jhb171achill

IMG_9913.mov

Ah, but that was a one-off before they entered traffic! Fred told me that too, years ago - I wonder was it some sort of undercoat, as all other eyewitnesses, without exception, said it was black (which, indeed, was the DSER livery!). Fred was not a man given to making mistakes, but this one always puzzled me….

Not so much, as it happens! It was one of but two, and they were built specifically for the Wexford goods. They spent their working life on this almost to the end, straying only for the odd enthusiast or GAA special in late CIE days. Outside the Dublin - Wexford route, they were virtually (and in most cases, literally) unknown until RPSI days. In preservation, thyey got as far as Derry, Portrush, Tralee and Foynes! In service it didn't pull passenger trains often for the reasons above, and most of what little passenger work it did do was in its last few years. I think I've seen a pic of it on a DSER section commuter train in late CIE times, but I could be mistaken on that. Mind you, if a RTR one appeared, the RPSI might well organise a May Tour to go to Dugort Harbour - now, how to get a rake of the Whitehead Heritage set!

If you think of what HAS been done RTR in Irish steam - we've several re-liveried (and inaccurately, at that) British locos e.g. a Lima (was it? Or Bachmann?) LMS 0.6.0, a "toy" Hornby 0.4.0T with a flying snail the size of China on it, plus: 1. 00 Works GNR 4.4.0 2. 00 Works GNR 0.6.0 3. 00 Works CBSCR 0.6.0T 4. NCC Jinty 5. Bachmann "Woolwiches" in several liveries 6. 00 Works J15s (2 varieties) Now, of all of those, only (5) and (6) were in any way a common loco, seen in many places. The two GNR locos were common in their own area, but over the life of the GNR for a comparatively short time in those vresions. They were unknown south or west of Dublin bar a handful of early 1960s forays. The Bandon loco was of a prototype seen nowhere but West Cork (and, ahem, Dugort Harbour); but few in number, scrapped at an early stage, and never seen anywhere else. The "Jinty" never even pulled regular trains - it shoved trucks about Belfast docks and did nothing else; moreover, IT was relatively short lived in Ireland too - and there were but two, and even one of these only lasted about ten years. So, out of seven locos (counting the J15s with small and big boilers and tenders as two locos, only three were common. The others varied from the short lived to the restricted use to the restricted area; in the case of the Jintys, one example more than simply a "one-off". Thus, commonality in any shape or form will clearly not be any issue if the subject matter is either (a) easy to produce; (b) a popular locomotive (like, say, a Jeep or 171); or (c) for some very specific reason the makers think they can flog a reasonable few of them. Anything could turn up, from a common, well-travelled thing like a MGWR J18 or J26, even a 400, a GNR 4.4.0 like a Q, S, V or Vs, or possibly an NCC "Mogul" or "Jeep". Alternately, and I just take this as a hypothetical example, some one-off like the big eight coupled No. 900, or the BCDR 4.6.4T, or the SLNCR's "Lough Erne" could become a nice collector's item. (Stop that drooling, Galteemore, someone has to clear it up....!) Either way, if it's steam, I will need to concoct an excuse for it to go to Dugort Harbour.....

Ah - it won't post. leave it with me. It's a Mk 3 push pull on my friend's layout. Can't seem to download it.

Hoping to get more done this year - most of last year operations were restricted to basically using the terminus as a fiddle yard. When delivered, despite specific instructions (twice!), the legs were the wrong height, so the actual terminus as shown above could not be directly connected to the rest of the layout round the walls. Now, daughter's furniture is stowed in the layout room, so I can't get at any of it, and the recently posted pics are largely posed. So, the "list" contains - (a) get levels finally adjusted; (b) ...which will allow my Learned Fruied to complete the electrics and fiddle yard. (c) Get daugjhter's stuff removed and stored elsewhere. (Anyone got a spare room?); (d) see what IRM methods will be offered to slim down my bank balance......! (Plus, two books in progress....)

Outstanding!!

IMG_9913.mov This afternoon…

A lot of the time at Dugort Harbour, it’s summer 1964; I wonder if anyone will ever invent backscenes that change season! And so, in summer 1964, sixty years ago, B141 arrives with the morning mixed train.

Those old “Box Brownies” - and only a small minority of those of us who have collected the most birthdays will remember - were a simple but effective cheap camera in the past. A great deal less complex than today’s simplest ones, getting a decent photo was hit and miss. From an old print in the possession of a retired gatekeeper on the Dugort Harbour branch, this is of an unidentified J15 shunting at the harbour in 1946. CIE is but fifteen months old.

