jhb171achill

Weshty, email me on that....

Knowing me, I'd probably go down there and come back with a few bananas, a pack of dishcloths, a bag of potatoes and a tin of sardines! Ah! Forgot the solderer........!

Thanks, folks!

Correct, minister. I have a GSWR carriage diagram book which tells the same story. It was common practice for "taken-over" works to continue with pre-amalgamation patterns. One only has to look across the pond at the number of locomotives turned out under British Rail, whose designs were often from SR, GWR, LMS and LNER.

Jawfin, queries are one of the very reasons to be on here, so ask away at any time - there is someone on here who will be sold to answer any question you have. 1097 was started in 1924, under the GSWR, but entered traffic just into the new year in 1925. It would have been painted in the GSWR "dark crimson lake" carried by it and 836. It would have had GSWR lining, as per 836, but probably a GSR crest if it had then been ready. At first repaint, a comparatively new mainline coach like this would have received the short-lived chocolate brown and cream, maroon later.

They were a little perforated tab they tore off to show it was used, a bit similar to punching tickets. Incidentally, I can hardly get into IRM the last few days due to an adware virus called "smart compare". Anyone know how to get rid of it? I've tried uninstalling it but it keeps reappearing....

In comparison to Belmullet, Cavan is like downtown Manhattan!

CIE used letters to denote various types of goods stock, DiveController. The standard pattern steel-framed, wooden-bodied vans produced in large numbers in the fifties and early sixties were those shown above, which were designated as design "H". They replaced hundreds of older goods vans from CIE constituent companies and the GNR, and along with the "Pallet Vans" constituted almost the entire van fleet by 1970. If you look to the left of "H" van 18102 above, you'll see a brown "palvan" beside it. It is quite simply impossible to model the CIE goods scene in the 60s and 70s without large numbers of these standard vans in all goods trains. It's like trying to model the Supertrain era without any Mk. 2 coaches, or "A", 141 or 071 class locos.

They do a nice lunch.....! The cost is based on carriage work of various types carried out within the last ten years or so at Whitehead and Downpatrick.

Here are a couple to start; if anything RTR is needed, it's these..... These pictures were taken in March 1976. The "H" van with the "flying snail" (and modellers note, post-1960 or so it should be a stencil on goods stock, not a "solid" snail) was in the Crossmolina Siding in Ballina. The other two were in Heuston, more or less parked in the car park opposite the IRRS premises now!

It's privately owned by the proprietor of the hotel, and it is his long term aim to cosmetically restore it. While it looks complete, it is in a very bad way indeed, and in order to become roadworthy would require a complete rebuild from rail level up, which at today's prices would cost some €75000 or more.

A couple more. One is from the same GSR 1928 WTT and the other is a DSER advertisement in a MGWR 1908 publication.

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More; GSR 1928.

Fast forward to 1928..... GSR Working Timetable

Now that's artwork!

From the 1884 Working Timetable of the Dublin, Wicklow & Wexford Railway

There's a photo floating about somewhere already of a finished loco - not sure where I saw it, but I have seen it. It has red and purple swirls along the bodyside above, below and across the black band. It'll look great on the Ballina liner....

As you can see, he sometimes travelled third class, just to be able to say he did..... :-) .....and that's about all I have for now. No Dublin & Blessington tickets, though he did overtake it once or twice....

The further meanderings of a railway enthusiast, three quarters of a century ago.

That's a historic photo: newly done coach but with a loco only half finished in the new livery! Interesting.

It certainly would!

Three liveries in twenty years for the Enterprise, all as drab and dull as ditchwater. At least this one has a BIT of colour in it - there's a pic somewhere of a finished loco with a swirl of red on its side. Takes a bit of getting used to but isn't too bad. Oh for orange and black! I always thought the Enterprise should have had a bright livery something like red and cream, orange, maybe like the original 450 class livery or the short-lived NIR "suburban" livery of the eighties....

"The Church"..... thought you meant the bar in Dublin! Excellent model, well done!

Superb stuff, David. Conveniently, the proposed Belmullet terminus would have been quite like your layout, in that it was in a comparatively narrow space and was a dead end facing a street! Had it been built it would have required some sort of Fenit / Killybegs / Ardglass / Bantry type spur to serve the harbour. Now there's a remote Midland branch terminus in the making! A MGWR six-wheel coach kit is well overdue, as is a standard H van of beet truck..... I digress...