jhb171achill

Looks like four train sets needed for that. Three DDs plus an ICR, presumably. Tempting, therefore, to assume that the railcar will do the 05:50 ex Dublin, and corresponding trips throughout the day, e.g. the 09:00 to Dublin, 11:50 north, and so on........

There have already been road vehicles in garda markings, and buses in UTA & CDR liveries, and a double decker probably suitable for 0 scale, in CIE green. Lorries in CIE green and 1960s black cabs. Perhaps some of the following: 1. Postal vans - to be seen on platforms loading mail off trains - older dark green "P & T" livery, or Royal Mail red for the north 2. Buses from various eras in CIE, UTA & Ulsterbus liveries. 3. Lorries with CIE (various eras), UTA & Northern Ireland Carriers liveries. The latter suitable sitting alongside a RTR Jeep, whenever that comes out! 4. ESB vehicles.

Probably sussing out different distributors. All delivery services are getting expensive now so it pays to shop around. I'm sending a small parcel tomorrow to Switzerland and it will cost €13.

It says "signed by..... W H Mills". But he wasn't involved, as I understand it, until the formation of the GNR in 1876. That's 20 years later than the thing is described as dating from. Something doesn't add up there, but I suspect it's an incorrect description rather than an indication that the drawings are fake. It is also possible that Mills signed a copy of it at a later stage, but that the drawings are indeed dating back to 1856.

Excellent book. Glad I got one at the time.

Indeed. Probably its best hope after indirect vandalisation through neglect by Tralee / Kerry Council, or whatever half-wits were in charge of it, is static display somewhere. Tralee certainly doesn't deserve it. If it was up to me, I'd put it on display on Easter Island or in North Korea before I'd let them have it.

The bottom one, dated 1917, is an Inchicore product all right - see "G S & W R" on it. However, the majority on that line were likely to be ex-GNR - thus cast in Dundalk Works. I think the top picture is a GNR one.

Spot on!!!!!!

So easy to model!

Correct on all counts!!

At the very end, the only points were at the waterford end, and there were (I think) just two! Tramore was a dead end. Waterford had the platform road and two sidings, one into the shed. Not even a run-round loop. the entire rolling stock was just three AEC railcars and two coaches, one fitted as a driving trailer. Had it survived, it's a reasonable assumption that today it would have but one set of points (at Waterford) and a pair of 2-car 26 class railcars!

Indeed. Dromod is the only hope - for the loco - scrap for the rest.

You mean a Manorhamilton branch line, or a Donegal extension? If the former, a J26 or G2 2.4.0 or a J18 0.6.0. If the latter, a J18, G2 or a "Woolwich" possibly.

A MGWR terminus in Donegal across the road from the CDRJC one!

It is difficult to see how the current station could ever have been made into a through station. I feel what would have been far more likely, had the line been extended northwards, would have been a completely new passenger station somewhere in the vicinity of Harbour Road; as others suggest, at a somewhat higher level. Had such a line been built, it is probable that trains today would have Bundoran as a terminus, or possibly even Donegal! Now, THAT would be useful. But would the SLNCR have been built? (Galteemore, please turn over the page now...) Probably not. But a MGWR branch to Manorhamilton? Now THERE's an idea!

A pretty unique terminus with virtually no facilities for goods. Some old photos show the likes of a single goods van shunted onto one of the two very short lines to the right of the turntable.

It ended up as a dead end track - the line just ended! No points, no nothing; probably the easiest fodder for a mini-layout ever!

This one is a rare beast indeed! It’s ex Dublin, Wicklow & Wexford Railway, cast in the 1890s. Most companies had their own designs - some (e.g. the NCC ones with their curved ends) of an extremely unusual pattern.

Another sad loss to the hobby. R I P

It's actually a good idea. My layout (when complete) goes round three walls of a large attic room. A train running end to end can only ever be viewed from one side. One end is a fiddle yard. So, if it is turned round there, as you say, a different train, or the same train in a different era, appears to return.

If the one you have is made by Silverfox, the green livery is 100% completely wrong, so ripe for respraying! In CIE green livery, it needs to be a lighter green, and a black roof. These railcars were introduced in the early 1950s, and would have been green from the start, but after late 1962 they started repaiting them black'n'tan. So, up to then, all green - but during the mid 1960s you'd have got a train with some as-yet unrepainted carriages still in green, but others newly painted in black'n'tan, so your plan is of course appropriate. Painting things one livery on one side and another on the other is a trick used by more than a few; I've considered it for some stuff I have too. It will only work, of course, if the ends and roof of the item concerned is the same in both liveries; in this case you are lucky! In both green and B'n'T liveries, CIE railcars had black roofs and ends. If you're respraying correct CIE green livery, it's a darker green up to mid 50s, lighter later. In both cases, pale green (rather than white) waistline and "flying snail" logo. (The green that S'Fox uses is more like british Southern Region green or UTA green!).

That was certainly considered, but never put into effect.

This, indeed, is the main issue. It will only ever work if it's in the hands of a skilled and populous voluntary group. Nobody in Tralee has the slightest interest in it, least of all the local authority - very much in common with most local authorities across Ireland north and south. If it's something to do with the GAA (or 12th July in the north!), the latest American president's family roots or farming, they're all over it, but forget about transport / industrial heritage. Best option is to salvage the rail for Dromod, and the locomotive, and scrap the rest.

Those couplers are industrial, e.g. Bord na Mona. The CDR, like most narrow gauge likes here, had Norwegian-style "chopper" couplings, rather than those. (The one exception was the Muskerry system, with its "hook and eye" types).

That's another seasick bag filled.............