jhb171achill

Macmine would be an amazing one!!

True

If I had the time and money and space to build and equip every layout I've ever planned, sketched out, or doodled or dreamed up, and I'm sure i do two or three a day - put together, they'd be seen from outer space! I once concocted an imaginary system in my head. I wondered how many people it would need to operate it, so I sketched it out to see. The answer was that it would take an absolute minimum of maybe 40 people to operate it fully!

The brown livery started appearing about 1970; precise date of first one is not recorded anywhere. However, even six years later when the last loose-coupled goods train ran, a good quarter of the wagon fleet overall were still grey. As late as 1975 I saw a "H" van at Ballina in the Crossoolina siding still with a "flying snail", thus, it hadn't seen a paint brush since 1963. It's quite possible it was satill carrying its first and only coat of paint. You can practically date a photo - all grey is pre-1970. Early seventies, and a very occasional pristine brown one. gradually, 1973 its maybe 50 / 50, and by '76 only an occasional grey one.

Hopefully

ALL of the above posts make perfect sense; thus adding strongly to my predictions and beliefs that: 1. The Foynes branch is, was, and will be a white elephant. There is no traffic for it, never was, and won’t be. It’ll gather weeds and end up being cleared of bushes every few years by a yellow machine. 2. Bar Ballina - for the time being anyway - rail freight on this island will go the way of steam engines and loco-hauled passenger trains. (Sorry, “customer” trains). 3. The hoo-ha about the rail development plan is largely a load of fantasy nonsense concocted to suggest that politicians north and south are serious about LONG term public transport planning. They aren’t, and even if they were, large parts of this report are unrealistic drivel that a first-year economics student could debunk. 4. Ideas about reopening Rosslare - Waterford, Bandon or the Derry Road are not going to happen, full stop. Sorry to be negative, but these - plus points raised above - are the cold, hard realities in Ireland.

Awful

Yup, 16:50 is an NIR set, not a DD.

Any thoughts on tomorrow's 16:00 set from Dublin? Scheduled DD, NIR railcar, 29 class, ICR, or wheelbarrow?

I’m chasing steam trains in the Isle of Man right now but will dig out whatever records I have when I get home. But western district station colours were indeed mid brown and various beige / stone-colour shades. Often, cast-iron door signs (like “WAITING ROOM”) were navy blue background rather than the normal black.

Yes, the UTA repainted all the stations but in a red, green and light grey scheme which they didn’t necessarily use in many other places. The several CIE-owned stations between Strabane and Derry remained in GNR colours, I think until closure.

I have details somewhere, yes!

Even into the 1980s, NIR railcars on certain services could have a converted MED railcar, now an unpowered parcel van, or some old NCC “brown vans” behind it. I saw a set one time in the mid-70s with no less than six brown vans behind it. I think that was fairly unusual though.

Also, seek out WRENNEIRE of this parish. He can help you with just about any model under the sun. A bit more than that - grey far too light, and black roof and number on tender need to go too. Easy, though - simply repaint the entire thing, bar the red buffer beams, in a dark grey and put cabside number PLATES on, and hey presto - GSR.

Wheelslip - that bottom loco (the upside-down one!) if repainted plain dark grey would do you well!

I'm a bit late to this party, but here goes: 1. I agree there is no model remotely like "Sambo", but I actually doubt it did go to the mills - I think it was confined to Inchicore Works. I'd be interested to know if it definitely did ever go anywhere else. 2. 00 Works J15, yes. LNER 0.6.0, yes. In the latter case, repainted grey. If you are in GSR times, no black locos and no green ones - every single loco they posessed was plain grey all over, no flying snails either - they only came with CIE in 1945. Cast cabside numberplates, no painted numbers (apart from a handful of suburban passenger tanks). 3. Small industrial-type loco, certainly - I had thought of that too. There were an extremely small number of things like that in reality - Allmans Distillery, Bandon, for one. The little engine of that line ended up being bought by the GSR who slapped a standard numberplate on it, but never repainted it, so it ended its days in barely recognisable badly faded delivery-colour manufacturer's green. (An exception to the grey rule!). 4. Wagons - yes, leslie's are the best option. CIE "H" vans, nice as they are, far too late for GSR era. I have three of the SSM ones - they would be fine, in reality. Overall, I think your era is an excellent one and a great way to start.

