jhb171achill

In those days, Harry, they only had the one window wiper. (A point for modellers, perhaps). Operating practices were still very much geared towards "drivers side" and "fireman's side". Same with the "C"'s, and also the B101s. The B121s had two from new, and while I can't remember for sire, I'd be 99% certain the 141 / 181s had two as well.

Hopefully, josefstadt! After two colour albums concentrating on black'n'tan, it's time silver and green and narrow gauge (plus a few quirky things) got an album - along with steam. And when that's done, there'll be a fourth and final in the "album" series; basic outline currently worked out. I've some real oddball stuff for that! Meantime, for reading instead of pictures, "Rails Through Connemara" is almost ready to go to, and is agreed with, the publisher. That'll keep me of the streets for a while.

From a new book now being worked on.

Upon privatisation of all of NIR, IE, Bus Eireann and Ulsterbus, all four entities along with GoBe and Aircoach are taken over by the Londonderry & Lough Swilly Railway Company, after it found that a legal loophole means it was never would up at all last year. All journey times to be quadrupled in order to save fuel.

And there's ICRs on the Schull & Skib. From tomorrow.

Tis correct, Broithe. It will also mean that those being trained to drive it can use my photos as references.

Its after 12 on the 34th Septober. The story about No. 3 on the Larne line was a spoof. It's actually going for trials on the Isle of Man Railway instead after temporary regauging.... And the cutting up of No. 1 was a spoof as well. It's actually A39, C231 and 146 that are being cut up; the resultant scrap metal will fund a new casino at Inch Abbey, the profits of which will be used to build a new-build replica of A39, which will be painted in an entirely wrong shade of GSR maroon....

I'll mull over it for half an hour, Warbonnet....

That's the VERY one, GSR. Any idea where I might get a copy? Who published it and when?

Possibly, Garfield - unsure of possible British equivalents....

Enniskerry "might-have-been" There was an article, or small book, published somewhere a few years ago regarding the proposed Bray to Enniskerry railway, on which construction actually did commence in the form of one bridge and a bit of embankment just outside the village. Does anyone here know anything about that article or whatever it was? I'd like to see it.

Thought I'd put a few updates here. The railway has announced this morning that once remedial work is finished on O & K No. 3 (which is currently at Whitehead for the purpose), it will be tested between there and Carrickfergus on a public excursion with three RPSI Mk 2 carriages. This will be its first ever main line passenger run, and it's first visit on any main line since it left the sugar factory for Dublin about 1961. Exact date will be announced once work nears completion.

Exactly. Only someone with a very oblique political view, or an utter inability to count, could possibly argue any benefit in privatisation of anything to do with railways in Ireland. The bottom line is this - with no competition possibilities, no way for a private company to actually make a clear profit, the state or local authorities would have to pick up the tab in some shape or form. So they'd be paying what they're paying now - PLUS the private companies directors salaries. The whole concept would be so crass, inefficient and expensive that we need to ensure no politicians are reading this!

That's right, Broithe. And that's the reason that on IOM stamps, banknotes and coins she has no crown - she's actually not the Queen at all there! I thinks it's because the royalty originally would have been King (or queen) of England, and this would eventually have been amended to a UK definition. With the IOM never being in the UK, it makes sense. One wonders, constitutionally, if the IOM would be free to secede from what, effectively, is the British empire?

Quite a few pockets always kicking about in Limerick - or are they there for repairs?

They still are, as I understand, outside the EU. thus, they are not part of Britain, not part of the UK, not part of the EU, and obviously not part of England, let alone Scotland, Wales or Ireland! I met one of their politicians by pure chance on the steam trai from Port Erin a few years ago, and he gave the impression of a very proud and independent people. To our ears, it sounds odd coming from people with what to us is just another "English" accent! I was there as a teenager when their centenary was taking place, and Nos. 4 "Loch", 10, 11, 12 and 13 were in action at the time. The old company was still running the railway but was trading under the embarrassingly ghastly name of the "Isle of Man Victorian Steam Railway"... with a souvenir "shoppe" or something like that... St. Johns Junction was still intact with carriages all parked up in sidings but weeds beginning to take over the track. In terms of the birch, I do sometimes think that if this could be applied to some anti-social elements here from time to time, and to hell with their "dignity" or "rights", maybe, just maybe the world would be calmer.... In that year, we travelled to Ramsey as well, and the track and station were intact there too. The four wheeled crane was in a siding - this, I believe, is the crane now cosmetically restored and on display at the erstwhile Union Mills station. A truly fascinating system.

The IOM is a must-visit destination this year. Apart from the usual feast of steam and electric, there is a possibility that it might be the last year of the unique, and by far the oldest in the world, horse tramway in Douglas.

That just about sums it up in all respects. A rapidly growing population will aid the case for electrification, though one might exclude Waterford - Limerick Junction, the Nenagh branch, and Wexford - Rosslare from the future network.

There would absolutely zero advantage in privatising an operation like IE, I agree.

I can't recall who it was - maybe someone here, maybe not.... we were having a discussion some years ago and he told me he was planning a layout based on a fictitious NIR location about 1975-80. The plan was that on one side of the tracks there would be murals of King Billy, and a letter box crudely painted red, white and blue, with loyalist graffiti on a gable wall. On the other side of the layout a tricolour would be painted on another gable wall, with accompanying republican graffiti! I wonder if it was ever completed.....

The 66 and 47 ones are interesting - what types are they? They are the only ones I don't remember - maybe they're the "one-offs"? All the MORE interesting, an excellent little scene. I love this layout. It captures the atmosphere of the place and time SO well, as others have commented too. Truly amazing stuff!

While it's almost certainly too small to matter for looking through 00 scale windows, there were a number of different types of heating boiler in different vans. While detail would be impossible to make out through the window views, they were different colours. Folks here like TTC would be the experts on what was what in this regard.

Now that IS incoherent! :-)

You're hallucinating, Harry. It's actually 802's tender!!! ;-)

I don't see anything inside the "O"...... but it doesn't have a "broken wheel" aspect to it, at the sides, though at the very top it looks a little like it... CIE didn't put roundels on early containers anyway; they used a black rectangle with the letters "C I E" on it. The roundel only came on later design "modern" containers, which were painted orange. If there is any likelihood it's a roundel, the container must be some sort of oddball one-off, possibly something used as a store?