jhb171achill

Absolutely superb stuff, Leslie!

This, indeed, is the harsh reality.

The little Peckett is close enough to 00 scale compatible itself!

Now THAT would be something. But the good folks of Barnesmore don't speak Swiss................

Indeed. Several of the proposed "Re"-openings would almost certainly need to be on new alignments at least in part. Any attempt at anything resembling the Derry Road would need to face very major diversions in and around Portadown itself, Dungannon, and especially Omagh and Strabane. The UTA & Stormont Government did a very efficient job in ensuring maximum difficulty in resurrecting anything. ANY type of link with Letterkenny would have to be a completely new route. The tortuous route between Strabane and Letterkenny, apart from being narrow gauge, probably was twice the mileage of a direct route. A new line would have to cross the Foyle via a new bridge, and head down the old GN line a short distance before turning inland. A Derry-Letterkenny route via Strabane wouldn't even begin to make sense, even if the CDR line from Strabane to Letterkenny HAD been straight. Both administrations should pass laws that if there ever comes a day when any existing railway infrastructure has its use discontinued, the right of way remains with the state, and remains protected; this to include station sites. Yes, Dublin port, we're looking at you.

That’s very reassuring, DoctorPan, good stuff!

Superb stuff, Leslie!

Call me an oul cynic; but I'll believe ANY reopening when I see it. They've been prattling on about all manner of reopenings, and freight hubs and the like for decades. Successive governments, of ALL political parties north and south have not looked forward to plan anything for their grandchildren probably ever. It's all about what gets them the next election; and idle talk and soundbites do that just fine.

Quiet...ER? A Tara Mines train with loose wheels, clanking 071 bits, and carrying marbles, while tumbling down a tin staircase in an echo chamber fitted with Electric Picnic amplifiers, while the driver is roaring his head off into a karaoke machine turned up full, would be quieter than many carriage on some trains..... Try a Howth Dart on a sunny Saturday, or a stag-from-drimnagh and hens-from-rathkeale express to Killarney on a Saturday....... So, "quieter" than WHAT, exactly?

I've half a dozen covering that period that i'll post to you. 1955-63.

And no chinchillas were harmed in the making of this post, no doubt.............

Best option for photos might be the IRRS archive - but oakwood did a book on the line many years ago. From memory, some nice carriage photos in there. As far as good was concerned, they didn't carry much - alone among Irish narrow gauge lines, this was primarily a commuter railway (which, as an aside, also was the only Irish narrow gauge line with any double track). If it's for models, loco livery lined black, carriages dark green. After GSR takeover, locos unlined all-grey, carriages dark maroon.

Note the "G S" still (barely) visible on that old GSW brake van in Galway......

So there's the story. The UTA take it over, but see no future for it, so to start with they do not repaint it into UTA livery. Meanwhile, the GNR, which in reality was taking more and more to do with the BCDR before its absorbtion into the UTA, are aware that this loco is up for grabs. It ends up being borrowed; meantime the GNR becomes part of CIE. They transfer it to the seaside terminus for one season, as its boiler is declared to be in good condition. And thus, it ends up appearing at Brookh....sorry, Northside Dublin Seaside! (Footnote: it was seen shunting at Brookhall also, in May 1957....)

I want to go on one to Cavan.

The "good" I remember from my own childhood would be, i suppose, sinking back into deep seta cushions in forst class compartments in GNR coaches behind steam....playing with the antimacassars......... watching a GNR 0.6.0 shunting somewhere..... early sighting of a 121 and what I think was probably an all-black "C" class at Westland Row bumbling about..... seeing the last steam-hauled "Enterprise" at a level crossing, and Donegal locomotives and carriages at Strabane awaiting a never-to-appear Dr. Cox from America! Teenage travels - first holidays away from home - with runabout tickets on a railway largely populated by clapped-out Park Royals, laminates and Bredins, new Cravens, and hauled by 121 / 141 / 181 / A & C class locos. My one and only run behind a B101. Plus covering lines no longer with us - Harcourt St (OK, I don't remember THAT one - I was about 2!), Ardee, Loughrea, Mullingar-Athlone in a mail train, Kilmacthomas, New Ross, Claremorris - Limerick, Foynes on a cold day......Youghal on a hot day.................... and so on............ Also happy days footplatibng 5'6" gauge main line express steam in India in the 1970s, and in South Africa in 1977...........

That was a "customer train". They don't carry "passengers" now, any more than "sundries" or cattle to Ballinasloe fair..............................only "customers"....

I can testify to the fact that the old UTA MED & MPD cars, plus the truly AWFUL NIR 450 class, made 2600s & 29s feel like 1st class in the Titanic by comparison. And it's a statement of fact that a modern ICR is quieter and more comfortable than MOST old railcars in the past. The exceptions were the centre and trailer cars (NOT the power cars!) in the 70 class, and the AEC / BUT cars for comfort - though they'd deafen you and could be draughty in winter. There's a huge, huge difference between the outward appearance of many a train, and what it's like to travel in!

Wait till we get these electric hybrid things. They will make no noise at all; we will all drool over the mini-"thrash" of the last ICR.................................... And those of us who remember 071s will be seen as being just as odd as people like me who remember steam.................!!

WHAAAAAT!!! That is OUTSTANDING. Very well done indeed!

"This fish is dead! No, it's not - it's just resting! Beautiful scales......... Listen, my man. It's bereft of life! It has wound up its mortal coil! It has gone to join the Choir Eternale! THIS is an EX-FISH!!!! "

I was warned once about using beachside stuff as ballast due to salt, so the solution there is probably once you gather the ballast material, boil it in a pot (kills organisms anyway) and drain before using it.

I've been told to put this about social media! https://bookings.modelrailwaymuseum.ie/Home

It would need a fully operational "A" class locomotive included at that price.

I always had this idea of doing a UTA / early NIR layout if a RTR AEC set ever appears; and on one side of the railway I would have a gable wall covered in hardcore republican graffiti, and on the other something covered in hardcore loyalist graffiti! All the clichés in one...... RUC vans, young lads with petrol bombs, British army jeeps, the works.......while a 2.6.4T (real!) Jeep made its way past with a ballast train, and an AEC set pottered through in the other direction on the 11:15 to Londonportadown.....