jhb171achill

There is indeed a missing match truck. To see what these looked like, the GNR one still at whitehead with the GNR crane, is very much typical of the species.

Ok once you get used to it.... Anything's better than the navy & lime green......

Yes, looks like a GSWR one. They had one in Inchicore, and dating from W & L days had one in Limerick. I stand to be corrected, but that's probably the Limerick GSWR one, it's W & L predecessor having been long gone (in 1920, maybe?).

A reopened Killala branch, eh? Brings to mind my one-time plan to do a layout based on Achill having reopened as a heritage line!

Comments by Blaine & Waffles are correct. The yellow ones were ex-BR. I think there were two, and they were intended to replace the old MGWR and GSWR ones. I think the one plinthed at Mallow is an ex-BR one but I could be wrong - it might be the GSWR one. As stated, the NCC one is on the DCDR and the GNR one is at Whitehead. The BR ones were quite different in detail from any if the Irish ones. For a start, they were much newer!

These days, it seems all trains have to run in daylight. On a line like Sligo, there's no reason why the trains couldn't be run at night, thus avoiding taking up daytime paths.

Aarrrrgh! I knew I forgot something. A photo of that layout should have been in "Rails Through the West"! Nobody would have noticed it was a model..... Cue some emails to me from the publisher, "got a letter from a man who says he is an IRM poster, he wants to know why there was an oil tank in there that day....."

Probably containers would be the easiest option. Garfield, I take it you go to mass with eco-friendly wafers, in a church lit by rainwater and heated by wind! ;-)

Superb model - is it scratchbuilt or converted from something? Either way, looks excellent. If converted, how did you do such a convincing job?

It's only now I'm discovering what biomass actually is!!

Absolutely no idea, josefstadt! I would think your theory is as good as any.... It's too short a number to be a wagon, too long to be a loco. Could it be something off maintenance equipment?

So Inchicore won't start churning out corrugated four wheelers! ;-)

Quite possibly in dining cars too.... Or UTA owned hotels? I think they still had the Midland Hotel adjacent to York Road and the Slieve Donard at that time.

I'm sure that if there is a business case for rail, our colleagues in the government and the railway will make sure that it is suitably avoided.....

Hard to tell. Obviously, it's a Dublin & South a Eastern Railway loco, possibly one of the 0.4.2 tender engines. There is no clue in the internal shot of the cab, but the front windows look the same - could well be the same loco, or at least the same class.

With weathering, even better; as close to perfection in any model as can be got. I'd love to see this layout in the flesh.

If NIR go down IE's route, it will be 234-33-8876-43-2221-44455.22-88/3.4002.

CBSCR Olive green?

It's not that different from 1955 green with 1945-55 green mid band!

It's too dark, and too little contrast.

A single livery for ALL their trains would look a lot better. Like black'n'tan, or the previous ALL-encompassing green. Strong corporate image..,,

Anything's better than the old livery - even all over freight grey! Does seem retro indeed. Grey 201s next..... Then grey wagons. Oh! Pockets.... It's started......

How to model a midge in 00 scale! Now there's a challenge for the very best here! As essential a part of the BnM scene as wheels on locomotives!

For the modeller, they were delivered in. Sort of light greyish duck-egg blue, with "U T" in black along the side, and the number. They became so grubby that this colour became 100% obscured by dirt, thus the correct "livery" when working is just a complete covering of muck and brake-dust weathering! I don't believe any were ever repainted.

I would agree, Minister. While an owner of an old vehicle can paint it any colour they like; a wrongly painted artefact can always be changed when suitable info becomes available, and quality info is not always available, and nor is everyone that interested in a colour; it pains me to see something wrongly painted because it becomes de facto "wisdom" that it actually did look as it does now, when in use. There are examples of things in all three of the 5ft 3 preservation locations which have been wrongly painted. In some cases (RPSI coaches) this is deliberate. The Dublin blue livery was specifical designed to differentiate the Society's Cravens from IE ones, or other IE stock. The Whitehead ones were meant to have a livery which was not unlike UTA, but not actual UTA. In both cases that works well. The former dining car No. 87 at Whitehead spent its entire life in UTA green until 1967, having been built several years post-NCC, but it looks well turned out in NCC maroon; the coach is of NCC design though a UTA coach. But restored goods stock is another thing entirely, with but a single example that I can think of (the Donegal open wagon in Cultra) being correct. Just about everything in Cultra which has been painted there, rather than outside, is not correct. Thus, in painting a very old carriage, the greatest effort should be made (in my opinion) to get it right. But in the case if this vehicle, and (for example) the Castlederg carriage in Cultra, it has to be recognised that exact information may not exist. While this discussion relates to a full size vehicle for restoration, it should equally be of interest to modellers.