jhb171achill

Attachments won't open....

I hope it does, as the potential premises are perfect. But he can forget about an operational heritage railway to start with, for a whole range of reasons. He ought to focus on wider interpretations of local history - the famine, Yeats, Countess Marcivic, Lissadell House and the influence of the local landed gentry on the town, emigration, the border, mining, Ben Bulben & other unique local topography and so on.

There isn’t. I think a loan of something from Whitehead (the SLNCR loco might be a start) would be their only option.

True!

On the right? Top corner of one, yes.

And extremely smart it must have looked!

Tommy and his apprentices built the layout itself. The models were built by others - many being MRSI members.

That's in keeping with literally 100% of enthusiast feedback so far! Fry's models total some 361 items. About a dozen more remain in the possession of his family. Other than about a dozen models f mainland European items, plus a Fry-repainted Bing American 1930s diesel railcar train, about 100 are of British prototypes, and 200-odd Irish. For the first time ever, all of his Irish stuff is on display - so are the handful of mainland European models he made. There isn't room (yet) for the British stuff, though that won't bother visitors because they're generally unaware of their existence! His British stuff is mostly LMS & LNWR, and some very fine stuff there is in it, but it is hoped that funding may be obtained for more display areas for these. People unfairly compare this the the "old" "Fry museum". But - the old one, which many wax so lyrical about, in Malahide Castle - where there was a massive "0" Gauge layout operating - was NOT Fry's models. When Cyril Fry died, he stipulated that his models were never to run again. For one thing, many of the motors are badly worn due to very high mileage in his house. Secondly, his reasoning was that he "didn't want them being dragged round the carpet at the end of a bit of string by a child". (Fry was not known for being child-tolerant - quite the opposite!). Therefore, they were to remain ONLY as museum exhibits. So people who compare the modern layout there with the old one are barking up the wrong tree - the models that were seen running in the old place were made in the 1980s and 1990s by a mix of some 6 or 7 modellers, including the likes of Brendan Kelly, the Magowan brothers of the old Phibsboro model shop, and several others. Some of these are operating on the high level 0 gauge track in the casino today, and others are on loan to the likes of DCDR and Enniskillen Railway Museum for display. The place advertised itself as the "Fry Model Railway" - based on the fact that SOME of his models were there in display cases! Most remained in storage - until now. But it was not a "Fry" railway - neither the models nor the layout it ran on had anything whatsoever to do with Fry. His own layout at his house had been broken up and scrapped years earlier. It was not possible to take apart and reassemble. Moreover, the tech side of it was even by 1970s standards, archaic. The layout seen in Malahide Castle had been built separately by apprentices in Inchicore Works, to teach them soldering skills and the like. Again, nothing to do with Fry. Neither this layout, nor the models which ran on it, were even thought of hile he was alive. So, while the actual Fry English models remain in store, his Irish collection is on display in its entirety for the first time ever, as in the Castle only a handful of his models overall were able to be displayed. The operational layout now is digitally-controlled 00 gauge. The concept today of a large layout with up to six manual operators trying to keep it going is just not realistic, especially with the hopelessly outdated control systems that were in use. The modern layout showcases what's available for 00 scale Irish stuff today - with a wide variety of IRM & Murphy models in operation. The Casino building is of historic interest in itself, but that's another story. With the constraints of a listed building, the best possible use has been made of available space, and feedback from visitors remains good. I likewise think "woeful" is pretty harsh.

Several in NCC markings show it clearly plain black, just with "N C C" on it, but one appears to show what might be a maroon livery. Senior's observations when he worked for the NCC approx 1947-51 suggested they were at that stage all black. I suspect that if it was maroon, this was a pre-war, and perhaps fairly short-lived, scheme. I doubt the others were anything but black, based on any pictures I've seen. I think they may have had red connecting rods, UTA-esque, though.

Some sort of base is necessary - earth won't do. Cement, ideally, though at one stage I had a garden railway and I dug a trench, lined it with very think plastic sheet, with considerable overlaps at joins, and filled it up with small stones and quarry dust gravel on top. It looked very well. Sorry, I've no photos of it. Wasn't bothered with weeds at all.

That's because there was no railway layout in the house....

