jhb171achill

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?)...

Only 364, Josef; so we can certainly be sober for half a dozen of them.

You'll note in the photo the unique (to this class) form of the black'n'tan livery carried by several of these engines for a time. When CIE painted locos plain black, the white bit was limited to the tops of cab ends; it didn't go all around and along the sides, unless tan was present too. Several of the B101 class, for a short time, carried the end-only white flashes, but tan the whole way, and full height at that. There was no CIE roundel included, as far as I remember, and I can't see one above. Many of you will have noted the absolutely superb job recently carried out by the ITG at Downpatrick, in repainting A39 in black'n'tan. This raises an interesting, but small detail, with regard to CIE diesel liveries. As restored now, A39 has a "roundel" on the side. Generally, when an A or C class loco carried full-height tan, there was no roundel. And very few of them carried full height tan at all, especially in later days (post-re-engining). But A39 was one of those which did! Normally, the tan band would be the lower one for a re-engine A. So, great congratulations are due to the ITG and its members for an accurate research job well carried out. If only so many other preserved items were restored with this degree of attention to external appearance - which is what people see first. Back to the B101 - it can be all black, like the one at Carrick (though with proper font numerals, not the very thick numbers on it). In this guise, there would be a "roundel". Secondly, it can be same with yellow end patches. Third, it can be as above, a variation not carried by any other loco class, and fourth as above but with roundel and with lower tan strip instead of full height band. Fifth, of course, for some (not all) members of the class, "supertrain" livery.

If you want to be THAT detailed, Tony (and it would look amazing), take photos of individual ones, as the markings on them vary subtly quite a lot, particularly on the back. Probably best to team up markings of your choice with an individual registration number, if you really wanted absolute perfection.