jhb171achill

An hour or two in Portadown? Did you not have a better defence barrister, Tony?

TOP class!

Aaaaarrrrggghhh!!

Lovely setting. The signal, it should be noted, isn't original.

A "woolly"..... Visions of an eco-friendly sheep-hauled train! Excellent.... The last Woolies in traffic were 376 (withdrawn 1961) and 388 (1962). Another eight had lasted until 1959 / 60.

Re-reading my post above it suggests that that tin vans were a variety of genny vans, which they obviously weren't. I should have added the difference between a steam van, a luggage van and a genny! I was merely trying to suggest what was at the back of the train in the "green silver grey" era and the 60s!

Gen vans....... "tin vans" were used from end of steam (when they became necessary) to 1970 or so when the Dutch and BRs were in service. Some tin vans were still in use around 1976-7. The last coaches still in green would have been about 1966.

Top class work, excellent!

I can't be certain, David, but I suspect the front "buffer beam" was black, judging by close inspection of photos. So, white roof, grey cab and body, including strapping, black chassis as a railcar would be.

Absolutely brilliant, Tony. Selwyn already has a considerable archive of recordings of ex GNR, SLNCR, CDR and BCDR men. Mostly GNR. Very very valuable work now in recording the first hand experiences of the last ones standing, for all time.

Tony, is Selwyn aware of this man for his interview archive?

Fantastic job! Count me in for a D16 Achill Bogie! n for

Brilliant - so very realistic.

Does that produce the old proper brown colour, Waffles, (which is correct for a guards van or any 4 wheeled goods van) or the modern reddish tone as seen on the very rare newly painted thing nowadays (which isn't)?

Fantastic stuff, gentlemen, many thanks!

That's a Drumm, yes, the first one. jhb171Senior-senior designed the bodywork......

A thing to be aware of is the two shades. The CIE brown has variously been called "brown", "bauxite" and "red oxide". If you look at some of the excellent colour pics online (flickr for example) by "Irishswissernie" of this world, you'll see that it was a distinct brown up to the time the ferts didn't run any more. It didn't have the distinct reddish tint you see now. This is why you'll see nowadays a reddish tint on the smear of paint behind a newly stencilled number; the underlying brown on the rest of the body is the "real" colour. I saw a pic somewhere of a model CIE brake van in the modern reddish-bauxit-ey colour but all wagons, PW included (when not yellow!) should not carry the reddish colour that the old guard's van parked up in Limerick has. Have a look at photos online and in some colour books relating to the 1970-onwards period and you'll see there's no reddish tint..... Incidentally, pre-brown (about 1970), absolutely everything, PW, bubbles and all, was grey of one sort or another - except tankers!

Brilliant, Rich, many thanks. I was sure there was a picture of one when quite new among Senior's stuff, but I can't find it..... maybe I was wrong!

Beautiful house!

That is indeed the one.

Brilliant looking museum. Hope to go in the next two weeks. One criticism, if I may, and it's not of the museum: the RPSI website has disappeared and been replaced by that for the museum. On the website now the actual society, and its main line operations both NIR and IE, seem peripheral. The message should be strongly put out that the Museum is a subsidiary of the RPSI, not the other way round.

It's No. 6. No. 5, I believe, was an open (i.e. roofless!)

If that's one of my pictures it was taken around 1975-6-7-8. I have an idea that this is the one now at Downpatrick.

This is just absolutely ghastly, horrible. Our coastguard, lifeboat and search / rescue teams are the bravest of the brave. It puts land-based pay claims into a third place of comparative insignificance when we look at a group of people who selflessly go out to rescue people when Mother Nature is at her angriest; every time they set out they risk their own lives to save others. A wife of a friend of mine in the west, who couldn't swim and was afraid of water took it upon herself some years ago to learn to swim and give something to society. She became a coastguard and within less than two years of operating as such, she had personally saved the lives of six people, and been involved in many other highly dangerous rescues. These people are our greatest unsung heroes and let us hope that this horrible tragedy will highlight the great sacrifices and exceptional bravery of these people. May the deceased rest in well deserved peace, and we think of their families. And may the rest of us realise what really is important in life.