jhb171achill

This was before NIR added 8000 to their numbers!

New one to me too. Thanks for highlighting it, airfixfan.

Cravens for me! All of the others are like pressure cookers - ALWAYS far too hot inside (I'm told that this is to please the free travel elderly brigade!) and you can't open the windows! A 2600 appears now to be the only train in Ireland with opening windows!

Brings it all back, Mayner. Yes, it was and is like the other branches you mention - a truly beautiful area. And of course, ttc of this community is so lucky to live there. The track was woeful in those days, which made for a lively ride. This enhanced the experience on rickety jointed track, another similarity with Achill and Clifden in their later years! Achill and Clifden now, had they survived, would be the preserve of a single two-car 2800 each, I suppose. Maybe it's just as well they closed!

Looking fantastic, Daryl - very neat work!

Tis a fine collection of pencils there, sir! :-)

They could be quite lively in the cab all right! I had a spin in the cab of one between Belfast and Dundalk one time, and going up over the Bessbrook viaduct was memorable. Even one cab run on the Larne line was similar... Modellers will note that above, 68 has no cabside logo, whereas 94 has...

Rumours of Mk 4 stock being used on the GNR have abounded as long as they have been about, and seemed to reach fever pitch while the DD sets were being refurbished. To date, obviously nothing has come of it, and under all current plans there is no likelihood of it happening whatsoever, any time in the near future. Having said that, future changes of policy might alter things...!

Funny how we all see things! The original NIR livery looked attractive when brand new, but like the UTA one, being dark, it got to look very drab very quickly. This livery was brighter, though the red and cream "suburban" looked garish, like so many modern liveries. In terms of design, I have to say I thought the Hunslets looked fine! But in the all-time-ugly stakes, I'd place centre stage the 70, 80 and 450 class railcars, as opposed to their liveries... And as for the ghastly IE 29000s.... but others think all of the above look great! I have to say - I've "got used to" the outward appearance of the 2600, 2700 and 2800 class... the current silver and dark green suits them too. The older lime and navy livery, liked by some, was always considered odious by me.....no matter what it was on. I'm no fan either of any livery the 201s have ever had, nor the locos themselves! And, though it might beggar belief, there are those amongst our community who would not give a wheezing, rusty, work-stained J15 0.6.0 a second glance, even at the head of a cattle special.....

Your genius knows no limits, GSR! :-) In 1956, heavy rain as bad as we had in December last, plus a slight rise in the level of Lough Erne due to the construction of the Ballyshannon hydro-electric power station, led to this happening on the Lough shore near Castlecaldwell, Co Fermanagh. Jhb171senior was called out to examine, stroke his chin, murmur, and fix. Eighteen months later, the Stormont government decided to close this, and every other ex-GNR railway within half a day's drive of it. I'm glad THIS one turned out the right way up, or anyone reading this would be drowned by water emptied out of Lough Erne....

I don't know of the manuscript, airfixfan, but if I found out I'd finish it myself! The wagons you mentioned that were renovated for the Courtaulds traffic are the very ones that all the above photos are of. Some were GNR, but the majority were NCC, and carried builders plates (visible on the photo above) showing building dates "NCC 1922" or 1924. It is out of these that the dozen or more survivors for ballast with NIR came. I never knew that the "C" prefix was put on the Courtaulds wagons - I suppose it makes sense now! I had always assumed that it was an NIR suffix for departmental use, like CIE's "A". It certainly fulfilled that purpose in LATER days, as subsequently acquired ballast wagons carried it! By that stage, it HAD become a departmental tag. Several guard's vans were kept on by NIR for ballast use. There were two GNR vans, one of which is the RPSI's "Ivan". The other was an identical vehicle which was in woeful order at Downpatrick and was donated by DCDR to the RPSI's "youths" to provide spares for "Ivan". There was also at least one NCC van retained, now on the DCDR, and possibly another as well. Ex-GNR vans travelled on the Bangor line and ex-NCC areas of UTA / NIR after the break up of the GNR, but while they did appear beyond Amiens Street on CIE, it wasn't much or often. CIE were, of course, churning out many of their own more modern goods brakes at the time, so most of what CIE inherited was broken up quite soon.

Any idea where and when it was taken, airfixfan? That's one of the very few books I don't have!

They had 1:1 gradients on the Cavan & Leitrim.... Well, I did all right with the beet pictures I posted! I'll try and fish out some more pics later. Doing a tidy of part of the Catacombs today.... Anyone out there fancy restoring some extremely ancient (but almost all NON railway) glass plate negatives? In some cases I don't know if there's any point, as they are of long forgotten - and thus long unidentifiable - great-great-great aunts etc.....

Absolutely, Weshty; I'm having a Victor Meldrew afternoon!

The'y migh't, indee'd, Ol'd Blarne'y !

Probably the nicest livery these ugly ducklings ever carried. Lisburn.

