jhb171achill

Yes, it would have been - though I don't know who made it, nor do Brendan or Steve - if anyone here knows, let me know! No - the guys who made the "Castle" layout were no longer apprentices by then - some had left the railway, others promoted.

The "delivery grey" was an utterly impractical livery - bear in mind when they went into traffic they were surrounded by black smoke belching A & C class Crossleyfailures and still quite a few steam engines! Both of which added to their cosmetic woes.......

“Jimmy, I see you - get outta that bush right now. Judge won’t be so lenient on ye this time. Not after robbin’ Guinness barrels TWICE as well as all that oul business you caused two weeks ago….” —- “…..no, that won’t work either. It’s FAR too heavy for us to move. We’ll need Dan, PJ and yer man as well as us….”

I did get the impression that the person from whom I bought the pair of them hadn't a clue - no boxes either........

I've two current-issue ones in black'n'tan which I may sell (I don't need the 6 or 7 I have!). Both are DCC fitted, but whoever owned them before me inexplicably chopped the handrails off!!! I got new ones which would be supplied with them.......... Haven't decided yet if I will sell them, but we'll see.......... I will certainly want a new B147, as that one is a particular favourite of mine from runabaout travels in 1976. I think I had it on the Limerick - Ballina train one day, and somewhere else a day or two later (maybe the Nenagh branch).......

An addendum; while the "Castle" Layout was built by various apprentices in Inchicore, under the tutelage of Tommy Tighe, the models were built for the castle by a number of people. Perhaps half were built by the late Kieran Magowan of the Model Shop in Monck Place, which many of us have fond memories of. Of the remainder, most of the locomotives were built by our own Brendan Kelly, with the other stuff built by perhaps half a dozen other people, most of whose identities we no longer have a record of.

Indeed! Well, it's "alternative" history is that after withdrawal from the Wisht Carrk-boy system in the early 1940s, it was sent to the remote West Kerry area where it was used on the Castletown West - Dugort Harbour section, a remote outpost of some 5 miles long. Later, it was retained at Castletown itself and lasted almost until the end of steam, the last CBSCR loco in traffic, as the resident shunter and spare loco.

I know Fry's daughter, who is now in her late 80s. An amazing lady, who has been of immeasureable help to me in many ways.

During the time the large “0” gauge layout operated at Malahide Castle from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, a number of models were built to operate on it. Amongst the public, there was a common perception that the models which operated on this were Fry’s actual collection but this is not so. For one thing this layout was 2-rail, whereas Fry’s were 3-rail; for another, many of the mechanisms in Fry’s own models were worn out and never have withstood the intensive operation in the castle; but most of all, under the legal agreement between Fry’s late wife and the then Dublin Tourism, his collection were not allowed to run again. When the new museum was established, the priority was to display Fry’s own models, not the “Castle” ones, so until now they have no home other than storage. But there’s news. First, a taster: here are but a few of the Castle models: The news is this. For the last three years, this has excercised the efforts of those involved in tryingmto ensure that these models may be displayed also. One of Fry's provisos was that his OWN models were not to become part of a collection of other people's models, so even if there WAS room in Malahide, we couldn't put them all in - and in reality too, we already have a number of Fry's English models which remain in storage. I may organise a viewing evening for these at some stage.... So, what to do with the Castle stuff - and, indeed, the huge layout upon which they ran, which is in storage in a warehouse? Over the last few years the solution has come in the form of several other museums and model railway clubs, who have agreed to take a number of these models on long term loans. The necessary legal paperwork has now been drawn up, and final lists are being prepared (this evening, in between posting pics here of Dugort Harbour!) of who gets what. There are two model railway clibs involved, and two railway-themed museums. In the latter two cases, the models which go there are of prototypes related to the areas where those museums are. The idea is that these models can be spread about to be seen by the public, and hopefully give some local publicity to the Malahide Model Railway Museum. I should soon be in a position to say what's going where. This relates to modwls only. It does not relate to the large layout structure, for which numerous attempts to find a home for it have come to nought. However, only recently, we have had a meeting with a possible provider of a new home for the actual structure, which contains many fine bridge structures. This was built in the 1980s by apprentices in Inchicore Works, and it was only later, and by good fortune, that a home for it could be found at Malahide, hence its survival. There remains a ceiling-level "O" gauge elevated track in the new malahide Model Railway Museum. Some of the "Castle" models have already been retained to operate there, and today some more were allocated. I will post more news as the current situation develops.

