jhb171achill

Doritos and fiery hot salsa, bottle of red; or just loads of Guinness and a kebab from Ismael's on the way home. You wouldn't eat one in daylight. Or an Atomic burger from Eddie rocket's.

I can't see why railway operators are so paranoid about the public seeing the aftermath of an accident. Are we so sanitised now that it will shock us more than years ago? I attended the scene of one accident many years ago and wandered about among police, railway staff and general rubber-neckers, on and off the track, without a day glo jacket, PTS or steel capped boots. That, of course, is a different issue - the H & S stuff. If a 201 ends up at 45 degrees, big deal. Put it upright. If people want to look, let 'em look. Why not? The press frequently publish, with at times questionable accuracy, accounts of all manner of other things which really are none of their business, and which do not serve this great mythical thing, the "public interest", one bit! I have pics myself of the 1963 Lisburn smash...

I wonder why they call it great BRITISH railway journeys?? Maybe Portillo wants to reverse 1921 in time for 2021! :-)

I've been in an 071 cab at 87, and a 201 cab at 107.... which as far as I'm concerned is by far the fastest....

I just cannot get over how sophisticated Irish railway modelling has become, both the external appearance, accuracy and detail of models, and the techy stuff inside them. Well done to all concerned with bringing us forward from repainted BR Mk 2s and a BR "08" repainted as a "D" class! Or in my case very crude cardboard models made 40 years ago to fit over Hornby chassis....

A return to GSR / CIE all over grey!!

I suppose a half-baked livery option would fit well with that new logo!

Sounds almost like the livery applied to the "A" and "C" class in the sixties for a while - black all over with yellow patch on the front! (and white flash above cab). Will they prefix the "071", "080", "077" numbers with a letter again!!! (Which one? H?)

Mayner's post got me thinking. Kingsbridge, circa 1930 might well have almost every loco in grey, as few non-GSW ones had appeared there yet, and the GSW had been painting them grey since about 1915 - but carriages!! - GSWR crimson lake - GSR crimson lake - GSR chocolate and cream - occasional visitors in form of MGWR both deep maroon (1918-21) or brown - possibly occasional visiting DSER lined maroon/// Wagons - GSWR v. dark grey (blackish) or GSR grey (like LMS grey)... The again, the West Cork might have GSR crimson lake and/or brown and cream on visiting stock, or CBSCR green... locos grey or a Bandon tank in olive green!!

Indeed, Mayner - can anyone top that for a list of liveries side by side!!!

Excellent memories. I remember once seeing seven locos in Adelaide. 133 and 135 had brought the cement in, a pair of 141s was on the other goods, a single one had taken over shunting due to one of Hunslet 102's long absences, and another pair of 141s was sitting to one side, I think having failed... memories! Naturally, I didn't have a camera as I was on my way to work...

That's correct, eiretrains. And even then it was a very rare occurrence. Almost always pairs of 121/141/181.

Quote from Fletcher's intellectually-challenged cellmate in "Porridge"; "I read a book once!" (Astonished look from Fletcher and yer man Beckinsale) ...."...Green, it was".....

BCDR coach looks the part too - lining makes all the difference!

Yes, indeed, the CBSCR had shortish bogie coaches which looked much like that, and they kept at least 5 or 6 in Albert Quay for those excursions as the curves were too tight for many another type of coach, including - I think - all 6 wheelers. To make those, all you'd need to do is change the bowed WLWR style ends, as the coaches on the CBSCR were of GSW and CBSCR origin. To be ultra perfect, the darker green would be appropriate; I don't believe those old stock were ever the light green, as the railcars had arrived and they were just in reserve. One or two of them had a localised Albert Qua livery of dark green, but no light bands above and below windows, in fact no lining at all; but two "snails" despite short lenths, and the "class" numeral on each door. Those Triang coaches actually have many uses but as seen above very much look the pafrt with or without conversion into something specific. (Black ends though!) :-)

"...White Roof, steam era.....what brain burning laudanum from the Hindu Kush were those Victorian era engineers on???..." I think, Weshty, they were in Xanadu drinking pints of Kubhla Khan!

