jhb171achill

Folks - somebody was talking about both these recently - see this:

Had a few bottles last night of a new thing - wonder if anyone's tried it - Jeremiah Weed Root Brew - like a gingery flavoured beer.... good shtuff. Hic.

So many modern railcar models just don't look right. And you'd think it would be simple. These look simple, but can't be - because they look so good!! Excellent stuff!

Mayner, I wonder if you have details of the PO vans that were converted to heating vans - I think only 2 or 3 of them were thus treated. The only external difference was the fuel tanks underneath - at the ends, as far as I recall. I saw a pic of one somewhere - might be able to find out the numbers... Inclusion of the tanks as an extra in a kit would allow (yet!) another variety!

Absolutely brilliant stuff - love the Enterprise and Hunslets - well done... and the model of the Cork line Mk 4 must have been an awkward one to make too.

Absolutely superb... it's 1966, somewhere on the WRC or North Kerry!

Maybe wash his mouth out with Guinness? Might get the taste for it.... (No, I don't have shares in them, but the amount I've consumed over forty years, i propbably ought to!) :-)

Excellent stuff! Some vehicles arrived at Whitehead or Downpatrick back in the day with "RPSI" or "DAR" (as they DCDR was then) crudely painted on them.

Minister, waht happend was that in 1955, when the earliest laminates, Park Royals, and of course the "A" class locos arrived, they decided that they might look wll in silver and it would save paint and time. As photos show, they couldn't have been more wrong - anything left unpainted deteriorated almost as soon as it entered traffic. How they could expect loco bogies to remain silver is a mystery! Subsequent deliveries of the three G601s and the B1013 were also initially unpainted. Interesting livery detail: locos had a snail and number in "eau-de-nil" but at least some carriages and tin vans had numerals in red, possibly all at first. No silver rolling stock ever carried "snails" - just the numeral. By the early 60s, silver was dying out. It is likely that some stock went straight to black'n'tan. In all cases, at first repaint, they received the post-55 lighter green.

Several of those coaches can be photo'd from the down platform at Lisburn, as they are parked in the PW siding there. These include the solitary Mk2 genny van specially adapted for them.

Wow! Very interesting! A new one to me.... I'm never too old to learn (!!) :-)

I saw someone photoshop one into lined NCC maroon one time - looked well believe ot or not!

Laminate, Bredin, Laminate, Bredin, Laminate*, Unidentified wooden bogie-possibly ex-GSW suburban, GSW bogie, "tin van*", wooden covered van and finally ex-MGWR postal / guard's van. What a gathering! Today's train at Downpatrick behind an "A" class, if it's running, is a laminate style brake genny, a high-roofed GSWR tri-compo and a non corridor low roofed GSW 3rd... I remember seeing a 10 vehicle train passing Port Laoise as recently as the late 70s, with an 071 hauling an eclectic mix of various types of laminates 9no two the same), a couple of Cravens and Park Royals, a BR van and a "tin van". If you like such collections behind a loco, look at pics of West Cork or the WRC in the 50s, and you'll regularly see things like a brand new laminate or Park Royal paired with an 1880s-built non corridor birdcage roofed brake third (inevitably of MGWR origin) or the like. the last full train of six wheelers (based in Cork) was in use until 1963 and possibly a while later, not being officially withdrawn until 1964. (* in silver; rest in green)

For a long time I thought the recesses in the cab sides had to be for tablet catchers, but when you think of when they were built... so to this day I don't know what those recesses were for...... unless they were at one time planned - but if so, why did later engines not have recesses?

The B113's didn't, heirflick. I don't believe the 101's did either but I wouldn't be 100% certain. 101s spent most of their working life way south - occasional forays also onto the WRC. They were certainly synonymous with the Waterford - Mallow line.. (a nive subject for a layout!).

When injustice becomes law, rebellion becomes moral imperative..

Excellent! Very atmospheric... like the CDR stock...

Or my attic.............. (ok, you'd need the Tardis!)

I have seen drawings for 850 somewhere.. maybe in IRRS, not sure. If I can find out I'll post here.

What a description! Just brings it back... yes, those locos had an amazing sound, especially when just one was on, it would have raised the roof! The last run I ever had with one was with a 3-coach Mk2 push-pull in early 1990, when it picked me up at Botanic and deposited me a Lambeg. It was on an all stops Bangor to Portadown and even then it was an extreme rarity, as it was hardly ever in traffic, still less on a passenger train. By that stage it was faded blue, shorn of nameplates, and a sorry sight. I heard that on arrival in Portadown that evening it failed. I am not sure if it ever ran after that, but if it did, I'd say it was back to its irregular stints as Adelaide shunter.

As long as they weren't standing on their ends....

Interesting detail on those two pics above. The PO van has irregular spacing of the roof beading lines, and the 2nd-last-from-right window on the "tin van" has been blocked out, obviously as a result of an entire new panel being put in. More scope for variety of models! My recollections of mail trains was that you'd never get a train of four wheelers - one or two in a train of mostly bogies was more the norm. Those tin vans were, of course, on all sorts of passenger trains, including the "Enterprise" at one stage. I can remember seeing a tin van at each end of a train speeding towards Belfast headed by a 141. And the newspaper train ensured that they were no strangers to the old Portadown station.

I should have added re GSWR carriage-portion-livery, that the livery used by the company for coaching vehicles seems to have been fairly consistent in contrast. The purple lake colour seems to have been used from early days on, probably with gold lining, but about 1900 they seem to have started using a brown and cream or purple lake and cream scheme, which was applied to the "Rosslare Express" and other main line trains, but not humble branch line six wheelers and stuff like that. My dad remembers seeing an old passenger van in Inchicore in the late 1920s which as he described it was "a sort of brown and creamy colour - very faded". There is much evidence to suggest that the GSR used remaining stock of the same dark paint immediately post amalgamation, but obviously with new GSR markings. This, described as a "very dark maroon" applied to everything until the mid 30s. Again, best example to see now is GSWR 836 at Downpatrick.

Ah! Garfield, I defer to your techy knowledge.....