jhb171achill

Wow! A Lough Swilly bus! Good to see one of those - brings back memories of mad weekends up in Donegal hi !

Wow! First time I've noticed this - excellent! Even with an ITG headboard! All you need is an O & K to go with it!!! :-)

There's an exception to every rule. By it's very nature, it's sheer size, a large major city terminus should be very difficult to model in anything like a convincing manner, whereas small country termini can fit into a modest spare bedroom! But this one's the exception - a city terminus with truly amazing realism and the highest level of skills we've seen in Irish modelling. Keep 'er lit! Love the viaduct, the trackwork and realistic edging of ballast, super-elevation, filthy 141 pilot engine, fantastically weahered bulk trains...... brings me right back!

Wow! That makes for a superb line up! And don't forget visiting RPSI trains! I hear the May Tour might visit it!

That site is actually only a fraction of what the GNR had. The whole area around Apollo Road behind it was also railway land, as was more of the land up towards Lislea Drive.

Meant to say, the authentic light CIE green is on some of the Dublin-based RPSI stock and the ex-CIE TPO at Downpatrick.

Irishrailwayman, I'd say LNER green would be very slightly too bright, but it's not a bad idea! With so many superb kits now available, and the very good standards of modelling these days (and getting better!) I wonder is there any paint manufacturer out there who might do authentic Irish ones? I have samples of GSWR / GSR / CIE loco grey, GNR loco blue, and the earlier CIE dark green. The GSR maroon was slightly brighter than LMS maroon (though not very different), and the brown and cream used by the GSR for a while was as good as identical to that of the GWR across the water. There used to be a firm called "Precision Paints" who could supply many authentic shades for many British liveries, and LMS / GWR (and I am sure LNER) was available from them. The GSR used much the same wagon grey as the LMS, as did the GNR(I) and the NCC. BCDR grey was darker. So LMS wagon grey would have a lot of uses in Ireland. There's one for the manufacturers!

They'd be flying machines on the main line.....

That's right, Minister. The green livery was intended to be applied to main line locos and Dublin suburban locos. It wasn't an exact science, but it did apply to the Bandon tanks! One "60 class" GSWR 4.4.0 became green - now THAT would have been a sight for sore eyes.

Indeed so, Broithe! We unloaded it and they sat down and I made them a cup of tea. No wait, I got that bit wrong..!! :-)

True.... first time I've been on interweb today....... was in Temple Bar photo archive all day...

Reminds me of the time they took an interest in me speeding with a settee sticking out of my car boot............don't ask! !!! hmm points points

Des - at least one Bandon tank was painted green, can't recall number off the top'o'me'ead... but - if is that one, it could be a combination of a dirty green loco and a colour-compromised slide. The tale will be told by wther it has lining like "Maedb" in Cultra - if it has, the thing is green underneath it all - but the standard CIE shade (again, as on "Maedb"). If no lining, it's grey for sure, as no green engines were ever UNlined, and no grey ones were ever lined. Of the handful painted black, a single Woolwich got red lining for the Rosslare Express, as per the Bachmann model. Glenderg - yes, that description is spot on. To see it in the flesh, the DCDR has been able to ascertain exact shade, and this is currently applied to two ex-GSWR coaches there (836 and 1097). It won't be long until it will also be applied to six wheeler no. 69 there. The LMS-style maroon was first applied to the "steels" (Bredin 1935 stock) and the seconf batch of Drumm trains. I got that info from Senior, who saw it all happen, so that bit's first hand... There is some evidence that coaches painted in Limerick may initially appeared somewhet browner for some reason. Don't forget too that the GSR painted some main line stock brown and cream lined in black from the late 20s to about 1934. This, actually, is something I've yet to see in a model, but it was never applied to steel sided stock, only older wooden stock used on main routes. The Achill branch had a regular coach towards its end still in this livery, and quite fresh looking too, as late as 1934 - bogie compo 179M.

That is a truly outstanding bit of work - he has played a blinder there! The finish is just right, accurate, extremely realistic.

