jhb171achill

Much as I have zero personal interest in either that railbus or anything post 1960s, you are of course quite right, Dhu Varren. So here's my horrible confession! It was in the early days of my tenure of DCDR finances that RB3 arrived there! Cattle trucks were within my lifetime seen as the most boring routine stuff, of zero interest to anyone. This is indeed why none were preserved. I regret that, so do you; RB3 has it's followers......

Totally right, bufferstop, a serious void in the story. Filled by a railbus!!! Wahhhhhhhh!!!!

Ah! So it's not off the Enterprise.... (USS or Belfast varieties)....

Yes. There's a GNR one and a CIE one at Whitehead, and an NCC one at Downpatrick. The GNR, NCC and above GSWR ones are the only survivors from their respective companies. The CIE one at Whitehead is joined by the one outside Cork (Halfway?) and the amended one still in IE ownership at Limerick; I believe these - amazingly given their recent numbers - to be the last standard CIE ones. There may still be a derelict one at Inchicore. Not a one from the DSER, BCDR, SLNCR, or even more surprisingly, the MGWR. And not a SINGLE cattle wagon from ANY railway! Despite the fact that as recently as 1955, cattle wagons probably made up 30 - 35% of the entire wagon fleet.

It looks like something for removing winkles from locomotive exhaust pipes, spying on people who are standing upside down, or squirting coloured dye in inappropriate places, with intent to cause alarm. The "no-parking" sign refers to 071s. As we can see there are none in the picture. (Should I go home now?) ;-)

Another upside-downey for you. Last surviving wooden brake van on CIE, still in use into the 70s, complete with flying snail to the end and 1960s era grey, this is the van which survived into preserved times thanks to one of our community here, who had it held at Tuam (and Attymon, before that), until vandals burned it. It's now still with us, thankfully, at Dunsandle. It's a GSWR product and if memory serves me right, dates from about 1910.

First, Westport shed from a less usual angle. And yes, I was the photographer, and I had no hard hat or shoes or day glow jacket....... I'm alive! Hey! Life is good. The other is not noted by me. Memory suggests either Westport, Claremorris or Sligo. Probably Westport. TTC might be able to confirm? I add these in the hope that they'll be of help to modellers of that era. Yes, I know they're probably going to be upside down....

The almost-preserved last survivor of that rare species, a WLWR bogie coach. Few though they were, they were a very elegant design indeed, none more so than their Director's Saloon, which of course became GSWR / GSR / CIE 935. The usual sub-normal scum of vandals put paid to her. From the list above, consecutively numbered 934 was a camping coach. This was an entirely different design, however, being a standard type of 1st / 2nd compartment composite. I surveyed 935 while I was heavily RPSI-involved, with a view to having it brought to Whitehead. But it was in way worse order than even this picture suggests, and it was burned soon after by aforementioned citizens.

"Holiday Coach"

But the road doesn't go under the roof?

Ahhh perfect! Saved me, as well as others, a phone call.... :-)

What on earth is the reason that trains can't actually enter Tralee station any more? Is it because of the death toll of thousands that H & S men imagined had happened between the 1850s and today......? Or does an ICR have no brakes?

Ye just never know, Glenderg...! ;-)

Well presented....

In the period often modelled by many nowadays, the rail freight was monopolised in most areas by the trio of cement, Guinness and fertiliser; a bogie fert wagon is overdue! (as I mentioned to IRM's Garfieldsghost on the phone tonight...) ...plus, of course, in certain areas and in winter, beet.

Yes, Dive, I think they were too - but - often they were in trains with things that weren't, thus the guard's van was a necessity. It's possible that operational regulations still required a van for a while, as truly all-fitted trains didn't appear until well after they were introduced.

Those white lines are every bit as good as factory finish. Lining must be the most difficult thing to do convincingly; it lets down many a good model. Absolutely superb work on this coach all round, best I've seen.

:-)

That snow picture is absolutely unbelieveable! I reckon the Healy-Raes have something to do with it.

Depends on Guinness intake. ;-) (Couldn't resist it!)

I say bring back steam.

A franburke masterpiece, that picture!

Hence, Wanderer, my lack of enthusiasm about modern railcars! 70, 80, MED, MPD, 2600, 2700, 2800, ICR, 22000...... all the same me boy, all the same.

I don't know, Dive. They had a standard grey - very common among most railway companies probably because it was cheaper mass produced stuff for what were workhorses; no need for varnished ginish and attractive lining on a vehicle designed to carry stones, hay, parcels, cattle or cement.... The early H vans were this "normal" grey too (and at least one fitted one was standard green!). Colour photos (and memories) after about 1961 or thereabouts show H vans, palvans, and I'm nearly sure cattle vans, plus of course the then-new goods brake vans, all appearing in a light shade, still to be seen at the end of loose coupled traffic on quite a few wagons which had yet to be repainted brown. The cement bubbles simply had this standard grey all over - in reality (and I remember it extremely well as I saw it every weekday) you might use LMS wagon grey. The chassis was grey too, and remained so when they were repainted orange. Once they became cream, the chassis became black. The tops of those do look lighter in the photos, but they're taken on a dull day. There was no variation in the grey from couplings to chassis to tank top. The roundel had a tan surround in these photos, with white lettering. It was the same transfer as used on H vans and palvans. Interestingly, any cattle trucks painted at this time, plus various other types of wagons, had an all-White roundel. I must check this, but from vague memory, newer guards vans had all-White. Talking of guards vans, we see many variations (including in the UFTM) of the wasp stripes on CIE guards vans. There is one version that CIE used, thus if one wishes to have accuracy, all else is incorrect! That is, yellow and black stripes (not white and black); and the stripes were only on the protruding part. The section of bodyside above and below the protruding part was plain black. No older wooden ones ever had these stripes. Like earlier CIE guards vans, they were just plain grey. By the start of the "brown" period, all repainted vans had wasp stripes, with none having a plain brown ducket.