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[ATTACH=CONFIG]16621[/ATTACH] This station seat sign in white lettering on blue enamel background, indicating that it is an original MGWR sign, surviving GSR days well into CIE days. This picture was taken on 1st November 1975, two days before the branch closed. Behind it, a "C" class sat in the bay platform with a single laminate brake standard, the Loughrea branch set for the day. The MGWR painted stations and signal cabins a bright red and buff-shade cream, with dark blue signage as above.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]16620[/ATTACH] I photographed this former horsebox at Athlone in 1977. I'm not sure of its provenance, but I suspect it's ex GSWR. Anyone here got access to the list of departmental "A" numbers? That would indicate its original number. If that had no suffix it is GSWR or even WLWR. It might, however, have an "M" or "D", indicating MGWR or DSER ancestry. At this stage it was a sleeping van.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]16619[/ATTACH] The end of the MEDs. They were gathered in Antrim GNR yard and vandals burnt the last ones out as shown here about 1980. Nobody was remotely interested in preserving them! It would be different nowadays. I have to confess to never having liked them at all - they were noisy and extremely uncomfortable to travel in, and often filled with nauseous diesel fumes.

The UTA painted some wagons a reddish bauxite brown from the early 60s for a very few years until they finished with freight. This example was in Antrim ballast siding in June 1976. It will be noted that NIR have cut down the sides which were originally the height of the ends, on all these wagons. It will also be noted that NIR overpainted their numerals and lettering over the "U T". They didn't bother repainting this wagon in their very pale grey livery. That said, the pale grey wagon livery ŵhich NIR adopted was used for (a) very few wagons as goods had finished; and (b) on account of that, the repainted or re-lettered ones were only used for ballast trains. The NCC guards van on the DCDR and the surviving "Ivan" (GNR brake van) at Whitehead were used for this purpose, and there was at least one other ex GNR van too. It survived at Downpatrick having been saved, and its parts were used in the restoration of "Ivan". The DCDR (NCC) van is currently painted in this NIR grey livery, although it's incorrectly lettered "U T". The UTA painted these vans a much darker grey - darker than CIE used and more like English LMS grey, ironwork included. The black ironwork on both the NCC van and "Ivan" is not correct. The NIR livery using black ironwork is therefore rare on three counts: firstly, only a few ballast wagons and a handful of guards vans ever got it (no goods vans at all), secondly it was very short lived, and thirdly it is one of the extremely few examples of an Irish railway company painting a goods vehicle one body colour, but with chassis and ironwork picked out in black. To the right of the wagon above is one painted light grey by NIR, but no black ironwork! The grey paint was very poorly applied on all wagons thus painted and would show the original UTA paintwork beneath it very quickly. The wagon above is one of those built for the Courtaulds traffic in Carrickfergus.

Livery as well as weathering information. Newish Tara's, 1978, North Wall. They were originally blue all over - a mid royal blue. After a while they'd get covered in dust.

I think this is the one which was preserved, Mayner. It was vandalised at Tuam some years ago (the preserved one) but survived and is not at Dunsandle.

While most guards vans were the standard CIE design by 1970, a very few older ones struggled on a not longer. This long lived example of GSWR origin was pictured in a scrap line in 1978; I think I saw another in Tralee a couple of years before that. This one still has its snail, as some still-grey wagons did at the time (especially H vans). Incidentally, brown wagons never had snails, as this logo was discontinued about 8 or 9 years before wagons started being painted brown. Of standard CIE types, they were initially grey with duckets included. The yellow and black stripes on the duckets were added later. In brown days, duckets were always striped yellow and black. An example in the UFTM in Cultra has black and white stripes on the ducket, as well as a wrongly proportioned CIE roundel. They were never painted thus, and didn't even look that way when weathered or faded. Modellers are advised to be very wary of copying liveries from the preservation world. All of the major players; RPSI, DCDR and UFTM, have many examples of convincing-looking, and well painted, but utterly wrong liveries. Preserved CDR railcars in Finntown and Derry have wrong CDR crests, and I could go on.....

