jhb171achill

UTA ex GNR had, concurrently.... UTA green. Some railcars plain green ends, some wasp striped. Both versions of UTA crests. UTA blue / cream; two variations with broad or narrow cream bands. GNR navy and cream with overlaid UTA "red hand" crests. NIR maroon and grey. Carriage stock in GNR brown, UTA green, and post-'67, early NIR maroon with thin grey stripe. CIE lighter green coaches Black n tan coaches Silver tin vans Silver, green, black or black'n'tan CIE diesels, with the odd grey 121 thrown in. Steam engines in lined UTA black or badly faded GNR blue, with of without GNR markings on tenders. Freight stock - where does one start! CIE - all grey, quite uniform. Brown hadn't started yet. Mostly (white*) snails, some tan and white roundels. UTA wagons had a mixture of (much darker) grey, many ex-GNR markings still, some bauxite brown (some ex GNR vans and ex-NCC (but not ex GNR) open wagons). Red Inglis containers. GREY CIE cement bubbles. Orange appeared about 1970/1, as far as I recall. Doubtless more....... The visiting CIE weedspray was painted black, but the chemicals had it heavily weathered (stained!) light grey over a lot of it. The crew coach was faded red and cream, leaving a pre-adolescent me to wonder if it was a re-gauged CDRJC coach! (* Prior to about 1960, some snails painted on older wooden wagons were light green. Others, and all after that, were white).

Now that you mention it; they were indeed silver to start! But brake dust made them brown.....

It was certainly brown flats on that train.

Noel - fair point - I did try, but couldn't manage it.... Wooden stock would certainly have lasted longer - probably until railcars - if it wasn't for Buttevant and Cherryville. The flats for the Asahi were standard ones and I only ever saw them brown. Such wagons were rotated with Guinness traffic and containers, so keeping some in red would not have been practical.

On an unknown date about 1977, the Ballina Asahi passes Glasnevin. The tankers don't show up well in this rather poor photo, unfortunately, but they were silver, with bright red frames, and the CIE logo in normal orange and black. They were mounted on standard 4 where flats, which were in normal CIE brown. From memory, "A" class locos were regulars on this run, though I wonder if restrictions on the Moy River bridge allowed them beyond Claremorris? Maybe someone might confirm. 071's were certainly not allowed up the branch at that time and for many moons afterwards.

Looks most interesting, best of luck. If it was me - and this is a constructive suggestion - I think if I was mostly interested in the locos coming and going, I'd have it much as you have, but if I was more interested in operations and shunting, possibly less loco sidings and at least 3, better 4, container roads. If it's modern era, I'm presuming no steam. Any 121s would most likely be part of a "pair" with another, or a 141 or 181, so is a turntable needed? All depends on your preferences for how you'd operate it. Good luck anyway, and doubtless you'll keep us posted.

I could be wrong on this, josefstadt, but I have a notion that while, as you say, the 32xx's were indeed Bredin-origin, there might have been sone converted from the original Bredin-pattern CIE stock of 1950-3? Must consult the archives. It would be interesting to clarify. Certainly, during the years from 1950-62, several different side profiles were evident in new builds. Here's something for 071 persons. First, an up train awaiting departure from Westport, July 1978. Behind the loco, a mail van, then a Dutch can, then four Cravens, a laminate, and a laminate brake, the details of which I didn't record. Followed by a new loco in Inchicore the previous year. For modellers, note the unique non standard logo, larger than normal, different template, and with a white surround instead of tan. And the loco body colour was very much more brownish, again uniquely. This was because they were painted in La Grange, Illinois, not Inchicore. At first repaint they were all "corrected".

Indeed it was, Hunslet. I must try to find a pic I have of a 10 coach train (10:30 to Cork) passing Port Laoise about 1976 with almost no two coaches alike......

