jhb171achill

It’s ok, I went through immigration, quarantine and disinfectant, so they let me in.

Or 800 taking to the skies? Correct. She had to be hauled over the viaduct at 5 mph with a line of empty 4 wheel wagons between her and the loco hauling her. She wouldn’t be allowed on this viaduct with a train behind her.

Very much a “two foot rule” thing, but very doable. There are a couple of fairly routine British 0.6.0 tender engines which, with a cost of dark grey paint and a CIE number in the cabside, can look the part.

Looking at the drawing above, it looks as if 800's is so short that it would actually make it taller if hinged!

Don’t know exact dimensions myself, but the one statistic I am aware of is that when Maedb was going north, there was barely 3ins to spare once the tallest fittings were off. Trackbed higher now by more than that, so a journey to Dublin now would be by road. I’m sure someone here might have current Cork line loading gauge details?

Typical of that crowd! Disgusting behaviour.

Great NY resolution - best of luck with it!

Now the debate starts; what colour will it be repainted? (Runs for the door.....)

Actually, and i know the answer is probably simple, but what did you use for the weeds in the sto0nework? Might put that on the culvert bridge at Dugort Harbour.

This is really coming along in leaps and bounds. Amazing finish on the stonework.

Will be fantastic to see her back in traffic again!

“Remember that goose in the brake van - you’ve to leave it with Kitty Mahony at Tully gatehouse. That’s the one before the river with the hens on the left…… and throw her down a few buckets of coal….” ”…..what’s the pressure showing?……”

Perfectly "shabby" looking! Mrs.jhbSenior travelled on one of those things from Enniskillen to Sligo a couple of times. She was aware also of Railcar "B", which for fairly obvious reasons she much preferred! Her thoughts on rails travel were not particularly complimentary, but she did wax lyrical about what is still a much under-rated scenic setting....

While too late for my interest period, a 2-car unit like this is absolutely ideal for a small layout / starter layout. I saw a mini-layout at an exhibition somewhere once which had just one (British) "bubble car" railcar - cab at each end - and it just shuttled back and forth to a small terminus in modern era style, with no run round, just a buffer stop and away back too where ye came from. It was surprisingly good to watch - largely because of extremely top-notch scenery realism. A two-car 2600 would be perfect for that. Had the Wisht Cark lines survived, or some of them, they might have a thing like that on a Cork - Bandon local.....

CIE 1950s lined green!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or black'n'tan.

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He sure did! Plus a lot of my other stuff, and more to come. I’ve about a dozen Provincial Wagons still to make up and I’m hovering back in the “provincial” direction right now, and I’ve IRM Bullied opens ordered…. 1st January 1944, eighty years ago. The three times a week goods, temporarily the only departure due to the fuel crisis, prepares to sidle out of Dugort Harbour at mid-day…

No. His northern models were as follows: 1. Narrow gauge - CDR, LLSR, Ballycastle, Cushendall and Clogher Valley stuff. Strangely, he ignored the Ballymena & Larne which had some very nice stock. 2. NCC: He did a "Jeep" (No. 5), a U2 (Dunluce Castle), a full rake of NCC "North Atlantic" carriages, and a few wagons. 3. Two BCDR locos and several BCDR carriages - again interestingly, he ignored their 6-wheel stock which right until closure constituted by a very large margin, the vast majority of BCDR stock (I think they only had about 6 bogies). 4. DNGR loco and coaches. 5. GNR(I) stuff. Yes, he would indeed have been aware of these developments, as his last models WERE 1960s in origin - Cravens and 141s. By this stage the MPD and MED sets had been in traffic for quite a few years. He travelled on a number of IRRS excursions as well, so he may have been on one of those which visited York Road in the early 60s - if so, he'd have seen the UTA railcars all round him. Strangely he made no AEC or BUT railcars; an omission like that would be the same as someone who set out in this day and age to make a model of all CURRENT Irish trains, omitting an ICR or a 201. I guess he didn't like railcars; at this stage (1960s / 70s) there were quite a lot of enthusiasts (jhbSenior included) who looked on these with disdain, as they (a) remembered steam and (b) saw railcars as being somewhat analagous with the 1950s / 60s overall decline of the railways. Certainly, sifting through all the major photographic collections, it is clear that railcars north and south are not to the forefront of 1950-70 photography!

Raise the bridges or drop the trackbed. IE will be unlikely to even consider either; I doubt even mcManus could fund that.....! As an aside, whether the chimney was a separate casting or bolted on wouldn't actually be an issue either way - it would be thye bridges, now known to be insufficient in height.

Indeed; thirty years ago such questions were asked (and answered!) regarding No. 74 "Dunluce Castle" in UFTM. Despite incredible hurdles, the overall answer, after all things had been considered very carefully, was "yes". That remains the case. The same answer would apply, in theory, to BCDR 30 there, the GNR 2.4.2T and the derry shunter; as well as "Lough Erne" at Whitehead. This is what I was afraid of in my initial answer; that I might be seen as one of the majority of "naysayers" as opposed to the few with the miagination to make things happen. In the case of Maedb, the clearance was some three inches when the track was about 2ft lower; this in itself answers that question. As it was, the safety valves had to be removed en route. A cursory look at the thing shows that shortening of the chimney is not viable. In the most purist form of theoretical possibility, it's quite possible to run it again - provided Irish Rail either raise the heights of all bridges necessary on the Cork line, or rebuild all the track at a lower level; also, that they build and install sheds and turntables at Dublin and Cork. Other than that, for once the naysayers have their moment!

Couldn't agree more!

It barely fitted under bridges before, and being so tall there's no scope to lower the chimney - and the track level is well above what it used to be, so that one's known already. Based on current and recent RPSI jobs, it could be anything from half a million upwards. Yes, as you say, many things could be done to assess and even restore: but nowhere to eventually run it, nowhere to look after it, and unlikely to be an ongoing market of sufgficient level to fund its future needs.

This is it, yes! It's a different culture here, I suppose; we do ourselves a disservice comparing ourselves to the railway enthusiast / preservationist / even modelling, scenes in Britain, particularly England. England alone probably has more railway modellers, preservationists, railway museums and preserved railways than most of the rest of the world put together.

They've heard he's up'n'about............

Plus - many forget that the vast majority of GNR locos were black, rather than blue! Black locos and grey wagons outnumbered the shiny blue machines buy a lot.......... (but an ever-smaller few of us know that!)....