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jhb171achill

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Everything posted by jhb171achill

  1. I was looking at the wagons in the above shot. From what I can see, the ones to the right are (typically dilapidated) ex-GNR stock; the UTA was running down its goods traffic at the time. On the left of the loco tender and loading gauge, two more vans (low roofed; probably GNR) but beyond them a higher wagon roof - which looks like a CIE "H" van. Leslie's model van is therefore at home on any layout based in the 1955ish -1965 period on the Derry Road (or indeed, up to 1957 anywhere on the GNR), and on the NCC Derry line for some years afterwards.
  2. From an old coach body I knew of, this shows GSR maroon in its weathered state, and earlier (1945-55 + bus + loco) dark green. The other lighter shades of green are undercoat. This represents the later (post-1933) GSR maroon; prior to that it was either brown and cream (not unlike the latest colour scheme on the DCVDR's No. 836) or a much deeper maroon. By CIE days, the "LMS" shade was the norm and it is this, albeit very faded, that is shown. Since the NCC used the same shade of maroon, a weathered NCC coach would have ended up the same. Brake dust on six wheel coach ends would have made it browner. Corridor coaches had black ends and gangways, non-corridor stock had body colour maroon. Brown & cream coaches were all brown or black on the ends depending on whether they had corridors or not. CIE painted ALL coach ends black. The SLNCR carriages, while initially painted a darker shade of maroon than either the GSR or NCC used, saw a paintbrush so infrequently that their coaching stock not only faded to a shade like that above, but liberally peeled off too!
  3. Is there much of it - or even anything - left to see? Shame the main station didn't survive. Now and again we hear suggestions that the "Derry Road" ought to be reopened. In current circumstances it won't, of course, but if the population continues to rise, maybe in 50 years they'd be looking at it. If so, an entirely new route will be necessary on the outskirts of Portadown, Dungannon AND Omagh, and probably Strabane as well, on account of the wilful and short sighted wholesale clearing away of the railway and redevelopment of sites.
  4. Railtec are indeed very helpful in this regard. Many crests, logos and above all numerals are reproduced in entirely the wrong size on models, usually too big. If you're sending them something new to them, probably no bad thing to research actual diameter / size, font and colours of shading first, if you can, and advise them accordingly. It may be, of course, that they already have this info - worth checking. I can't recall whether the GNR Director's Saloon is still in GNR navy & cream at Whitehead, but if it is, the relevant details are exactly correct, as they are original transfers - or were, last time I saw it. The derelict brake 3rd, no. 114, may still carry them.
  5. The UTA had a habit of re-panelling older coaches, particularly of NCC origin, with flat sheets of plywood, later aluminium sheeting. This resulted in many carriages losing their distinctive style of beading once "UTA-ised" and repainted green. In the 1960s, this included round-cornered windows with rubber sealed surrounds, like several the RPSI got.
  6. Most interesting photo, Tony! Never seen a decent shot of the actual end of the branch before.
  7. A three-way turnout is useful in these circumstances. Without meaning to plug, if you look at the picture of Polloxfen's Mills Siding near Ballysodare, Co. Sligo, on Page 90 of "Rails through the West" you'll see how much can be crammed into a very small space by this method. If you like "H" vans, a layout populated with little else but a couple of black'n'tan 141s and a few "H"s would be well served by a model of Polloxfen's Mills. A fictitious layout with a short passenger platform, perhaps out of use for years (Ardee, Castleisland), but a decent goods yard including a couple of three-way points would provide scope for quite complicated shunting prodcedures in a small space.
  8. Inside keys were a GNR feature. I never got the chance to ask Senior - why!!
  9. I always thought a layout based on either Fintona or Westport Quay would make an ideal small shunting terminus.
  10. Basic question: why do my locos sometimes stop running? Maybe it's Christmas spirit guiding me, but I'm SO tempted to say "because there's a signal against it!" (or the driver's PTS has expired...) I'll just get my coat now.
  11. This is what I'm always banging on about, livery-wise. The right logo, right type of lettering / numerals and above all the right background colour are what makes a model railway or even an individual piece of rolling stock not just an accurate model, or a well built model, but something which really captures the atmosphere of what it's meant to be representing. For years we had no choice but to repaint BR wagons. The livery might be right, but the model wasn't. Then, we got good Irish models. For the 1950-78 period, a large enough stretch of time, the "H" van was something that simply couldn't be done without, as was the corrugated open wagon. Now we have both, plus a multitude of other stuff; the container flat cannot be done without for a 1970s-onwards system. And carriages - we have everything from kits of GSWR six-wheelers (the MGWR one is a glaring omission, though, as most of the later survivors were of Midland origin) to "tin vans", Bredins, laminates, Park Royals and Cravens, including ready-to-run. The sheer variety would have been absolutely unthinkable even a few years ago. And locomotives! RTR GNR 4.4.0, Murphy Models products.....and "Maedhbh" 800! Excellent! Congratulations to both model makers and modellers all round. As others have said, Irish modelling is going through a golden age. Long may it last.
  12. I absolutely love this layout. Seeing the scenes on it makes me think that there's a photo in there somewhere that Barry and I forgot to put in the last book!!!!!
  13. Carriage door open? UTA livery on coach.....enthusiast trip??
  14. You mean made available, Tony? Here is an excellent place. There is much here in the way of modellers resources. Scan, put in here, and retain originals?
  15. Excellent, Tony, many thanks! A treat for those of us who like to just browse photos! But also of great benefit to modellers. Various views down the Market branch would be interesting.
  16. Happy Christmas and New Year to all here! Here's to 2017 and beyond....!
  17. Click seemed to follow Bullied wherever he went, though I think I heard one time that officially, strictly speaking, he wasn't actually an assistant! When I was researching in the National Railway Museum (UK) in York a few years ago, I came across a treasure trove of his photos of blow-by-blow step-by-step construction of the turf burner. A fascinating archive, showing every stage if its construction and good close ups of many of its internal gubbins, and the bogies, before it was all put together to create the greatest white elephant ever to run on Irish rails! I heard one time that Bullied did not take kindly to criticism, and when it was pointed out to him that the completed thing did not perform as expected - as he claimed it would - his retort to the men in Inchicore was "Well, FIX it!"
  18. Reminds me of Ronnie Barker's "four candles" / "fork handles"!
  19. Generally, the UTA applied a single line along the waist of one inch straw coloured line thinly edged both sides in red to loco hauled coaches. No railcars ever had this lining. They were plain green. But a few loco hauled coaches didn't have lining either. Incidentally, this is not to be confused with the yellow (not straw) and separate red lines used by the RPSI. This was purposely designed (by meself, if truth be told) to look UTA-esque but not be exact, as none of the RPSI's Whitehead set ever ran in UTA livery.
  20. Hahahahaha!!!! Excellent! The late Sullivan Boomer, of the RPSI, and I used to have a great laugh about something that happened some years ago with a computer auto-correct. At the time, he and I were directors of the RPSI and as such we were in constant contact. I got a new computer and went to email him. The computer told me that his name was Sultan Bomber.....
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