jhb171achill

Did that myself, yes. I recall being in a venerable GNR bogie in CIE / UTA days, and the seat by the window was damp. The roof was leaking above it, and drip-dripping down, as it started raining into the journey. Myself and two others had to move. Also, I recall a strong damp musty smell, alive with the spores of damp rot, in a compartment in an ex-NCC "North Atlantic" coach in the late 1960s. The exterior was clean though, with paint almost still wet after being repainted from UTA green to the short-lived NIR "main line steam stock" all-over maroon.

Now that's a good use indeed!

Seems strange in our modern affluent age - if a carriage in that state turned up on the 15:35 to Tralee today, Joe Duffy’s phone lines would be jammed by the outraged in their BMWs in the station car park. But such things were commonplace at one time. Look at any picture of, say, probably the worst examples - the Cavan & Leitrim in CIE days, or the SLNCR, or some UTA stock in the late 60s, and you’ll see carriages that look practically derelict - and, I can attest from my own memory, weren’t any better inside! I’ve a set of 4 of these GSWR ones. I had suggested to Eoin to make the brake look a whole lot worse than the others, which appear well-kept and only slightly work-stained. The idea here is prototypical; these old brake coaches often inhabited the same rural branch service for several years, with visits to Limerick or Inchicore for painting being less frequent than the “passenger” stock.

True, but my point was - if you look at the body design & panelling, and wheelbase. The Ratio-type, used by a number of British railway companies, used the same type of “modern” body type & profile as main line bogies. I’ve an idea some even had toilets. Four wheelers here in design terms belonged to an earlier era, with body design similar to 1870s. Also, wheelbases for four-wheelers were a lot shorter. The Ratio type, in having a much longer wheelbase, plus 1880s onwards body design, are thus not at all like anything 4-wheeled we ever had - they look more like our 6-wheelers. Most Irish railways used a standard length of 30ft for 6-wheelers. The Ratio yokes are about 26ft, by the look of them. As you say, the curved-in ends, commonplace among a number of British companies (MR & GWR particularly) were unknown in Ireland with the exception of some on the WLWR, so on that third basis the Ratio kit is immediately “un-Irish”. As an aside, those Hornby clerestorey roofed bogies bear a good resemblance, due to their curved ends, to several WLWR prototypes, provided the clerestorey is removed and replaced by a “flat” roof. The brake third is especially suitable, as apart from having an extra compartment it is very similar to a pair of WLWR brake thirds which lasted until 1954 & 1955.

Hattons had been considering this, and had asked me to supply livery details along with “nearest equivalent” suitable carriage numbers, immediately before the news broke of their demise. I had actually sent them details of the later GSR maroon (easy, as it was the same as LMS), and the earlier very dark chocolatey-crimson shade. Six wheelers are not known to ever have carried the short-lived “main line” chocolate & cream livery, nor did the GSWR put cream upper panels on them. Pity it wasn’t to be.

Eoin Murray’s SSM ones unveiled tonight on Dugort Harbour thread. It will be interesting to see them alongside a shiny IRM silver Park Royal, or indeed compared with the Hattons ones.

The Dugort Harbour branch has had a set of four GSWR six-wheelers allocated to it lately. The all-1st, a compo and a third are in pretty good condition given their age, but the old 1888 brake third badly needs a repaint and tidy up. It’ll meet with its end once these new laminates are all built, but they’re due in summer 1959, so we’ve almost eighteen months of this thing….. Received from Eoin Murray today; as always, truly outstanding master build of SSM kits. Note the realistic canvas roof patches on the brake, faded paint and general weathering with brake dust.

Indeed - too short, and Ireland never had 4-wheelers of that type of English long wheelbase style. But €5 each and a slap of green paint can’t be sneezed at!

The site of the sheds at Howth are now occupied by one of the most utterly hideous apartment developments I have ever seen in this country. More appropriate to Communist Russia in the 1950s than anything here. Ghastly looking things; hopefully they will find pyrite in them in 18 months and knock them all down again and build something somewhat pleasing on the eye.

Very good thinking, indeed! And up to 1960, anythi9ng from GNR tank engines and anciuent wooden stock to Gardner articulated railcars onj passenger - plus the tram! Was at the museum the other day with a friend and we were lamenting the fact that if only the section from Howth up to the summit had survived, what an attraction today!

Diesel fumes and sea air; a 1975 Howth station smell….. but Guinness was 28p a pint……

Pity we haven’t a good model of an Irish horse box - none of the available British designs are even remotely close to ours….

Did you hear….. Everyone in Ireland and mainland Europe gets an annual allowance of €1000 a year towards model railways, starting next week…….

Nice work!

Delighted to advise there’s a book on the way on the Loughrea line, hopefully by the end of the year….

They’re a mixture but most of those closest to the camera are indeed horse boxes.

Gotta be a Jeep at some stage anyway!

Navan would seem by far the biggest populatuion wise outside Dublin - and the track is there!

Will it have a fiddle yard either end?

Not pretty either! This was an experimental conversion of an existing loco.

Those were probably the most hideous-looking steam locomotives ever to run in Ireland!

Dugort Harbour was actually originally intended to be an exact model of Westport Quay, but a lack of MGWR stock at the time of its inception switched it to a GSWR location - a Valentia Harbour-like outpost in dishtant Wisht Kerry, boy!

The owner of the hotel, who I know, told me years ago that originally he wanted it as some sort of small coffee dock adjacent to the original platform, but was shot down by health & safety concerns, so it just sat there ever since; now it is beyond redemption. However, there is one identical vehicle at Whitehead and another at Downpatrick (along with another MGWR vehicle there of a different type); all four would require rebuild from ground up.

Wow! Has to be an SLNCR theme, of course............. (runs for cover!)

The one on the right is almost certainly a dud. Bright white paper and felt-tip pen....prior to 1961! But, look closer..... by BUS! Is this a more modern-day copy done thus, or just a plain dud?