jhb171achill

Good to see the Guinness supplies are in!

Superb! Extremely realistic - yet another gem on this fantastic layout.

Many thanks, Noel and George. Happy Christmas!

It is, or at any rate was, possible to get working semaphore signals, albeit upper quadrant LMS ones, completely unsuitable for any Irish layout. Has anyone any idea about the whys, wherefores and practicalities of motorising, for example, the Studio Scale Models Irish prototypes?

Especially with a pic of a steam engine just above it, krose! Do the PC brigade allow us to call that locomotive Sambo nowadays? (I came across a note of a locomotive somewhere once called "Negro"; how times have changed!) The above engine was actually a bit of a mix of bits from other old locos, and might better have been called "Mongrel"! She's bearing gifts of IRM wagons..................?

I love that ICR!!!!

Ah! That would make perfect sense....

Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year to all here, and in the locations real and fictitious on our layouts!

Fantastic work! Incidentally, does anyone know why some Bell containers had white roofs, others navy and purple / pink like the sides, and others all-white? I think the all-white ones may have been refrigerated or insulated - but the other variants?

GNRi1959, that's exactly what I've always done, and in recent times did so again for my latest scheme which is a small country terminus. (Only, I used newspaper!). On the Peco website you can print out actual-size copies of points, which helps. Unless you're designing something vast and complicated, its WAY quicker, easier and (obviously!) cheaper than pocklin' about with track design programmes or apps. Tony - your layout construction so far, in the shed, looks superb and very well built.

Was it Garfield? ;-)

No, no, Garfield! It's for steam engines!

Yes, I can see that now, Patrick! If I'm ever in the area, I'll refresh my PTS so I can operate!

No pressure, Glenderg and Garfield! :-)

Yes, indeed, Patrick, that's common in a number of locations. Was just wondering. Normally, if crossing something though, they used left hand operation especially if they had two passenger platforms. I'm presuming the road bridge also used as a footbridge? Either way, a superb layout indeed.

Out of curiosity, though, how come the trains seem to cross with right hand running instead of left?

I agree entirely with all of the posts above. This is one of the best layouts I've ever seen in a number of ways. First, the scenery; I am studying it closely as inspiration for what I'm in the process of now. The prototypical operation is exactly what makes it come to life, and have such an atmosphere. This layout is truly a work of art. A miniature world. Look at the goods stock. We have so, so, many top class, excellent layouts, with long goods trains of standard BR goods stock of types nothing like anything that ran here. This one has "proper" Irish stock. What a difference. Nobody would put a GWR pannier tank on a model of a suburban train to Cobh, so why BR goods stock on a layout set in rural Ballygobackwards? Finally, the lack of clutter. For realism, it's better a field full of brambles, than a town, refinery, bus station, port and dear knows what else crammed into a corner beside the track. Top class - does it go to exhibitions?

Wow!!!! Outstanding! Much as anyone would hate to lay a finger on a bubble as it is, the weathering looks A1 on those weathered ones.... I find myself becoming a great fan of weathering. Anything that ever came out of a paint shop would be shiny for its first or second journey only, so an entire shiny train never looks quite right! I like the light touches on the locos and passenger stock above also - looks extremely realistic.

Reminds me of a summer holiday in North Wales in 1969. Most trains were of several varieties of first-generation railcars, or "DMUs" as themmuns over there call them. Some were green, with or without front yellow patches. Others were all-blue. And then a class 23 (I think?) would charge last en route to Holyhead with a lengthy string of maroon or blue and grey coaches behind it. I missed steam there by no more than 2 years. But we still had it at home on the Larne line! Just for a while longer.....

If in any shape or form you end up with a continuous run round, it would be better to have it right round the walls of the shed instead of crossing from one side to the other in the middle, I would have thought. Again, entirely intended as completely constructive criticism. The project I've started has had me scratching my head in planning stages for a very long time before it got started, on account of my own issues of severe lack of space. It's always the design which is initially so important, as once it's made, it's often more trouble than its worth to correct design flaws.

Interesting pic of Barry's. The weather was possibly dull that day, because in reality they looked just very slightly brighter - basically the same orange-tan as carriages, or Donald's face.... The correct shade of brown is also evident on the van. Modern wagon brown is more reddish, but these vans were long gone before the newer brown was in use.

Looks like it, Colin.....!

The one at Bray looks best. The "mustard" and also the unnaturally dark shade apparently shown in the pic at Ardrahan are not at all accurate. They are the result of in one case under-, and the other case over-exposure of the camera film. All three carriages are exactly the same colour. No weathering or wear comes into it; it's the photo in each case.

I footplated 190 into Ballina about 1979 and she was in Supertrain. I'm 90% sure 188 was supertrained by 1977, when I saw her on the evening Rosslare-Limerick with two laminates and a van. I think that was 188. From memory 145 and 147 were B'n'T quite late on but I don't recall details. Again, from memory 150, 151 and 155 were all Supertrain by at least 1976. I footplated 151 or 155 to Cobh on a local of dingy (and heavily "weathered") Park Royals. Cork-based suburban stock was by far the externally tattiest on the whole system, and the internally dirtiest. With one exception: the dreadfully shabby ex-AEC pushpulls in Dublin. They were just ghastly! The others you mention were all repainted in "the mid 1970s"; but that could be anything from 1973-77. Personally, I'm unaware of any information source giving exact dates for each loco.

I'm not trying to "plug" the books, but if you look in "Rails Through the West" and "Rails Through North Kerry", you'll see what I mean. All Murphy's models are correct, as all locos carried both liveries. The only difference between any two locos was on which particular date each one was repainted.