“So, it’s when I was based in Tuam in 1941 or 42. We had empty cattle trucks for Ennis on this Saturday. Y’know, the old fair. We picked yer man up with the brake van and the wagons in Sligo. Yer man John in Athenry had warned us about him. Tightest man in Ireland, always scrounging’. Shake his hand, ye better count yer fingers. So we’re looped at Tubbercurry to let the Sligo passenger past. Yer man comes up to us an’ says “Lads, are ye havin’ a fry?” Sure he’d have smelt the rashers halfway down the train… Well, Liam says “sure, c’mon up, we’ve loads of bread and rashers!” And we gave him that other pack. Dunno how old they were but there was green slime on ’em. Rotten, the stink o’them. An’ sure we fried up the whole pack, and didn’t yer man ate the lot, and half a gallon of tay with it. I tell ye this, when we got to Athenry, sure wasn’t he throwin’ his guts up all over the back balcony of the van. I was on that turn several times that summer, and so was Michael up in Galway. Neither of us ever saw him again…” “Hope this stuff here in the brown paper’s a bit fresher!” (Taken from a true reminiscence from a great steam man who has long gone to his well-earned rest…..)

As the “Swinging Sixties” are in full flow, Crossley A55 eases round the curve, flanges squealing, one mid-week summer morning in 1965. Turf smoke drifts about in the atmosphere, with a salt breeze off the Atlantic. The Beatles’ latest hit can be heard from the transistor radio in a nearby cottage, the door open as always. Goods volumes have dropped sharply as the main road up to Castletown has now been tarmacced, and the nearby textile factory has purchased a Commer van; in addition, the O’Sheas don’t send their fish by train any more. The McInerneys are selling up and going to Australia, so that’ll be them out of the picture too. Today A55 has but five goods vans and an empty cattle truck for John Fahy’s beasts to go to Abbeyfeale tomorrow. However, with nothing consigned out today, the Crossley chunters back up to town half an hour later with just the van.

“OK, so that was three weeks ago at least. He’s off the drink now, the wife was givin’ out hell to him” ”Well, I’m tellin’ ye, I saw him get out of the brake van in Mallow yesterday, ‘coz he had a box of eggs for me, and the smell o’whiskey off him would’ve knocked ye flat……. oh, by the way, this suitcase was in the coach an’ Mikey Jack says it’s to go to Cobh as soon as it can for some American on a ship tomorrow”. ”OK, I’ll give it to yer man on relief at the junction, and he can put it on the Cork Mail tonight…. what’s in the case?” ”Ah, I only had a quick look through it. Nice stuff, them yanks certainly have the money for the clothes an’ stuff….” ”Hope ye put it back properly or ye’ll have PJ on our backs again if he gets wind of ye rootin’ around….”

Fair play to ye!

Sunset, August fair day, 1962 - the last one to be steam-worked, as full dieselisation of the branch is only months away. Here, the tired crew rake out the last of the ashes and clinker. The quality of the coal today wasn’t that great. Rest day tomorrow; it’s Patsy’s turn to light her up in the morning. He’s just back from a holiday in Ballybunion, where he plays sax in one’o’them showbands. Does a good Elvis impression too - big hit with the lassies.

One of the only reasons that the Dugort Harbour branch survived the 1953 closures was the CIE bus and lorry garage, built near the harbour by the GSR Road Motor Services in 1938. Every couple of weeks a tanker of diesel wends its way down from Castletown, to where it has arrived on the 03:45 goods from Tralee. Prior to the construction of the new bus depot in town in the 1970s this was still the case. Here we see B141 returning to Castletown West one warm early summer morning in 1968, with the empty tanker to go back to Tralee. A rarely photographed working, as it was all over before most local bed and breakfasts had finished serving. By now, very few brake vans still have a “snail” on them, and almost all have the black and yellow stripes on the ducket. But not this one, which tends not to stray off the Harbour branch….

Many thanks; and despite metropolitan background, there’s Mayo blood in me too! (My mothers lot - Ballina, Belmullet!)…. so I’m well up for Sam taking the train to Killala! Yes, again in seriousness, the RPSI in Dublin AND Whitehead faces challenges like never before; volunteer numbers being one, but not the only one….

They’re 12” = 1ft scale, DCC ready…….

I can see this thread running until about midday 31st December! By then I’ll be playing with a rake of RTR Murphy / IRM Midland six-wheelers, hauled by a DCC’d RTR MGWR “D-bogie” / D16 4.4.0….

Any idea what make etc?

I like that school building - might double as a railway station. There’s something Clifden, Ballynahinch (Co Galway), or Mulrany-esque about it. Where did you get it?

Best argument for dieselisation I ever heard!

I often thought of getting a British “08” and repainting it in CIE livery, but while the basic shape is the same, when you look at them there are a LOT of detail differences!

Zebra 233 sitting spare at Connolly today.

Tis too, boy!