jhb171achill

Yessss! Wanderer - there's your next project!

What about an ICR in black'n'tan for some anniversary? 0r a 201? Or a green goddess in GNR brown!

Accurate BCDR loco gee. Is indeed certainly not at all like what's on 30. The real shade was pretty much similar to what's on the RPSI carriages at Whitehead - not exactly "invisible green" but a very dark shade. For an accurate model, that's the best bet. Not everything in Cultra is accurate livery wise - in fact possibly only about half of the stuff. If anyone's interested in a list, for the record, I'll post it. In most cases with a little research the accurate forms of liveries are readily available.

He's an absolute moron. Even clarkson looked reasonable beside him. Well, a bit.

Login thing doesn't work for me either.

That layout absolutely oozes atmosphere better than about anything I've ever seen. Excellent work - keep the updates coming! I'll make representations to the RPSI to send a train down there........... !

Drew's models are absolutely superb though it should be remembered that since he liked CIE green, he painted almost all his models that way. In reality, very few prototypes of his models were anything other than grey. 850 started life in plain grey (rather than black). Drew painted one model loco (I forget which) in MGWR livery. I am not sure where he got the details - if from Bob Clements it was correct, as Bob had an actual Broadstone paint sample. Many incorrect theories have been put about over the years about MGWR green - and even more so, GSWR green. The correct shade of the latter is now on 90 at the DCDR.

Wow!! STUNNING! (As expected, naturally....)!

.......easy to model, then!

That looks really well! Models, anyone?

Probably the best is indeed something like that. In a completely ideal world, a terminus for all Dublin would be under St Stephens Green, with underground connections to the DSER, MGWR, GNR and GSWR lines. Had the Luas Green / Harcourt St Line not have been (re)opened, they could even have used that very well to start going down underground while also providing a commuter service. In such a scenario, with an underground "Dublin Central" (layout possibility?), the question would air as to whether the "Enterprise" and other main line trains would use Connolly / Howth Junction, or go under. Putting commuters unground would be an option just as much as the other way round. To go to the thread title, Brexit will put any solution to the cross-border line back, in all likelihood.

As recently as the 1970s, a single 121 could be seen taking empty cattle wagons from Dublin to Mullingar after a fair, and after being washed out. This regularly loaded to 70 four wheelers and two brake vans. Is IE's much-publicised long train as long as this, or longer? By USA standards, incidentally, it's about a fifth the size of some "normal" trains!

That's the problem, Noel..... !

Maybe they'll write "Panda" on the sides of them....!

Nothing's been the same since black'n'tan, in my humble opinion. We've had some utterly ghastly ones, as bad as weekly liveries across the pond on the Great East & Northern west wales pennine train company. Lime green and navy, insipid shades of green and grey..... Drogheda green giant, and the nondescript half-painted selection of 201s which have been bumbling about. I never liked the yellow ended silk and black of the 071s either - in fact, for me, the one and only live I've liked at all since 1990 is the new Enterprise version. (It's Enterprise predecessors were duller than a wet February Tuesday morning in Dundalk....)

Nice - captures Kerry's rich countryside very effectively.

"Raccoons"; an excellent name for them! So what's the green Belmond one? The "Seasick"?

Top of the morning to ye.

Scottish accents included..... Like that awful caricature TV show some years ago "The Irish RM".......

Cue a bid from the ITG for one.....????

Didn't know there was a film about Captain Boycott? He had a house (Corrymore) on Achill Island.

Looks fantastic! Noticing the cover picture on the SSM brake van kit. It shows a van in normal "in-service" condition obviously, but a livery detail is worth taking note of. In the photo of the van, the yellow stripes have faded, worn off or are dirty. While I never saw a van with that degree of invisibility of the stripes, it was obviously the case the day that photograph was taken. Thus, for accuracy, it's important to realise where they were. As will be seen, the black goes from roof level down to the bottom of the bodyside. But while this is right for the top and bottom bits, the bit that's actually raised had the stripes, the flat bit above, and at the very bottom were plain black.

Four tracking is indeed needed, but at both ends would cause massive, massive disruption and compulsory purchase of many residential houses. I completely agree it ought to be done, but given those circumstances one wonders how long it will take politicians to grasp the nettle. After all, it took 40 years to re-open the Harcourt Street line - and the formation was there! I completely agree with Leslie that voters have possibly stuffed the future of the young, and certainly 9unfortunately) where Nelson lives - but as initially stated, if we concentrate on the railway, and go back to my point above, it's likely that any drive to "four-track" the northern end of the line has to be further away from ever now. On a related matter, I see NIR have tendered for new trains. I wonder was it the intention to have Europe cough up for some of the funding? If so, NIR can kiss goodbye to that. Maybe they could dig the old MPD cars up from the bottom of Crosshill Quarry!

Future funding for the GNR main line will at best be dogged with endless paperwork from both sides.....

Yes, Pat, I'm aware of (and agree 100% with) the non-political policy here. I couched my original post in railway terms and although I maybe should have mentioned it, it was my intention to stick to railway-related stuff. The Belfast - Dublin line, in particular, will be the most likely to be affected, plus possible changes to funding flows for NIR.