jhb171achill

Couldn't agree more.

Scumbags. We often hear that this country has a problem with drink. That's as maybe. I believe it's worse - it's a lax toleration by the authorities, and the seeming aversion in our society to anything that is seen as punishment or discipline. Discipline is a dirty word. Look at countries with safe clean public transport (and streets); the sight of a policeman hauling someone up for minor things (e.g..dropping litter) is expected (rather than tolerated). In the highly unlikely event of a Garda or PSNI man nailing someone for that, or graffiti, or shouting obscenities on a railway platform, the usual hand-wringing idiots would be out in force berating the cops and saying "sure leave 'im alone" etc etc.... I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but unless law enforcement agencies, courts, judges and even railway officials with power to apply bye laws, start taking seriously a zero tolerance approach to this type of thing, it'll just go on and get worse.

Got my copy the other day. Excellent as usual. I love the Donegal layout featured.

Drooling has now reached tsunami levels. Maybe the gold wheels have to go, but that wagon is PURE gold. A worthy addition.

I became greatly gruntled last night. First, I finally completed the main text of "Rails Through Connemara", the story of the Clifden line. Then I went to the IRRS Christmas evening, to find that "Rails Through North Kerry" is selling well, so wot with the season that's in it, I had to go on the lash and see my trad musician friends. Into me leaba at 5...... Yours faithfully Gruntled Lisnaskea

Don't worry, Broithe, I've gone off the boil on that. Yours faithfully Disgruntled Abbeyfeale

I referred to them as 2600s as the original question described them in those terms. The GNR's AECs and CIE's were the same design bar a few details, and mechanically (though not at all cosmetically) were similar to the GWR's streamlined ones. In traffic, in railway days, they were collectively always called AECs. Indeed, describing them as 2600s could cause confusion with the modern plastic 2600s, built by Mitsaokorea-SiemensCAF in Cobh.........! Gardners were early railcar experimenters. With the co-operation of the GNR in Dundalk, they turned out those early articulated units - both the double ended ones and the articulated pairs like the ones Mayner referred to in Australia (of which one at least, I believe, is preserved in operation order; I'd love to see it. I could post pictures of it and they be the right way up.) The type of technology, the type of design, ised by AEC in Southall and Gardners / Walkers in Wigan were entirely separate and thus "B" was a one-off production and design. It is to the credit of the DCDR that it has been saved, though it's lucky that CIE's "preservation" of it didn't involve its earlier destruction by the weather, and by certain citizens of our community who took an interest in its aluminium window frames while it was stored in either Limerick Junction or Mallow. Senior was in Enniskillen when "B"" was running and knew the traffic manager well; his verdict was that the thing was a great success and very reliable. it fulfilled the SLNCR's needs more than adequately. they were only interested in a single vehicle, not any sort of railcar set, as passenger traffic levels almost never warranted more than one passenger vehicle. My late mother's recollections of travelling in it were to the effect that it wasn't exactly full of people. My guess, from what she said, was that typical loads might be 20-40 people. naturally, when there special trains for pilgrimages or GAA specials, more accommodation was needed. This - in latter days at least - tended to involve the company pressing all three of their (by then) seriously neglected bogie vehicles, along with their equally dilapidated 6-wheel brake 3rd no. 4, and borrowed stock from its neighbours. This was often ex-MGWR six wheelers from CIE (bringing green and flying snails into Enniskillen or further), or a couple of elderly bogies from the GNR. I have it on anecdote that the traffic manager in Enniskillen was mortally embarrassed on such occasions by the state of his own three bogies compared with neighbouring CIE or GNR stock, as the maroon paint had badly faded to a nondescript uneven pink or browny red. The paint was peeling off, to an extent I've never seen on any operational vehicle. The interiors were, I am told, tired, old and musty! On an aside, I wonder about the green livery of the SLNCR locos in pre-1915 days as shown on Arigna Road. There were several variations of green, and possibly at different times two very different shades used. I'd be interested to know exact details...... certainly, by at least the late 30s (when Senior first went there), all was black on the SLNCR. It looked very stark - but smart - compared with the unrelenting grey of the GSR.

I'm uncontrollably drooling.

Weshty and IrishThump, how do yiz KNOW? ;-)

Just to clarify, Mayner & Rich are of course quite right; in saying the thing was a one-off I was referring to the original question as to whether it was related to the 2600 (AEC) cars or not. As Mayner said, it was a development of the older GNR artic cars, but they were obviously Gardner too, and themselves no relation to the 2600s either. Personally I think that the old AEC cars and their BUT compatriots were the most comfortable railcars ever to run.

That's about right, possibly even a year or two earlier at absolute most. All orange before that.

Not at all - a one off manufactured by Walker Bros. of Wigan.

I've seen them in the flesh....they do!

Very many thanks, aclass007!

Very nice!

I would have an answer for them, Rich!

Maybe seats on top of the engine compartment at one end..... I had a final look at Senior's D & B photos, one of which shows this beast. It's a poor photo and, I am afraid, adds nothing to our knowledge!

Very possible, Glenderg..... lighting can plays tricks with grey shades too....those brake vans, for example, would have been darker in real life (when new, though not later) than in that picture.

Interesting......no idea, myself!

Just a bit. D & B speeds were generally about 30 hours per mile!

In this case, definitely grey. All locos were supertrained before any cream / ivory appeared. The orange version had grey chassis, but (unusually for Ireland) the ivory cream ones had black chassis. And these clearly are the same as body colour as the first few are quite new. So the pic is probably late 60's, maybe 1970/1 at a stretch.

please do!

If I am right, the person to whom copyright belongs will go buck-daft, and rightly so, and sue the pants off them! On closer inspection, there's a possibility that another one belongs to another individual I know. I will tip him off too. Now, I've emailed him, and it's possible I'm quite wrong. It's not as if that era wasn't well photographed!

Good stuff - probable that the seats were also the same design.

Wonder whose those are? There are two among them which I suspect are up there without the permission or knowledge of the owner - I will contact him and copy the link! Nice shots though!