jhb171achill

It’s an old kit I found, but it’s 12 inches to the foot scale. No DCC, though, and the couplings are completely incompatible with both standard Hornby ones and Kadees. It won’t run on code 70 OR 100 track, nor HO scale anything. It won’t go round curves, even a 2.4 metre radius one. So I’m not sure what I’ll do with it…. if someone will give me a tenner for it, it’s yours, but I’m told the postage could be high enough….

I bet someone said “ooops!”

Perfect venue for your E401 model!! "Ballymoll Mill Sidings"

Well, the guy I'm having issues with (seperate person) has one week before I start legal action! I've been told pack after pack of lies for several years now. It'll cost him a lot more long term if he has to employ a solicitor.

Most interesting, yes, that was a new one to me. And yes, B112 IS in the darker green, not to be seen on many diesels at all. A46 had it, and so did Downpatrick's C231 at one stage anyway. Of the extrremely few A, B101 & C's with dark green, all images I've ever seen of them have a waistline.

This is pure GOLD DUST!!! The Irish narrow gauge is awash with amazing potential for models. This just proves it!

The waistline, both on these and the A / C classes, appears to have been completely arbitrary (like the dayglo orange-red on locos in the 1990s) with no relation to any other livery details. I have seen pics of silver locos with red buffer beams too, but never a green one without at least some red on the buffer beam area. The one thing I have never seen is a B101 model with numerals of exactly the right style and size…. especially on a loco that is otherwise plain silver, plain green or (mostly) plain black, inaccuracy in numerals or lettering sticks out like a sore thumb, unfortunately. The initial pic, I should add, is possibly one of Cyril Fry’s. If not, it’s one of my dad’s.

The abbey looks really well!

Making a triangular junction at Knockmore, Lisburn, was considered then, for one thing.

Just came across this, thought I’d share it out of interest. Don’t take the shade of green seriously - the original colour slide is in awful condition! At Waterford obviously, about 1962. Like the A & C classes, some had a pale green “waistline”; some didn’t. None had “flying snails”. Black on top of roof.

Painting. I've seen clearer images.

Interesting to see the way the black on the roof is carried round the top of the coach end....

My layout is very strictly set in the 1955-75 period, but I think I'll probably end up with an ICR set anyway, as they look so very good! I wound echo, though, the usefulness of a "C" class, and also, as a seperate issue, an NIR 80 class set and NCC "Jeep", for the clearly (and justifiably) growing interest levels in UTA & NIR. With my livery interest, I can think of at least twelve liveries for a "C"...........

See you tomorrow, Mol!!

Top class. Very many thanks!

This seems endemic in the model railway world. I am currently having issues with an indivudual who has a load of my (kit) models for many years now and won't give them back. He told me me he'd make them up in a matter of months and has spent years making increasinlgy nonsensical excuses and claims as to why he hasn't delivered them; along with frequent promises that he'll have them all ready "at the latest next Thursday" etc etc. He initially claimed he had them all finished, though I never believed that for a second. A trusted friend knows him and says he's a con man..... we'll see. Many years ago I was similarly let down by a man in the 3.5 inch scale steam world who scammed me of £1500. Same thing - endless excuses. But I've a long memory and I don't take well to being scammed.

Almost without doubt, yes. Several silver vehicles (and locos!) skipped the green, and several GNR coaches and quite possibly railcars likewise - GNR livery straight to black'n'tan. In routine service, one coach on the C & L had disgracefully faded GSR livery as late as 1956. Numerous main line coaches were still maroon into the early 50s.

They were indeed painting the full 1940s version well into the early 50s - I was told this by a long-gone painting supervisor. I've seen a photo of a newish CIE coach like this - if I can find it I'll post it, but probably buried somewhere in the IRRS. But certainly at the very, very latest, maybe 1954-ish. The exact dates were never recorded, plus, repaints were infrequent, so earlier and later versions of the overall green "family" of liveries, plus the southern localised versions, co-existed for quite a while. There were still a small few vehicles kicking about as late as 1960 in the old fully lined version. One quite tidy six-wheeler like that was on the West Cork system.

