jhb171achill

So, this island actually had Ireland's first ever narrow gauge line..... Interesting concept, overall, and I'm looking forward to seeing it develop. Wasn't aware of those Bowaters models, though the Irish stuff is all (Irish) standard gauge....

When I hear someone from what Mr Borat called “The U S and A” wishing people “Happy Holidays”, I automatically reply “Happy Christmas“!

And that's the very tank engine I'm referring to!

Very nice little project, Metrovik. I think small outfits like that have great potential, and they're simple to get going. You had asked for suggestions - your run-round loop is necessarily short, I can see, so trains must of course be short. If you use the West Cork Clonakilty brach, the Foynes branch, or the sort of trains that would have operated at one time into Fenit, Castleisland and several other places like that - little backwaters - a single six-wheel passenger brake coach will suffice as a passenger train. The forthcoming Hattons one is perfect, and will be available in livery suitable to the era you are depicting. I am thinking that you'd get one of these plus at least one, maybe two wagons, into that loop and you could still run a loco round it. Another possibility is to have a modern laminate type of coach, like the brake composites (1904 & 1910) used on the Loughrea branch. The first of these arrived in green, which is appropriate to your era, of course. You'd need to have a "tin van" if you're using any diesels. Silverfox do them, but need to be told to use a correct livery, as their CIE green livery is pure fantasy. So, passenger coachyes dealt with, what about locos? A "C" class, or if after steam has ended, a 141; or in the case of steam, an 00 Works J15. Another possibility for steam is one of those (British) North Eastern Rly. 0.6.0T tank engines, which bear more than a passing resemblance to an ex-MGWR "J26". Just slap an overall coat of very dark grey over it and away ye go. A dozen or so Provincial Wagons, mostly goods vans, but maybe a couple of cattle and opens for variety, plus one of Provincial's GSWR goods brake vans and you've more than enough for a thing like that. I like the overall roof idea, though I would echo the comments about it hiding the train a bit much......... Could be fiddly, too, if something's off the rails under it.

There were a few experimants with push-pull early in the 20th century but none were successful. Certainly by the end of the "grey'n'green" era, nothing like that. However, you can emulate something like the Foynes once-a-day mixed in its last days - a loco and a single six-wheeled brake compo. I think it had two third class compartments and one first, plus the brake van part. Use one of Hattons Genesis brake thirds, painting a small "1" on one of the compartment's doors. A compleye passenger train in one 6-wheeled vehicle - or, in model terms, just 12 cm of length plus couplings. Closer to your neck'o'the woods, the Clon branch passenger train was often also just a single brake vehicle.

I’ve been asked to do one on Irish ones! No time, though!

PRICELESS!! Guess what my grandson will be viewing tomorrow.....

Awkward to maintain, less reliable and very noisy, but……. YES! Bring ‘em back! Far more comfortable (with ear muffs) than ANY modern vehicle!

Carriages with doors in the middle would be better…..

It would be no worse than the “direct curve” on NIR at Great Victoria Street - and little sharper than Cork…..

Indeed; in the EARLY 60s the wooden ones would have outnumbered the Bullieds - but not for long.

All true; and in all reality - you mention London - the ONLY way is underground. With every street on the surface having a finite width, we can reorganise them till we're blue in the face to take cycleways, trams, traffic, buses, or trees with nice benches under them, for the vandals to graffiti over. We can single or double traffic lanes all we want, but at the end of the day every one of the above that is expanded is directly and oppositely to the detriment of the others. And no matter what the Greens say - and to be fair, much of their mutterings ger more criticism than is fair - people will never, ever give up their own personal private transport now that after a century we've got used to it, no matter what the price of petrol, and be they powered by battery, petrol, diesel, gas, paraffin, steam or guava juice. So private vehicles will retain at least some sort of presence in the city for ever. And the population continues to increase which means more of them. The only show in town in the long run - yes, I know our politicians don't understand what "long" means - is a fully comprehensive underground railway system. Better now when the government has the money than at a future date when we mightn't. We had the world's first commuter railway. No reason why we can't get an underghround railway to match! It needs to connect Swords and Dunboyne north, Maynooth and some of those new places on the Cork line to the east, and Bray / Tallaght / Knocklyon south.

In steam days, trains with 60ft timber carriages could leave from Limerick and go round the direct curve. Both 28s and new BEMUs will have much shorter carriages, so there is actually zero issue in terms of how tight the curve is, I presume?

That makes perfect sense, and is doubtless why I couldn't find BCDR stock on their website!

But if you google "Bill Bedford", Wizard comes up too - in fact, before Mousa..........

Just seen that - so he is both “Mousa” and also “Wizard”……

As an aside, I’ve just looked up his website and don’t see any Irish models. Am I looking in the wrong place?

Superb model

The BCDR model coach….. is it an SSM model?

I’ll consult with Barry Carse; I suspect the latter is the case.

I would agree. It’s the only period where you such a huge variety of stock, plus both steam and diesel. Many, many one-off local operations like the two horse tramways (Fintona and Shannonvale); brand new modern diesel railcars, coaches, tin vans and wagons, operating not just alongside; but intermingled WITH, stock which in a large number of cases was pre-1900, even in a few cases pre-1880. Some locos and rolling stock long predated the actual lines they were running on, while others were so new their classmates were still being built in Inchicore. And with so many branch lines still open - even on the basis of a thrice-weekly goods and little else - you’ve a modelling prototype for anything. And several narrow gauge lines are still operating. Donegal and West Clare railcars were able to glimpse new shiny tin vans and new “H” vans across the tracks at Strabane and Ennis.

I have to confess it was me that got them the bottles. You know - THOSE bottles. They’ve drained the lot of’em…..

And there was me thinking it was an outing of the Tullywellan, Ballyroney & Ballygowan Pigeon Worriers Club!

Original - so, yes, the mix is available in model form. I see a few of Leslie's Provincial "H" vans in tere too, in this case probably to carry beet pulp. There's another brake van in the middle, so gawwd knows what's going on - was my first thought. But: The then Wexford - Waterford goods had a guard's van at each end to save switching one from one end of the train to the other when it reversed at Rosslare strand. And the ferts have just ended up being added on somewhere.

Wonder when those first appeared and finally disappeared? There must have been quite a few as there was a time they seemed to be everywhere….