jhb171achill

Dingle, I'll be in the IRRS tonight and willmake enquiries on your behalf. As Garfield says, it can take a while as they are voluntarily run, but I know the relevant people who would deal with such things. If I've time I'll poke about in the archives and see what i find - but that will probably be over the next few weeks.

Got meself two black'n'tans..........! Thanks, Leslie, for the tipoff! And I've a "Maedb" on the way from Des. Happy Christmas / Easter / birthday to me! :-)

That thing was green, though... (I'm chasing up a colour pic of it right now!)

Here's a bit of a theory. Since that plan has the 3-pin-plug logo on it, could it be a potential experimental design for when they first brought in the freight livery; one which they discarded in favour of the black and silver at the time? You'd think that if it was a new one, it would have the new tricolour logo on it.

Wow!!!! Absolutely fantastic. The silver CIE coach in the first scene is something not often seen on layouts, and I love the clerestorey roofed old GSWR coach in green.

Oh wait, that's been done...........

Cow says to cow: "Dem oul horses, comin' here an' takin' all our jobs"

Three pin plug logo rather than that new thing?

Didn't know about that one.... a six day closure... back in the day it would probably have been 6 hours! Let's see - an hour to fix the problem, 23 hours for an evaluation of it, and five days health and safety stuff? (Or have I little to do today!!) :-) :-)

Or an old J15.... oh, wait..... !!!!

In answer... Those brake vans were indeed all bauxite in later years but up to about 1970 (from my own memory) they were grey, with the black / yellow stripes on the ducket. Earlier, they were grey all over. That layout is one of my all time favourites!!!!! For a next book, I'd be hard put to pick between a still shot off that layout, or an actual photo of Lixnaw or Cappoquin in the sixties!!!!

VERY nice, very original!

Mad!!!!! Imagine an 071 scaling the Dublin Spire.... photoshop, anyone?

I'm afraid, Heirflick, there are no pics! He took very few pictures of anything - which is a pity. However at 95 he retains an extremely accurate and on some subjects almost encyclopaedic memory and knowledge of things*. He recalls one story of being taken with his friend on a Saturday to Inchicore where they were able to climb up a ladder onto the frames before the boiler was put into "Maedb", and of seeing her in works grey before painting. If ONLY there were pics of that!!!!! I have a number of negatives of things he did take pics of, but strangely none of the 800s were among them... (* So, if there's anything that anyone wants me to ask...........!)

Ah! OK - could have varied. I knew on one side there were both which probably prompted me to assume the other side were both blue! Or maybe they varied.

Made a few enquiries this morning from one who was on trial trips with 800 and footplated it a number of times Dublin - Cork and back. To his knowledge it almost hit 100mph, but not quite on trips he was on. He says it could have on other trips, but he thinks that had it happened he would have heard of it. Just wanted to clear that up!

Totally correct. Minister. If the line never left CIE ownership, nobody but CIE have any claim to it.

What was the one in those pics above showing a modern IE railcar at the bottom of an embankment?

I think only one window frame was in IE colours - maybe two; not all four.

As delivered, as Eiretrains points out, the CIE logo on the ends was not as normal (i.e. white lettering, orange surround). It was white, though, rather than cream but discoloured like anything white, I suppose. But - in that "as delivered" form, they were not the normal orange. They were a distinctly browner shade, nit the same as anything else on the railway. Thus, in order to be accurate an orange loco would have to have the normal orange surrounded logo, not an all white one.

Heirflick, the 071 run was in 1977 or 1978; almost certainly jointed, though I can't remember - but holding onto the seat was indeeda good idea! Mind you, a cab ride in a 141 at speed would have skaken the teeth out of your head. At the same time as the above I had cab rides in "A"s, "121"s, "141"s, and twice in an o71, and once in a C on a ballast from Clonsilla to North Wall. The 121s and 141s were much more lively than anything else and as you'd expect an A was relatively smooth. The C just bumbled along at slow speed as it had ballast trucks behind and in any case seemed to get stopped at every signal. I think one of the most bouncy runs I ever had has to be a tie between a pair of 121s on the 6pm up Sligo mail - he was tearing along and the track on the Sligo line at that stage was both jointed and of varying quality; that, and a run on a Cork-Cobh train in the hands of 150. THAT was lively. It seemed like the jointed track there was made of two-metre-long lengths! The 201 run I had was betweden Dublin and Dundalk about 1999 / 2000. Probably welded, but again, not sure?

When "Maedb" was on trial, I seem to remember hearing it did briefly hit the "ton" - I will be able to check this for certain this evening or tomorrow when talking to someone who was on it!

The thing in this pic hasn't been weathered yet.........

Excellent stuff... I think the "digging" that has started might be moles....

We could do one on the Festiniog and the Bluebell Railway and call it "Great landmass-between-Ireland-and-mainland-Europe Railway Journeys". Maybe we'd have to include the West Somerset for that!