jhb171achill

The bulk of my photography era, GSR, was 1975 - 85, and I was never the greatest photographer. I remember steam well, and all that went with it, but 'twas when I was a camera-less youth. I took my first ever photo on holiday in 1970. It's of a British Rail class 86 electric loco at Euston. Just because I had a cents, and it was there. It was July 1970. To go back to the thread, I have therefore no photos of 800, but as I sort jhb171senior's stuff, who knows what might appear.

Ha! On that note, I'll continue writing today about Clifden, and also about green diesels which will appear in a future project....! And I must have some more upside down photos somewhere.....

I should add, gentlemen, that in no way am I knocking those who DO appreciate some of the rail-borne things that pass me by! Each to their own, and we're all friends here....

Belmond are going to use the train to fly people to JFK in the off season...

The Voices made me do it, Dive! And the Bells weren't pulled by 201s......

I'll grant ye that, GSR800........ I just belong to a different age. Being honest, endless clanking yellow machines, 071-hauled trains of one flat wagon going to limerick with a flat tyre, all modern railcars, units, ICRs, De Dietrichs, Mk 4s (and sacrilege!!) Mk 2 and 3 coaches, either aircon are not, are to me of one with darts and Luases, 071s and 201s - being kind, too modern. Being honest but tactful, of no interest to me. Tempted to be non-PC but possibly invite death threats, boring oul piles of tin cans. And a goods train consisting of lorry containers is not a "proper" goods train. As for 80 class, 450 class, those lime green and navy things in Drogheda, 26's and 28's........ zzzzzzzzz. gatwicks: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Hunslets and EE shunters zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Yep, maybe I'm a philistine; but there ye go. jhb171senior had no time for ANYTHING with an internal combustion motor, even a Donegal railcar! His train spotting days had been in the 1920s and 30s. We jhb171's are kettle men, not petrol-heads....unless they're black'n'tan of course....! :-) Whinge over!!! Ye got me off guard there, GSR800. ;-)

071s aren't exactly 121s, but they're marginally of some interest; 201s are identiluases.....to me! :-)

That's exactly right! In fact CIE had been given a 5 year period (1958-63) to break even, so cost cutting was even more draconian than the last few years.

I'd say 9ft 6, yes. GSR 800: this is a pic from "Rails to Achill", a copy of which I could always post to you

There was considerably more freight then and the management of CIE took the view that a locomotive would be a multi purpose thing in a land where traffic levels rarely justified a separate fleet of goods engines. The GNR and UTA went down the CDRJC road, possibly to an extent anticipating the future, though the latter's severe anti-rail bias meant that like today's IE, they'd do almost anything to discourage rail-borne freight. So, north of the Sligo line the emphasis was railcars. That said, most main line CIE passenger services 1957-64 were railcars too.

Taken well away from home, this is at Achill in 1934. Still in DSER dark grey, but with GSR lighter grey planks replaced bottom right. The DSER number is on the left. On the right, the GSR have applied it too - though with a barely discernable "D" after it, this being the suffix for ex DSER carriage and wagon stock. The roof, of corrugated iron sheet, appears to cover what originally would have been a "soft top" roof with an open bit in the centre.

Yes, they were extremely well received. Train travel was then seen by the public as slow, unreliable and dirty.

Those 6-wheelers that survived in traffic into the 1960s were overwhelmingly ex-MGWR - built like tanks. Yet, after the last actual passenger-carrying ones were withdrawn finally in 1963, the few (2?) passenger brakes which lingered on were ex GSWR, as this example. Thus, these two were the only six wheelers ever to wear black'n'tan. I forget the number of this one, which was still running in 1967, but the other was 1888-built 69, now undergoing an extremely lengthy restoration at Downpatrick and conversion to a brake first. For DCDR members of tender years here, this is what 69 looked like before arriving at the DCDR. These two vans were also, perhaps uniquely, fitted with gangways possibly by the GSR, or maybe more likely CIE. 69 was withdrawn in mid / late 60s too.

"The new diesel train" would be the first AEC cars about 1950.

Fair enough, Glenderg, just wondering. Thanks for clarifying.

A taster from "Rails Through North Kerry". Newcastle West, before they axed the passenger trains. copyright C P Boocock

Just a question to manufacturers: since model wagons, of all types, seem to come from makers with default black chassis (almost never appropriate for Ireland), do the models made specially for here? In other words, do they come with the plastic of the chassis the same colour as the body, or is it up to the buyer to paint it to match? I'm thinking maybe the manufacturers have no choice but to buy chassis elsewhere all in black?

After 1970, there were enough Bullied opens to cover virtually all traffic, and thereafter very few traditional wooden bodied opens were about. Consequently, while a few survived to have "broken wheel" roundels in the late 60s, the majority saw out their days with stencilled "snails". Even fewer got the brown livery all. Here's one that did. A detail: while grey palvans and grey H vans had roundels with white letters and tan surrounds, any open wagons with roundels had all-white ones. CIE brake vans with grey paint and roundels had white ones too - certainly for the most part anyway. Hope these details are of interest.

You see that both those posters show the loco with a sleek line of (supposedly) Bredin stock behind. In a TYPICAL train, you'll get something like: 6 wheel GSWR Mail van Bogie wooden GSWR full brake Bredin GSWR wooden dining car Bredin GSWR wooden bogie Bredin Pullman car Wooden bogie Wooden 6-wheel full brake Horse box maybe...

On the summer 1951 timetable, that's 800 at Rathdrum. Oh.....wait till I check......!

If that was the RPSI trip with 186, Mayner, I was on it too! I remember seeing some sort of loading bank at the south end too, but I'm not sure what it was for. I didn't take any pictures of it. From what you say I doubt if it was for cattle. This would make me even more inclined to take the view that it must have been at the north end of the station.

I'll check and see where it was. I suspect it might have been where the gypsum loading area end up.

Park Royals yes; I forgot that train was in 1949, but the "Bredins" were built for exactly this type of service between 1933 and 1937, and while a uniform rake was probably never seen, one might expect at least half of that train to be "steels". It's hard to make out the very end vehicles. Certainly, GSWR stock was still to be seen even on main line trains well into the 1960s, with some reaching into the black'n'tan era.

Cattle traffic was everywhere on the Midland. It's bound to have had one, though I'd have to look at old photos to deduce where. Moate signal cabin had just been painted when I took that photo.

I've just turned it....