jhb171achill

David, did you ever see pics of the overall roof type of structure used as a carriage shed adjacent to the narrow gauge platform at Skibbereen? Maybe something like that for an overall roof? Just a thought....

That looks like something which would give great satisfaction as a wayside station shunting depot. A grain store or something....

No - it was a light creamy beige colour, like the lining. The RPSI livery is often assumed to be a base for UTA livery, though maybe you hadn't that, particularly, in mind. However, it is based on UTA livery, rather than being actual UTA livery; this being deliberate because none of the Whitehead set were ever owned by the UTA. It is this livery which has possibly given rise to people thinking that the UTA used yellow. The light colour used was edged with very thin red lines, though the lining on the numerals would be way too small (1/4 inch in reality!) to show up on a 4mm scale model.

That is OUTSTANDINGLY good!!!!! Different liveries each side is an excellent idea especially for an end to end line where you only see one side - it hasn't the same effect on a "round and round" layout. CIE put the "N" after the number, while the UTA put in advance; "123N" or "N123" depending on company...

I saw that Upton thing, Minister, though I didn't travel on it! In terms of "pleasure railways", I suppose my best moment was travelling on the very beautiful and well-put-together Shane's Castle Railway. I've yet to do the newer Difflin Lake line in Co. Donegal but it looks nice too.

So code 83 probably looks more realistic for Irish layouts - is that right?

yum!

There are some kits of GNR vans and cattle trucks, and a brake van (but don't paint it like a zebra, like the restored one at Whitehead! They never ran anything like that....!

I was thinking of the brown, Old Blarney! Of course you're right about the navy and cream, though at least some of those had black ends.

I'm sure many are aware - though some may not be - of the superb range of loco numb and nameplates offered by Narrow Planet. They do GSR / Inchicore / CIE plates too, and very accurate they look. Though - for some reason they offer them with red or black backgrounds - both are entirely inaccurate as grey only is correct. By the time CIE painted a very few locos black after 1955/6, plates had been replaced on all example by painted pale yellow numbers and light green gold-lined "snails" (not yellow!!) on tenders. Locos in green never had plates - always painted numbers, except the 800 class. While 461 never ran in anything but grey afte 1925, had she done so she wouldn't have had a red numberplate. She and 462 lost theirs years at and got painted numbers. GSR numberplates had letters and numbers and rims picked out in either pale yellow, or just polished bare metal. Since this was whitemetal rather than brass, polished metal gave a silvery colour. Thus, leaving a model one without paint gives a yellow touch, so better to do what both GSR and CIE did with many locos - just paint over the lot and leave it at that!

I often thought would the SLNCR railcar have ended up doing a shuttle service between Fintona and the junction! Or even Fintona and Omagh!

Wow! That looks fantastic - keep it coming!

I like the colouring on station and carriage; shows what the place would have looked like run by CIE! I have details somewhere of exact GNR station colours for both the Eastern and Western districts - must delve some time! Lovely signal cabin model.

w o w !!!

Fascinating stuff....Old Blarney - Tynan!!! Not too many about now who can claim to have actually got off a train there. The beautiful Gothic station still exists on private land, untouched in sixty years.

Excellent, Glover, very many thanks. I had wondered why they painted two of their buffer beams red, especially as at the same time one or two A or C's got YELLOW buffer beams as a (very short lived) experiment. If so many photos show up the lining as white or light, one may assume that whatever dark colour was used, started to wear off!

The two zebras seem to turn up all over the place! I had one on the 0700 Cork a few weeks ago.....

Of all the closed lines, the ones I wish most that I had done would be the Derry Road, CDR and West Cork...

He probably knew Senior, who was civil engineer of PW based in Enniskillen 1953-7! Then the UTA shifted him to Belfast after a short spell with the GNR in Amiens St....

Its actually a telling indictment of Irish public interest in railway heritage, that of the seven "preserved" lines I've been on, three are no longer possible! Possible: DCDR and Waterford & Suir Valley; not possible - Dromod (temporarily), Tralee, and Derry (Victoria Road). If Finntown reopens, it will again be possible. And I know of at least three potentially excellent preservation schemes which never got off the ground, despite (in two cases anyway), even funding being possible! Lack of interest, lack of anyone prepared to lead the project, let alone an army of committed volunteers. C'est la vie...

It does, Hurricane, in my book anyway! I did a few turf lines too as a child but I don't remember which. Coolnamona was one. Also the 2ft gauge Ardara system - beautiful line.

