jhb171achill

It is. They all were. The RPSI has a beautifully and expertly preserved van if this type at Whitehead, but as so often, livery details are wrong. It has this cream-painted inner balcony; this should be grey. It’s right inside the van - out of sight - that was cream, at least on the upper half. Worse, all of its vertical steel framing is painted black, none of them ever having tin like that - it looks like a zebra! Not just CIE, but the GNR too, painted them all grey.

The cream interior is an RPSI invention!

Superb! The beet season is obviously in full swing!

Someone told me once that they thought only one was repainted by CIE, but I have no way of verifying that. What we do know, however, is that very few of them survived long with CIE, as they were churning out brand new 20T vans like nobody's business. many without doubt went to the scrappers still with "G N" on them. I never saw one in use other than with the UTA / NIR, but I would say the one mentioned above in 1966 has got to have been about the last of them on CIE. You've got me thinking about the one that ended up on the Dugort Harbour branch! Next time I see Leslie, I'll see what coins I have..........!

From Capecastle to Brookhall Mill to Clogherhead, these layouts are a master class in mini / shunting layouts and show what’s possible ina small space.

Yes. Like much of CIE tradition, and the GSR before, wagon makers / numberplates followed old GSWR Inchicore tradition. So, in the later days of the GSWR, they changed from oval plates to the “D” shaped ones, with “G S W R” on them. The GSR simply copied this, using “G S R”, of course. In 1945 CIE did the same. CIE plates can still be seen everywhere. I wonder will we ever see the same type of plates with “I E” on them? There are examples of these standard Inchicore plates with “N I R” on them, on PW bogies that were either built or modified in Inchicore.

That explains that then - not carriage trucks. Both those wagons are MGWR in John Edgington's photo - both have MGWR builder's plates - same type exactly, presumably.

This is just awful. Good luck with remedial measures.

I think those may be old MGWR carriage trucks, built for carting the horse carriages of the gentry about.

I have a notion that all Fords sold in the north were shipped in from Britain. Senior used to drive Fords in the 50s and 60s, when living in the north, and they all came from Dagenham. Only exception was a Ford Prefect - but he bought that in Dublin in 1951 as he was living there then.

You wouldn't have got GNR ones down in Cork........

Awful. Long dry spell needed. I'm wondering if there is some future way of creating some sort of flood barrier round the station? Or sealing the shed doors? Only long term solution is one which jhbSenior encountered a couple of times during his civil engineering days - raise the entire track level by a couple of feet!

Built by a certain be-capped person's very own JCBs!

Its "alternative history" has it surviving to the 1975 closures, probably due to brown envelopes, Healy Raes and cute Kerry wizardry............!

Fascinating stuff, folks - thanks!

Oh, it will. It's also sending out sugar beet now! And I've a pile of Provincial McAllister cattle wagons awaiting construction when "real life" allows a bit of time....

Got me flats ordered now anyway!

Corrugateds and flats now ordered. There's going to have to be a car dealer somewhere near Dugort Harbour which will keep the flats busy with incoming Ford Populars all the way from Caark, boy. Interesting point; as referred to before, and also in connection with the NCC's two second hand "jintys"*, it is seeming clearer and clearer that a wagon (or loco or presumably coach) does not at all have to be "mainstream" to warrant production. Thus, the idea that "you'd never sell those" takes a big hit in many an example. Mainstream items sorely missing now are timber-bodied bogies - many of which were very long lived into the 1970s - and tin vans and AEC railcars. I'm saving up.

1. The view of E429 - where exactly is that? 2. "....linked to the old Cork & Blackrock railway..." - No! While it's close to where the original broad gauge City Quay terminus of the BROAD gauge Cork, Blackrock & Passage line was, it was never "linked" to it; what I suspect they mean is that it's linked to the former Cork and BANDON railway line. Newspapers, eh...........!

The “snail” era was up to 1963 but many, many wagons of this type wouldn’t have had a repaint until long after that. All wagons were grey then and well into the “roundel” era. The “broken wheel” roundel started appearing in 1963, and the brown livery after 1970, by which time the “black’n’tan” era was in its end days! With the “supertrain” livery first appearing in 1972, they’re fine for that purpose on a 1970s layout as well!

Now THIS has me looking at the Oxford Diecast (1960s) cars website!

I like your train of thought!

…..and one of those very early multi-coloured sixties excursions on the northern line, in which certainly no two coaches were alike. As well as ex-GNR stock, both steel and timber panelled, you could get a number of types of old GSWR vehicles - low and high roof, corridor and non-corridor; Bredins, Park Royals, brand new tin vans… and within one train, CIE green, black & tan, GNR navy & cream, GNR brown, and (very dirty) silver! And this, boys and girls, is the reason why if the black’n’tan era was more varied and interesting than (post 1972) “modern image”, the pre-1962 grey’n’green era is more interesting still! Plus of course, both steam and diesel working side by side.

“Anyone for the last few choc ices?”

Excellent news! Well done IRM - again!