Beautiful job!! Yes, carriages like that did run here. There are several possibilities. The only carriages ever to run in Ireland with bowed in ends were of WLWR origin. The lighter unlined green you have and snails indicate a late '50's repaint, so your coaches are probably kicking about Dublin to be brought out on Naas race days, or set to work on the Portarlington-Athlone train, or maybe based in Cork for local traffic. With a clerestorey roof, though, you're looking at a handful of GSWR origin vehicles. The WLWR only had six bogie vehicles! That narrows down the nearest possibilities to 48ft brake composites 102/3, which the GSWR / GSR / CIE renumbered 937/8, both built in 1898 and surviving until 1955. For light green, you're just in there! But they didn't have clerestorey roofs... which if you were really keen, could easily be remedied. One of those would be your brake. The full-3rd or full compo you also have would be closest resembled by WLWR 95/6, built in 1896. These ended up as GSWR / GSR / CIE 986 and 987, scrapped in 1960 and 1959 respectively. Again, standard WLWR bowed ends, but no clerestories. If you prefer the clerestories and ignore the bowed ends, the GSWR built eight coaches, drawings for which haven't survived, but that according to specs in the GSWR carriage book would be like thefull-seating one. These were numbered 507 (1885), 487-90 (1888) and 465/6, and 502 in 1901. The above would be the closest to what you have, but they do "look right" irrespective of whether you want to be that strict... and an excellent paint job too. As I say, if you really wanted to pass them off as an actual vehicle, I'd go for replacing the roofs with normal ones, and numbering them in the WLWR series. Hope this helps!

And I should have added, first, that your model looks amazing!

I should have added, Dingle, that for purposes of historical research of this nature, the UFTM would not really be the major point of call - the IRRS in Dublin would have access to a much greater amount of available archival material and is well worth joining for the purposes of research alone, let alone the talks and outings they have. (No, I'm not on commission!!). Much livery details can be gleaned from various books as well, and from memories of those elderly enough to have seen the item concerned, and (more importantly) have a very good recall about colours and details.

Dingle, I checked my own records. CVR coaches were all the same, as were C & L ones, in terms of overall dimensions and other details. Those of each line were ordered at the same time, from the same firm (Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Wagon Co., Birmingham), and were even delivered painted the same colour - a reddish-brown, which apart dfrom obvious differences in lettering etc., therefore bore the same livery. Another uncanny similarity is that a proposal was made by the directors of each company in the early years of the 20th Century to acquire further coaching stock to cope with heavy traffic, but in each case other directors voted the proposal down on grounds of finance! C & L coaches were 40ft long and had 14 windows, while CVR ones had indeed two lengths. First class coaches were 24ft long, and thirds were 29ft 6ins. In all cases, the length refers to the chassis, the body obviously being shorter in all cases by the width of the balconies, i.e. bodies themselves were 5ft 6ins shorter. The circular seats you see were not loose chairs, but fixed swivel chairs, but they proved unsatisfactory on at least the C & L line and were later replaced with fixed seats. They were covered in black leather. The CVR used a crest in the earlier days, but possibly not right at the outset. This was certainly in use after 1903, but later a gold leaf "CVR" monogram was used, and later still the initials "C V R". The C & L didn not have a crest, but used well spaced out lettering, but after 1925 this was replaced by GSR maroon, unlines, but with full crest and standard pattern shaded numerals, as on other C & L stock, broad and narrow gauge. The GSR painted the carriage roofs light grey. I believe the CVR used a mid grey. On both lines the carriage chassis were black as one would expect. Hope this helps.

Certainly the longer one is what the C & L had; but I would be reasonably confident in saying the CVR had just the one length of coach. I am not familiar with the right hand design at all but it could well be OK. I wonder is the left hand one actually the C & L one, and the right hand one the CVR type?

I knew of a driver who witnessed a teenager taking a short cut in front of his train, which hit them and killed them. He had a similar aged younger sister himself, and as a result of the shock he handed in his resignation and left the railway straight away.

They didn't have a Director's Saloon, Dingle - what you're looking at is a first class coach. Apert from being slightly shorter, CVR carriages were virtually identical inside and out to those on the Cavan & Leitrim. There's one in Cultra Museum.

If they are putting that thing on rolling stock, maybe they could apply it to the underneath of the floor covering only? Or the back of one of the wheels?

I just can't believe that's a MODEL!!!! Excellent