And naturally, wrong dates on some of them. A CDR picture with a red and cream vehicle visible in the distance is described as "1900"! If this is the level of care that museums take, what hope is there for accurate recording of future history!

Hard to imagine the modern Drogheda station with the big grassy bank at the back where the railcar sidings are now!

Yes, this is AI mis-info. If they had intended it for the Cashel branch they'd have put a turntable in first, and kept the line open! It was 1955 before that yoke was out'n'about, and that was on the Thurles - Clonmel line.

BEWARE of roaming phone charges and internet use on your phone while there! I inadvertently ran up a HUGE bill when there ion 2018 for my niece's wedding.

Indeed - I don’t think that bus was ever tried on the Cashel branch. First, it’s too late - as you say, the line was closed by the time they were trialling that thing - secondly, as mentioned already, there was no way of turning it.

Leslie I must look this up - I have the full set of Journals from issue 1, when my dad was an (almost) founding member.... what issue was this in? JB

A most interesting print - great to see such things. Black roof, though....... I wonder is it easy to get an 00 version? And, what chassis would be best? The bus-seat-type upholstery in this yoke was a light greyish blue, if anyone's interested.

Once you have started to develop this, I have working timetables for most of the period it was open. To take the November 1931 version as an example, and this one is absolutely typical, we have five return trips per day between Goold's Cross and Cashel. This is unusual, as most small rural branch lines had about three a day, some only two. But this branch, rural as it was, benefitted from being adjacent to the most important main line anywhere in Ireland, bar Dublin - Belfast. The service was as follows: DOWN G Cross 1015 1220 1430M 1810* 2010 (* Through train from Thurles, departing there 1745. All other trains from junction only. "M" = Mixed train. Others all passenger. No separate goods workings) Cashel 1030 1235 1445M 1825 2025 UP Cashel 0940 1140 1355 1610* 1910M (* and M as above. The through 1610 arrived Thurles at 1643) G Cross 0955 1155 1410 1625* 1925 Analysing this, like most termini, a locomotive was shedded at the terminus. It did several returns on the branch before setting off for Thurles at 16:120. Once it got there, it had an hour before return. This gave time for servicing or a locomotive swop. Boiler washouts and anything beyond light maintenance would be accommodated this way, as well as rolling stock rotation where necessary. In the timetable I am looking at, b y comparison, on the same page, we have the Mitchelstown branch. More usually, it had three return trips per day, only two of which carried passengers. In one direction, one each of passenger only, mixed and goods. In the other direction, two mixed and a goods. The Cashel branch was 5 3/4 miles with one intermediate halt; Mitchelstown was 12 miles with two intermediate halts. Foynes had two passenger and one goods train each way. Birr had two passengers and a mixed one way, two mixed and a passenger the other.

The AI thing suggests four wheeled coaches and bogies were used on the branch as well as six-wheelers. This is certainly very wrong. Bogies would not have been cascaded to this line at the time it closed to passenger services (January 1947), and it never would have had four-wheeled coaches anyway - the GSWR had done away with things like this forty-odd years before it even opened. So - correct passenger stock is GSWR six-wheeleers. The "Genesis" range, while a generic design, are near enough for ready-to-run - throughout the life of the line such stock would have been dark maroon, or a lighter (LMS) shade in the later years, and locomotives all-over dark grey. Correct carriages are available for brass modellers as Studio Scale Model brass etches. Locos were earlier GSWR tank engines, and probably in later times things like J15 0.6.0s. One of the steam railmotors was tried there at one stage. Almost without doubt the branch train make up was of one brake third and one 1st / 3rd composite, both 6-wheeled. General goods traffic was light, but cattle leaving on fair days might have necessitated a special run, doubtless with the resident branch engine in charge. The only intermediate station was mall halt at a place about half-way along the branch called Ardmayle. I think it had a short siding.

To my mind, good things are worth waiting for!

Line to the junction behind the photographer. Very easy to make a layout of! The one intermediate place, Ardmayle, was just a halt.

Was in a 28 today, between LJ & Limerick. Lively little thing, albeit built for midgets…

I’d say it (as good as) has!

Ouch…. Issues on Cork line too. 218 + Mk 4 set stranded at Limerick Jct this morning.