jhb171achill

Many thanks enniscorthyman, that was one of my favourites too! I think of all of them, (and it's hard to pick a "best" out of barry's very high quality stuff!), my overall favourite is the goods trains crossing at Swinford and the trains crossing at Ballycar. All very workaday stuff, in the Indian Summer of the "Black'n'Tan" era. And here a story. As a mere nipper, I was taken by my dad to Kildare signal cabin. He knew the signal man and probably wanted a break from a family gathering in my grandmother's in Athy. While we were there, a train came rustling through, and the conversation went like this between Senior and the signalman... Snr: "Oh, is that one of the new engines?" (a grey 121) Signalman: "Yes" (Train whishes past - all coaches green bar the very last one in freshly painted orange and black) "Oh, and that's the new carriage colours" "Yeah... ye'd think we'd seen the last of the black'n'tans....." Good oul dry wit!

Looks good, ttc. I like the 2700 and locos sitting behind it like Drogheda and Limerick always were till just a couple of years ago... Was in Limerick station immediately pre-railcar. Stood at platform end watching a 141 shunting one BR van, then one Craven, and two trains sitting in the platforms, one would have been for Ballybrophy, the other Waterford or Rosslare, where it would reached about two days after leaving Limerick, weather permitting (thought that's another story!). I thought that would make a great basis for a layout too.......

I saw that layout a few years ago, alongside Belturbet at the Bangor show. Both are superb layouts, very realistic.

Thanks, Pat - much appreciated. Couldn't make the 171 for 171 today but the May Tour is heading down the line towards us.... as is another summer season at the Downs of Patrick. Anyone fancy doing a model of a DCDR O&K!! Talking of which, expect to see sister loco to no 3, O&K No.1, make its debut this summer fresh from Whitehead.

Best model I've seen yet of an 80 class.....

Ah Garfield ye have blown me cover! Thanks, folks, for your encouraging ansd complimentary comments. I hope you enjoy it and that it is of value to modellers. I suppose I should declare my hand; I was a modeller once and never lost interest. I am astounded by the quality of the models and layouts shown on this forum, which is why I keep coming back. At some stage in the future, if time permits, I would be back at it again. I had a layout loosely based on a CDRJC - sized system under CIE ownership in an imaginary part of the west, with a terminus in somewhere like Westport. It ran for some years in my attic until an issue with an overheated central heating system put paid to it. I never took any photos... It would never have aspired to the standards shown here so often, nowadays. And, of course, there was nothing ready to run... To the book; we did a London launch at the IRRS London area meeting the other night and it all went well. Barry and I have a follow up project planned, though neither of us have time to pursue it probably till next year. That goods train shown several times in the book, and which is on the cover, was the last train over the Burma Road, way back in '75. As Barry was taking these photos, I was busy gricing Loughrea with only two days to go until it closed. Thanks, indeed, to a colleague who has just sent me a load of unssen photos of G's all over Loughrea station and branch... there's a project for ANOTHER day!

As always, questions welcome - I have access to all sorts of details which my be of help...............

Bear in mind, folks, there were several variations of NIR livery; initial much lighter blue and current shade; two different sizes of yellow panel, also a day-glo orange rectangle, and two different sizes and styles of NIR logo on the sides! And south of the border there was also the original livery as they were all painted in USA before delivery with a non-standard darker than normal "orange", and logos on each end which (a) were slightly larger than normal, and (b) had gthe white "CIE" lettering surrounded by a white broken wheel instead of the standard tan one. Hope that's of help to someone, rather than a source of confusion!