jhb171achill

True, Hunslet! I wonder about that five car set.. I very much doubt myself whether a single power car could have done that - especially the hell-for-leather run north of Antrim. There must have been some sort of unusual formation with two power cars, which would inevitably have meant that you couldn't have walked end to end in the train. Doubtless it was the result of a breakdown or some hurried unusual formation. Pity I didn't have a picture of it. There were indeed a few BUTs kicking about then. Yesterday, going through Senior's stuff, I came upon a colour slide of a three car AEC in Lisburn station a few years earlier. The leading car is No. 111, still in that "suburban" light blue and cream; the centre car is newly maroon and grey, and the power car at the other end is UTA green.... That will figure in a future publication, for sure!

It brings back memories for me too! What prompted that post was that I came across a reference to the 70s this afternoon while looking up info on something different. I could trot out more... I had a few takes about the Austrian narrow gauge!

That is a stunning layout - one of my favourites!

Thank you, Mr Flick! :-)

Ah! Excuse me... I belong to "kettle" technology! A diseasel is a diseasel.......! And my interest in the species ended with the 141s....

Hopefully tied to the track...... no, that's not fair to the track.

Having re-read this, I'm just wondering why a 5 car set was being led by a driving trailer? Anyone? Normally a train like this would have had a power car at each end....

That's in the days of the bus conductors... they had them on at least some routes at least until 1980, many many moons after they had gone from Belfast or from Ulsterbus. Did the rural CIE services, or LLSR, still have conductors at that stage?

Different engine??

We're in the mid seventies here, and I've got an interview in Coleraine; not a town I was ever able to develop a great fondness for, I have to admit, but an interview's an interview. I boarded a train at York Road and sat opposite a young lady with impossibly wide bellbottoms, and who was impossibly tall. Let's call her Flossie. We were in a leading driving trailer of what I think was about a five car 70 class set. It was a stormy enough day, with autumn leaves blowing about. We left on time, more or less, but as we crashed and lurched our way up towards Bleach Green, it seemed we had several signals against us, and for several periods the train trundled along quite slowly. Up the double track section to Antrim, following laborious wheel-screeching across points in the vicinity of Bleach Green. I had looked out for the former junction to the "Back Line", still very visible and still with track on most of it, though only connected at the Greenisland end. The train sat for a while in Antrim, where we crossed a brand new 80 class set, not long out of its Hornby Box. 70's ruled the roost, though, on the NCC main line, aided and abetted by the motley collection of MPDs. Most MPDs and 70s were in maroon and oyster grey, though the new "Enterprise" livery (then so called) was making inroads. This soon-to-be-familiar maroon and blue was applied from new to the 80s, which never carried the maroon and grey; similarly, none of the MED sets ever received the maroon and blue. By the time we left Antrim, we were almost 10 minutes late. I never found out why, but as we set sail north on the (still double track) NCC main line, yer man threw the throttle open and off we went! It turned out to be the most spirited run I ever did in a 70 class set, and the leading driving trailer was buckin' and leppin' about like a good thing! Side to side it swayed, bogies crashing over joints, suspension lurching myself and Flossie, the only passengers up front for the whole ride, like a roller coaster in Barry's in Portrush. At one point I gripped the seat cushions. I had never before done so on a train, nor have I since, and nor do I want to. How that thing stayed on the track is a miracle - I didn't know a train could BE so bouncy, until some years later I had a run in the cab of a 141 at speed.... Coleraine beckoned, and it was very cold and windy. Nothing new there; but as I left the train one thing stuck in my mind - a fleeting look af real fear on Flossie's face somewhere about Cullybaaackey, as they call it in those parts... Interview concluded, I set off back to the station. This time, it was a three car 70 class back to Belfast, and lo and behold, the leading and centre cars were absolutely brand newly painted in maroon and blue - you could smell the new paint. I sat in the power car and as those who ever did similar will recall, there mightn't have been as spirited a ride as in a leading trailer car, but as the railcar started from each station, the noise and vibration from the windows and even seat frames was, let's say memorable; just like the overpowering diesel smell in an MED. I'm not painting either in a good light, am I? But - these trains had character - real character. Need I add more? Belfast was reached easily on time. Now, a walk across to Great Victoria Street for a train back to Lisburn. Would it be only my second or third run in one of these new 80s? Or a humdrum AEC........ Yes!!! It was an 80 class. Sure you can go in an AEC any oul day. And I got the interview. But I didn't go back; life had pulled me in another directiom, and U2 are the support act in the Baggot Inn tonight.... See ye there. Guinness has gone up to 45p a pint, though....

