jhb171achill

Even if you had a track disappearing towards "Navan", trains could enter or leave the layout via this line, from perhaps a fiddle yard / siding on the level below the layout? Another possibility is an entrance to the cement factory siding on the other side of the station.

Within just three or four years, almost all of the fatal railway accidents of the latter half of the 20th century! Apart from this one, Lisburn (Enterprise & 80 class) Hilden (80 class & 70 class) Cherryville Buttevant Rest in peace all victims.

Only Mk 2s wore that "Galway" livery. Having applied it to the initial lot of stock to carry it, with the intention of it becoming possibly a general carriage livery, the powers-that-be didn't like it that much, and in any event as NIR found in the past, individual liveries for individual routes didn't really work, as carriages were used on all routes from time to time. Look, for example, at the incidences of "Enterprise" liveried locomotives in Galway, Ballina and Waterford in recent years, as elsewhere.

Looks like a great set-up. The GNR main line is particularly interesting with ex-GNR stuff, CIE and UTA (or NIR). Navan branch Taras, Kingscourt gypsum would add to it...

W O W factor !!!!!! Absolutely top class, so realistic. Captures that era perfectly, congratulations. I've emailed the RPSI to change the May tour to go through Kirley junction.....

Ah! I'd forgotten about that, Kirley! :-) Your coaches do look fantastic in all respects...

That is just mad!!

Drool drool

Yes, flange, I forgot about them, though I'm not quite sure they were originally like that.

I don't know for certain, heustonconnolly, but I think Riversuir's answer is right.

Let's hope the passenger numbers DO rise, and I agree, they probably will. But to seriously compete with road traffic, car or bus, something very major has to be done, and the question arises as to whether there is the political will, north or south, to achieve that. Certainly, while the UK has a Conservative government, don't expect too many more financial crumbs to be thrown to Stormont for public transport. Mind you, should such huge infrastructural work ever take place, it could be done in conjunction with a rail branch into Dublin airport.

The seating inside, popeye, was 2+2, as it Cravens. Only the Park Royals had 3+2.

Quick question, Kirley - I notice the late GSR-era / early CIE red upholstery inside, which was the norm in these coaches. Very impressive - did the kit come with details of this?

Various replies above quite correctly make those points. The infrastructure, especially at the busy Dublin suburban end, is not up to the task of an hourly high speed train. The Cork line was quadrupled for some miles outside Dublin to accommodate up and down slow and fast lines. To do this from Connolly to Drogheda - necessary for reliable running as above - would entail knocking down half of north Dublin! The expense would be astronomical, and as others have said, and I confess to having ample experience of, there's a way cheaper half hourly bus. Bus Eireann / Ulsterbus on the hour, Aircoach (with excellent connections to southside city) on the half hour.

NIR were keen to have them, Tony, but this was at a time when IE had other ideas! In particular, to store some, and keep the rest on specific links on the Cork line.

Absolutely top class.

While the long term future cannot be foretold, as of now, zero plans to anything with Mk 4's beyond the main line and occasionally Killarney.

What would the oul monks on Skellig in the 5th century have made of it!

The return tickets, Tony, were longer than the others and white. Singles were pink and child tickets were a dull yellow colour. I think I have a few somewhere, if you want them.

I remember those tickets well, Divecontroller, and in the north at that time the UTA bus men carried a little machine with a handle at the side, and a supply of the tickets of different types strapped to the front of it. I used to wonder why he always gave me one the same colour, and didn't vary it....reason, of course, we did the same journey each day!

Wow factor doesn't even begin to describe this layout...

The 00n3 is more in scale. An Isle of Man 2.4.0T could be painted NCC maroon and there are various coach kits which would approximate to original (straight sided) Ballymena & Larne stock, if a layout based on the NCC was planned. If you go for 009, there are a number of locos which, if painted grey, would look broadly CIE-ish.

With the modern motorway network, particularly Dublin - Wexford, Dublin - Cork, Dublin - Galway and Dublin - Belfast, the railways have permanently lost the time advantage. If they upped their comfort game instead, they might be back in the running. That said, passenger numbers are rising post-recession, and with the population of Dublin set to exceed that of Northern Ireland within 20 years, more people will mean more road congestion and therefore more business for the railway.

Any UTA half-cabs there? :-)

So the last No. 2 was identical to the one in Cultra. There doesn't seem to be exact information on when each last worked, or was officially withdrawn, nor whether the Derry dockside railway was perhaps operated y road vehicles after they went? Does anyone know, for example, definitive information about the last rail=borne movements on this network (narrow or broad gauge?)...