jhb171achill

Superb stuff, very "atmospheric"! And I'd go for the heifers; I don't fancy the "Rossies" chances at all at all! :-)

Talking of Weshty's models, I got a kit by post the other day for 800 "Maedb".... Words fail me. For anyone who knows me personally, that's saying something! I'll just summarise: sell your car and house, rob your granny and BUY one! Amazing! Can't wait to get it made up. Just looking at the bits in kit form, it's worth every red cent. It's a YES from me!!!! Louis? Simon?

He's just out of sight inside the carriage....

(Continuation) organisations do a fantastic job in difficult conditions and it is better to put a coach into traffic with good brakes and a hasty livery than the other way round. The Bachman coaches have an authentic livery for CIE 1945 - 1955, though examples of coaches in this darker green were still to be seen into the early 60s.

Liveries in preserved ITG and RPSI stock are a mix of the absolutely authentic, the not authentic, and the RPSI's own livery. First, the accurate. The RPSI "wooden" set are all authentic bar the maroon one with the flying snail logo. Needless to say, nothing ever ran in maroon in any CIE livery. This livery dates from a film contract after which expediency dictated making it match the rest as best as it could with limited finance and manpower. Some Cravens are still in IE livery. The society's own liveries are the blue for the Dublin Craven set, designed to stand out entirely from anything else, and the UTA-esque livery on the Whitehead set. The green is close enough to UTA green, but the lining and lettering are different. They use yellow and red instead of the UTA's straw and red, and the lines are separate red and yellow, as opposed to straw lined BOTH above and below in a thinner red line. Finally, for those concerned with livery accuracy, a few pointers. The only ITG loco not authentically painted is G611, which is green with black chassis and flying snail. Only the first three "G"s ever carried green, and (a) the chassis was green too, and (b) they had no flying snail, just the number. RPSI's 461 carries lined CIE passenger green - a joy to behold! But the green is not quite the right shade (it would have been easy to copy it from "Maedb" in Cultra), though to be fair it's not far off it. Apart from the three 800 class, all green CIE loco's had a painted number. Of the three 800s, one had red backgrounds to its numberplates, and two had blue, as in GSR days. 186 is authentic in grey, though for some reason they have allowed the smoke box and chimney to become progressively dirtier to look more "black", but this is not authentic, as (like 078) everything was grey. I should point out here - very strongly - that I state the above as a matter of historical record, and under no circumstances whatever is it meant to imply any criticism of any of the aforementioned organisations. Volunteers in both

Good find - Liffey jct to broadstone, anyone?

It most certainly would!!! I was unaware that those bogies survived so long.

I questioned senior further about these carriages today. He said they were delivered complete apart from bogies, painted and furnished and all, having been built in England. The bogies were built in his father's time in Inchicore. I asked him if someone from Inchicore went over there to be in involved with any aspects of their design for Irish loading gauge, livery, or any other details. Not so, apparently; they were given details by Inchicore right down to livery details and they just got on with it.

I would take my hat off to anyone prepared to invest money and time in this. It is an excellent site. I thoroughly support any efforts made to help reimburse those who cough up €2000! A stand at an exhibition? I'll offer assistance for a start.

Any new freight flow is good news. Regarding the north, there's nothing on the horizon, according to good sources of mine, and the timber to Derry issue has raised its head in the world of rumours a number of times over the years. However, I suppose one can never say never. A few years ago, the prevailing opinion was that pretty much all freight would disappear forever. Clearly, and happily, this isn't the case. Mayner's comments about his neck of the world are very interesting and certainly the first impression I would take out of that is that if such things are possible there, they certainly are here.

As Mayner says, there were recognised official procedures for trains "topping and tailing". One jeep, preserved no. 4, had an NIR logo on one side and a UTA one on the other. Two other jeeps had both sides with NIR logos... I have a note somewhere of which ones. Crews included "oul hands" and new starts. Two NIR men were still in their teens. One, who went on into the 1990's, was pictured firing a spoil train in bell bottom jeans, tank top and long hair, rather than traditional locomen's attire!

Most were scrapped, though NIR used a few as ballast wagons for a while. They are all long gone now. In use they were actually found to be quite unstable! Livery oddity too; they were delivered from Cravens in duck-egg blue with black chassis, and "U T" stencilled on them in black along with the number. They most certainly didn't stay like that for long!

Superb job, boskonay, and greatly appreciated. Keep it up!