Tis very true, Old Blarney, tis true. Leafing through these pictures I've posted today I find many family ones too which seem like yesterday but were 20, 30 and 40 years ago. Somewhere amongst it all, for those with a strong stomach, there are shots of an infant me in an AEC on the Harcourt Street line, and standing beside a Donegal 2.6.4T at Strabane. Now, even an oul elephant like me doesn't remember that, still less bring held up to a window in the upstairs of the old Hillsborough railway station as the lifting train did its work below me....

Here, now and again, I'll post older photos taken by jhb171senior, and jhb171inchicore, back in the day when Jesus was learning his spellings, and pussy was a kitten...... I don't have exact dates to hand, though eventually I'll be able to match the pictures with notes taken at the time. Based on what I know of their travels, though, I can estimate. Larne narrow gauge (B & L station). Early 1940s. I think this is Magherafelt, with a goods train shunting. I believe it's about 1938. And finally, about 1929, Cavan & Leitrim No. 1, still in badly worn C & L lined green livery.

These pictures were taken during the last few years of the beet ("turnip!") trains. The short lived containers feature, as of course does the Indian Summer of the 121 class! And views at Cherryville of NIRs 112, then on a several-year-long sojourn on IE. Not a chance these will all be the right way up, but c'est la vie..... Wellington bridge 121 class - only 134 and 124 were left in use. This was their beet swansong. A four wheeled turnip-tin. A bogie, or gourmet, turnip tin. And not a label on either to say how many zillion calories of sugar was in the contents. I'll tell the helfin safety people. This what the combined efforts of 124, a 141 and twenty two loaded turnip tins did to two 10c coins. My life savings squashed. At least this one can't be the wrong way up.

I stand corrected, Old Blarney; I've come across "whosoever"...... the rest of it's still irritating though! "To whom it may concern" would be as handy! As for the SLNCR one............aaarrrghhh! I'm reaching for my smelling salts.

Gramatically correct, if cumbersome Victorian legalese..... First and last quotation marks are appropriate as it is clear that a document is being quoted, though the ones at the sides are superfluous. Victorian English, it has to be said, tended to be meticulously correct, albeit long winded, formal and dry...

The branch train awaits departure. I have silent cine of 155 with the same set of a Park Royal and BR van a couple of days later, leaving Ballina behind 155. The young ladies on the platform are now 29 and (next week) 32. The younger of the two, on the left, had a footplate run from here to Ballina a short time after this photograph was taken. She had no PTS, no steel capped boots and no day glo nappy. And, she's still alive, having survived this near-death experience! Her verdict: "it was very noisy in that train"..... Well, this was before they relaid the branch, and the cab of a 141 at even moderate speed is not the most silent environment to be in at the best of times..... going over the Moy bridge in a 141 was like going down a tin staircase in a biscuit tin full of marbles in an echo chamber, while you've a migraine. But I wouldn't miss it for the world. Mum, upon whose knee she sat in the locomotive, was not impressed either, I regret to have to advise.

Here we are. A view ahead, just coming into either Crossbarry or Drimoleague. Sorry, along the South Wexford. Lost the run of meself there.

Anyone remember this? Dare I suggest that might be josefstadt on the footbridge? Or is my eyesight getting even worse..... It was a brilliant day out. Note for modeller's: in silver livery, chassis (and roof) should be silver as well, not black. Whether it's this or "Ivan" the brake van, I don't know where this obsession with black paint on ironwork and bogies has come from...Hornby models probably.... The "A39" lettering would be in a font with slightly "thinner" letters, and there would also be a number on the side. This picture, on the first leg of the journey was at Greystones. I have a few more somewhere which I'll post when I find them. I'm sure others have better pictures than mine of this day. Full marks to the ITG for their painstaking restoration of the engine which is of course now in expert care and great form on the DCDR where travel behind it can still be enjoyed. A fine beast indeed.

Here's a lesson in how not to write a notice. Let's start with No. 1. There no need for " marks at the start and end of this notice. In this context, they are wrong. 2. Lazy typing. There shouldn't be a gap between the ( bracket and the word "including". 3. "It's" servants; are you serious? Wh'y th'e apos'troph'e? 4. There is no such word as "whomsoever". Somebody's swallowed a dictionary without having the ability to digest it properly. 5. In the second instance of this new word "whomsoever", even if it was a correct word it is entirely superfluous in this context. This is another dictionary indigestion moment: stuff a sentence full of big words you don't understand, let alone understand the correct usage of, in the hope that your notice will sound more "official". 6. Lines 3 & 4. When you end a phrase with a comma, you should have a gap between the comma and the next word. Basic typing. 7. There should be no comma between "to" and "vehicles" on the third last line. 8. "The Board or IT'S servants".... That apostrophe again. 9. The CIE heading has no fadas, let alone in the correct place. Perhaps it's just as well; it might translate as "Water Closet & State Cabbage Farm Authority of The Republic of Mozambique".... The whole thing is all the more laughable as it is intended to be a legal, official notice, not something that someone has scrawled on a piece of paper like "back in 5 min". I'd love to see a haughty barrister getting someone off the hook in a court because the notice was written in an unknown language! (Ulster-Scots, perhaps?) I despair. Seen in Claremorris, about 2004. Or should I say Claremorri's? Rant over.