jhb171achill

The unusual is always interesting! Me too...

Superb stuff! More N gauge needed!

Are those N gauge 071s? Hand made, presumably? They look very well... are there close-ups?

Very good work indeed!

Is it narrow or broad gauge? :-)

112 is doing a victory lap around Croker, with Bernard having been issued a footplate pass; it will head a special to Ballyboden and Castleknock via Westport, consisting of 112 and the three blue RPSI coaches! There will be blue beer in the bar on board..... I just love these mushrooms I'm snacking on.

Indeed, josefstadt... but modelling a narrow gauge snail in 4mm would be beyond most modellers! Especially a working one..... :-)

IRRS archives will have GNR timetables starting with first "Enterprise" in 1947, if you are in or about Dublin, or a member.

I started with Hornby stuff, and with no Mark's Models in the 70's, I pasted paper black'n'tan sides over Hornby Mk 1s, hauled by BR class 31 and 35's! That went to the wall when I discovered the things that 17 year olds do, including working with 12 inches to the foot models... which self-weathered themselves after every outing! A dabble in 009 and a Spanish-based garden railway followed. I am now "between layouts" but hoping at some stage to resurrect my collection of Austrian narrow gauge, something which has always interested me, but never had anything black and tan, or that carried a "flying snail"!

But then I was given Rails Through The West for my birthday earlier this year and my ideas went out the window. I love that! My favourite period too, and that book has a follow up in preparation.... ;-)

Well done - your skills show already. A fulfilling future in modelling beckons!

Glenderg wrote, The further I go down the rabbithole of this hobby though, the more I'm attracted to the late 30's era of State Coaches, Maroon and Gold lined carraiges north and south, This would be NCC, presumably? Their carriage livery was the same as the LMS in England overall, though with some differences in lettering, fonts and numerals. Some older carriages were unlined, and there would have been more instances of carriages with no LMS crests than in Britain. Not sure what "State coaches" would be? The GSR had a maroon (for post 1935 builds only at first, but later repaints of wooden stock) much the same as LMS, and identical lining - a yellow line below cantrail, another above windows, and yellow-black-yellow below windows.For a while they started painting main loine stock chocolate and cream with black lining, then reverted to maroon. Much older stock remained the very dark crimson lake (as seen on Downpatrick's 836 and 1097) until CIE. Thus a GS era layout would have much variation in carriages, despite (apart from 800-2) the absolutely universal sheep dip grey on engines. The GSR painted stations dark green and cream. The MGWR used red and white (or possibly cream or light grey) on station buildings. In this same era, GNR coaching stock was brown or scumbled, no lining, with most engines black, but a few old ones probably still in lined green, and the iconic blue livery appearing gradually after 1932.

What loco-hauled 2ft gauge lines operated in Ireland, other than those owned by BnM?

I think the present Dun Laoghaire station was built by the DWWR... Maybe somewhere beyond that?

I'm thinking more of the original Downpatrick station.

Following the special trains and so on, on this layout is a great deal more interesting than watching IE and NIR!

The special for the victorious Dublin team will need 112..... it's blue!

Donaghadee was a house prior to being a station. I suspect Downpatrick was not an original railway building either; for that matter, nor was Soller on the Palma-Soller electric line in Majorca, if anyone's ever been on it......

So the bag tasted better than the crisps?

It has indeed been banana'd (tangoed?)

Donaghadee?

Quite right, Lough Erne! Next question. Apart from the Baldwin locos on the West Cork system, and excluding ALL post-1960 diesel powered things, what standard American built rolling stock operated in Ireland? And, on what offshore island (which never had railways) can you find a standard CIE "H" van body?

BSG, Haulbowline Island. ... Good shtuff! Keep 'er coming.....

Wasn't counting that one, Minister, though it fits the bill. A clue to a few: one was on an island, and remains of it are still there. One was in a city. One, other than the Kingstown line, left a city.

Look at that top photo. Garfield, here's a sixpence, nip over to the Railway Bar and get me a couple of bottles of stout.....