jhb171achill

You mentioned you had a narrow gauge project - presumably that was the Gresley P2! ;-) Shield WELL deserved!

Clapped out, badly faded, peeling carriages - just sublime! Excellent work as always. Cultra here we come, I hope!

I'll go for the bottom one as I'm currently standing on me 'ead.....

I do remember them well,Dive.....

UTA or GNR livery, tyeres lining involved! No hiding away with all all over grey for a GNR 4.4.0! :-)

Down with this sort of thing!

Pity....

Is the lever frame still in Lisburn cabin?

On 1st April, all completed coaches are going to the DCDR for storage, pending the November 2018 reintroduction of the "Enterprise".....

The barrel over the wall? it was me who threw it there.

Ah - easy, Glover; the SLNCR either closed in 1957, in which case CIE bought "B" and just moved it up the road - or - it survived! But like the GNR has come into CIE / UTA ownership, with both companies operating two daily return trains Enniskillen - Sligo. And the UTA ones are done by Lough Erne and Lough Melvin, while the CIE ones are C class.....

Excellent idea, Airfix - I've been wanting to see Difflin... and its years since I've been in Donegal.

True. And wood fired steam engines, if we had them, would use renewable energy.......

Fascinating concept, Glover. Had the GNR survived, I suppose GNR and UTA joint working would have been the order of the day. The Bundoran line would have had both. The "Bundoran Express" originated in Dublin, so along with pilgrimage trains would be CIE. the local trains ran primarily to and from Enniskillen, so would be UTA. Goods would be mostly UTA-operated. As well as A, C and 121 class locos, an occasional CIE steam loco - at a very creative pinch - could have got there. the UTA would have ended up, I would think, deploying AEC railcars, though any of the old crates of one-off GN or NCC railcars could have ended up there! The loco hauled passenger stuff would have seen laminates, tin vans and GSR-constituent wooden coaches and Bredins making appearances. Maybe the solitary K class?

In me diary. But it's you that's "on the far side of the water"! :-) (I'll maybe stick to the day job..)

As others have commented, the total lack of anything Irish in the past is what is worth bearing in mind. The model looks well proportioned as far as it goes, and while not cheap, Mayner's point about a "proper" kit being a lot dearer if bought RTR is quite right. If the proportions weren't right - e.g. it's way too tall or short or something, then we'd have good grounds for ignoring it, but as others have mentioned, lacking detail can be remedied. Wrong proportions can't. Again, as yet others have mentioned, we may be spoiled by the sheer array of Irish stuff available now - there must be, what, a dozen people on this site (plus Worsley) making various stuff suitable for Ireland. I'll be the first to admit having criticised some of it, but that's usually over livery which is the easiest remedied detail of the lot! And to those I appear to criticise, in fact I admire them for putting their head (and efforts) above the parapet. As one who came from a career financial background, I don't have to be one of them to be able to point out that these people aren't in it for the money - these Irish models are break-even stuff, often funded by the one-man-band-maker's own personal finances. So, overall, while I won't be buying one of these - simply because it doesn't fit into anything I'm planning, no other reason - I congratulate OO models, whoever they are! If I was planning a model of the Bundoran branch in 1956 (now, THERE'S a layout idea; steam and scenery!), I'd probably break the bank and buy a couple....!

Exactly like the real railway.

Suppose so.... though.... that being the case, they can well afford the paltry sum it costs to run the horse trams.

Reading all that stuff, the decision to scrap the trams must rank as one of the most inanely short sighted things ever proposed. the 1950s Stormont government would be proud. if it runs on rails, it's the enemy and must be obliterated. the IOM is a drab. cold, dated, expensive, rainy island. Without the transport heritage and the TT, both of which are in their own ways completely unique attractions, the island would have no visitors at all. There's nothing else to do nowadays. Sit on a rainy beach with a cold deck chair, wind, drizzle and an overpriced bag of chips with sand getting into them? Or a beach bar in the Mediterranean? The IOM councillors need to wake up. This is crass, and completely false economy.

When's Cultra?

Yes - perusal of these is fascinating! I'm mulling over the OS maps for the entire Clifden line at the moment, which isn't doing my eyesight any good!

Have a look at the photos of the line held in the Dungarvan museum.

I'll see about the second lot. Believe it or not I deleted them, so I'll have to take them again! Pints it is then.

For "control" or comparison purposes, the same engine in artifical light. Sometimes the GSWR and GSR painted the cab interior a dull mid-brown. This is shown here too. Also, for good measure, a GSR crest on genuine post-1933 GSR (LMS!) maroon. CH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]22397[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]22396[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]22398[/ATTACH]

Now. Daylight has risen. This thing was built by my granddad while he was an apprentice draughtsman. To paint it, he just nipped over to the paint shop..... obviously, this was in GSWR times, but the shade was the same until CIE abandoned steam in 1963. I pray your forebearance; for what I'm about to upload, the chances are that they'll all be upside down. If I get even one the right way up, I'm sure josefstadt and garfieldsghost will buy me a few pints of black stuff, and sing "Hallelujah"! Now here's a thing. You'll notice how much darker it looks in areas in shade. Thus, from a modeller's perspective, looking down from above, it looks lighter - more true, in fact. At ground level, some bits look dark, and this on a "clean" loco. Add poor light on a dull day, or a little over exposure in photographs, and it's easy to see why many photos of GSR / CIE locos actually look black. The slight "bluish tint" on a newly painted loco is evident. The grey painted con-rods are sometimes prototypical, though many were bare metal. Wheels were always grey.