jhb171achill

I am hopping up and down in agony, and an attack of the Multiple Conniptions and Screaming Fits is imminent, as I will have to miss this - I'll be entertaining American tourists that day in Killarney. Awwwesome.

I know it's a bit "off the wall" but perhaps something like the innards of an industrial complex where manoeverability is assisted by wagon turntables at right angles to the running line, e.g. at nearby Herdman's Mills at Sion Mills station. The classic GNR yellow brock structures would add to it. I think that this arrangement for shunting was in place until the line closed.

What you're looking at so far, Tony, looks really good and as others say you've put great effort into it. If you have room, even another fiddle yard through an archway, maybe under a bridge, gives an illusion of travel. If you had Omagh North, then a length of no more than a metre of track, then another goods yard (Foyle Road? Portadown?) it would provide interest in actually making up a train to go somewhere else. Just a thought.

Correct versions; details and colours for 20T vans and cattle trucks in the 1960s. Note - and this applies to post-1970 brown guard's vans too - the black bit above and below the "wasp stripes". Wasped guard's vans were never any other way, nor did they have the black and white stripes seen in Cultra. NOTE TO MODS: There's probably a much better location for this post!

A forthcoming book will show two (albeit very much in the background) sitting in Mallow on the down side. I've seen a better pic elsewhere, will delve. I'd imagine it was a short-lived arrangement.

Excellent info, many thanks. Now, next question. What's best for painting the sides of the rails?

Very much appreciated, Rich.

I want cake! Now!!!!

So, exceptions..... Albert Quay painted one old C & B coach in the older dark green with two unlined snails and no lining. West Clare stock never had lining in CIE days, either in dark or light green, and frequently had no snails either. They were painted in Limerick. C & L stock only had lining ABOVE window level. The rebuilt coach no. 1L was light green and had neither lining nor snail, nor did the darker green C & L coach no. 7 (I think; the "bus coach"). Some full brake 6-wheelers had no snail when in later lighter green. A single (Glanmire painted) J15 had a black smokebox, though it was otherwise in standard grey; this was only carried in its last 18 months in traffic. Obviously, on other standard grey locos, the smokebox was grey too. At least two, and possibly three, (fitted) "H" vans were standard carriage green with black chassis, for use as mail vans on Tralee-Mallow trains.

There were rules as such, burnthebox, but like today (think white logos on ICRs) there were the odd exception. Paint shades were as uniform as today. Wear and tear tended to dull some of them down, of course, and different lighting in photography made things look very different indeed at times. There was an old adage at Whitehead years ago, in regard to the GNR's loco blue, that "well, I've heard that they just went to the local blue paint shop and got whatever was there". Thankfully, this is abject nonsense, possibly propagated to justify the RPSI's earliest attempt at repainting 171 in a blue many shades too light. The same has been said of CIE green. Both Dundalk and Inchicore had actual paint laboratories (I knew the last surviving member of staff at Dundalk) who went to great lengths to ensure uniformity by looking at what additives the paint might have; they mixed colours themselves on site. In terms of logos, there would be a general rule that in 1945-55 (older, darker) CIE green, two snails were on bogie coaches and one on 6-wheelers. Post-1955, with lighter green, one was used always. Numerals were always on the left.....

Hattons it is then!

Many thanks, Glenderg. Due to amended Domestic Planning Permission, after some years of lobbying, there may be an 00 gauge thing made possible. I will have to count the shekels.

What's the difference between Peco's code 75 and code 100? Which looks more like 5ft 3? (To such extent as either might!) Which is better for running a model of 800 on? Is a curve of some 3ft 6 radius sufficient for a model of 800? Interrogation complete.

I couldn't agree more. It's been a fascinating place to gain inspiration and share information on all aspects of railway enthusiasm, not only models.

An actual GWR design was unlike anything Irish, so wouldn't do. The above looks like a brown and cream Mk 1, rather than an actual GWR coach. Mk 1's are really only suitable for genny vans. The outline is not only unlike anything Irish, but because British Railways Mk 1s are so commonly "out there" and obviously associated with Britain, they are an onbious "botch job" and don't fit in - in my humble opinion - with Ireland. If you WERE stuck and just wanted to paint one in CIE livery, I would retain the loo window vents but fill in the windows - at least. Now, the LMS style would much better suit both final NCC days / early UTA coaches, or GSR "Bredins" or 1950/1 CIE stock which was more or less "later Bredins". The circular window would have to go. Brake passenger coaches were more common in Britain than here, and there were no Bredin stock with half passenger accommodation and half van, and few steel-sided examples of the species until late 1960s conversions of earlier stock (for example the 32XX series CIE brake standards). Thus, I would use all-passenger stock for conversion to "roughly-CIE-looking" stuff. In place of the circular window, one might add a toplight vent like in the loos on laminate stock. Not an accurate representation of anything, of course, but a simple conversion that would fit in as well as anything not strictly correct.

Also, some photos will show them still in unlined GNR black.

Leslie, a CIE cattle wagon might be another idea....? They were as integral a part of the railway scene until 1975 as "H" vans and Bullied opens were..... Just a thought.

That would have been amazing, Leslie! Such a different railway then. Fond memories.

I would ring Joe Duffy on that one, Broithe. That'll sort 'em out.

Absolutely! It featured in every episode, and quite right it was too! I love these mushrooms.

Certainly, Tony, both 49 and any of its sisters would have been regulars on that line in both GNR & UTA days - a model of one of those locos would be ideal for your layout. The "U" class was also a common one on passenger trains from Derry through Omagh towards Enniskillen, though I don't think they'd have figured so much in the area after the 1957 closures. Reading your posts and plans for Omagh North, it had occurred to me that a couple of those locos would be the ideal thing for that layout.

Human nature never changes; always there will be some "Disgusted, Dunsandle" types whinging about something which isn't even unimportant - it's not even an issue!

Yes, Limerick, Inchicore and Cork - and even Albert Quay - managed to paint some steam locos as late as about 1961..... most of the few which ended their days in black were painted like this at such a late stage.

That would be Jackie "Ming" Ray-Healy, the King'o'the Culchies, boyo. Scandlas, boy.

And, an interesting name, as they were maroon initially, the UTA green (most green from new), then maroon with NIR! But always, it seems, so badly weathered they LOOKED brown with brake dust all over them! It seems that they were never brown! They are suitable not only for ex-NCC lines right into the 70s, a common sight tagged onto railcar sets, but also on the GNR section between 1958 (UTA division) and 1965, but occasionally behind railcars to Portadown after that. They were usually on the back of passenger trains, rather than being in goods trains, but would have made occasional appearances thus. Appearances on the Derry Road were possible but rare and short lived. I'm unaware of any heading south at any time. There are quite a few knocking about at both Whitehead (where there is a beautifully restored one) and Downpatrick - of both types.