The oul fella was out cutting turf one day in 1957, and caught a picture of the afternoon train on his old box camera. Driving home later, he noticed a Woolwich cold in the cattle siding at Castletown. It had blown a couple of tubes, according to the signalman, and had been sitting there a week. Yer man says it’ll be scrapped now.

Ah! It's that oul crew van again. Since they started lifting several local lines in the area in the late 1950s, this van and its accompanying rail wagon has often ended up stabled in the old loco shed road at Dugort Harbour, as that's where they loaded lifted rails onto a ship heading for a scrap dealer in Liverpool. Spotted through the hedge from a moving Ford Popular in 1958.

Track renewal is under way; it will turn out to be the last. It’s May 1960. The local train has A42 today, as it slows across the repaired IMG_6695.MOV track as it enters Castletown West. It shows the excellent slow running of the IRM “A” class. IMG_6694.MOV

In 1961, you’ve some people with tried-and-tested black’n’white photography, some with colour. Three views by different photographers of a mid-day local goods extra leaving Dugort Harbour for Castletown, one of the last regular steam rosters in the area. Within a year, a “C” would take over.

Lazy day in 1966; B165 shunts at Dugort Harbour while the old crew car, an ancient 6-wheeler with the centre axle removed and a pair of wagon doors fitted, reposes in the disused loco shed road. It’s been there since the lifting trains on the Valentia line finished.

It’s spring 1966, and the afternoon train to Tralee awaits departure at Castletown West…..

A55 has a burst fuel pipe one day in winter 1963; A12 to the rescue. Not often you see two “A”s out on Carrowmore Bog…..

“…..Ah, there’s the afternoon train…. bit late, isn’t he? I thought he was due at the harbour about half an hour ago?” “Well, yer man with the turf for us is worse - we’ve been waitin’ HERE for that time…..”

Good spot!

All we can be sure of is that it's an RPSI train some time in the 70s or early 80s......... someone must recognise that bridge, though.

A very short life (34 years) for a steam locomotive...... Many were in traffic well over their century....... On a related note, in 1980 I witnessed a 101-year-old, 1879-built, tall-chimneyed, wood-burning 2.4.0 tender engine in Indonesia, setting out on its once-a-fortnight local working. Near where it was based was an ultra-modern military aircraft facility with the very latest in technology all over the place. The trip working this loco was employed on was to bring up-to-date modern tank wagons of aircraft fuel along one of Indonesia's principal main lines as far as a long siding off the main line into the military base. If ever there was a railway vehicle which looked out of place, this was it. Its other duty was a once-a-day branch mixed working which it or one of its sisters worked. When steam ended in Indonesia (other than sugar mills) in 1987, there were still two of these elderly machines being occasionally used for shunting in their home base (Madiun). These were the famous B50 class (google 'em). A friend of Provincial Wagons' - Lance King - was an authority on these locos and was very familiar with the area. I still have set of his excellent and comprehensive "Continental Railway Journal" - a monthly magazine which documented the gradual wind-down of steam worldwide in the 1970s, 80s and 90s; no longer in publication as there's no longer anything to report. I owe the late Mr King a massive debt of gratitude for the comprehensive and detailed cover of such matters; it was the CRJ that had me chasing remaining steam from 1977 onwards, all over India, the far east including Indonesia, Africa and South America during those times. Sometimes I'd strike gold; other times I would arrive somewhere to find that what I had travelled 13,000 miles to see - e..g the world's last functioning urban steam street tramway - had quietly succumbed only weeks earlier, with locals now living in the carriages and station buildings, sans doors, parked just where they ended up. Maybe, somewhere deep down in Kerry, there's still a J15 whose sole duty is to push an ICR set once a week in and out of a valeting shed........ I digress; back to the BCDR, a fascinating railway itself.

Yes!!

Indeed - and all the others in the film are ex-GSWR, of various types, many of which Hattons are doing.

I’m the one going mad. I can see this CIE roundel as clear as day now, yet I couldn’t in 2016!

Do you mean “The Quiet Man”?

"............a group of wasps stuck in a jam jar............."