jhb171achill

Congratulations! Absolutely excellent, very authentic model.

car Reg: IE 131D UK IRL NI 000005 ECZ 44566 778 23 67 9987 56445 000001 8890122347 G 7576456589

Or my car? or my lawnmower? Cups and saucers?

That's mad, Josefstadt.... I wonder will they extend it to Downpatrick! If they do that can buy the paint themselves for the lettering!! :-) What about the various 3ft gauge heritage lines too?

Indeed Mayner... I remember seeing the GN section variant - it did remind me of the GNR livery though the UTA version had a shade of blue more like the GNR locos had been, not the darker (almost navy) blue of the railcars, buses and Fintona and Howth trams! The green version on the Bangor line just looked odd, especially those cars (not all of them) which had a painted-on red buffer beam - it clashed with the green and must have been a nightmare for anyone who was colour blind. It's worth noting that the UTA version differed in a few respects - the inclusion of the NIR logo being the most obvious - this was on everything. The original version was upright rathern than slanted, and was in gold, edged in white. It was applied to several steam engines, creating an NIR "livery" for steam engines which was simply the existing UTA black with their lining, but with the UTA crest painted out and the NIR emblem added. The now preserved No. 4 latterly had the UTA crest on the right hand tank (from the driver's view point) and the NIR symbol on the left. The NIR always used light grey rather than the cream used by the UTA on some variations. Imagine what a Hunslet would have looked like in lined black, or a "Jeep" 2-6-4T in early NIR maroon! Now there's a photoshopping thought.

That was the standard NIR livery (maroon & grey) introduced in late 1967, an amended version of a recently introduced UTA livery applied to the then-new 70 class sets. NIR applied it to these ex-GNR AEC cars, ex-GNR BUT cars, MEDs and MPDs on the Bangor line and NCC, as well as the 70 class. This remained NIR's standard livery for railcars until the advent of first of two batches of 80 class sets in 1974, which were delivered in the dark aquamarine blue and maroon, with 1 inch white line separating them. This blue and maroon livery had itself appeared in 1970 on the then-new "Enterprise" Mk 2's, but was not applied to anything else at the time. Once the 80s (which were never maroon and grey) were operating, the maroon and dark blue spread to the 70 class and some MPD cars, though most ended their careers in maroon and grey. No MED cars were ever repainted maroon and blue and all ended their lives in the early 80s still in maroon and grey. Most 70 class vehicles became maroon and blue though some centre cars passed into the 80s still in maroon and grey; former NCC coach 526 being one. This is all railcar talk. In the NIR era, loco hauled stock had its own story livery wise. Such former steam stock as was retained had an all over maroon livery with the one inch waist line as on (later) maroon and blue coaches. Thus, new railcars and carriage stock were maroon above the waist and had the white line, but while railcars were blue below, carriages were the same maroon. (if that makes sense!). By 1974, few loco hailed carriages were left, and a small number of former railcars were repainted in the maroon "carriage livery", de-engined, and used as loco hauled stock for a very short time. The discovery of asbestos and the 1978 second batch of 80 class sets saw to their demise, as did the lack of locos, as NIR's only three locos (the Hunslets) were becoming increasingly unreliable, especially 103. By this stage, all 80s and almost all 70s were maroon / blue along with a few MPDs, while the other MPDs and all MEDs were maroon and grey. Enterprise stock, by now comprising al loco hauled stock, were maroon / blue. The next change was to be the advent of the "Castle" class, as they were then inevitably called, rather than "450" class. These appeared in an all over cream livery with maroon and orange stripes. Following that, NIR went down the road of a mini-BR with "regions" (each one consisting of quite a few hundred metres of track)! Initially, an all over grey was adopted, with a broad maroon band below window level on 80 class railcars. Noother railcars were painted this way. At the same time the "Enterprise" stock was painted the same way, but with a light blue band. About the time CIE became IR / IE, and the "tippex" white stripes were added to the orange and black livery, NIR added similar white stripes either side of the blue on "Enterprise" coaches, but never on the railcars' maroon stripes. The 80 class sets hired to CIE (three sets initially) ended up coming back to NIR still in this grey-with-maroon-stripe livery, with IR "set-of-points" logo, long after thiis livery had been replaced by what comes next...This was an "inter city" livery of grey lower, blue upper, with white / black / white / yellow stripes below the window, and grey between the top of the windows and the roof, which was a much darker grey. The "suburban" livery was red and cream with an orange band under the window. There was an orange diamond on the ends and the red swept up at power car ends. Eventually this died out and the "inter city" version (also applied to the Enterprise) became standard. Later variations were that the blue extended to roof level, and about 1995 the three coloured lining below window level was replaced by a broad turquoise stripe, at the start of the Translink era. NIR symbols gradually gave way to translink ones, though some carriages carried none. The six NIR locomotives had different liveries to the railcars. The Hunslets were delivered in maroon, with white-lined yellow V shaped panels at the ends, the exact shape of which varied with repainting (pretty much like any NIR diesel to date!). (Actually, there were several variations of the white V on the end of 80 class sets in maroon / blue). The Hunslets were later painted blue, the last (102) receiving a late repaint with black surrounds to the cab windows, a darker shade of blue, and different yellow markings; the other two of the class hav ing been withdrawn by that stage. NIR's three 071s (sorry, 111s or GMs, or I suppose 88888881111's) were initially a shade of blue slightly lighter than GNR blue, but in later repaints the darker (more GNR like) blue that they are now. Both they and the Hunslets initially had deep orange V shapes on the ends, but later yellow panels, the exact shape and size of which have varied on all three GMs with virtually every repaint. The "C" class locos bought from CIE by NIR had the lighter blue and the deep orange V's on the ends, but inverted. The huge NIR logos on the sides of all three classes of NIR locos initially had squared or "sharp" corners and later on rounded ones as today on 888888111 / 2 / 3. The ex-GNR railcars went to CIE for scrapping, but were never leased for traffic purposes, though rugby events saw them enter Lansdowne Road station on specials from the north....

