jhb171achill

And up to about 1970 even an occasional wooden bogie coach - almost inevitably of GSWR origin...

That's one of those tales like we see here and there - like the time I went to Loughrea seeking "G" class haulage, and it was "only" a "C" class!!!

Wowwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Excellent! Brings back recent memories of a week on board....

It kept me off the streets, Burnthebox!!!! ;-) Well.... for a while..... !!!

Those LMS coaches would actually pass muster even better as Bredins... a good few of which were still in traffic in the 70s. Last one I travelled in was as late as 1976 or 1977.

It was simple enough, Burnthebox. I bought some Hornby BR parcel vans which with corrugated ends looked very similar to the 1954 batch of vans built by the GNR for bagged cement traffic. After 1958 these spread throughout the CIE system and were to be seen among "H" vans, old wooden GSR vans and Pal-vans in every loose coupled goods until the mid 70s. I simply repainted them head to toe in a plain Humbrol grey, or in some cases brown which was same as current CIE, and added crude weathering (thickish poster paint rubbed into cracks with fingers!). My own layout was dismantled and given away when I acquired my first house in 1982! It had been based on Loughrea and had a cardboard G, and a "Q Kits" A and C - along with an LMS 2.6.4T masquerading as a "Jeep" and two BR class 31's, simply because I liked them! Carriages were BR Mk. 1's, repainted in black'n'tan....

I remember seeing Castle Rackrent in a Railway Modeller article. Even by today's exceptionally high standards, that layout was - is - the very best possible, accurate in every detail. Castle Rackrent must serve as the epitome of what a modeller can achieve. It was a good half century ahead of its time in this regard. Anyone know if it is still operational, in any form?

I had planned to go - couldn't in the end - pity!

Burnthebox, my own models were unfortunately handed onto another enthusiast maybe 25 years ago - but I'm assuming you mean photos of the real thing rather than my crude attempts. The archive of Ernie Brack on Flickr shows this type of thing to perfection. Ernie took some great photos of wagons back then. Various Colourpoint books show livery details too - albeit usually (obviously, prototypically) very heavily weathered! Basically, Irish railways almost always* painted wagon chassis the same as body colour, buffers etc. included; whereas British Rail and Hornby painted them black! CIE almost always painted wagon roofs the same as body colour too, though these weathered quicker.... * One exception was NCC "Brown Vans" which under NCC, UTA and also NIR ownership always had black chassis.... Other NCC wagons, along with GNR, GSR and CIE examples, had body colour chassis on all standard types.

Nice job indeed!

Flickr is unfortunately a very unwieldy thing to navigate around.......

Any passing Moguls or Jeeps......?

I know a former neighbour who has a GNR "U" class chimney as a flower pot.....

Noel, if you were hanging onto these as they are - go for it - but if you wanted to operate them on a layout and wanted greater realism as I found myself years ago, the usual repainting of chassis and roof in brown (as it should be) does wonders. "Black chassis disease" for Irish goods stock is a Hornby-inspired inaccuracy which bedevils many a good layout.... (AND many a good preservation project; witness DCDR's plough van and CIE "H" van, RPSI's "Ivan" and the gunpowder van in Cultra - for starters....!)

Ah..... I was never in one of the "comfortable" ones, me being in GNR (God's) Territory an' all.......

I'd see it as the dreaded navy and lime green things seen about Connolly - prob a half hourly service. It would be extremely interesting though, and I often thought of a model of it too. Albert Quay would be another interesting one for modern times - prob lots of 2-car 26's and little else! Maybe a stray 141 still.....

That actually amplifies my point, Mayner - the "Railway Modeller" was in fact your point of reference for those same formative years - same as me. My layout had BR class 31s, Hymeks, stuff I had never even seen. Apart, of course, from the pages of the eagerly awaited annual Hornby catalogue! Later, crude attempts at CIE were to follow. Today's youthful modellers have RTR or kit-form CIE stuff, a luxury you or I could only dream of.

The one NCC 4.4.0 that was used as an experiment on GVS to Cavan was by that time in UTA black! So it's probable that apart from the odd foray of an NCC loco to Aldergrove (from Antrim; this did happen, esp. during ww2), little or no maroon ever went GNR side. As others have said, though, you're the boss on your layout! You could have 85 "Merlin" on loan to the NCC and repainted maroon...... (jhb171 runs and dives for cover before someone issues a fatwa.....!!!!!!!!)

The only info I can throw in, Liverbird, and I know it's probably not your question, is that the current NIR loco blue, as on 111-3, and "red bull" blue, are not the same. The red bull livery will not be as easy to replicate as others, as it's slightly metallic in hue (as ICR silver). Metallic colours have yet to look all that convincing on models! Maybe weathering will assist realism in the short term....

Extremely realistic weathering. The standard and quality of modelling on this website continues to amaze.

I VERY much look forward to seeing this layout develop. The loco weathering looks ideal too.

How did you re-gauge the 071? Would such a thing be suitable for a steam loco kit?

Looks very good.....!

While at it... imagination suggests a few interesting scenarios for layouts in the last half century.... 1. Newcastle West type location, still with passenger in the BnT era. Stacks of loose coupled H vans and beet trucks.... 2. Imaginary Portadown if still a junction in 1975, and a few Jeeps left coming off they Derry Road. 70s, new 80s, ex-NCC & GNR stock, Enterprise with Hunslets, laminates from Monaghan... 3. Claremorris type location in 1958 - MGW or GSW steam, A, B101, C, E, G classes; AECs, a visiting SLNCR railcar "B" ... Ah well.

Nelson, you're one of a select few. Psychologists have shown us - I read about this years ago - that we are drawn out of a sense of security to an era in our young childhood. You will therefore often find that modellers (how many of us here?) concentrate on a period around their childhood / teenage years, especially when older and they realise that the current world is no longer so familiar and unchanging as they imagined as children. A few model past times they would never have known. These are usually people with a very deep interest in, and understanding of, the era of their parents or grandparents. I remember seeing an article maybe 40 years ago in the Railway Modeller about a superb scratch built model of Brunel's broad gauge line - it looked extremely accurate and the modeller had gone to great lengths to ensure absolute accuracy. But such things are an exception. Personally, given huge amounts of extra spare time, and possibly better eyesight nowadays, I'd like a layout based on a country terminus or junction in GSR (MGWR) territory about 1930. But I'll never have the time; being retired results in me being far, far too busy.......