyone is still looking for a copy of this excellent tome, I believe the RPSI still has one or two copies for sale.

I very much like the idea of different periods of use. That's what I'm trying to do too - a layout that "never changed until closure" and eventually a complete set of locos and coaches to cover the early to late 50s, the 1957-64 period, and mid 60s to mid 70s,. A model of Sambo would be nice! An E class, too, perhaps?

True, John, but what I meant was that the "urban myth" suggests that the tender 186 is with now was "off" a 400 class loco, i.e. built for a 400 specifically. As you suggest, a lot of interchangeability was the norm, but this thing would have been paired with J15s and other odds and ends of 0.6.0 or 4.4.0 classes. Quite possibly, a 400 met it at some stage.

The story of the 400 class tender with 186 is one of the old "Whitehead Myths" like the idea that the GNR in Dundalk "just went down to the local shop and bought what blue paint they had"...... The tender was used with other J15s occasionally and would have come from some old 0.6.0. And yes, there have indeed been RPSI modifications over the years. That's a genuine Farranfore, Coleraine & Western Railway conservatory. They were fitted with jacuzzis after 1904.

Yes, I’ve been following railway artefact prices for forty years, buying and selling the odd thing. Prices on eBay for such stuff - including tickets and photos - are grossly overpriced far more often than bargain-based. The IRRS archive contains much stuff, but it’s only open on Tuesday nights, so research really requires time spent in Dublin.

I see the copyright is one James Payne. It’s not a new photo - it appeared in Dr. Patterson’s Definitive history of the CDR which was published about 1969 or so. I wonder where the rest of his collection went?

Colin, did you ask the IRRS for any unusual views?

Now THAT comment I LIKE! ”much more new stuff”! Yippeeee! Where’s me credit card?

Superb! Well done and well deserved!