jhb171achill

You'd probably be better off trawling the archives of the IRRS?

Indeed - especially if the back story is that it's still privately owned. Guinness had their own engines to "feed" wagons into heuston station well into the 1960s; Courtaulds had little green shunters of their own - two or three of them - which, actually, I think were Pecketts themselves, albeit of a totally different design. Irish Shell BP had a little 4-wheel Planet diesel shunter at Alexandra Road well into the 1960s. It's a Whitehead now. Tiny little thing wihich would make 90 look like an 800 class...........

Looking again at your initial thoughts, and trying to shoe-horn reality into fantasy, exactly as I do on Dugort Harbour, we've many possibilities. Your layout is more branch than mainline, so this Connemara line - had it existed - would certainly have seen C classes working on it. Had the West Cork system lasted into the 1960s, you'd have seen Cs and 141s there. Had the Achill or Clifden lines have survived, same. I have two Silverfox Cs on Dugort Harbour, though they're in store right now. One is green, to represent 1957-early 60s, and the other is black to represent 1963-70. I agree with WestCorkRailway, the Silverfox railcars are woeful, right down to livery being 100% wrong in all details. Await an IRM one, hopefully! So, you'd need laminate coaches too - the IRM Park Royals also perhaps - might be a good start. Unlikely Cravens would have appeared there, but certainly possible. As to the steam engine, don't worry about the shade of green - had CIE held onto a little thing like a Peckett, it would never have been green - it would have remained plain grey to the end. But the independent company, just like Allman's Distillery in Wisht Caark, boy, might have simply received it in maker's livery and done nothing more than patch it up now and again. As W C Rly said, by the time CIE inherited it, filth would be the livery of the day! Another aspect, of course, is that your independent railway might have kept it on as a "pet" and adopted the maker's green as their own actual livery, and kept it clean! Indeed, you might order those shunters in black, if that's available? CIE did paint some engines black in the last few years instead of grey. The beauty is - no lining or lettering or anything, no crests or logos - just plain black with a number on the side! Like this - just paint the red connecting rod into weathered black and you're good to go! Remove makers plate and add a fictitious CIE number - or, keep it as it is, if it is to be still independently owned!

None were green 1963-9; the green livery ended in 1962/3 fir everything. As far as the C class were concerned, the first ones entered traffic in silver, but the last ones started off green. This was in 1957/8, so by the time the black’n’tan livery appeared, only a few years later, some went from (by now very dirty) solved straight into black. Thus, green was short-lived on Cs. I doubt if any were still wearing it by the start of 1965. First ones repainted in 1963 were black’n’tan. Later ones were all black. No locomotives of any class were green in 1969, or probably any time after maybe late 64. As for loco numbers, any number could turn up anywhere. No diesels tended to be always in the one place - they were all rotated. The C class were common in West Cork for its last few years until it closed in 1961. Even though this was only a 3 or 4 year period, Ray Good recorded every member of the class in West Cork at one time or another. By contrast, they were never all that common on former MGWR lines, and when they did venture that way it was almost always goods. I don’t think they ever regularly worked passenger services anywhere in that area bar the Loughrea branch. They shunted in Galway and Limerick for sure. Cs were not to be seen on the North Kerry much either. I am again unaware of any regular use of them on that line at all, though I wouldn’t rule out visits to Foynes. They simply weren’t strong enough for the vicious gradients in North Kerry, combined with the still-heavy goods loadings. From the mid-1950s, North Kerry (and many Midland services) were monopolised by AEC railcars, so you wouldn’t have got a C on a passenger train there. If you prefer a green C, the period to model is 1957-63; the good thing here being that within the same period you’ve the crossover from steam too! Which brings me to your last question about tank engines. In diesel days, most classes went to most places most of the time (B101, C, D, E & G classes excepted), but steam was different. For example, even in CIE days, J15s never on the Midland, J18/J19s never down south; and neither on the ex-GNR. So, to answer your question about which tank engines to look at, the first question is within what area? Ireland had comparatively fewer tank engines than Britain, but if you’re looking at the MGWR area, the J26 0.6.0T. In North Kerry, not really tank engine country. Hope this is of help.

No, but I was after a night in Coppers last night.........

Superb!

When I saw "Burnhouse", I'm looking for an old UG or SG3 shoving a couple of goods vans about, with "U T" stencilled on their faded paint!

Not at all within my range of interests, but this is a superb resource for modellers and livery fanatics (like me!)

Absolutely perfect in this setting!

Superb

180 years of the Dublin & Drogheda Railway

A couple of people cancelling or threats to do so might liven them up?

Well, he WAS a thatcherite conservative, so that’s part of the package!

They were a massive improvement for the travelling public. The trains they replaced, while far more interesting to enthusiasts, were falling to pieces.

What if the driver's an atheist.......

The "half-cabs" were only being built as the GNR becaqme CIE / UTA, so any such workings fully under a GNR banner would have been at the very eleventh hour, and thus extremely short-lived. The last of them were only completed after the GNR was broken up, albeit they were turned out of Dundalk in full GNR livery, only shortly to be either repainted CIE green, or else have a UTA crest put on themk instead of the GNR one. I did have an idea I had seen mixed formations myself in the 1960s on the UTA, but I was not certain. This confirms it. The late Steve certainly knew his onions when it came to UTA railcars - perobably the greatest expert on them I've yet encountered. We had been speaking to each other about doing a book on UTA goods stock, but sadly we never got around to it. May he RIP.

This is just amazing. One of the most realistic I've ever seen. As others say, the colour and lighting and street scene detail are just on another level. Well done.

Four in one sentance! Good going!

I see they've taken to stabling Kingscourt / Taras locos there overnight..... I'm just imagining it. You're thrown out of the local Tamango's night club at 1 a.m. for throwing beer mats at the disco ball to try to impress that young wan over there from Duleek. You have to walk home, becasue your mate with the Austin 1100 with the bald tyres is still in there, and he disappeared with her friend. Chips at the caravan at the end of the road, and the sea air and chill, the seagulls in the distance, waves crashing on the shore, tonight's plans in tatters. But listen also - there's the ongoing throb of two A's up in the station, a dull background noise to the night air. Better luck next week; well, you've saved £3 or more by not having to buy more pints and a glass of Black Tower for the lady.... at over 45p a time, it's getting expensive these days.... Tell you what, let's take a quick run up to the station and see if anyone's about.... I did think I saw A3R on the Kingscourt gypsum yesterday morning...

I'm wondering about this too. I had at one time an idea that this might have happened, but I cannot find any evidence of it, or any info to confirm or deny it.

Indeed! C&L bogies and other bits incorporated into the bogie coach!

They were extremely short-lived. Once the green disappeared generally (i.e. the "black'n'tan" era commenced in late 1962), they were repainted grey. Estimates of how many were turned out in green vary from half a dozen upwards. One source suggests that some fifty were TO BE turned out in that colour - had the green livery persisted, it's possible this might have happened with the fitted ones. But most certainly nothing even close to that number were ever green, or they'd have been seen all over the place, and probably well into the late 60s. One contemporary source suggested that the initial plan was to paint just 3 or 4 in green specifically for the Cork - Tralee mails, though I have been unable to confirm this precisely. I believe that at the very least six were green, maybe more - but not for long.

100% - that's precisely what I (and others) experienced in over half a century of involvement in preservation finance and fundraising. the difference between the openness of mind and generosity of wallet of (again, specifically) the English - could not be more of a contrast to the attutude of the vast, vast majority here.

That's one busy fair special! Second carriage reserved for cattle dealers, no doubt....