jhb171achill

Perfect! Interior colours shown too - now light grey and cream. Recollection suggests all over light grey at one time, though the above is what that loco came in..

Westport Quay or Polloxfens Mill Sidings, Ballysodare, Co Sligo.

I'll have a look. I think I have one somewhere, but not sure.

"Sweet Afton"..... in Dublin, Fruitfield jam, Ogden's Tobacco and Premier Dairies..... possibly only the tobacco out if that trio down south. Gallaghers tobacco too.

Folks I have a fair quantity of 009 material for sale, almost all of the above description. Since this is an Irish site, and 009 in general tends not to feature, it's probably not worth while listing it all here. However, just in case anyone's interested, please PM me for a full list with prices. I will also advertise it via the 009 Society and the Austrian Railway Group. JB

They had "flip-down" seats against the rear cab end, but no use to driver unless resting after the trip! They were more for someone extra like a loco inspector travelling with a driver. To drive you must stand, though.

About time.

Especially for UTA. Nondescript dirt really is the only realistic thing there. CIE stock was just as tatty into the late 1950s, though all grey initially; but once steam disappeared you'd need to be more careful of correct livery as goods stock was somewhat tidier from the 60s.

Interesting point you raise, ei6jf. It could easily be assumed by many, indeed, so the point is probably worth emphasising. The Great Northern did, in later days, paint some vans brown and have them fitted for passenger trains, but as far as I can gather it was not an exact science by far, and is probably best disregarded as policy by modellers. The UTA also began to paint some vans brown, although with their almost total neglect of repainting anything, it is as likely to have been quite random!

Very handy little locos to drive. Some drivers don't like them because there's no seat and the ride is, well, jolting. Your eyeballs, false teeth and replacement hips have all fallen out half way to Inch Abbey. A run on rough falling-to-bits track to Loughrea must have been an ordeal. But having driven them, personally I like them. Chain drive is indeed usual. One of the reasons all three at Downpatrick have never been in use together is that there are five chains for three locos; each has two. New ones are readily available but at €4000 a go. These engines were in production for a long time and varied little throughout over thirty years in production. I saw a metre gauge one in Mallorca in 1993 on PW duty at Inca - its build date was 1984, I think. Early examples in Germany were built in 1951. One of the benefits of a forum like this is to see how some of our more skilled modellers make up what will become outstanding models, so the "how-I-did-it" posts are of great interest and value.

Maybe our railway staff didn't need colour coding! ;-)

Yes, it's one of Jimmy O'Dea's. A fascinating collection to go through, but a pity he never did any colour photography.

Large for the G611-7 class of 1962, small for the original trio (G601-3, 1955).

Hi Mark It was just a livery change. British Rail had a period where brown meant fitted and grey unfitted, but that didn't apply here. Fitted and unfitted alike were all grey until around 1970/1, and anything painted after that was all brown. Mind you, many were NOT painted after that date, and clearly hadn't been for years. As late as 1975/6, a very occasional "H" van still sported a stencilled "flying snail"; I photographed one that way in the Crossmolina Siding at Ballina in summer 1976.

Incidentally, there was a fundamental error in the plot. As Poirot put together the final scenes and drew the conclusion that they were all involved, a re-enactment of what he suggested had happened was shown. When the body was first discovered, Poirot had used his cane to break open a locked door. So it was locked from the inside. But at the end, the lady who left the compartment after stabbing him, just closed the door behind her - she obviously couldn't lock it from the inside - from outside! The corridors were WAY too wide for any train. No European carriages ever had the massive balconies shown on the end coach. This is / was an American thing. American influence was clear in the CGI imagery as far as railway infrastructure went. But - the shade of blue on the carriages was spot on!

65mm cameras? That's very small - they'd fit on a layout!

Not if you stand on your head to read it, Broithe! :-) (What's CGI?)

I wonder what the train was? Looked American. The Penn Central logo was on one internal lamp. The steam engine didn't look real. The station looked American........anyone?

Many thanks!

That's correct, Richard, so it never got black'n'tan. It would have been the post-1955 green, as seen on DCDR's TPO and (a few years back) the RPSI (Dublin based) Heritage set.

Superb as always!

R I P

Yes. Originally probably painted cream upper and ceiling, mid brown lower. Later, very pale grey throughout. I may have interior photos somewhere but if you look at the DCDR website some of their photos may show it. As far as I know, the G611s were always the very pale grey inside. In Arigna Road times (I'm assuming that Arigna Road closed in 1957!), a G601 class was silver. So, the first thing is serious weathering! The silver was on the roof and chassis also, relieved only by full red buffer beams. Lettering was of the larger style, and in pale green (not the black seen on Silverfox models) with no "snail". No "G" ever carried a "snail" in any livery. In reality, the silver will be pretty dirty, especially round the wheels and roof. These were still steam days, so not just brake dust (as today) but also soot and smoke had an effect on the weathering of locos and rolling stock. By the way, at Downpatrick, the liveries of G613 and G617 are correct. That on G611 is not for a number of reasons.

Love the PalVan! How was that made? See how well authentic CIE wagons look on a layout! The H van adds to this too. (Leslie, I want commission!!)

Let's hope the RPSI gets adequately paid. They never got a red cent for the other CDR loco.