That's Inchicore's steam erecting shop in 2044, showing the boilers for nos. 890, 891 and 892 under construction.

The guy running on the pavement behind the van looks as if he just has! (Maybe that's the sergeant...) !!

Hahaha Kirley - well I think anyone who has waded through them has already passed the exam! Research for the book, I am reliably informed, has started! Photos are indeed the issue, especially since many useful ones have already been published. Tomorrow a big trawl of various archives continues. And there's another book to be finished ahead of it, I am equally reliably informed!

I would imagine a pilot loco would have shunted wagons on or off where there was one - and there more about that place than many might think. Using the train engine would involve big delays in many cases, but would be necessary in out of the way places. In Indonesia in the early 80s, when they were at much the same stage as Ireland in 1960, with little steam left, but the odd pocket of it, they also had locos in light steam parked all over the place and I know of several locations where in between trains, if there was a path, they would do odd trip workings up the line to the next station with one or two wagons. That made interesting viewing.

I always wondered why, on account of dayglo gangway ends, they see a need to put those awful day glo rectangles on the back of carriages. They don't have them on wagons..........?? And not one person has ever been killed because a carriage didn't have a day glo patch............

That's a good piece of info, Mayner - one would expect an AEC set to be trailing a couple of "H" vans, tin vans or cattle trucks - but not container wagons. And yet, when you think about it, 4w container flats were about (just about) at the time... an interesting one for a layout. I'm actually trying to find decent pics of AEC sets in traffic on peripheral lines at the moment.. not as easy a it might sound, especially colour.

Do they have a separate both where they apply the weathering? Hahaha BRILLIANT!! :-)

Gents... re, first, Sulzer workings: B113/4 spent most of their working life around Dublin, after their initial performance, when newly built, on the main line to Cork met with mixed receptions. In later days, in between lengthy spells in Inchicore they were used on North Wall / Heuston transfer freights. After 1960 i am pretty sure they were never used on passenger trains at all (not to my own memory anyway), and probably not much - if at all - after the introduction of the first AEC railcars, and later the "A" class, on main line links. The B101s were always synonymous with Cork - Rosslare, where they were regularly used on goods and passenger traffic. They were also to be seen on the Limerick - Sligo line from time to time with goods trains, but I am unaware of a single instance of them hauling a passenger train on this route. They made some appearances on the Tralee - Limerick route too, and almost certainly with the Limerick (via the Croom branch) to Cork goods, which ran until 1967. They were also used on the main line Dublin-Cork. The last ever passenger use of one - by this stage years and years after they had featured on any sort of passenger usage, was the 1978 IRRS farewell trip from Connolly to Bray with 106. I was lucky enough to get a cab run on that. The loco used, the last in traffic, failed very shortly later and was withdrawn. I could be mistaken, but I think I have seen a pic of one on a Dublin-Dundalk goods, but they were certainly unknown in UTA territory. I daresay they might have made occasional forays onto the Midland or DSE, but this would most likely have been on ballast trains or the sprayer. They also might have worked Dublin-Waterford via both Athy and also Abbeyleix - but I don't think they were ever regulars there. If I can glean anything else I'll post it here. They were very much "southern" engines. And as to a book, Lough Erne... I was approached by a colleage about a year ago who had some very good ideas about such a thing, and I said I would collaborate as and when time permitted. Your post prompted me to contact said person again this afternoon, and I'll be meeting another guy on Thursday night........ watch this space. It was indeed a very interesting period. I suppose I might use this forum to ask anyone out there with pics of anything particularly old (within 1955-70) or particularly new within that period, to gimme a shout...

Quite a few in 4mm scale, both 00 track and (more accurate) 21mm gauge. In 7mm, a scale model would be 37mm gauge. I daresay some modellers would prefer scale track, but more would go for 0 gauge track. I personally don't know any, but a O scale 071 would be amazing.

Excellent model! If she's out of traffic, she's just like the prototype!

(I mean I have them from THERE..... onwards.......) typo