jhb171achill

I know it’s s different van, Leslie, it was just to show the awful state they got into! (And the new silver locomotives didn’t take long to match them....!)

Ah yes! A truly superb job it was too.

The six wheeled coach - is that a SSM one?

.....in which case the food chain has even less use for the driver. Bring on the double headed 201s!

Couldn't believe this deliberate act. A pity a stray 201 wasn't coming along - we don't need retards like this in the food chain......

I’m getting two....... not going to miss the opportunity!

I will ask Barry Carse. He knows of the procedures there.

Ah, yes, that's when it was going to Whitehead! It had been repainted for that.

That's got a lot of potential to be a very nice little operation!

Shabby grey J15s (and a few Midland gems from Mayner) and BnT 141s will also be the order of the day at Dugort Harbour, which takes shape as we speak in the workshop of Baseboard Dave. I have one black "C", though I'm on the lookout for a decent green one too.

For those who never saw them, it's also worth pointing out that the black roofs were a very late addition, long after the post-1987 "tippex" stripes were added. the above pic is of one fairly newly repainted when it was taken.

Excellent!!!! So no class 08 shunters, James the engine of colour, or Flying Scotsmen either!

When new, the grilles on the genny vans were not all black as on the model. The orange / tan continued across them top and bottom.

That's looking REALLY nice! One thing though - it's seems common to see these tapered end platforms on many layouts. I know they're standard Hornby stuff, but tapered platform ends were almost unknown not only in Ireland but anywhere else, with the sole exception of where travels were converging either side. The only example I can think of in Ireland is the south end of the Loop Junction Platform (still extant, of course) at Downpatrick.

BCDR! Though he footplated Great Vic St - Newcastle via Banbridge too, and also travelled on the lifting train from Banbridge to Knockmore Junction..... He footplated the entire BCDR twice, I think 1938 and 1944 or something like that.

This is the state that many older wagons, ex-GSW stuff included, managed to get into by the late 1950s....

Lovely little loco! I’d love to see a steam BnM layout; I could never get those tractors! Your model is very similar to a BnM one. Imagine all three! Livery wise, all the above needs is a repaint into a very much darker olivey-shaded green - very dark indeed. Lining was a single yellow line and the number was a small shaded gold transfer. I am not 100% on this, but I think that originally the buffer beams might have been black rather than red.

It would be good to see a transfer made of the stencilled flying snail for wagons. In the 1956-onwards period, this was the norm on “snailed” wagons.

They could. Certainly Cork to Bandon anyway, and a Luas from Ballincollig into the city and in out towards the airport / Douglas area. Senior had relatives near Birr - and knowing him, cycling there from Birdhill wouldn’t surprise me at all, as he would sometimes cycle from Ranelagh to Liffey Junction or Inchicore, or occasionally to Clondalkin. On one occasion he got the train from Amiens St (having cycled there from Ballsbridge!), to Goraghwood, and thence to Warrenpoint. Then he cycled through Rostrevor, Annalong and Kilkeel to Newcastle. Then he threw the bike in the guards van and footplated an 0.6.0 to Belfast!

Any of them would, Joe. I'm presuming you mean on the level? Obviously, gradients affect it; steeper gradients, less wagons, with any loco.

How did you do the excellently realistic concrete posts holding the station sign?

I thought you meant 074!

Communication with someone else not on this board tonight reminded me of jhb171Senior’s forays by rail to Rathkenny (NCC Cushendall narrow gauge), Draperstown and Dungiven. Then I'm searching for info on it and find these; one was 2 weeks before passenger trains ended to Dingle & Castlegregory, and the other an apparently very random jaunt!

CRUD1

Yes, a bit like modelling UTA goods - the greatest part of the "livery" by far was just pure filth, faded nondescript paint, and a heavy covering of brake dust. I have a big interest in the railways of Majorca. Steam ended there in the early 1960s, and it is thought that some of the steam locomotives were NEVER repainted from delivery in the 1910s. That gives forty years of weathering. Cleaning locos was not their strong point either, and it was probably just as well given the faded horrors underneath. Suffice to say, that despite detailed perusal of several (good quality) photographs of a locomotive I knew to be officially green, taken in 1963 or so, there was not one solitary trace anywhere of anything green, or black; from wheels to cab to side tanks to dome to chimney, the whole engine (brass nameplate included) was just pure weathered soot, smoke, brake dust, and track dust. An accurate scale model of one made in fluorescent dayglow pink would not have to be repainted at all - just weathered until not one detail of its original state was visible! Many old wagons were like that too.