Fert bogies?

The paintings are by David Briggs of Lisburn, and I understand he is always happy to take on commissions.

I had thought there were four as well, but senior is sure there were six! I will delve further; it is exceptional for him to be wrong.... If there WERE six, could another two have been in a different series? I don't know. His collection also was that they were all third, and he nev saw more than one in any train.

Heirflick, there would have been the standard carriage number on one end as they normally did. Senior did not recall whether they had "flying snails" or not, as the lower panels were matchboarding, which is not conducive to the application of a large transfer which spans many panels! In CIE livery, however, they did not have Pullman lettering or branding as by that time (and long before) they had been acquired from the Pullman company and become "ordinary" stock. In response to a query as to whether the interior seats were re-used elsewhere after they were broken up, it is very doubtful.

Very low platform! A unique modelling feature? The GSWR had a lot of these; check out just about any old pic of stations on the Cork line. When I first travelled a lot way down south in the mid 70s, Mallow still had these very low platforms, and it was only comparatively recently they were brought up to full height. Others were converted many many years ago. The modern H & S police would have kittens.

Suggestions off the top'o'me'ead; a Gothic style station (GNR INW, Cootehill, Tynan or Glaslough area). A GNR "yellow brick" building. MGWR style station as at many places on the Mayo road or the Cavan or Sligo lines, with the cut stone architecture and slate roofed lean-to canopy with upright posts and wooden seating round the walls under it. Stone based water towers. West Cork style corrugated iron sheeted station building.

I saw a model railway at an exhibition once which had a squad car pulled up outside the railway goods yard, and the blue light was flashing on the roof. Two policemen had pinned a guy to the wall and were quizzing him about something. The scene was well done - maybe someone else has seen it...

It's funny. That type of thing looks horrible in real life - an eyesore we could all do without. But like a heavily weathered, graffiti'ed locomotive, it looks absolutely first class on a model! It's so true to life (unfortunately). You could add a few knackers hanging about a street corner, one with a dirty sleeping bag wrapped round him, dealing drugs to each other! (Boardwalk style!)..... Or the paper cup brigade....!! :-)

In answer to queries, I asked a few questions of those who were frequent visitors to Inchicore from the mid 1920s onwards; while this does not by any means constitute a detailed history of these coaches, I repeat some details I was told today which might not otherwise be known or obvious. Unlike UK equivalents, they had normal gangway connections and were constructed to Irish loading gauge (width and height) rather than GB gauge. Naturally, their bogies were unlike those across the water, though I have no details. There were 4 of them, and they operated mainly (if not exclusively) on the Broadstone - Galway and Kingsbridge - Cork routes. There would be one in each train as opposed to the system in GB of making up a whole train of them. He who I asked (who is 95) says he never saw them used otherwise. They were all THIRD class (albeit of a better standard than normal third class!). He does not recall second or first class, but would not rule out perhaps one being first; though he says he never saw a first class one. (That bit surprised me, I have to say!). When delivered, they may have been in Pullman livery (brown and cream), but the GSR used a brown and cream livery themselves on main line stock, therefore it is his view that any sightings of them in that livery is far more likely to be GSR brown and cream, not British-style Pullman livery. They were eventually repainted GSR maroon, and then CIE green, though CIE withdrew them after only a few years. While in GSR maroon, they had a variation on the standard, in that (a) they did not carry GSR crests, and (b) they had the inscription "GREAT SOUTHERN PULLMAN" in gold letters, shaded; this was carried on the strip above window level where British Pullmans would have had "P U L L M A N". The GSR in any case took over ownership of them entirely after 10 years in traffic (1926-36), and by 1959 all had been scrapped after quite a few years derelict. I hope this is of interest.

Certainly David - PM me and we can make arrangements. Very many thanks; I would not trust my own skills in that arena!

Wow! Excellent buildings, and 879878973647657652873982787989787676569868757877093719278537612397178923576126039196712 - 078 is awesome too. Are you the first with one in grey, I wonder?

I doubt it, Heirflick. I suspect that any attempt by me to put it together would result in criminal - and unreversible - vandalism of the kit!! I'd be looking for a professional builder / painter... My modelling skills in the past were OK for plastic kits, but not something as sophisticated and finely made as this! I'll have a couple of GSR coaches with it as a display item; now all I need alongside it is a grubby J15 with a couple of six wheelers!