jhb171achill

As long as it's painted the right shade of tartan.....

Tis indeed the Proclaimers! They're making a model of Scotrail!

Looks fantastic! Until 1974 or so, a few old wooden relics could still be seen rattling around on summer excursion days on the DSER / GN section round Dublin, and in Cork. As an aside, I think that the very last stock in service still in green would have been about 1966/7 at the latest. There was one GNR coach still brown in 1966; it became black'n'tan straight away, never having been green. This was former brake second open No. 114, now at Whitehead. It was the last coach in GNR livery in traffic. I love this layout - it's so full of atmosphere.

That's a great conversion job! Excellent work.

Excellent idea - but beware! The bauxite liveries on both are entirely inaccurate at all levels! First, the H van. Neither these, nor almost any other Irish wagons had black chassis. The shade of bauxite on both is far too reddish, though some of this is due to the fading qualities of modern paint - not to be confused with the fading of older paints. It should have a brown chassis and drawgear, as well as body, and roof. 1 out of 10: the lettering and logo are as correct as you'll get. Now, the plough. In GSWR days, as per markings, these were either all black or later, all a very dark grey like loco grey. (Indeed, logo grey might have been derived from this; "normal" wagon grey, which is lighter, came roughly post-1915. If grey, then grey chassis too. The GSR and CIE painted them ALL wagon grey - again no black chassis, and most certainly not a white roof! After 1970 or so, CIE and then IE painted them all brown - yet again, chassis and all. Never were they anything remotely like the above. The more reddish shade of brown seen nowadays is a post-1995 or thereabouts invention. One or possibly two of these were heavily rebuilt and survived into the post-1990 yellow era. Yes, roofs and the lot were yellow. Black chassis are a Hornby train set invention, and are only appropriate for BR modelling, where wagon chassis WERE often black. Unfortunately, this incorrect livery detail has been widely copied in Irish preservation, where - unfortunately - between Cultra, Whitehead and Downpatrick, correct liveries on locos, coaches and goods stock alike are (at last count) outnumbered about three to one by incorrect liveries. For modellers seeking accuracy, this is indeed a great shame.

Have you modelled the empty mars bar wrapper I threw into an empty ballast wagon once? :-)

Aha!!!! The new heading has a bubble, a ballast, and space to the right of it for - more new stock????? Answers on a postcard.....

Scandalous vandalism on the part of the then Stormont Government.

An absolutely superb job! Even the numerals on the buffer beam set it off perfectly .

Aaarrrrggghhh!!!!! I'm having a fit of the Multiple Conniptions, Screaming Fits, and Heeby-Geebies!

There's talk of a tender to commission new stock as traffic increases. On the one hand, one might construe this as a new generation of railcars, however, "purchase" is not mentioned, as far as I can see. Thus, the statement might just as easily translate into re-commissioning the 27s (as seems to be the plan already) and possibly - IF new stock is acquired - perhaps 2nd hand British carriages to run push-pull with the 201s they already have! Should such an idea come to pass, that would mean more loc0-gauled stuff, not less. I should add that the above is supposition regarding rolling stock. I have heard that refurb of the 27s is happening anyway, and apparently some 201s were being looked over with a view to return to traffic.

I love the three old six-wheelers in CIE livery!

Much appreciated, David. I will pass on to Barry, as I will see him towards the end of the week.

An ICR and three timber bogies have just flown over my roof........ (this tea tastes funny. Did anyone put stuff in it?)

I have to say that after seeing those body kits, I too am tempted to change tack completely. Up to now, since moving into this house a few years ago, it's a "town house" not geared towards layouts. I could have taken Tony McGartland's model and built a shed, and I have room for one, but we have two very nice olive trees which - despite Irish climate - are doing very well. As I type this, Ophelia is trying her best to bend them sideways, but they're resisting! My attic is not conducive to layouts at all, although I'm going to have another look at it. Some sort of portable thing is another possibility - this might allow me to exhibit it too. My past interests were Austrian 009 and of course Irish 00. I still have a very nice collection of OBB (and German) narrow gauge stuff which I am loth to part with, though in order to fund anything new I would need to. I have 800 (currently undergoing an extremely lengthy necessary alteration), a very nice SSM J15, and a Murphy 141. 800 is goig nowhere, but a display cawe and occasional outing on a friend's layout. So, do I try to pursue what would be a very small fiddle yard thing in 00, or maybe something slightly more ambitious in N? Recent posts have got me thinking. I'm spending this stormy day actually sketching out possibilities - I hadn't realised that things like Park Royal and Craven bodies were available, as well as A, C & 141's, which would be my area of interest. It would be interesting to know if any member has a decent set of these Shapeways things and what they look like complete.

