jhb171achill

I don't think it's Lough Swilly engine, though that's an interesting theory (reaches for LLSR books!). Industrial certainly, given small coal capacity. Looks 4ft 81/2 to me, appears to have "dumb buffers" thus proving industrial ancestry. Could be anything in GB; the more I look at it the more I would think isn't Irish.

That is a lovely little street of houses! The line of CIE vans also looks the part, though applying grey to the chassis (never black on CIE) would make them very like some of the later GNR vans that CIE inherited in 1958. Many were still in use into the 70s. Excellent stuff...!

As a friend of mine from rural Fermanagh would say, Garfield, "that's savage!"

cg - a few answers, hopefully. The follow up to "Rails Through the West" will be another odyssey through 1960s to 1990s Black and Tan country, with a well known but comparatively obscure cross country route featuring. Expect some green as well as b'n't. With regard to your Ratio coaches, I think I know the ones you mean, ad they do indeed pass a reasonable resemblance to some GSWR types. The GSWR had only a few clerestory roofed coaches, and fewer still would still have been in traffic in the fifties, do you might consider flat roof replacements if the ones you buy are clerestory. If it is the bow-ended model, this means WLWR origin, as this is the only Irish railway company to have curved lower ends on carriages (as opposed to sides, of course!). As for livery. If it is set pre 1955, you could have an occasional GSR liveried coach. The few pics I have seen of such things show the maroon faded to a pinky reddish brown (covered in soot and brake dust, no doubt) by this stage. Most, though would be painted the new (1945) CIE green, with full light green lining above and below windows, this plus snails and numerals edged in gold. The light green cane later, so if you are post 1955 or so, only older wooden carriages are still this dark shade. On the West Cork system, a few old CBSCR coaches acquired plain dark green with no lining, and two snails instead of one. At least one appeared to have its snails in white instead of light green. Post 1955, any wooden carriages being reprinted acquired the livery currently on the RPSI's Dublin heritage set, or DCDRs TPO. That us, a lighter green with a thinner and even lighter green unlined waistline, and unlined numerals and snail. A few were turned out without snails. Chassis were black. Ends were black - never green of either shade. Roofs were dark grey. Pullmans remained dark green to the end. It would have been interesting to see what one would have looked like in black n tan!

Can we be certain it's Irish / 5ft 3? I see markings on the tank side.... not easy to make out though.

Many thanks! Follow up should be out by this Christmas....

I believe the upholstery was a dull bluish colour. It certainly was in CIE days but that could have been them putting standard Dublin bus style seats in it. I'm nearly sure I picked up so we here that CIE modified the seating at one stage. The passenger compartment was done in a light colour, probably cream, maybe white. I doubt if it was the light green that the outer upper panels were. It's possible that below window level the interior was a darker colour but I doubt it. The Finn Valley restoration of CDR Railcar 18 is not at all accurate in every detail, so I would not take that as an example. The type of flooring used in things like Donegal railcars was generally brown, and given that "B" was a Walker product, I would think it likely that this was the same. Driving controls would not have been unlike any of the extant CDR railcars. It was often the custom to paint driving cab interiors in a dark colour on both early railcars and also buses. UTA buses had the same exterior dark green, or the lighter green used as a waistband, inside cabs. Belfast buses sometimes had brown. If you have any info suggestion the interior of the SLNCR's railcar(s) was / were brown,mid go with that, although the ones converted from old buses might have been the exterior dark olive green inside drivers cabs.

It did indeed. I think the first time I saw it on a loco was in Westland Row (Pearse) on a newly painted loco. Memory suggests it was a 121, but they were grey at the time I'm talking about, so it was probably an "A". I am nearly sure it was a Rosslare train rather than a local. "A" class locos got full Black and Tan initially, but were later painted all black, similar to A39 at Downpatrick, but with CIE roundel where the number on the side if it now is.

It is, UP. Suits them perfectly, and back when you'd see a yard full of them it looked even better. It was a corporate livery way ahead of its time. I remember the first time I saw it. I was in Kildare (I think) signal cabin with Senior, who was talking to the signalman. I think it must have been about 1963. A train went through with all green coaches except the very last one. Senior: "Is that the new carriage livery?" Signalman: "Yeah.... Ye'd think we'd had enough of the oul black n tans by now...."

It's as good as, UP. Both 141 and 142 look right according to my memory, and photos. If anything it's extremely marginally bright, but this colour did actually deaden down a bit when in traffic. I would have thought that when the brighter orange started appearing on Mk 3s, it looked even brighter when new. If you are modelling a 141 in black n tan, it's close enough. The bought models need weathering - but anything new looking needs weathering to look totally realistic.

Again, richrua, if you come yo the DCDR arrangements can be made for you to take your own!

David, if you ever want to get up close to photo or measure one at Downpatrick, send me a PM.

I heard something similar - IE were also asked about repainting one of the last 141s in traffic into black n tan. They simply said there was no budget to do it. Having said that, they repainted two for the RPSI eventually, but that's another story!

Here's a few: RPSI's 171 and 4 in lined CIE green. 461, 186 & 171 in lined NCC maroon. An IE Mk 4 and a DART in Translink "red bull" livery....

WOW! Looks excellent! (The ICR that is!) For many years nobody believed me when I said I saw an old half cab double decker at Heuston Station about 1978 in the desert sand livery. Apparently it was the only one thus painted and when the depot foreman (presumably Conyngham Road) saw it he ordered that it go back to navy and cream. But a few years ago a real photo of it turned up..... It was only that way 2 weeks. So, I would say to anyone adept with Photoshop, is it true that a 201, a Mk 4 set, a 2800, a DD set and an NIR CAF were seen in CIE lined snailed green for a number of minutes on April 1st? A packet of rich teas awaits the first photoshopper....

My point exactly, Mr Wanderer!

David, I know of some resources. I suspect a large amount of material was discarded during the great "pogrom" of old papers in Inchicore in the early sixties, when literally lorry loads of old papers and plans were burned. There is some material here and there, which in an ideal world all ought to be collated and properly sorted and listed. But the amount of gaps would, I strongly suspect, make any resulting book look horribly incomplete.

Imagine an ICR in orange and black.... I think it would actually look well.... Congrats on this project you are doing - always very refreshing to see an unusual prototype!

It was indeed DCDRs E421, the original of the class, that ended like that... It was a trial run in 1962 and the scene was recorded by the late Jimmy O'Dea. This image is one of his excellent collection which is held and available to all to view by appointment at the National a Photographic Archive, Temple Bar, Dublin. All Jimmy's work was in black and white.

Scots Mac, if your green is a bit dark I wouldn't worry too much, as locos painted green could either fade badly, or get a lot darker with wear, depending on the amount of cleaning done, and the quality of the paint. I have seen more than one pic of CIE green locos looking very dirty in very late steam days when everything was being run down. At least one Woolwich as well as 402 ended up like this.

Here are a few... A hard topped Guinness van of MGWR origin photographed at Achill about 1895: No. 1868 or 1888, can't make it out. At Achill in the mid 1930s: A van with corrugated roof still bearing DSER lettering - 523. Soft top GSWR low roofed wagon - 291. Higher hard roofed short wheelbase GSWR van - 1577.

Yes, the RPSI is 50 this year. Members will have received details of a number of celebratory events including a high profile dinner in May.

I'll see what I can do, Rialto. The loco is absolutely filthy in the pic, though. We already know that the green would be identical to what's on Maedb at Cultra, though. The number was, of course, painted on all green locos bar the 800 class.

I love that MED van...superb. Just superb!

Kirkby, what a set of pictures! Stunning stuff, absolutely stunning!