jhb171achill

I use a DDT which I connect to a left-handed SUV inside a SWQAXTX, though it can interfere with G-23W (if the TV is on). I use Z23 power-connected T/7s, aligned with Saturn and connected to a 28% KLJ9. That does be the extent of my abilities...... I think I'm getting old........! serious point: I'm a great believer that the skills involved with old manual methods for anything are often superior to electronic widgetry that can go wrong and be unfixable.....

Update on that; having left Chateau IRM, I proceeded to the Faraway Lands of my colleague, Barry Carse. Like myself, BC is of the opinion that the mesh doors were not in general use; his belief is that possibly only one was like that initially, my thoughts being similar. I would say that it may well be that perhaps one or two migh have been. But having seen a few on the production line, it is definite that the vast majority were built new with solid doors, and we would also say that whatever one or two were initially fitted with them, lost them almost immediately. I never heard of them in traffic like that - but I can't say they didn't. I saw a line of new ones one time - I cannot remember where, and as was so often the case, I had no camera with me. I suspect it was North Wall or Inchicore. They were "straight out if the IRM box", and all had solid doors. All had the CIE roundel on the second door from left when new, though door swoops during their lives could vary that. Once, I saw one with logos on two doors - the 2nd and 3rd doors! Occasionally, one with no logo. After 1987, of course, when IE came into being, logos were gone on virtually all wagon repaints, the exceptions being some PW and departmental stock. No ferts ever carried the IE "set of points" logo. Regarding the colour of the CIE logo, the cream or buff colour shown in so many photos was a white one badly weathered. Cream-coloured CIE yokes existed, and were applied to buses, but these were transfers. The plywood panelling on freight stock - anything from ferts to "H" vans - was too rough to take transfers. All logos on wagons were always painted or stencilled, and from the onset on the brown wagon livery about 1970/1, only white was used. Sometimes wagon numbers were renewed on ferts, but older doors fitted to replace, maybe, a damaged one. If the replacement door had a logo, it might be old and weathered a light brown or nondescript colour, while the wagon had a cleaner number. It might look as if they're different colours, but under the grime they weren't. Thus, on a model, there would be a clear distinction between a crisp and clear buff-coloured logo, and a weathered one originally white. Nothing white on any railway stayed that way long. This, indeed, prompts me to utter some ramblings about paint weathering in general - if I get time, I'll post something separate later today.....

Fresh from an afternoon visit today to IRM Towers (thanks for the sticky buns, folks!) I can confirm, as if it’s needed, how truly superb this range of models are, and the huge planning that goes into making them.... Naturally, I melted Glenderg’s and Garfield’s heads about my own pet wish lists!

It’s easy to tell. Tasmanian trains are upside down; I’ve photographed many of them.....

It Is indeed possible, though if so I'd say only a very short time. This is very likely to be the reason that uniquely, as far as I'm aware, numbers were carried on wagon ends.

That's the way to do it, Tony! Pity you can't get all the way by rail to Omagh these days.....

There’s one for IRM; a RTR “weird German diesel” in black’n’tan.....

The ones with the mesh doors were experimental. Not sure how many were built like that, but not many, and they didn't go into general service like that. This was an era of several types of experimental wagons, like the long-wheelbase four wheeled "sundries van", and another type seen in this video with opening upwards side doors. Interesting video; like Bullied's sometimes odd ideas, another "might have been". As an aside, imagine a layout of might-have-beens; turf burners in general use, all sorts of oddball freight stock, rebuilt steam locos in into the 1970s, modern versions of Drumm trains, and express 4.6.2T locos (the proposed 820 class, of which possibly five were planned)......and weird German diesels all over the GNR!

Having several SSM products myself, I can say they’re excellent looking. They do require skill to put together - mine were not assembled by me, otherwise they mightn’t look as well.... Excellent range of models. I would recommend them.

I’d be happy too with anything - I’d eventually have a mixture of best available now, for example, plus the best available in future.

Wonder what happened to all those models seen round 7:15?

Definitely a dud, Broithe! The original was entirely upside down, and the correct way to read it was by standing on your head! Yes, Achill station is a modeller's dream..... maybe some day!

New home found

Yes, it's a GNR signal. The C & VBT only really had one significant station building - at Castlederg. It was (is) a red-brick two storey building, similar in style to Clogher Valley, or even Cavan & Leitrim architectural style.

If the all-encompassing GSR loco grey was dull, the LLSR all-grey was worse! The CDR used all-black for carriages at one time, followed by black with cream upper panels - very funereal. The LLSR was, I think, cherry red and white rather than salmon pink; perhaps an inspiration to Forbes on the CDR when he introduced their red and CREAM in 1932. I'm not sure of salmon pink - that's more likely to have been recorded (IF it was) from an old withdrawn thing that had faded to that. I'm away at a family reunion and will check for sure when I get home tomorrow. I'm sure there was another earlier livery too - I'll check.

Excellent - and is that old coach one of those Ratio ones? (Looks great...!)

Indeed, sir; my mistake entirely. Used to be as far as Whitehead, now double just short of there. Never double Whitehead - Larne at all.

