jhb171achill

An interesting concept for a layout. Any variety of locomotives under the sun, whether in GSR, CIE steam or CIE diesel days. Myriad types of old six-wheelers and random selections of wooden and occasionally modern carriages; a carriage fan's paradise layout! And, of course, horseboxes galore, something rarely seen on layouts.

I simply could never get my head round wiring electrofrog points. The old way was simple. years ago, for the last layout I had which was in planning stage about 1983, I sent a diagram to Peco and they replied promptly. Maybe they're not the same nowadays.

That's good indeed.... and if they are refurbing 201s, it suggests that the 071s are safe for another good few years. They need both. Mind you, one might read that another way; unfortunately, it would make sense from an operator's point of view to have a single class of loco. Could it be that refurbs of 201s will eventually simply replace the 071s? There's one for another day........... On the subject of passenger fleet life spans, both Britain and mainland Europe have managed to keep electric stuff in traffic for decades longer than anything diseasel. How long will the original DART cars last? Nothing wrong with them except the dreadful seats.

Only ten or fifteen years ago, anyone who suggested a ready to run high quality original model of anything Irish, let alone an engine, would have been rapidly escorted to the Home for the Incurably Retarded, Demented and Hopelessly Delusional......... (Leinster House and Stormont were the relevant institutions, and still are)...

I can see the rationale, yes..... and while it's true that railway administrations have to work with what the accountant likes, not what us enthusiasts like, it does seem strange that other options weren't considered. One might accept the rationale behind eliminating shunting - but there can't be any accountant's argument in favour of setting aside some 20 201s instead of converting at least half of the Mk 3s into push-pull mode. That's what happened widely on the continent. Go to Switzerland or Austria and there are millions of loco hauled trains, and almost all are PP. Anyway.................................. Time I got on with finishing the captions for "Rails Through Connemara". I'm still hoping for a June launch but I'd need to get a move on seriously....over'n'out.

Hats off to those who produce Irish models, but have to deal with factories and work practices a long way from here. It must be frustrating for them when delays occur. The main thing is that a model of this stature, and anything else MM have done, is WELL worth the wait.

As a regular traveller on the Mk 4 sets, I have yet to be impressed by a single detail of them. I'll give them one credit though, and it's not much of one. The onboard temperature, while it can be stuffy, is nothing to the claustrophobic, severely uncomfortable extreme heat of the wretched ICRs, which only very rarely are a comfortable temperature. They are frequently - and I have this on good authority - over 22 degrees. Also the toilets are not ventilated. Try using one after someone has done their No. 2s in it..... I was on an ICR the other night and I know for a fact that it was actually measuring at over 22. That is bad enough, but compared with the adjacent coaches, the one I was in was WAY hotter. Why can't we have trains these days with opening windows? I'd rather do Belfast to Cork in a 2600, either in Roses or Quality Street livery, than one of these stuffy tin tubes. Rant over, for now.....

Senior went in there on the last weedspray (which he organised). There was an IRRS special along the rump Dundalk-Cavan section about 1959, just before it closed. It was an AEC railcar. I wonder if it went there.....I don't think do, but possibly..... It'll be sixty years this September since Stormont's greatest act of vandalism in forcing so much of the GNR to close.

It's funny how Inchicore has changed. In steam days, they thrived with a fleet three times the size they have now, where apart from the 101s barely two locos were alike. Despite the best efforts of the GSR and CIE, standardisation was a foreign word. Forty year old locos and carriages, and even older wagons, were not only the norm - there were many. many examples approaching twice that age. And yet they maintained them all and the trains ran. Cue the diesel era, and compared to British Rail and its toytown "train company" successors, they suddenly developed an absolute anathema of anything that is non standard, anything that requires any effort, imagination or thought processes; witness the 2 or 3 standard types of train on offer today. It started with the AEC railcars. Then the potentially useful SLNCR Railcar B, and then the G class. If it wasn't standard, they didn't like it and didn't look after it. The AECs lasted half the time their equivalents in Britain did - less in some cases. Now, we have the Mk 2 and Mk 3 carriages scrapped half way through their reasonable lifespan. Comments about needing more maintenance may be more about lack of proper care than age - though if so, that itself can probably be traced to lack of proper government funding. So we have scrapped perfectly good Mk 3s and the excellent Galway set, and laid aside 8700 DARTS and 2700 class railcars - all barely out of their Hornby boxes........ Mad....

