jhb171achill

Very handy little locos to drive. Some drivers don't like them because there's no seat and the ride is, well, jolting. Your eyeballs, false teeth and replacement hips have all fallen out half way to Inch Abbey. A run on rough falling-to-bits track to Loughrea must have been an ordeal. But having driven them, personally I like them. Chain drive is indeed usual. One of the reasons all three at Downpatrick have never been in use together is that there are five chains for three locos; each has two. New ones are readily available but at €4000 a go. These engines were in production for a long time and varied little throughout over thirty years in production. I saw a metre gauge one in Mallorca in 1993 on PW duty at Inca - its build date was 1984, I think. Early examples in Germany were built in 1951. One of the benefits of a forum like this is to see how some of our more skilled modellers make up what will become outstanding models, so the "how-I-did-it" posts are of great interest and value.

Maybe our railway staff didn't need colour coding! ;-)

Yes, it's one of Jimmy O'Dea's. A fascinating collection to go through, but a pity he never did any colour photography.

Large for the G611-7 class of 1962, small for the original trio (G601-3, 1955).

Hi Mark It was just a livery change. British Rail had a period where brown meant fitted and grey unfitted, but that didn't apply here. Fitted and unfitted alike were all grey until around 1970/1, and anything painted after that was all brown. Mind you, many were NOT painted after that date, and clearly hadn't been for years. As late as 1975/6, a very occasional "H" van still sported a stencilled "flying snail"; I photographed one that way in the Crossmolina Siding at Ballina in summer 1976.

Incidentally, there was a fundamental error in the plot. As Poirot put together the final scenes and drew the conclusion that they were all involved, a re-enactment of what he suggested had happened was shown. When the body was first discovered, Poirot had used his cane to break open a locked door. So it was locked from the inside. But at the end, the lady who left the compartment after stabbing him, just closed the door behind her - she obviously couldn't lock it from the inside - from outside! The corridors were WAY too wide for any train. No European carriages ever had the massive balconies shown on the end coach. This is / was an American thing. American influence was clear in the CGI imagery as far as railway infrastructure went. But - the shade of blue on the carriages was spot on!

65mm cameras? That's very small - they'd fit on a layout!

Not if you stand on your head to read it, Broithe! :-) (What's CGI?)

I wonder what the train was? Looked American. The Penn Central logo was on one internal lamp. The steam engine didn't look real. The station looked American........anyone?

Many thanks!

That's correct, Richard, so it never got black'n'tan. It would have been the post-1955 green, as seen on DCDR's TPO and (a few years back) the RPSI (Dublin based) Heritage set.

Superb as always!

R I P

Yes. Originally probably painted cream upper and ceiling, mid brown lower. Later, very pale grey throughout. I may have interior photos somewhere but if you look at the DCDR website some of their photos may show it. As far as I know, the G611s were always the very pale grey inside. In Arigna Road times (I'm assuming that Arigna Road closed in 1957!), a G601 class was silver. So, the first thing is serious weathering! The silver was on the roof and chassis also, relieved only by full red buffer beams. Lettering was of the larger style, and in pale green (not the black seen on Silverfox models) with no "snail". No "G" ever carried a "snail" in any livery. In reality, the silver will be pretty dirty, especially round the wheels and roof. These were still steam days, so not just brake dust (as today) but also soot and smoke had an effect on the weathering of locos and rolling stock. By the way, at Downpatrick, the liveries of G613 and G617 are correct. That on G611 is not for a number of reasons.

Love the PalVan! How was that made? See how well authentic CIE wagons look on a layout! The H van adds to this too. (Leslie, I want commission!!)

Let's hope the RPSI gets adequately paid. They never got a red cent for the other CDR loco.

The Guinness flats NEVER had black chassis. NO CIE wagon in standard grey (pre-1970) or later brown ever had a black chassis*. Bubble chassis were grey with grey livery, and grey with orange bubble livery. It was only when cream came along that a rare exception of a black chassis appeared. Modern bogie wagons often have black bogies with multicoloured springs; see the output of Limerick works - they don't seem to have been painting bogie frames in recent years. Some wagons, like Taras, had the same blue on the chassis and bogies as the body, until repainted all brown. The Castlemungret stuff, though, was a rare exception. Other common livery errors on wagons are brown bodies and grey roofs; ok for BR but not CIE. Possibly most well known is the Whitehead livery for "Ivan". Cream balconies, white roof and black ironwork should ALL be grey. The GNR ran a railway, not a fairground attraction! * The VERY few exceptions were 3 or 4 "H" vans painted green (black chassis) for Tralee-Cork mail, a brief interlude about 1960-3. Green horse boxes had black chassis, grey ones didn't.