There are also a couple of standard NCC style mileposts, Richrua. I'm not sure what's happening the old station now - I think it's in a precarious state. I've done Achill - Newport on the Achill branch - but by bicycle! And I've driven on rough ground over parts of the Clifden line.... I almost, nearly, quite - managed to get to Murrough, but also the Burma Road and the North Kerry, but it was not to be. Had I made suitable arrangements, it is galling to know that I never got a passenger train out of Queen's Quay (only empty RPSI ECS), nor did I get to Fenit or Castleisland - I could so easily have. I could also have footplated UTA steam. Oh yes - I actually DID get to Ardee as well! Lesson for all: if you CAN do it now, GO! Not all things will always be possible.

Pointless I know; but I remember at age 10 being fascinated by the tales of the late Mac Arnold about his travels on the GNR many years earlier. The fact that at that time, the GNR lines in Fermanagh etc had been closed over ten years seemed an eternity to me.... But looking through stuff for a forthcoming project today, it occurred to me that I have myself been over many a line no longer in existence, and in some cases almost vanished without trace... now, I may well be suffering increasingly from an incurable malaise called "Too Many Birthday Syndrome"; but I know I'm not (quite) the worst sufferer here.... So these are the places I've been by rail, no longer possible. CDRJC's Victoria Road Derry station - short trip in CDR railcar 12, courtesy of NWIRS about forty years ago. The derelict Blennerville fragment of the T & D Midleton - Youghal Port Laoise - Coolnamona Dromin Jct - Ardee Waterford - Kilmacthomas - Ballinacourty Waterford - New Ross Rosslare Harbour (Pier) line Harcourt Street - Bray when it was AEC railcars (actually, two days before it shut, exactly fifty eight years ago this very day 29.12.58). Not the same today in a tram! Curragh Siding (with 186 on an RPSI special) Loughrea - Attymon Jct (2 days before closure; re-engined "C" in charge, to my dismay - I wanted a "G" but it was away shunting beet at Tuam! Sure ye get a "C" any time to Howth...) Athenry - Claremorris (I travelled on the Limerick - Ballina train with a 141, two laminates and a tin van; also several IRRS & RPSI specials) Athlone - Mullingar Drogheda - Navan - Kingscourt Lisburn - Antrim Belfast Yord Road station to various places Belfast Central Services Depot (ex-BCDR Queen's Quay) I almost got to Wicklow (Murrough) station. At the very end, only one train a day served it. About a week or two before it closed, I got a train from Amiens St to Wicklow and back. The train was scheduled to go to Murrough but it went to Wicklow (mainline) instead. I got into Albert Quay in Cork while shunting was in progress but via walking the tramway, not in a loco! I may have been taken to Castlecomer. Senior thought he brought me, but I've zero recollection of it. And on those travels I saw steam still in use on the UTA & NIR (GNR locos shunting at Lisburn, "Jeeps" on the Larne line and York Road); I travelled behind GNR 207 "Boyne" (not 207 the tin diesel thing) in a still-brown GNR 1st class carriage to Dublin, MEDs, MPDs (opening day Lisburn to Antrim), AECs of GNR / UTA / NIR and also CIE parentage, 70, 80 and Castle class railcars, B121, B141, B101, "A", "C", and Hunslets; and I sat in ex GNR, ex NCC Park Royal, laminate, Bredin, Mk 2 and Craven stock..... I narrowly missed the famous journey of preserved GNR Railbus en route to the UFTM about 20 years ago! I was RPSI treasurer, and had planned to go on it, but was too busy with paperwork! (Not what one joins a heritage organisation to do, but it has to be done).... I well remember the old steam era Portadown station, before that absolute eyesore of a concrete block which today masquerades as a station. It is more like a Soviet nuclear bunker, and on occasion some of the staff are about as friendly. I also explored post-closure GNR Foyle Road station in Derry - a sad sight. All complete, track only just lifted. So; to my older colleagues here; who'll be first (I think I can guess) to say they did the Derry Road, or Enniskillen or the Donegal or SLNCR? (I do remember seeing immediate post closure Strabane, Stranorlar, Dungannon and Killybegs stations.... the entire lot now swept away. CDR rolling stock was still at Strabane (Cox's stuff) and Stranorlar...) Footplated - A, C, B101, B121, B141, 071, (new) 201, 80 class. I've given myself indigestion recalling all that. It's the too-many-birthday thing again.

I've a vague notion that I know who it is. I will "ping" him and see what the story is.

Correct, divecontroller, and thank you for your endorsements. Yes, everything CIE was black-ended in dark green, light green and BnT liveries. The short lived unpainted coaches in the mid 50s had unpainted ends (and roofs and chassis) too. As you say, "Supertrain" era carriages and beyond had "wraparound" liveries, like BR blue did. The GNR had black ends too. The SLNCR, with no corridor connections, had maroon ends as well as sides.