Absolutely top class, Leslie. Best of luck with it.

That looks absolutely, utterly, grotesque. The logo is bad enough in full colour; in that form it looks like a deformed "Z" on its side. The numbering is crass, stupid, nonsensical. The whole point of numbering anything is to identify it. In this day and age of H & S regulations designed to allow information to be obvious to even the least observant among us (yellow ends, different coloured passenger doors, fluorescent clothing), that style of numbering is ridiculous, even before we consider the scant likelihood of an Irish locomotive straying into Belgium by mistake. What is wrong? I know we're part of the EU, but do you think for one second the French or the British would follow that type of pan-EU* nonsense without questioning it? (* I am pro-EU, not anti; but this is retard stuff.) Rant over. And this is coming from one of the few who actually liked steam engines in sheep-dipped all-over grey!

I've seen some howlers on boards.ie myself.......... !! And the usual gathering of one-agenda internet trolls.... (one in particular!)

Wow!!! A blast from the past could be the wide variety of CIE lorries from the late 60s to the 1980s with black cabs, silver grey bodies, and the CIE roundel on the cab doors - or even their predecessor - alll sorts of ancient lorries, vans and buses in green with "snails" - often practically too big for the cab door side!

Snatcher panels were never black, unless they were within the area of the mid-body black band already. My own recollections are that they could get dirty or rusty looking at times, which could result in a poorly defined, distant, or poorly lit photograph appearing to show it in a darker colour. Also, 071s with the original all-white CIE emblem on the ends, i.e. in the "as-delivered" livery, should be a very distinctly darker shade or "orange" - in fact, closer to a light browny tan colour; certainly not orange as such. I haven't seen any of the new models yet but if i may make one small constructive remark - the photos of the models look more like the normal orange colour.

Haha! Probably depends, Heirflick, as they might say "which fut ye kick with" lol!

I was on that trip and I recognise one or two people in that photo!

Dave, what type of prototype would you be thinking of? Large city, small through station, small terminus? Bear in mind as a starter that the vast majority of all irish lines were (and are) single track. Loco roundhouses were exceptionally rare - very low single figures and all (both!) on the GNR. City termini outside Dublin rarely had more than two platforms; indeed one city terminus IN Dublin just had one. Just a few thoughts.........

Does that count as religion? :-)

Still no photos of her in the new livery! I believe 078 is also being painted.

Update: I am advised that the group who planned acquisition of an 80 set, to be housed on the DCDR, are very much on the ball with it. I daresay that those concerned will post here, or let it be known otherwise, once there is news to report. Bear in mind, folks, that such things can often have a very long lead-in time, following various negotiations behind the scenes. I would simply add that DCDR are not party to these discussions right now, but have agreed in principle that should they be successful, they will give the 80 class set a home. 450s - not included in above comments! Just saying....

Come to think of it, they were mormons. Black badge, 17 years old, in their dad's suits........... same difference!

I was walking along a street in a country town in southern Switzerland, near Geneva, where they all speak French rather than German. I saw 2 Jehovah's W's approaching me, and they said something to me in French. I immediately, without thinking, said "Sorry, I don't speak French" (in English!). Yes; you can see what's coming. "Gee, you speak English, sir?". In the words of that great scholar and philosopher, Homer Simpson, "DOHHH!!!!!!!!" To retrieve the situation, or more to the point, my freedom, I noticed we were within sight of a bar. "Certainly", sez I, "I'd be pleased to discuss your stuff over a few pints. In fact, I'll buy you one since we're here. Coming?" No, they weren't. Phew!!!!!!

Wow!!!! that beet train!

Presumably someone has pointed out to them that the electricity is in overhead wires, not the track! And in quantities that would fry them in 0.000001 second!

The train would have a gard, instead of a guard.

Excellent news indeed; irrespective of whether the RSPI, RPSI, PRSI or PSNI run the place! :-)

Dunno why so many newspaper articles manage to describe the RPSI as the RSPI!

Yes, that's it. No hard and fast pattern. I saw the first one painted while it was still in Inchicore and the numbers were white on the front, but they were changed to black before it was unveiled. Maybe they had already got some white numerals in stock and used them later? Earlier ones were generally black, white were generally later.