Great to meet so many IRM-ers and others yesterday!

Correct. Cravens were never run with AEC cars at all, push-pull or otherwise, apart from some rare early outings on the Cork line, where I think 2 or 3 were temporarily wired for AEC working. They never ran with BUT cars at all.

Very many thanks, Noel, greatly appreciated.

Anyone got any experience of those Shapeways N gauge Irish loco and coach bodies?

Tony, given the size of your shed, N gauge would open up many more possibilities. For Omagh, you'll be probably limited to repainted British vans and wooden open wagons. If someone might 3D print a CIE "H" van or two, they would suit. There are some British wagon types that can approximate the GNR / UTA prototypes, given a decent repainted. There are several 0.6.0 locos (from memory, I think at least one LNER type) which could do as UG or D class goods locos. A stanier LMS (not BR) 2.6.4T might approximate as a "Jeep". That leaves AEC railcars....maybe a one-off scratchbuild project. Steam could haul old wooden bodied British coaches of LMS origin, masquerading as ex-NCC stock in UTA livery. Way more opportunities.

I mîght add, for historical accuracy, that the only liveries ever seen on a C on push-pull duties would have been the "dipped tan" shown above on this truly excellent layout, and the "Supertrain" version - which actually would have been on the majority of them. The push pulls were just coming in around the same time as this livery.

The single loco with the yellow buffer beam, C203, was even more of a livery oddity than you'd think - on next repaint, it went back to red! It was not just a one-off, but short lived too. So, for a C, you've got: Silver (1955-63; ALWAYS very heavily weathered!!) Green with mid-waist lighter green line (approx 1959-1964) Green without mid-waist line (approx 1959-64) All black (with white front flashes about cab windows) (1962-68) Above with yellow panels (Approx 1964 - 70) Above with yellow panels and yellow buffer beams, as long as it's C203 (around 1963/4) Black'n'tan with full tan lower (1963+ / short lived, only on a few engines) Black'n'tan with dipped tan lower (after re-engining; thus suitable for 1970s, not 60s) (1972-7 approx) Supertrain (1972-86) No C class locos ever received the first IE "Tippex" livery, as the last were withdrawn about a year before it was introduced. It should be noted, as will be seen from dates shown, that within the 1962-72 period, a number of variations of the black'n'tan (or black!) livery were concurrent. This was also the case with the A, B101, D, E and G classes; some having black liveries and some with tan as well. The dates shown above reflect the periods within which the liveries quotes would have been seen, in some cases on a loco which hadn't seen a paintbrush in a while (a bit like dome of the very scruffy 071s in black and silver in recent times!). The reason that some locos had tan and others didn't was meant to be a bit like the distinction between lined green and all-grey on steam engines. Lined green was for passenger locos and Dublin Suburban locos, with grey for everything else. The all-black was initially supposed to be for goods and shunting diesels, with mixed traffic and passenger locos being black'n'tan. Shunters for Heuston Passenger would gain tan too, hence many D and E types bearing this (though latterly - certainly from about 1974 - the E's were all black without exception). Bizzarely, some of the G class had tan as they operated passenger trains on the Loughrea line! That was the theory, but in practice it was mix'n'match...

Excellent, David! My late aunt used to work as kitchen manager in a convent in Dublin. The Sister Superior, a tiny little English woman, Sister veronica, was a real character with a zany sense of humour. My aunt used to take her and Sister Frances, who was a little more conservative, out occasionally for a summer picnic. They were out one time, probably above Rathfarnham when it was semi-rural, and a man flashed them. Both the nuns burst into hysterical laughter, pointing at his flashing equipment. He retreated, deep red* in the face..... (* probably accurate GSR pre-1933 maroon....)

It'll be the Full Moon Party - with a difference!

Everybody "moon" at Thurles! Driver included! :-)