jhb171achill

How much better does this layout get? The people of Ballybeg, it has to be said are very industrious! Such background activity is always a good (and often neglected area) of layouts. How many (including my former one pre-first-house-moves) have nice trains rattling round sizeable stations with not a sinner about!

Well, fair play to you, Steve (Railtec). Such a quick reaction is extremely commendable. The answer above summarises it perfectly. From sight, not only is your amended version a better size (as specified by Dhu Varren), it is also a more realistic colour. I wasn't aware that Railtec did the 1963-7 coats of arms too. The transfers of them look very accurate and indeed are all too rarely seen on models. So hats off to Railtec all round.

Yes, at least 2 were. No. 4 had one on the right hand tank, and a UTA one still on the left; looking forward from the cab. The locos were never repainted, and retained UTA lining. Just the old UTA crest was painted over, nothing more.

Ah! So it's the "red hand" device, then..... A post-1963 crest transfer might be a useful thing for modellers too.... I saw somewhere a model someone had made which in prototypical form had a crest or logo of some sort for which no commercial transfer was available. I can't remember what the model was, or where I saw it, but the modeller simply photographed the real thing on a preserved vehicle and scaled a print down to the scale correct size, printed it on very flimsy paper, cut it out, and stuck it on. It looked very convincing.

The Courtaulds wagons were not private owner - they were UTA's, mostly ex NCC. Rather than being fully rebuilt, I'd say they were substantially patched up. They still had their NCC 1920s wagon plates on them well after withdrawal anyway! My own recollections of them were of wagons that were the FAR FAR from new looking. After the Courtaulds traffic stopped, the vast majority were broken very quickly, with maybe a dozen or so retained for PW. And these lasted into NIR days when some more were broken, or set aside, others cut down and repainted with a single coat of poor quality emulsiony light grey paint. Naturally, the red showed through quite soon, and the metal parts simply returned to bare rust with tiny occasional patches of rust-stained grey!

The Railtec UTA transfers are a little overscale, but better than nothing! You could always put an NIR logo on it, like 2 or 3 of them had, including No. 4 on ONE side only!

I'll look it up, Jawfin. It wasn't long after the closure - will check.

Those SSM lining transfers would be worth getting. The lining on UTA engines was not very wide (about an inch each line purely from memory)and would be awkward to paint accurately without looking overscale. Red connecting rods will be easier!

Because the rivets were incompatible with narrow gauge track. (I'll get me jacket)

Fantastic story, Mike, that's the sort of stuff historical archives don't tell us! The health and safety men would have had serial conniptions with complications! Senior went to back to Enniskillen after travelling with the tram to Omagh. I'm not sure how he got there. Sadly he's no longer here to ask, but on another occasion after the 1957 closure he went to Omagh and back on a light engine. I can't remember what for, or why....

Quite possibly.......!

I'd dread getting to your age, GSR...!

Excellent work!

Did they re-gauge it? Lol

...and yet it's the reddish brown... Which perhaps suggests than Brendan's list refers to those rebuilt, as opposed to those used for Courtaulds. So, probably the one I saw was not rebuilt, but was used for Courtaulds.... would that make sense? If the "C" prefix refers to Courtaulds traffic as earlier suggested, this would add to this theory. It has just occurred to me that the spoil wagons, as far as I remember, had numbers beginning with "M". Obviously, then, "Magheramorne"? Such us the beauty of research. Fifty years on, we learn something new every day.

Been there many a time, Dive! I couldn't detach those either..... The "uncut" version is the way all UTA wagons used for Courtaulds traffic were, and therefore all red-brown ones. It was only after NIR set some aside for PW work that they received light grey point and had their sides cut down, if that's any help. The UTA tended to remove the old NCC cast number plates, certainly by the late 50s in most cases, and paint numbers in the style shown on Leslie's model instead. (I like the rusty looking ironwork on it - absolutely authentic!). They did retain their small oval makers plates (only about 6 inches across - WAY smaller than CIE ones). These were attached to the chassis around the middle, below the drop-down side.

All three that worked on the W & T did, I believe.

I wonder what he meant by "not prepared to supply"..... Not commercially viable, or run out of stock? I do know, as many of us here will, that those brave enough to produce an Irish model, either in kit or RTR form, aren't doing it to retire in riches! (So, as a separate issue, hats off to them....)

I'll try to stick to looking up more Claremorris pictures...

Up to the late 40s, 800s excepted, just grey all the way. Then lined green for suburban passenger and main line passengers engines (most) and grey for everything else with a few green exceptions (like just one old GSWR 60 class). Somewhere, somewhere, in the Catacombs I have a list of what engines got black - this was only in the late 50s. I'll try and find it and post. Really, that's about it.

Do we know when?

I've seen your pics also Mayner, absolutely top class stuff, looks really authentic.

If it's an oil burner it should be all-grey, not black (though dirt / oil deposits might make it look black!). Also the common but obvious error that "snail" is yellow. Snails were never yellow on steam engines, be they grey, black or green - this was Whitehead invention when 461 was first restored about 1990 or so. The RPSI had a black livery with yellow snail on 461 and 184. The loco number in unlined yellow, yes, but the "snail" should always, without exception, be pale green lined in gold. CIE simply didn't have transfers in yellow for steam engines. By the time the yellow ones for 121s appeared, no remaining steam engine would ever see a paintbrush again - within a year it would be the scrapper's torch. I would say the stark white circle (and it's interesting to see a model with this - all credit to the modeller for this aspect!) would have ended its white career half way into its first run!

I've seen that stuff before but I don't remember where it is, or what layout - anyone?

Drool drool drool.......!!!!! That C & L stuff is absolutely amazing! Fantastic!