Hunslet, the one behind the loco is a CIE parcel brake of about 1950-3 vintage, then a laminate brand of 32xx series, like the one at Downpatrick, then a Park Royal, then a Craven. Until the 1990s, Cravens rarely ran in complete rakes - there would be one or two in trains otherwise made up of a few of just about everything else....

Absolutely top class!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]16648[/ATTACH]. Oil [ATTACH=CONFIG]16649[/ATTACH]. Cement [ATTACH=CONFIG]16650[/ATTACH]. Fertiliser

The above are showing up as ok (well, one's upside down...) on my iPad.... so hopefully they are visible. Can I ask viewers if the earlier ones all are?

Yippee! They appeared.... for now! See captions in previous posts. Now, let's have a go at GNR van 111N....

. Oil . Cement . Fertiliser

This wretched thing is driving me mad....! Each time I post the pictures, they show up fine on my computer, however as the day progresses some disappear, some appear the right way up and others upside down! Apologies, Kirley; I'll see what I can do! (My patience with mechanical, electrical or computer devices is minus zero......!)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]16647[/ATTACH] Down morning Waterford train, Heuston, A class haulage as usual, about 1977. Look at the typical consist..... a 1950-pattern CIE parcel brake, a 32XX-series brake standard,a Park Royal and a Craven. When assembling trains of an era up to the end of wooden framed stock (about 1990), it's important for the modeller to be aware that Cravens didn't operate in rakes - as the best stock, there'd be one or two in a typical train, otherwise made up of all sorts of things!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]16644[/ATTACH] Oil, cement and fertiliser; the three staples in the late seventies. (Beet also, but it was summer!) [ATTACH=CONFIG]16645[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]16646[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]16643[/ATTACH] Former GNR van No. 111, now 111N. The number is painted in the right (though the "N", which would on wagons have been slightly smaller font, has worn or faded off). The standard CIE cast plate on the left has "CIE", the number, the tonnage, and "111N" as normal CIE practice. (No, it wouldn't come off! Hmmmm). By this stage (about 1977) it was withdrawn, and with the recent almost total elimination of loose coupled goods trains,sidings in stations all over the country were stuffed with withdrawn H vans and their like.

Standard CIE brakes with standard livery and standard weathering! The one on the left still has wooden planking. You'd see quite a few like that. The odd one was still grey. For modellers of the era, such vehicles were almost never clean and shiny looking. Some looked even shabbier than these.... Modellers, note the differing positions of the lamps. Above the ducket as on the right hand van, was the norm.

A bogie rail wagon still in use was (in 1976) one of very few MGWR vehicles in stock. The only others were several former six wheeled passenger carriages in use as departmental vans. One of these is now at Whitehead, two are on the DCDR, one is in Clifden, and all are as yet unrestored. Accompanying this wagon on that afternoon in the North Wall Yard was former MGWR bogie coach 1M, by then long converted into a departmental car, the last MGWR bogie coach extant, but withdrawn.

Brand new: yet to enter traffic. About 1978 I think. Inchicore barrier, 1976. The two of these were the last locomotives by a long stretch to wear the late 1960s black with yellow ends - a livery which even in its day didn't cover a fraction of the fleet. It was never applied to any GM, D, E or G classes, and I don't think any B101s got it either. A few if the A and C class, plus this pair, were the only yellow ended locos. A single member of the C class had yellow buffer beams with it for a short time.

Inchicore, end-of-life time for the fascinating fleet of G.... ....and the E401 class.

This was the only loco ever to have silver tablet catchers, and it was short lived... And finally, an extra one.... By the late 70s, most G class locos had migrated to Inchicore. The Loughrea branch had just closed - it had always occupied a couple at least, while others in their day shunted as far afield as Ballina, Dundalk and Tralee, as well as in Inchicore. This forlorn example in summer 1975 (an absolute scorcher of a summer!) was in this twilight position of being fixable, and it might be fixed....or it might not. Fans of this class at this time could scarcely tell whether one pottering about Inchicore was actually in traffic or not.