E434 pushes Mk 2's about at Heuston, summer 1977. There were always 2 or 3 "E" class locos bumbling about Heuston. One would shunt rakes of carriages out of arrival platforms, allowing brand new 071s, "A"'s or "pairs" to release and speed off up the hill to Inchicore. Another might be found about the Guinness yard (I have silent cine of either 432 or 434 in there), while another was in the goods yard where the car park now is. [ATTACH=CONFIG]16615[/ATTACH]

Another candidate for josefstadt to turn! An "A" takes a few bubbles for a spin, in summer 1977. Sorry for quality.

A "covie" is someone born and bred in Westport town centre! Many emigrated from the west during the famine. If you know the approximate year you can pin it down; 1840-60 would have almost certainly been famine victims, after that it would be like nowadays "economic migrants"! Sorry to go off topic....

Cg, it's scheduled for next summer now as Colourpoint have three other Irish titles due shortly! I've made a start on what will be the next one after that too.

Thanks for turning them, josefstadt..... I still can't understand why they would only upload upside down!

Patrick, they were indeed. Grey with snail initially, later brown with roundel.

Kilkenny, 1976. "H" vans abound, as they did on almost all goods trains. Brown ones outweighed still-grey ones about 6 to 4. The odd one had replaced door or doors of the other colour. Note that when a grey wagon had a CIE roundel, it was always surrounded by a tan circle, not white; this applied to H vans and palvans. However, all-white roundels were very occasionally seen on wooden planked opens.

When the 071s were brand new the shade of orange was very distinctly browner, the CIE roundel was larger than usual and had a white (instead of tan) surround. The new loco heads from Heuston to Waterford one day in 1977.

So now you know Australian trains are identical to CIE ones. Here's Inchicore in the mid 70s. G's in varying states of undress were to be seen about the place, particularly after the Loughrea branch closed.

I can't make them the right way up!!!! Help!!!! Recent posts on IRM have concerned tankers. This example was in North Wall, 1977 or 1978. If anyone's interested in exact locations or dates for any of the pics I'm going to post, just ask.

Bubbles were standard wagon grey when delivered but from the early 70s were painted orange, with stencilled lettering and grey chassis. The black chassis / cream body with "Irish Cement" was to appear many years later, and quickly get covered in a thick coat of cement. In "orange" days, a dusting of "icing sugar" on top was more often the case. This example was at Heuston goods sidings in 1977.

Folks I've found a few pictures I took in the mid / late 70s. None are publishable quality as I had an old steam-powered camera then, and I've copied them in poor light with an iPad. However, the point is to show some sort of snapshot of what things were like then. Train make-ups, liveries and lineside / station details are worth noting for modellers interested in this period. I'll post more as time allows. Now, this one won't go the right way up, so it must be Australian. It's a local leaving Limerick for the junction in June 1978. Note the variety of coaching stock; no two were the same. On occasion, due to a shortage of stock, catering cars were included in local train consists. Needless to say, they were for seating only and Mk catering service was provided.

That is excellent news indeed. On their website there's a pic of the planked CIE brake van - absolutely superb looking (though the ducket should be black and yellow stripes, not black and white)... But RTR laminates are a dream gone true, and their Park Royals really are the business. Well done Irish Freight Models!

Santa's been busy in the USA as well as here!

Correct, Horsetan. In my grandfather's day at Inchicore, they would whinge if the drawing office used too many pencils! True!

Wow! If a pic of that appeared in a future book, I'd be getting emails saying "I know I recognise that place - where exactly is it?" ...or... "I'm sure I took a picture of that very train some time about '73...."

Greetings; an enquiry. I'm hoping to put together a small 009 gauge layout this coming year. The entire thing will probably have about 26 sets of points, all of the "Electrofrog" variety; a species of wiring which is light years beyond my comprehension! The whole thing will probably have an out and back loop and a couple of termini branching off it - exact layout of track dependent upon space, which is currently under negotiation with the Ministry of Domestic Policy. My question is - do any of our colleagues here offer advice on such matters, or indeed provide a building service for same that doesn't require a mortgage? PM me, anyone interested....?

An "A" class could have seven liveries, with three variations on the all black one!