jhb171achill

As a big fan of Austrian narrow gauge, I'm watching this one with great interest!

“Ye put a SHILLING on that thing? Sure it’s as lame as hell! It came second last at Ascot, did ye know that?” ”Listen, Sally’s brother says it’s a guaranteed winner, an’ I only had a shilling - I’d have put a pound on it if I could!” ”Jaysus. Lucky the Grand National’s only once a year. Have you the sandwiches from Bridie?” ”Yes, they’re in the van here. And there’s tea in the two red flasks. But we can’t leave till Gerry comes back with the messages….”

“So will you be back to help me with the cows?” ”I’m back on the 8.30 in the morning. Whos buyin’ them?” ”Yer man up in Listowel who comes to the mart” ”Big fella with the red face?” ”Yeah, that’s him. Looks like Jackie’s brother but he’s fatter….”

A quiet day at Dugort Harbour in spring 1963. One of the last three passenger-carrying six-wheelers has but one week to go before withdrawal, while the bogie composite will soldier on for another year or so. A12 arrives with the midday connection off the Tralee train. The stock is shunted off the platform line as a ballast train is arriving before the afternoon mixed departs….

As it was, with green, it's in the standard GSR & CIE colours. While station "liveries" on most lines did not necessarily bear any relationship to those of their trains, i wouldn't be surprised if the CBSCR used green too - BUT - there's an exception to some rules, and this is one; around 1959/60, several West Cork stations were repainted a new way, along with several on other lines too - RED! So had Ballymartle survived until the end of the Wisht caark system, buy; it may well have ended up red! Up de rebels, boy!

I know where he lives, though, Leslie....

I wouldn’t. There were only a few shades and like the Southern of England, and pre- and post-1955 CIE coaches, varying shades were due to either an official livery change or weathering. The jury is out on any exact shade in West Cork, but whatever it was, it would have looked quite dark, as photos hint at, due to the copious layers of varnish that any paintwork had over it. I often wonder if their two American tank engines were actually black…. As for Macroom, I think Senior might have told me at one stage that their carriages were originally varnished, but later dark red.

Hi folks With (happily) growing interest in pre-GSR times, the following may be of use to some. I’ve included the Midland of England, as the details apply to the NCC system pre-2nd world war.

I would remain to be convinced of FFG’s actual commitment to rail. They’ve a long history of making the right noises, but doing nothing.

It could be black - but also it could be filth. The clue is the buffer beam, which looks just as black. When a red buffer beam shows black, grey paint will look that way even quicker. Jury would have to be out on that one, I'd say...

If I had a thing like that and it WAS genuine, I wouldn’t take less than €280, never mind €180. Alternately, if not genuine - and it does look a bit “clean” - then someone’s been robbed!

I’d say that will work a whole lot better. Presumably multiple unit operation primarily, or push-pull?

I know another individual with a collection like that, which I am aware that it is deteriorating. There’s no talking to him at all!

Wow - that’s got to have been a one-off! Would he share his picture?

No trolley on this 3-car, and none on an NIR 6-car I was on some weeks ago. Gawd be with the days when 4.4.0 No. 207 could be produced with a fine set of wooden GNR carriages, as per my very earliest Enterprise memory (I guess about 1962)…

Yes - you’ve hit the nail on the head. No tea trolley even, on this jam-packed oul crate. Was looking forward to a cooked breakfast!

I’m sitting in a so-called “enterprise” right now. Supposed to be a DD, but of course it’s a 3-car NIR railcar, jammed with people standing before it even leaves Connolly. Wish I’d taken the bus.

I’ll have a look! Thought it might have been here but can’t find it….

Geographically limited too - almost uniquely for a CIE diesel. They were very much “southern” engines and rarely strayed off the GSWR. As far as I’m aware they were completely unknown north of Connolly, and appearances on the Midland were zero on most of it, and limited to maybe a weedspray on other parts.

IE announced it….

Summer 1957, and there's still steam on the midday mixed. Soon, "C" class locomotives will take over for good, and the old GSWR six-wheelers will only be seen on GAA and pilgrimage days....

We're back to normal now, as the Crossley's back the next day. Here it arrives with empty wagons. There's a consignment of turf to be loaded, to go to Abbeyfeale or somewhere up there, so Pat says.

Third class rolling stock........

Saw that!!! AWFUL!! Eight new trains announced today - in service 2029. Wonder if the DDs and 29s will last till then!

Sitting outside Patsy O’Donoghue’s bar at Dugort Harbour, just the sound of seagulls. Behind me, the smell of fish and seaweed, as it bobs up and down on the ebbing tide over the quay wall. Nearby, a fisherman tinkers with the engine of an antique Fordson Major which refuses to start. Anotherpint. Yes, I know, it’s an hour before opening, but there’s a “local arrangement” for the lobster men who have been out since dawn. The guy from the fishing tackle store approaches the potholed station approach road with his donkey and cart. He’s collecting something from the morning mixed train, which took a connection from the Tralee goods in Castletown. Turf smoke drifts from the two cottages across the road from from the station. Biddy and Sarah are opening up the paper shop. They’ve spent all their sixty-plus years in that shop, since the pair of them were born in the room above it. In the distance, we hear the unmistakable sound of a locomotive horn. That’ll be Tully gates he’s approaching. He’ll be here in under five minutes. It sounds like one of those new American ones, not the usual Crossley. You hear that? Very different sound, isn’t it? Probably the same one that was on yesterday. Let’s get the telephoto out and see what sort of picture we can get from here. Here we are! Got a snap of him just coming round the bend. Finish that pint and we’ll go over the road and watch him shunting. I think the two vans in the goods yard will be going. Something on the wireless about the President of America bring shot. Did you hear that? Sure he was only here a few weeks ago, in New Ross. We’ll have to get the paper tomorrow to read about it.