jhb171achill

The back scenes look amazing too - great detail all over this layout. Absolutely stunning stuff!

Brilliant, Glenderg! Hoodies in 00 scale.... ! .

Details like this can add great interest to a layout. I saw one at an exhibition somewhere once where there was a busy goods yard being shunted in slow motion - very good; but outside the goods yard gate was a police car with blue light actually flashing, and the policemen had a man pinned up against the wall, and another policeman was pointing to a car beside them which was parked across the gate on a double yellow, under a large "no parking" sign. So you can even have heavy-handed policing in 00 scale!

So Cor Trachta means "dog warden"?

Ah but on the other bogie it had inscribed the entire Meaning of Life. Not many know that.....

"Did you know you have four miles of intestines inside your stomach?" (Interesting Facts; John Cleese & Peter Cook)

I've said this before, but I have found it fascinating to follow the story of how these developed, and you shared the earliest and most experimental stages with the rest of us from the start. That, in itself, is unique. I hope the ongoing production line goes very well - certainly, from reading these posts it seems you have your hands full with current orders. That's obviously a very good sign. Congratulations.

Thats a fascinating picture, Mayner... I love that stuff of Ernie's. Interesting to see the tin vans in green and silver; two brand new vehicles in older liveries, while an 1880s / 1890s GSWR passenger brake is in the latest livery. A perfect indication of the contrasts to be seen at that time between old and new. The only other thing in the new livery in that pic is an even newer 141 class! The picture in itself provides excellent inspiration for a modeller of the 1955-65 period, probably the most fascinating in Irish railway history. The strange thing about the final days of the six wheelers is that the final passenger carrying ones all remained green to the end and were all, or virtually all, of Midland Great Western origin, while the few remaining passenger brake vans were GSWR, and ended up in black'n'tan! You'd have expected it to be the other way round, because passenger brakes right into late "laminate" days in the 1980s, were always the poor relations in the paint shop....

Warbonnet... there's no reason why one of these TPOs would not have run with Bredin mail vans, CIE ones or some older wooden ones while they lasted. Mail trains pre 1972 or so could throw up just about anything.

Minister & Heirflick..... there was nothing unsuitable for polite company - it was just something like "last bogie built at Inchicore (date) 1984"

Mayner, you must have been standing beside me that day (IRRS annual visit?) as I have identical pictures. The last batch of bogies were built in Inchicore completely, and the very last one had a suitable inscription somewhere in its innards made of weld marks!

Nelson, if you were doing NCC, initially (pre war) it was large lettering, not unlike your model, but slightly smaller. Underneath was about a third the height, "N C C", both centrally placed. Later, small letters of all same size were placed lower down on the wagon corner, just above the running number, and this had L M S N C C ...arranged like that. I think it corresponded with a change in England from the version on your wagon to just LMS in small letters above the running number. In England they didn't use the cast number plates they had here. Those were inherited, and continued, from the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway.

I can email that pic to you Broithe! :-)

Nelson - are you adding "NCC" or is this one for your LNER (with visiting LMS wagon) side? If you're making it NCC, you might add the cast number plate they used....?

I took a run on the Westport to Achill line in 1960 and this was on it.....

Folks - on re-reading two of my posts above, one re. DCDR's No. 90 and early GSWR livery, and one regarding CIE "flying snails", I have re-worded the first which was far from clear (it made sense to me, but not to anyone sensible!). The other, regarding "snails", had an unforgiveable blooper in it - having described how CIE put "snails" on tenders, I went on to state that tender engines NEVER carried snails - of course, I meant that TANK engines never carried snails..... I could actually clarify that - in 1959 one ex-T&D loco had a "snail" chalked on the buffer beam, and another inscribed in the dirt on the tank side by someone's finger... if that counts as a "snail" being carried on a tank loco, so be it! Apologies for any confusion caused. In the words of the Great Homer: Dohhhhhh....

DCDR maintains copies of some, obviously for use on locos preserved there. There isn't one for the "G" class though as far as I know. Not that those driving them need it!

Excellent detail. Apart from dirt, another detail which you might like is that particularly in the 1950s / 60s, and more so on UTA than CIE, when wagons were repaired they would put in new planks which could variously be newly painted (unlike the rest of the wagon in filthy and faded paint!), or painted a different colour (maybe off a similar scrapped wagon), or not painted at all. In the 1970s one might see standard CIE "H" vans still in grey but with one or more brown doors, or vice versa. I saw one in Ballina in brown with one grey door, one brown. The UTA often just put a quick wash of cheap grey paint over GNR, NCC or BCDR liveried wagons it inherited. Inevitably this faded and the original colour, lettering and numerals would very clearly show through. At least one ex-GNR brake van on the UTA just ha a blob of fresh grey paint painted over the large "G" and "N"; another blob covered the GNR number, and had "U T" and their number painted onto it. The rest of the van was untouched. Ironwork was rusting and the GNR grey paint had just become a nondescript shade of greyish dirty shade, with more weathering than all the weatherers on IRM could throw at it! I can't help feeling that black and white pictures of wagons in this state, in which the rusting ironwork looked darker, gave rise to the assumption when looking at old pics that the ironwork is black. For a modeller, think seriously heavy rusting on metal which was originally painted the same grey as a body.

If it's of any interest I used to have a number of GNR ones, all of which were red - but they weren't red the whole way along, just at one end as far as I remember. One is on display along with other staffs in Headhunters Railway Museum in Enniskillen.

The various snippets of information, blogs, advertisements, "how-to" posts and so on, that are on IRM, are as good as any - so, yes, this is to all intents and purposes the Irish modellers group...

I agree with all the above - always look forward to updates on this one.

Interesting... Superb stuff!

First time I've seen any coaching stock in silver in model firm - very impressive! It weathered spectacularly badly, hence the later repaints into green. Small point - roofs would be silver too rather than black, but in practice the whole van became a nondescript dirty colour all over very quickly. Out of interest, I must make enquiries about clear lacquer - never thought of that. Those vans are a credit to to you, Mayner - excellent stuff.

If a private operator ever did come here, I'd wonder what the options might be. Doubtless the re gauging of something in the UK, but would this be cost effective? Or, a redundant DD set!!!

John - I'm not a "covie"!, but I have a lot of friends etc out in Westport / Newport / Mulrany / Achill and have spent a great deal of time there over the years. PM me some time... lovely spot out there.