Maybe it's just old age in my case, but I couldn't be bothered trying to humour of "make allowances" or give therapy to the likes of that... just liquidise them...... the damage caused to tourism as a result of any UK or American citizen witnessing that is to me, far more important than that individual or his ilk.....

Yes - a train every second month instead of bi-annually!

I hope the guards were called to deal with filth like that......

In this day and age we see trains made up of entirely the same type of vehicle - be it passenger or goods. No ICR sets sail with a De Dietrich coach and a Craven as intermediates; nor does the "Enterprise" ever consist of a mix of DD and Mk 4stock. Well, apart from the new EGVs, that is. Goods trains are all of idntical Tara wagons, no odd tank wagon, beet truck of flat wagon samdwiched in between; or a string of identical pockets or container flats. Even maintenance trains are made up of the one type of vehicle per train. Few exceptions exist, and few have existed for some time. But for anyone modelling any period pre 1990, standardised rakes were an extreme rarity. Many a fantastic layout set in the "Black'n'Tan" era or earlier, might have a rake of identical 4 wheeled vans behind a superbly weathered "A" class or a "Pair". Many a passenger train will have a string of identical Cravens (OK after Buttevant, but not before), or identical laminates, or even identical wooden stock. This is generally as inaccurate as the ICR with the DD intermediate. To take a few absolutely typical train make ups from old photos of mine taken in the late 70s, we can pick out the following... Goods: 30 ton van, 8 "H" vans, one with wood planked doors - one grey with snail, three grey with roundel, four brown. A flat with a BR "Freightliner" container, and several "Lancashire Flats", finally two beet wagons and a wood-planked open wagon. Passenger: Six wheel "Hot water Bottle" tin van, brake standard, full standard laminate, Craven, Park Royal, Craven, two more laminates, not the same. Another - BR van, two Cravens, Laminate, Park Royal, Laminate. This would be the norm. So, if you're modelling pre 1990, remember the mix! Cravens, several types of Laminates, several variations of Park Royals, several variations of laminated brake standards, brake standard gennies, four and six wheel heating and luggage vans, four wheel post vans converted to brakes 9there were four; one still exists at Heuston) - all these were indiscriminately mixed in main line and suburban trains. The only carriages never to operate in traffic with anything else were the Mk 2 air-cons from 1972; and all subsequent types. Mk 2AB, Mk 3 and of course Mk 4 all kept themselves to themselves. The goods picture was the same, though in pre container days, "H" or other covered vans formed perhaps 70% of all wagons in routine goods trains (not counting things like mining traffic or beet). Hope this is of interest to some!

First I heard of it - hope so, though. Don't discount 6111 as a future push-pull, though! ;-)

This is the first time I've looked at pics of this layout - stunning use of the space available. Looking forward to seeing it develop!

Tis indeed.... One of the most scenic railway routes ever built in Ireland. The greenway people have done a great job. I would recommend it to anyone.

The new question should be: "What is the difference between a duck?" Anyone?

An 80 class, an AEC set and a BUT set! But MED, MPD and 450 class sets are pics on the wall only...... ;-)

As it says in Alice in Wonderland, the answer is always "sixpence, or a hundred inches long"........ Such good advice has always got me far in life......

Those little cakes need to be weathered........

What to put on it, heirflick?? Let's see. An NCC mogul, 800, a MGWR "mail engine", a pair of 121s, a pair of 141, an "A", an NIR maroon Hunslet, a 201 and an 071. And a B101.... Finally, GNR 85 Merlin, and 171! How's that for a garden railway!

Wonder how much the entire property costs? Probably half that of the two steam locos!

Now that really looks the business!! Pity we didn't have iPads then....!

So for me, with a poor knowledge of bus history, what type of bus should I seek for what I'm looking for in the late 70s / 80s?