.................I've slides and photos showing the roundel clearly in white, and clearly in straw yellow, not tan,................ Exactly. The white is self-explanatory. The "straw yellow" is the white weathered with brake dust; but white underneath. And there wasn't a tan version. White lettering, numerals and so on, on anything railway-related, never stayed pure white for long - look at the white line above window level on black'n'tan coaches - and they were regularly washed, while ferts and other wagons were virtually never washed..... City buses had roundel transfers which were off-white, incidentally, with white lining round them. All railway wagon roundels in "brown" days were initially white, but obviously would become dirty over time.

Update. Contact has been made with Cyril Fry's daughter, who is now a very elderly lady, but fully "with-it" and very enthusiastic about the whole scheme. Fry's collection of railway artefacts including one very nice loco nameplate is safe in storage and in the hands of the local authority. Other small exhibits are being sourced. Contact has also been made with several people who visited the house in Churchtown and saw the layout operating. Fry's own photographic collection has been made available through the good offices of the current owner of both the collection and its copyright. Fry was not the best photographer in the world, but some of his stuff is of great historic interest. Most is black and white, and while he took many colour slides in the late 1950s onwards, the film he used hasn't stood the test of time well, and while some of his images have been photoshopped to an adequate standard, many are way beyond repair; I spent two full weekends going through the entire collection a few years ago. His models are going to be professionally evaluated in three categories: (1) Those fit to operate with little or no encouragement. (2) Those which should be operable, but will require significant work first. (3) Those which operationally are a hopeless case, and will be displayed in glass cases instead. It is considered that ripping Fry's handmade motors out of them to put modern ones in, would be pure vandalism! Better to make a working replica and keep the original, if it's really that bad. It must be remembered that these are antique models, and irrespective of age, some have already clocked up huge mileages.Not all may be aware that when the layout was operating in Malahide Castle, few if any of the model locomotives to be seen operating on any one day were actually Fry's. Thus, the intention in the new building is that there will be a large newly built layout in 00 with a selection of Irish trains; these will be the ones that will clock up huge mileages, operating 8 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week. It would be unrealistic to expect an old model to do that, in in curatorial terms, irresponsible. Instead, parallel to the 00 gauge layout, selected Fry models will make occasional forays on a separate track (well, different gauge!), while others will be on display with, hopefully, pictures of the originals in action, and a brief history of each. More news as it arises.

Prior to 1925 or so, there was a lot more - a good deal of the Sligo line, and all of the Galway line, for example. Today, it's Larne, Bangor to Bray, M3 Parkway, Maynooth, Connolly - tunnel - Heuston - Cobh & Midleton, and that's about it! The main routes now long gone were ALL single - Waterford - Mallow, North Kerry, Limerick - Sligo - Enniskillen, Dundalk - Enniskillen - Derry, Portadown - Cavan - Mullingar, the Derry Road, the BCDR, West Cork; and the existing South Kerry and Limerick Jct - Waterford - Rosslare were always single. One double track narrow gauge line, and one only, of course: the Cork - Blackrock part of the CBPR. The Crosshaven extension was always single.

Important one there, Sam - the early NIR livery was maroon and a very light grey, never red and cream. The grey was not unlike what BR had on upper parts of coaches in the "BR Blue" era. For the maroon, it was a pretty standard one - a shade darker than LMS "red". The UTA green was a good deal darker than BR loco green,or closer to home CIE green of either shade. It was a totally different shade to anything the (British) Southern Railway ever used. The closest you'll get to UTA green is the shade applied to the RPSI's Whitehead set - this is actually based on UTA green. In terms of the posy-1970 NIR livery, the maroon remained the same as on railcars and steam-hauled stock, but the blue was a completely new shade. It has been accurately reproduced on the restored NIR 80 class set at Downpatrick. Incidentally, for the info of the world in general, this superb restoration job at Downpatrick has exactly the right shades of maroon and blue for the NIR "1970 Enterprise" livery, lining and all. The only error is on the roofs. At the ends, the roof curved parts are painted maroon. This is only correct for the front of a driving cab, not the gangway ends of either the power car, intermediates, or driving trailers. These bits should be roof grey.

Eoin, you've made me run out of smelling salts now, and the drooling is becoming a problem....................................................................!

Perfect, Fran - as always!!!! As I mentioned before, my layout environment of 1955-65 may have to be compromised with some of these things - too good to miss! Why couldn't CIE have introduced them in 1961!!

Another observation. The running numbers carried on the ends were unique as far as CIE stock was concerned then. No other stock had end numbers. However, initially, they had numbers on the sides (first left hand panel, I think - possibly other end), but as doors were switched and swopped, it tended to be on the ends only. The CIE logo on the illustration above appears to be tan. While some types of wagons had dual-coloured roundels (tan surround, white letters) when grey, no brown wagon of any sort carried these. Logos were always, from the outset, all-white on anything painted brown. That's an interesting one, Fran! Must have been a one-off. And I can't help feeling that it was a short lived one. I don't know what the initial loading for these things was, but could it be that the one with the markings you show was restricted to a smaller weight? If they were all 48, that large number's a new one to me - as you'll have seen from photos. I would have been highly surprised if you hadn't perused photos, given your superbly accurate rendition of everything else you've put your hand to! Keep it up!

Ah - I misread the title of your post. 1950s - very different. Blue 4.4.0s on Enterprise, and GNR coaching stock all brown, except some (but not all) steel-panelled post-1954 stock which was navy and cream. UTA stuff dark green with older (pre 1963) "Red Hand" roundel. If you cover 1949-54 or so, a decreasing number of maroon NCC coaches still about.