Nice shot of G616 and G61x. Why two - was this at a sugar shunting session?

Without consulting old timetables, I think about 1970-ish..... anyone?

No, they were fully GNR owned, though yes, "de facto" used only for Guinness traffic as far as is known. When modelling the past, we see numerous British Hornby or Bachmann models of private owner wagons. If modelling Irish prototypes, it must be remembered if accuracy is wished for, that private owner wagons in Ireland were very rare indeed, and many extremely short lived; also, they tended to operate over one specific route, not in general goods trains all over the place. Example: Downshire wagons - Dundrum (Co Down) to Belfast only. You wouldn't get one of these, for example, in Enniskillen, Mullingar or West Cork, and there would be no Guinness grain vans on the NCC!

James P O'Dea and Fr. Frank Browne always took "human" photographs and were very much ahead of their time that way. I note that several modern photographers have taken their influence on board. It has to be said, though, that the vast majority of enthusiasts (though not all) prefer locos, coaches and wagons!

As good as.... the dismantled parts include much completely rotten material which can't be used again.

Correct, Nelson. The scrapped one was rotten throughout and if not scrapped was on the verge of disintegrating.

Dan (or Tony) Reneghan - retired CIE loco drivers - did an absolutely superb article on the "G" class locos in an IRRS journal in the last year or so. Worth reading - it details which ones worked where. Obviously, they only had a working life of just over ten years, and there were only seven of them, so it's easy to find out. G613 was a regular performer on the Loughrea line for a good few years, and G616 spent much time there too, I think. Not sure about Dundalk, but that article will tell you.

If it's anything like Wantage or Arigna Road - and I am sure it will be - it'll be an absolute masterpiece no matter what's on it!

Jhb171-senior used to be able to name no more than half a dozen lines like Clifden or Kinsale - which were the ONLY lines he HADN'T been on! He footplated a LLSR 4.8.0 into Burtonport, got to Rathkenny, Draperstown, Castlegregory, Athboy, Glenties, Kenmare, Valentina, Schull, Macroom, Clogher Valley.....to name but a few... he accompanied all three 800s on their trial runs, and did the entire BCDR twice, entirely on footplates...

Yes, though narrow gauge ones were few. From recollection, the only narrow gauge overall roofs were Pennyburn (LLSR), Killybegs (CDR), Dingle (T & D), and Albert Street, Cork (C, B & P). While Belturbet had an overall roof, it was only for the GNR trains; the C & L ones remained in the open without even a platform canopy.

The only thing I would think - and as you'll know it's in a constructive way - a train shed wouldn't be something normally associated with an Irish narrow gauge line, although Ennis originally had one. Similarly, I wonder if the three storey building makes it look a little claustrophobic? A little too "town" or "industrial", perhaps? I like the Wantage thing above, nonetheless. And the GNR style at Fintona is another very obvious choice for consideration. In fact, your plan has more than a touch of the real Fintona about it. (Any 3ft gauge horses out there?)

Superb, Glover, absolutely superb. There were quite a few six wheeled passenger brakes about - two as late as 1968 anyway. One of these was the 1964 one. The other was 69, now heavily rebuilt at Downpatrick. 69 was built in 1888. Your one was built probably 1895-1900. There were only these two six wheelers, possibly one or two more at absolute most, which attained the Black and Tan livery. Others remained green until withdrawn between 1960 and 1965. No passenger carrying six wheeler was ever black'n'tan. All remaining ones were in Cork as spare vehicles by 1963, and there appears to have been a single occasion in spring 1964 when a set of them not to Youghal and back. That was that, a far as six wheelers were concerned. The one you have modelled so well is of GSWR origin. It lasted at least until 1965 which is the last pic I've seen of it. However, the vast majority of surviving six wheelers were ex-MGWR, and thus, with no kit available for either the passenger or brake versions, this represents a major omission in the kit world - as does a standard Irish 30ft coach chassis.

Hope you enjoy it, Derailed!

Now it's intact but severely overgrown again despite clearance a few years ago. Impassable by rail due to level crossings tarmacced over.

I said this 12 months ago but I'm saying it again - WHAT an output!!! Highly impressive, superb. I was aware that Worsley were doing these railcars but I had yet to see them. Extremely impressive.

Barry Carse did a few of those epic journeys too, and in fact we featured an entire chapter in "Rails Through North Kerry" on this fascinating operation. Unfortunately, although an opportunity arise, I never did Tralee - Ballingrane, though I did get into Foynes twice.