The orange IS a bit bright, but could be dumbed down with weathering - while CIE coaching stock was typically better kept than the UTA or BR across the pond did, four wheeled vans tended to be more weathered. Indeed, a pristine van wasn't usual..... The Silverfox range are a fantastic addition. Some of us want RTR and haven't the modelling skills of our esteemed star performers on this website. Some of us want intensely detailed models, as close as possible to original. Others are happy to have a "look". There's a place for it all, and Silverfox's locos in particular fill an otherwise gaping void in the market. For Murphy-style accuracy, the gaping voids are cattle trucks, fertiliser wagons*, J15s* and AEC railcars. (* these, by all accounts, are on their way) Leslie filled probably the biggest gaping void with his H vans. Leslie - I hope they're flying off the shelves! So many excellent layouts have BR wagons on them, so there's a market.

Are these re-liveried / amended LMS coaches? If not too dear, useful for starter layouts.

Yes, Jimmy O'Dea, who I casually knew many moons ago, had - from memory - 2 or 3 pics showing this scene (though I might be confusing Kevin's stuff too - it's years since I've seen either). In terms of the numbers being temporary, this is a "yes and no" issue; I doubt that they were reallocated as such, som in that sense they were probably permanent - but they were certainly temporary in terms of the overall livery as they all became black'n'tan before being introduced into traffic. Incidentally, if anyone ever has time, make an appointment to see Jimmy's stuff in the National Archives - I don't think it's all online yet. When I went through his entire collection about six years ago none was, and it took me just two days.

There was never a blue/grey, David. What you're looking at is the silver livery in its customary worn and dirty state. The bluish tint is the photo aging! The 121 class arrived in "proper" grey - like that applied to H vans at the time, more or less, and somewhat lighter than that currently on 071s. They had yellow also, obviously unlike the G class! Given the preponderance of utterly inaccurate liveries nowadays in almost every area of preservation, I hope that the gods will smile sweetly on B134 and it emerges in its correct livery, rather than the now all-too-common "approximation"! It's just as easy to paint it right as wrong.....

.......But not in traffic. Delivered plain green - which could conceivably been undercoat - with no markings at all, but repainted black'n'tan before turning a wheel. No - black'n'white only! The G601 were never tan-inclusive!

Correct, Eiretrains - the G601 trio were silver, then green, then black and white - no tan ever. As you say, the G611s were concurrently both black and white, and black, tan and white. Naturally, these 7 were never green (in traffic) or silver. It's worth noting that as so depressingly often in preservation, the green carried by G611 on the DCDR is wrong in a number of ways. First, they never ran in green - but - the livery is wrong. Green "G"s did not have black chassis - green. They had a large cabside number and no "snail", not a small one with the logo. No G of any sort ever carried a snail, silver or green. Another common error is the depiction of lettering on silver locomotives of G, C, A and B101 classes. This was light green, near the black sometimes seen on models. Going back to the original G601 class, silver locos had a silver chassis and green ones had a green chassis. None ever had a black chassis.

David Yes. GSWR first of course, probably including the white upper panels for some or most of the time (all-over dark purple maroon being the norm for less salubrious stock). Under the GSR it's unlikely it wore the short lived chocolate & cream as it wouldn't have needed repainting very often, so if it got a repaint after around 1933 it would have been the later "LMS" shade maroon like all GSR repaints after that date. 1945 onwards the darker (bus / steam loco shade) CIE green with full gold-lined "eau de nil" snail and lining. I never saw a picture of it in that livery but it must have carried it within that period. Latterly, as shown in many photos of it on the IRRS special to Castlecomer, it had the second green livery, the lighter shade with a single lining at waist level. Thus, as you say, both of the two green liveries. One wonders what it would have looked like in black'n'tan.... There had been talk of preserving it. It could therefore have ended up in Cultra....

A model of this would be a REAL beauty. Old GSWR / MGWR types, many of which ran in traffic well into the 1960s, haven't ever had anything like enough attention paid to them.