jhb171achill

Careful what you say on this forum, lads. As I read these posts and reply, I am being very carefully watched by neighbouring Alfie (who is a female feline) from the roof of the shed outside the window. She misses nothing.

A quantity of moons ago, a stray cat was seen around Whitehead and was fed by then-volunteer Jim Bromfield, before he relocated to England in the late 90s. Overnight, the loco shed's significant rat problem was solved. Fast forward ten years, and a family of strays moved into the environs of Downpatrick loco shed. Ditto. These creatures have their uses. Just in case of need, I have lent a quantity of detailed railway history books to the cat who currently owns my eldest daughter.

Glenderg; that's a masterpiece!

They should write it in full in Arial size ten on the roof, and a normal number elsewhere...

If they have a REALLY good look round Limerick yard or Inchicore, maybe there's one still about.... (Hoping...)

Imagine..... 30.5554.443.76765543298665.228....! (How soon will it be before a railway vehicle is too short for its number.....)

Has it the new "tricolour" logo? Or the older squiggle?

The coach is GSWR origin, approx 1915-20.

It would indeed be obscure, Eiretrains - all wood ones were not a common species on most Irish railways! The CDRJC had a few though.

Just classic, Nelson, as always.

Correct, Horsetan. I would be a multi millionaire if I had just one red cent for every time I had heard an enthusiast in this country say, "why does the RPSI / ITG / DCDR / whatever not preserve X, it's just rotting away, scandalous." The answer every time is; you want it preserved, yes, good idea, you do it; don't sit there and talk. Worse, don't lecture already hard pressed voluntary bodies who you might not even be a member of, how do to what you want them to do. That said, many such expressions of interest are well meant, but it's not easy to just go out and "preserve" something! Interesting to see the comments by boat enthusiasts on the "Naomh Eanna". They seemed like a carbon copy of the railway equivalents above! As you say.....

Absolutely, Minister. Railways, boats, canals and old buildings.... when you look at what is routinely achieved in Britain, and far more importantly the public support it gets, we are very much in second place here.

Excellent! Brings back memories...!

The ones with the roofs chopped off were of MGWR, GSWR and DSER origin, and maybe then some. But many six wheelers outlasted them and were routinely in traffic especially on branch lines and in the Cork area well into the early 60s. The last rake was kept for Youghal excursions and was not withdrawn until early '64, having last been used in '63. An IRRS jaunt in early '64 had one on use - the very last - it was withdrawn about a week later.

You wouldn't be the first, Warbonnet! Thankfully where I'm moving to will be within walking distance of the Luas.....

Ghastly, utterly ghastly. A boycott of Dublin buses is on the cards....

Somewhat off topic... but an essential part of the railway scene up to as late as early 1964 was the traditional old MGWR six wheeler. Anyone have any thoughts of a kit of that? I should have an outline drawing somewhere -if anyone's interested, or indeed, if I can find it...

Superb work! Another one "off the beaten track" - great to see models like this.

Very interesting, Mayner - I had heard of beige colour for MGWR PW stuff, but the mid green is a new one to me. And I must have overlooked that, because I have a lot of Padraig's papers! If that pic dates from then, the van could be green, though the very light shade makes me doubt it. On balance, probably pale grey.

Note - that the G601 class were the only ones ever in silver or green - despite G614 above, or more to the point, G611 at Downpatrick, the later (G61x) ones went straight into traffic in black and tan, some later black.

Superb!

Just looking at your model again - the weathered look of the lettering really looks the part too... Congrats!

Wow! Excellent stuff Richie! Looks fantastic. Maybe grey on the ironwork, or weathering instead of black? Superb model. This is an area much neglected. Until 1960 or so when the standard CIE design became almost all-encompassing, there still remained some real relics, some one-offs like the curious 5J (I think?) on the Courtmacsherry branch, and various designs of old Midkand and GSWR types scattered about. A wooden GNR one ended up in West Cork in between the time CIE acquired part of the GNR (1958) and closure if that system in 1961. Hint for modellers on that one, incidentally; the black ironwork on the GNR example (superbly restored otherwise, and a great credit to those involved) at Whitehead is entirely wrong. Black wagon chassis and ironwork was rare in Ireland - not unknown, but only on certain wagons. GNR goods brake vans were not among them...

A few grains of turf carefully placed near the electric heater! :-)

Richie - just spent a bit of time searching the most obscure recesses of my records to establish what colour it might be. To no avail; grey it may be, then - as Georgeconna says, nobody will know! One detail I do notice - the lettering, almost certainly black, appears to be shaded in white. The Isle of Man Railway did this with rolling stock, though the other way round.... Ironwork appears to be the same light grey as the body (middle bars showing rust) as with the norm on Irish wagons. Like you, I belong to that small micro-minority fascinated by goods (and passenger) brake vans. I'll be interested to see how this one turns out! If you're modelling GSR or CIE period, it would of course be LMS-shade grey with G S or a snail (if any of them survived that long).