jhb171achill

I think weathering is best left to the individual, however an unweathered one of these, particularly post-1975, would look plainly unrealistic in most circumstances!

Can you just imagine the endless list of health and safety vetoes to so, so many aspects of the German "plandampf" if it was staged in Ireland!

It was indeed, Horsetan, see the likes of Jimmy O'Dea's photos in the fifties.... I often imagine what the likes of Monaghan, Clones or Enniskillen - or Albert Quay - would look like now had they survived. One look at present day Mallow, Athenry or worst of all Portadown can answer that!

Exactly, josefstadt! Pat - I'll try to unearth a pic of one when brand new (in standard all-over wagon grey as they were until about 1972-ish)

Unfortunately, Liam, there's no commercially available train set which looks within light years of the train (either locomotive or coaches) in "The Quiet Man"! SSM do a brass kit of some of the coaches but these would require a reasonable level of modelling skill to make up.

The "overhead live wires" warning is perfect for Platin and Limerick....... :-/

That's a very nice model indeed. Quite a few of these ended their days as railcar intermediates.

A few at the front - one anyway - but normally on the back.

So Holyfast is a terminus, a bit like Cookstown was. Could it be somewhere the NCC and the GNR both came into from different directions, or maybe the GNR and a northern extension of the MGWR.... The MGWR had some fine red brick stations like Ballynahinch (Co Galway), Ballyvary, or Mallaranny... Maybe it's an ex MGWR building in your scenario which end up in the north after partition in 1921.

Other than Cravens, everything ran with them. I've seen a picture of one towing an old 1880 era Midland six-wheeler! Within a set, wooden bogies (ex-GSWR in any pic I've seen), Bredins, Park Royals and Laminates of various batches, all had their time. In the north, ex-GNR loco-hauled stock was usual. While wooden ex-NCC stock was used as railcar intermediates, this was only with MED or MPD cars, not ex-GNR BUT or AEC stock. No Cravens though. Old Blarney - the CIE constituent companies (and indeed all Irish railways) had very fee clerestorey coaches indeed. While I've seen several varieties of old wooden stock both within AEC railcar set, and trailing behind them, I never saw a picture of any clerestorey stock behind one. That would be interesting for its rarity; any pictures?

I've a GNR one.... €10 plus post.

No two sets had the same type of centre cars - CIE, GNR or UTA / NIR. Unlike the bland characterless modern equivalents.....

Actually, yes, Eoin - that looks familiar from both an inside and outside perspective.

I'd love to know more about that old covered van which appears to have sat there for years....

Tony, you might want to substitute "maintenance" for "maintance", and "Manager" for "Manger"...! :-) (Running for cover.....) Seriously though, excellent signage!

I should know they, having been on the roof of that coach years ago at Whitehead, sealing it - but I can't remember and I didn't have a camera with me at the same time...... If I can find anything out I'll post it here.

Woohoo! Right way up. Now I'll add more.

Please do....

Talk about the "rare oul times", Old Blarney!

Fantastic find, Old Blarney. If you google "old Dublin film" or something broadly along those lines, there's much more about of old CIE buses (and predecessors) as well as trams.

What I'll do next time is photo them with an ipad instead of phone, and see how that works out.

Momentous indeed, Garfield! I stood the right way up.

Well it certainly is a "Garda" car.....

More from same

There used to be a narrow gauge line from Riva to the standard gauge at Mori, which closed down way back in the early 1930s. In those days this part of Italy was actually part of Austria, therefore this railway owes much (if not all) to the same circumstances which saw many rural narrow gauge systems spring up in the overall Austrian / Hungarian area. The old station has been preserved and interesting material relating to the line's history are in the local museum. Here are a few pictures, in the hope of being of use to someone modelling Northern Italy or Austria... First, a model of a coach off the line in the museum.