jhb171achill

Hi Auto-Train The shade of green used by the UTA on railway carriages never varied from 1949 to 1967, when maroon and grey started replacing it fully. It was a very dark brunswick green - not sure of RAL number but someone else here might have the actual code. On loco-hauled stock, but not railcars, there was a mid-waist line an inch thick, a beige colour (not the oft-seen-on-models yellow). It was thinly lined in red either side. The UTA "red hand" / "roundel" device was placed as close to the middle as possible. It was somewhat smaller in size than available transfers seem to be. Initially, coach numbers were placed within a circle of the same beige, at window level - i.e. the numbers shown were between window panes where suitable, usually close to the end of the vehicle. After the late 1950s, the vehicle number tended to be just below waistline and without the circular surround, and from about 1961 the full UTA coat of arms started replacing the roundel, which actually disappeared from use pretty quickly. The last rolling stock still in the old NCC maroon were repainted green in the early 1950s. Repainting was pretty speedy as things go, but no livery change of any fleet is ever achieved in absolute terms, overnight. So if your layout is based in a period of, say, 1949-53, expect an occasional maroon vehicle still with NCC markings, but not after that. Unlike CIE coaching stock, all of which had black roofs, the UTA used a lightish grey as a roof colour, though it darkened pretty quickly when in use. The NCC roof colour was a somewhat darker grey. The UTA painted coach ends black. Untilo the outbreak of WW2, the NCC appear to have (mostly in any case) painted coach ends plain maroon, but it seems that at least some stock repainted in the mid and late 40s had black ends, and if secondary stock had no lining.

Similar event next Friday, 11:00 and also 17:00. In both cases you can book in advance or turn up.

All of this is SO elementary!! They’ll be ordering meter gauge trains for the Cork line next…..!

The update is that Living-In-Daughter managed to downsize a lot of her stuff and things are way better now. Work is about to recommence on Dugort & Castletown. Still some trackwork and wiring, with help from my Learned Friend, to whom I owe very many, many pints at this stage! After that, scenery, and the endless queue of half-finished kits. I'm sure I've a dozen Provincial Wagons at least to do - I need to discipline myself not to get any more until all I have are fully running..... And a wait, of course, for RTR D16s, D17s, D14s, G2s, maybe a WLWR G3, J18s, J5s and so on........

Indeed - a new-build entirely. Perhaps better, a direct line from Dublin to Navan, Cavan, Enniskillen, Letterkenny (or near it) and Derry..... better than that, if the first section of it was underground, to alleviate pressure on Connolly & Heuston, and it served the airport too! We can but dream. For a VERY long time.

Hi Eugene, was just about to post a message - I was given the wrong information about this!! It's NEXT week, 20th, and it's 5pm rather than 11:00. Note to all - see above; apologies for confusion! Eugene - if you're about on 20th, you can turn up on the day. But if you ARE about tomorrow, I'll be in there at 11:00 anyway so would be pleased to walk you round.

00 scale live steam, too! Sez he, hopefully......

They should put the Enterprise back to Central Lanyon straight away.

1000%, couldn’t agree more. And in the light of the above, every detail of which is correct, compare the utter nonsense portrayed in the All Ireland rail review. They either didn’t do any serious research at all, or else produced a report telling what they were told the results were to be, in order to enable our politicians and to just kick the can down another road. Reopen Portadown - Cavan - Inny Junction? SERIOUSLY? Ooooh boy.

Should be red - the black was dirt, same way blue GNR engines often appeared to have a “black” dome. The RPSI repaint of Drumboe perpetuates this inaccuracy.

Many of the ones you mention were built for perceived reasons of strategy, or promoted by local interests whose business acumen was somewhat lacking. The post-1883 flurry of building the "Baronial" lines served useful purposes in many cases, but never forget that the very reason these grants were given was that the local "big" railway compnay was already well aware that they hadn't a hope of being financially viable on their own. Railway history is littered with these; Achill, Clifden, Kenmare, Glenties and so on; lines which never traded profitably throughout their lives. We hear clamours today of such-and-such a line "should never have been closed". While occasionally correct, this is usually quite wrong. A population something like HALF what it is today, in the 1960s, and governments simply not havinbg the financial wherewithal they have now, made almost all of the closures which did happen, inevitable. If there was any big "sin" involved in closures, it was not so much the actual closure, but the failure to protect the rights of way of the line closed. Had these been preserved, plus a waiver that a reopening, even if decades ahead, would not need new planning permission of any sort, we would be in a much better position to address transport policy issues today. The two we hear most of - West Cork and the Derry Road - would be impossible to resurrect now on their original routes, and light years beyond prohibitely expensive to build circuitous new-build lines around places like the south of Cork city, Portadown, Omagh and Strabane. Had the rights of way remained, reopening would be easy - especially if the state had the powers to just bulldoze anything that farmers or others had put over the former line since, without reference to any local councillors!

I've eaten it.

Will there be cake?

A good deal of interest packed into a comparatively manageable space....

Mad, utterly mad. Looks like I’ll be driving next few times I’m up there.

Have they been in?

Wow! VERY nice!

Wonder who's picking up the tab for that? And what they're going to do with the restored roof / building?

My understanding is that any potential restoration of the station is and will be an entirely separate issue to the relaying of the railway, as the station itself is not of actual practical use in any way and therefore not part of the railway relaying plan. The new terminus track layout will veer to the left of that picture, I understand. The bigger issue, of course, is what actual traffic will operate on this newly reopened line. Thus far, precisely nothing concrete appears to have been mentioned anywhere. What will the line be used for on a day to day basis?

I've been asked to pass this on: 11:00 Guided tour with narrative, showing a walk through Irish railway history through the eyes of modeller Cyril Fry and his models. Failté Ireland will be visiting too, so that any comments / reactions / feedback will be welcome.

I had that thought in the back of my mind too, but wasn’t sure. Doors were presumably operated from the DVT?

I think you still can get the maps free on osi mapviewer? Since the track plan will be condensed, strict accuracy over track plan will be neither necessary nor possible. If you're ever in malahide, call into the Model Railway Museum and look at the condensed model of Mallow on the layout in there.

Agreed. In experimental stages it's a completely blank canvas. Even some much more experienced railway modellers, with several (or many!) comprehensive and complex layouts under their belt, will start a new one with some particular plan in mind, and it will end up as something else entirely. Once you've played about a bit, and decided what you want the final thing to look like or represent (if anything, and it doesn't have to!), then you can always sell off any rolling stock you have already acquired which you think doesn't fit. Good luck!

Senior - still in the railway at the time - simply referred to the 121 & 141 classes alike as the “B class”. To him, a diehard steam man, they were all the same!

2hrs 15 - and with Centrsl Jct to new central station maybe a mile shorter than to old central, technically it’s slower point to point?