jhb171achill

If someone gives me 10% of O'Leary's money, I will comment further on minorities, customers, regulation and the underprivileged! :-)

There is a slight chance, if certain matters go certain ways, that one might eventually end up on the DCDR.

The Derbyshire one was exactly the one I had in mind, but I had thought it was about 1:22. I think a few other British industrial lines also had exceptionally vicious graduents.... Working model rope incline, anyone? Derreenavoggy?

Yes, it was lack of steam. One possible solution is to operate Santas out to M3 Car Park Pace, or whatever they call that halt near Dunboyne, where at least it's out of the way. However, IE might bear in mind that if ever a system is brought into being which involves one operator having to compensate the other, the number of minutes of delay caused by the RPSI to their trains, is heavily outweighed by the number of minutes where the RPSI is delayed by IE issues! And we tend not to hear much about that... This year's May tour at Claremorris, for example. Yours sincerely Disgruntled, Bunclody.

I remember well the Castle Rackrent article all those years ago. Got to be the best I've ever seen, and W A Y ahead of its time.

They couldn't afford me, Broithe! To be fair, I heard tonight that among the trains delayed was the already VERY pedestrian up Rosslare, which must have arrived some hour and a half late. To be fair to anyone on board that....stuck maybe 4.5 hours in a stuffy overheated ICR with stale ICR air, can't be anyone's idea of a fun day!

It was - but probably the same limit (12-15 mph) as applied to the roadside sections of the Cavan & Leitrim's Arigna branch, and the Castlederg and Schull lines. The maximum gradient was indeed extremely severe for an adhesion railway; this is often overlooked and must have made steam working very difficult, slow and interesting to the observer. Britain often mentions a colliery line somewhere as the steepest railway in these islands, and it's about 1:22 from what I recall. This section of the D & B was way steeper, and I am sure must accurately hold this record. Is it even possible to have an adhesion worked line steeper than that? A lot of this section was curved too. Much steeper and it could have been Ireland's only rack line!

And look at the twitter comments from the Great Unwashed on the darts. Crowd of petty minded scrooge whingers. Stuff 'em and their money-grubbing compo culture refunds. They should just sit there and stare blankly at their iphones like they normally do.

Yes, rich....and it served an area which THEN was rural, though now largely built up. A fascinating line, neither tram nor railway, a sort of hybrid. Senior recalled it as being painfully slow, and his experience was of one of the two 4 wheeled railcars which were the nippiest things on the line... The "nickname" it is said to have acquired was possibly posthumous; "the longest graveyard in Ireland", as Senior never heard that term until some years after it closed. That book is an excellent read - I bought a copy when it came out.

Either, I suppose; traditionally, carriages.

It does indeed look new. If anyone else knows, I'd be interested in the origin of that picture as I'm interested to see what way Terenure terminus looked inside.

Looks good in real life, and better on a layout! Also good to see the right shade of brown paint for the period!

Not sure.... but..... it IS possible the thing had slatted wooden seats initially, or at least at some stage. Such were common in vehicles of that type. Incidentally, where did that photo come from? One of the best I've seen of it in original style. Lining, by the way, was yellow, I think a pale shade but not sure. Looks like it's taken at the Terenure terminus.

It would appear that it was almost definitely 2 + 2, from what I can decipher in the Catacombs. Blue upholstery a one stage, and possibly brown originally.

Ah....I see. Can't be sure of numbers but at least one was in orange initially and another in yellow. Roofs of both were black. Chassis on the orange one was body colour. I'm not sure whether the yellow one had a yellow chassis or not - it might have been black. Lettering etc. as shown.

Rich, I will consult senior's notes to see what it was like originally, ie on the D & B. What I know myself is confined to the external appearance, namely the livery; a very dark green (lower) and white (upper). Lettering was in shaded gold. Roof probably grey. Internal seating was almost certainly dual direction reversible tram-style seating. I'll try to find out what material the seats were covered in.

Leo Do you mean brake vans? All grey until mid sixties. Then, the duckets start getting black areas above and below them, and yellow and black stripes on the protruding bit. This is about the time the roundel is replacing the snail. Brown always had the black bits and stripes, and obviously snails were long gone when brown starts, about 1970. The odd grey van could be seen until about 1973/4.

Rich, are you planning to make it in D & B style, CDRJC self propelled, or later (final) state as a CDR trailer?

Excellent work! Great layout.

That's what I would have thought...

Exactly. We hear that today they're putting 3 wagons on instead of 2, and it's running twice a month instead of once. And that's news?????? (Forgive my cynicism........hmm)

I would strongly advise a visit. If I recall correctly, it's bus style 2 + 2.

Haviong seen them in the flesh (plastic?) at Stillorgan recently (in the company of some very dodgy folks!) I would agree - the standard of detailing is way beyond what any picture suggests.

Exactly - black ironwork was also seen on quite a few British wagons, but not here. Naturally, Hornby stuff, in imitating BR, will often have black chassis but as mentioned this is wrong for Ireland. Further to the question above, yes, it was about 1970 that brown started to appear. The only wagons never painted brown were the corrugated opens, not until they were "double stacked" latterly for beet.

A note for those modelling the black'n'tan 1960s. No brown wagons. Brown only appeared from about 1970. Needless to say, in brown or grey livery, NO black underframes, ever! ''Tis akin to painting 171 or even an ICR tartan and pink, and no more accurate......