Much as I'd love to find a pro-rail flaw in that argument, I'm afraid you have it 100% spot on, unfortunately. I think goods in general is doomed, unless there is a very radical re-think from central government, but this would involve long-term planning, something our successive governments of all parties do not do. It also recalls to mind what, again regrettably, I am increasingly seeing as a vanity project for the last government - Foynes. Still zero potential business for it, and seemingly zero interest.

What they called “tail traffic” in Brexitland was actually very common behind railcars here. Donegal is very obvious, of course, from railcar-day-one, but all over the UTA and CIE, and into NIR days in the north, it was very common, even the norm in certain services. Vans carrying mail, parcels or newspapers - or all - in particular. On CIE, extra coaches, including the 1890s MGWR six-wheelers above, tin vans, goods wagons, horse boxes, the lot.

I would presume so - that was his impression. So much for the green agenda!

And he will blame Bill Clinton.............. Most interesting article, Mr. Rechtsanwalt; very thought-provoking. We are indeed living in dangerous times, with so much pointing to the 1930s. I often feel lucky I'll probably be dribbling tepid soup down my cardigan in a nursing home by the time it fully hits us all.

Always my view, yes. No. 4 was always to me the least attractive preserved engine, but there's no doubt that they were a truly excellent design in most ways (though the injectors often had a preference to water the ballast rather than inject water into the boilere!). Fair to say No. 4 saved the society's bacon several times.

Can you imagine what Mr. Elfin Safety would have to say about that today!

That's some serious traffic at Tara Junction! Maybe a Luas extension is needed there!

Indeed, and while I prefer accuracy myslef, I have a full range of the Hattons yokes, and would be getting any Rapido / IRM ones too - as you say, they give the "feel" of it.

The Genesis coaches were, even within Britain, an "approximation" to many designs of a number of British companies. As mentioned before frequently, British coach design - on any line - was totally unlike anything on ANY Irish line, with very very few exceptions - the most notable of which was an obvious family resemblance between many NCC designs and LMS ones. The Bachmann "CIE" coaches sold with the "Woolwich" loco, for example, are no more like anything that CIE or its constituents ever had, than an ICR is lime Stephenson's Rocket. However, like early Lima BR class 33s sold in orantge and black as a "supertrain", livery decieves the eye, and in the absence of anything else, these thnigs have had to do. However, when the Genesis 6-wheelers came out, by lucky coincidence, this GENERIC British design happened to closely resemble several batches of GSWR stock built largely in the 1890s, but with examples stil;l in traffic into the 1960s. This was when I suggested to them they do a run in Irish colours and supplied them with all the details. I was already supplying them with details for GSR liveries when Hattons shut down. Two of the three GSR liveries would have been appropriate. But that's by the by. The Rapido stuff that's coming out is all non-corridor, thus branch line use. Having examined each model in detail, none are close to anything Irish, but several types give a reasonable family similarity to some Irish coaches, particularly ex-GSWR, and again in the absence of exact scale models, will suit as a convincingly LOOKING Irish vehicle if in suitable livery. One or two even are reminiscent of some of the few wooden-bodied coaches which survived into the black'n'tan era, and by 1972 or so when the last were withdrawn, were largely confined to Youghal summer excursions, Dublin suburban peak hours, Dun Laoghaire boat trains, and northern suburban summer excursions (Donabate, etc). So, one might expect to see both green liveries (1945-55 and 1955-62) plus orange and black. Possibly some in GSR livery? The release of the model of 800 "Maedb" would be well accompanied by some stock - while Maedb is unlikely to ever have hauled anything six-wheeled or non-corridor, given a three-foot rule a train of these Rapido yokes behind one might look nice, especially if interspersed with SSM brass kit "Bredins" or at the very least LMS corridor stock of the 1930s with livery slightly amended to GSR era. Either way, any of these in Irish liveries are certainly likely to be seen at Dugort Harbour! And if Rapido, IRM, or anyone else bring out something like this, all credit to them. I will be certainly supporting the venture.