jhb171achill

It wouldn't be commercially viable (thankfully) to do a print run of an old ticket, thus authenticity is normal, if not inevitable.

Only in its very last few years, and not as closely as it looks. It had just as much cooperation from the NCC in relation to some matters. It was more of a consultative aspect, as the BCDR was of course fully independent in all respects. The SLNCR used the services of some GNR people from time to time, with regard to permanent way and diesel rail uses. The DNGR, on the other hand, ended up being operated by the GNR, often using their locos and stock.

Superb video. The RPSI simply painted green over the orange - never intended as a livery as such, but simply a stop-gap measure. I think about 3 carriages were like that in traffic. None were ever grey and black, unless one went out once in undercoat, possibly. Videos are notoriously bad at depicting colour, with much very distorted. Snails were often incorrectly applied by the RPSI. "Reverse" snails, that is with the upper part pointing right, were only put on the offside of buses and STEAM locos. Nothing else.

For the record, that paint scheme on 184 was a short-lived RPSI "makey-up" one. Snails on steam locos were never, ever yellow - only the gold-lined light green, and no J15s were ever black except in GSWR pre-1915 condition.

''Tis true, burnthebox... but... in my case at least, yer man was well known for skinflintism etc etc....

Many buildings of that era had broadly similar sized windows.....could be worthwhile looking for an existing building, which doesn't even have to be a railway one - and measuring both windows and doors too.

There's two stories with happy endings, thankfully. A working colleague in the preservation world once pinched a book of mine too, which I never got back. I know who took it, and quite disgracefully another colleague covered up for this individual. The thief is no longer with us - it was years ago..... Just shows that even friends / colleagues can't always be trusted.....

Wick? Thurso? Ah! The narrow gauge.....

Archives like that are compulsory, and exceptionally valuable, viewing for narrow gauge heads like me!

Wowwww! 00 works, I'll have one. I did email you but no answer. Constructive comment; it beggars me belief that one option is black - none were ever black in that form! GNR blue would actually be nice.... ;-) Grey. Put me down for one.

Fertiliser Wagon Accurate A class CIE cattle truck Proper AEC railcar six wheel chassis at least, or ideally MGWR standard 6-wheeler. That's all.... Once we have those, pretty much anything will be possible. It's great to see freight wagons coming on so well. For years, we've seen increasingly accurate carriages, DARTs and locomotives, but goods stock seems to be poor relation. In the 1970s, the only way of having Irish stock was to paint a Hornby Jinty in grey, or a Hymek in orange. The only way to have Irish carriages was to paint Mk 2s in either NIR maroon and blue, or CIE orange and black. Even now, many layouts have little choice but to have all the excellent Murphy and Bachmann locos and passenger stock, yet still repainted BR wagons! Wagons are only just starting to catch up. For realism, the above half dozen items are so essential, that a layout based in the 1950-80 period simply is not realistic without whichever of those standards belongs to these various eras/

Tony If the outside is 6ft, that means the inside is 5tf, based on losing 6 inches each side - or maybe you mean 6ins in total, i.e. 3ins per side. If that is the case, a "U" shape really is the only option - and you're looking at short wheelbases as the one curve will be very tight indeed. Thus, a 4.4.0 will be necessary - an 0.6.0 mightn't take a curve as sharp. So, you're looking at a couple of "U" class really. Since the 141 class just barely made it to Omagh, you could use one on the basis that the line stayed open just a year or two more, and CIE started working them on the goods through to Derry, after the UTA scrapped most of their steam engines! Rolling stock would probably need to be all 4-wheeled, so a shunting end-to-end based on goods yards only would appear to be the only option - but - a very good one. It's a pity that the shed couldn't even be one foot wider, but there is the possibility of the above with what you have. My dad would have been delighted to see an Omagh-based layout.

In terms of space, as others have pointed out, a radius of less than a fraction over two feet is not really do-able in 00. many of us started off with layouts of 6ft x 4ft (maybe you did too?) and this allows about the smallest feasible layout with a continuous loop. the stations possible on the two "long" sides will allow little more than a platform which holds three bogies, or a run round which allows a loco to get around two. If, on the other hand, you have a "U" shaped setup, while a continuous loop isn't feasible, an end-to-end is, and this will give you about4ft to work with at either side of the layout. That type of thing is suitable for a shunting type of thing. You could have one side as a fiddle yard, and the other a more accurate representation of the goods yard. The "through road" would end as a blank end in an overbridge. Alternately, each side could be a "terminus", so here's a possible idea: One side is the markets branch terminus, the other is the main good yard. Assembled in modular form, with proper design (possibly via Baseboard Dave of this planet) it should be possible to make it portable. A couple of "UG"s and perhaps an ex-NCC "Jeep", or a dirty "S" clas in UTA livery would be all you'd need, along with (judging by the space you say you have) maybe a total of thirty or so wagons. I gather you're not that interested in passenger workings, but two old wooden GNR bogies and perhaps a K15 would add a bit of interest. The existing steam engines would be compatible, and their presence in a good area could be passed off as an IRRS special or Sunday school excursion, having stock stored there overnight. If you can, a circuit is better. This allows the Omagh - Derry local, or an Enniskillen - Derry train to pass through, with just those 2 or 3 carriages. Equally, a 2-coach AEC set with one of them in tow, or in the middle, would add interest as it passed by en route to Great Victoria Street. You could have a man in a long grey trench coat and a battered leather briefcase on the platform staring at a rail joint; this would be jhb171senior on his bi-annual inspection of the track! What were the dimensions of your shed internally again? And is it properly insulated?

Indeed!!!!!

Maybe best to have this discussion before laying any track, Tony, but from previous posts I gather your main interests are a shunting yard type of layout. To that end, would it be worth considering an actual model of the markets branch terminus, rather than the more extensive main station yard? Just a thought.... On the subject of shunting-yard-type layouts, I always thought that the Polloxfen's Mills sidings at Ballysodare would make an excellent model, as this site had an extremely cramped layout, complete, indeed, with several 3-way sets of points. And it was operable well into diesel days.....

Three-way points, while exceptionally rare in Ireland, are great space savers if absolute accuracy regarding track layout isn't paramount, and space is short.

I see a blue spaceship about to land! The little green men (Garfield & Warbonnet) will step out as it lands, and say "Take me to Limerick Wagon Works"!

Stephen Are any of the 141s in the original black'n'tan livery?

Brilliant! The backing music is like one of those youtube vids of the real thing!

Cuneo was the one who included a mouse in most of his pictures. I remember eagerly looking for the mouse on the new Hornby catalogue every Christmas.... Some of the catalogues themselves are now collector's items.

I can confirm that the FB used in GNR sidings would have been VERY old. Bullhead was the norm, EVEN in sidings, where recycled stuff was used, as mentioned above and standard practice on all railways. Jhb171senior never spoke of anything but BH in regard to his days as the GNR's Western District civil engineer.

That is really really excellent! The posters give it a great touch of realism too, and the colours are suitably muted as in real life. Brilliant, as was your pier!

An absolute beauty. If I was thinking of moving north I'd buy it in an instant!

Re. bridges; there's a simple solution. Build those extremely rigid steel bars across the road either side of them. Thus: driver wrecks his vehicle on contact, but railway unscathed*. With automatic half barriers, replace with those retractable bollards, which up-end anyone trying to dodge them. All will take money and time, but if done, offers a permanent solution. (* ...unless it's the Nenagh branch, in which case IE will rub their hands in glee at another excuse to close it for six months "just in case"....)

Fair enough; it seems, from various sources, that within the short term, our government will succeed this time......travel to Nenagh while we can.....