1124 was one of thirteen 64-seat side-corridor thirds. They were all built in 1914, bar the last which entered traffic in 1915. Their numbers ran from 1119-1131. All survived into the 1960s, with the first one scrapped in 1961, and the rest lasting until 1967-70, thus all gaining black'n'tan livery bar the one scrapped in 1961. They eked out their last days on Cork and Dublin spare stock for busy summer days. The very last two, 1119 and 1125, lasted until 1970, just two years before the "Supertrain" era. The one shown was withdrawn in 1967.

The silver "livery" was hated by operational staff from the outset. It was entorely impossible to keep clean, and therefore in its inevitably filthy state completely took away from the clean, modern new image they were trying so hard to create. From anecdotal eivdence from family friends who worked in the paint shop, and eyewitnesses of the time, there were but the two shades of green used on coaches, railcars, horse boxes, and anything else in passenger livery.# Starting with the easy one, the post-1955 light green - applied to everything, always with light green thin waistline (except horseboxes). Some with flying snail (one in the middle always), but some without. Park Royals and tin vans never had them. Black roofs. This is the same light green applied to diesels from that time too, though in the case of locos some had a waistline and some didn't! ALL waistlines were pale green, never white or anything else. Coach ends black except some Park Royals when new - green ends. But the dark green.... Officially, it had the two broad pale green bands, one below window levels, and a thicker one between the tops of the windows and below cantrail. These were themselves edged in thin black and white lining. Everything had snails - six-wheelers, horse boxes, and the odd 4-wheel coaching-bodied van, like a tool van, with a single one; whereas longer bogie coaches had two snails per side, placed a third and two-thirds along the side. On dark green coaches these were standard transfers as used on buses, lorries, steam engine tenders; thus pale green lined in gold. Roofs and ends black. Sounds simple enough? But there were variants! As you have well illustrated, railcars had the dark green originally - same dark green, as this was slapped on green steam locos, station woodwork, buses and lorries as well as coaches. But this had the same single thin pale green waistlineas the later grass green livery would eventually have, and a single "snail" on the side. You have covered the few railcars with odd roof stripes. Yet another variant, though, which may have been by "local" arrangement, was that a handful of West Cork secondary stock got the dark green, unlined, but with two snails per side, while a further "local" arrangement saw both Cork and Limerick turning out coaches, including some West Clare ones, in completely unlined dark green, with no snails either. A final variant on at least two Cavan & Leitrim coaches, but nothing else anywhere, had dark green all over, two snails per side, but only the above-window pale gereen band - no middle one. Blue and green are notorious for showing up in early colour slides in a million shades, but those in the know at the time, plus reliable eyewitnesses (and there were some unreliable!) will confirm that there were only two colours used as base. There is a record, though, of a set of the 1950 or 1953 stock - I'd have to look it up - entering traffic in a lighter shade. They were soon repainted ordainary shades, but it is possible that this was simply an early experiment (as you suggest) at a new shade eventually adopted. As you say, silver was only applied to new stock, and when repainted they got the later grass green, as the dark shade was by then out of use on all but buses. Finally, you mention repainting of 1951-3 stock - earlier repaints oif these went into the dark green with 2 think light green bands and 2 snails per vehicle. But it cannot have applied to them all, and such as were repainted thus can't have kept it long.

Absolutely TOP class info, Mol, as always. You mention livery. Pre-1955, they were the same dark green as all carriages were, bar one batch built in either 1951 or 3 (I forget which); these being early carriers of the lighter green post-1955. After 1955, they started painting them the same standard lighter green as every other new carriage. It is possible some railcars getting the lighter shade a little arlier, though I can't prove this (anecdotal). However, while all carriages in the later lighter green carried a single thin waistline, and the standard for the pre-1955 darker green was the two thick light green bands above and below windows, railcars and intermediates in the "dark" era, as seen in your pics, carried the single thin waistline. The zebra stripes on the front cab roof shown was only applied to a very small number of railcars, possibly only a couple. Roofs in all liveries were black, always.

That's the boxes of chocs that were given out at the Christmas dinner....... Could be wrong on this, but I think the black'n'tan one is the last survivor of several built by the GSR.

The REAL one had "G N R" tattoed on its side and was only used when goods traffic was heavy.

The GSR No. 900 had eight coupled wheels too. No ten-wheelers in Ireland.

In all three of these, SF is mediocre to poor, but thus far has been the only option. In livery alone, despite being given correct information several times, ALL their CIE liveries have been completely wrong, from base colour to lettering and numerals, bar their black’n’tan coaches. They could at least get that right at no extra cost.