jhb171achill

Senior went in there on the last weedspray (which he organised). There was an IRRS special along the rump Dundalk-Cavan section about 1959, just before it closed. It was an AEC railcar. I wonder if it went there.....I don't think do, but possibly..... It'll be sixty years this September since Stormont's greatest act of vandalism in forcing so much of the GNR to close.

It's funny how Inchicore has changed. In steam days, they thrived with a fleet three times the size they have now, where apart from the 101s barely two locos were alike. Despite the best efforts of the GSR and CIE, standardisation was a foreign word. Forty year old locos and carriages, and even older wagons, were not only the norm - there were many. many examples approaching twice that age. And yet they maintained them all and the trains ran. Cue the diesel era, and compared to British Rail and its toytown "train company" successors, they suddenly developed an absolute anathema of anything that is non standard, anything that requires any effort, imagination or thought processes; witness the 2 or 3 standard types of train on offer today. It started with the AEC railcars. Then the potentially useful SLNCR Railcar B, and then the G class. If it wasn't standard, they didn't like it and didn't look after it. The AECs lasted half the time their equivalents in Britain did - less in some cases. Now, we have the Mk 2 and Mk 3 carriages scrapped half way through their reasonable lifespan. Comments about needing more maintenance may be more about lack of proper care than age - though if so, that itself can probably be traced to lack of proper government funding. So we have scrapped perfectly good Mk 3s and the excellent Galway set, and laid aside 8700 DARTS and 2700 class railcars - all barely out of their Hornby boxes........ Mad....

Nice shot of G616 and G61x. Why two - was this at a sugar shunting session?

Without consulting old timetables, I think about 1970-ish..... anyone?

No, they were fully GNR owned, though yes, "de facto" used only for Guinness traffic as far as is known. When modelling the past, we see numerous British Hornby or Bachmann models of private owner wagons. If modelling Irish prototypes, it must be remembered if accuracy is wished for, that private owner wagons in Ireland were very rare indeed, and many extremely short lived; also, they tended to operate over one specific route, not in general goods trains all over the place. Example: Downshire wagons - Dundrum (Co Down) to Belfast only. You wouldn't get one of these, for example, in Enniskillen, Mullingar or West Cork, and there would be no Guinness grain vans on the NCC!

James P O'Dea and Fr. Frank Browne always took "human" photographs and were very much ahead of their time that way. I note that several modern photographers have taken their influence on board. It has to be said, though, that the vast majority of enthusiasts (though not all) prefer locos, coaches and wagons!

As good as.... the dismantled parts include much completely rotten material which can't be used again.

Correct, Nelson. The scrapped one was rotten throughout and if not scrapped was on the verge of disintegrating.

Dan (or Tony) Reneghan - retired CIE loco drivers - did an absolutely superb article on the "G" class locos in an IRRS journal in the last year or so. Worth reading - it details which ones worked where. Obviously, they only had a working life of just over ten years, and there were only seven of them, so it's easy to find out. G613 was a regular performer on the Loughrea line for a good few years, and G616 spent much time there too, I think. Not sure about Dundalk, but that article will tell you.

If it's anything like Wantage or Arigna Road - and I am sure it will be - it'll be an absolute masterpiece no matter what's on it!

Jhb171-senior used to be able to name no more than half a dozen lines like Clifden or Kinsale - which were the ONLY lines he HADN'T been on! He footplated a LLSR 4.8.0 into Burtonport, got to Rathkenny, Draperstown, Castlegregory, Athboy, Glenties, Kenmare, Valentina, Schull, Macroom, Clogher Valley.....to name but a few... he accompanied all three 800s on their trial runs, and did the entire BCDR twice, entirely on footplates...

Yes, though narrow gauge ones were few. From recollection, the only narrow gauge overall roofs were Pennyburn (LLSR), Killybegs (CDR), Dingle (T & D), and Albert Street, Cork (C, B & P). While Belturbet had an overall roof, it was only for the GNR trains; the C & L ones remained in the open without even a platform canopy.

The only thing I would think - and as you'll know it's in a constructive way - a train shed wouldn't be something normally associated with an Irish narrow gauge line, although Ennis originally had one. Similarly, I wonder if the three storey building makes it look a little claustrophobic? A little too "town" or "industrial", perhaps? I like the Wantage thing above, nonetheless. And the GNR style at Fintona is another very obvious choice for consideration. In fact, your plan has more than a touch of the real Fintona about it. (Any 3ft gauge horses out there?)

Superb, Glover, absolutely superb. There were quite a few six wheeled passenger brakes about - two as late as 1968 anyway. One of these was the 1964 one. The other was 69, now heavily rebuilt at Downpatrick. 69 was built in 1888. Your one was built probably 1895-1900. There were only these two six wheelers, possibly one or two more at absolute most, which attained the Black and Tan livery. Others remained green until withdrawn between 1960 and 1965. No passenger carrying six wheeler was ever black'n'tan. All remaining ones were in Cork as spare vehicles by 1963, and there appears to have been a single occasion in spring 1964 when a set of them not to Youghal and back. That was that, a far as six wheelers were concerned. The one you have modelled so well is of GSWR origin. It lasted at least until 1965 which is the last pic I've seen of it. However, the vast majority of surviving six wheelers were ex-MGWR, and thus, with no kit available for either the passenger or brake versions, this represents a major omission in the kit world - as does a standard Irish 30ft coach chassis.

Hope you enjoy it, Derailed!

Now it's intact but severely overgrown again despite clearance a few years ago. Impassable by rail due to level crossings tarmacced over.

I said this 12 months ago but I'm saying it again - WHAT an output!!! Highly impressive, superb. I was aware that Worsley were doing these railcars but I had yet to see them. Extremely impressive.

Barry Carse did a few of those epic journeys too, and in fact we featured an entire chapter in "Rails Through North Kerry" on this fascinating operation. Unfortunately, although an opportunity arise, I never did Tralee - Ballingrane, though I did get into Foynes twice.

David, did you ever see pics of the overall roof type of structure used as a carriage shed adjacent to the narrow gauge platform at Skibbereen? Maybe something like that for an overall roof? Just a thought....

That looks like something which would give great satisfaction as a wayside station shunting depot. A grain store or something....

No - it was a light creamy beige colour, like the lining. The RPSI livery is often assumed to be a base for UTA livery, though maybe you hadn't that, particularly, in mind. However, it is based on UTA livery, rather than being actual UTA livery; this being deliberate because none of the Whitehead set were ever owned by the UTA. It is this livery which has possibly given rise to people thinking that the UTA used yellow. The light colour used was edged with very thin red lines, though the lining on the numerals would be way too small (1/4 inch in reality!) to show up on a 4mm scale model.

That is OUTSTANDINGLY good!!!!! Different liveries each side is an excellent idea especially for an end to end line where you only see one side - it hasn't the same effect on a "round and round" layout. CIE put the "N" after the number, while the UTA put in advance; "123N" or "N123" depending on company...

I saw that Upton thing, Minister, though I didn't travel on it! In terms of "pleasure railways", I suppose my best moment was travelling on the very beautiful and well-put-together Shane's Castle Railway. I've yet to do the newer Difflin Lake line in Co. Donegal but it looks nice too.

So code 83 probably looks more realistic for Irish layouts - is that right?

yum!