jhb171achill

You're better with green. Those were never blue - in fact only a small handful of MGWR locos were ever blue and they were (a) express passenger types; (b) few in number; and (c) very short-lived. MGWR used a lightish green until before those were built - a darkish leaf green (probably not a million miles off British Railways loco green) from about 1890 to 1915 or so, lined black after that until 1925, after which they were plain grey until withdrawal in the 1950s. Needs red buffer beams too. The way it is in your pic - I can't make out if that's a name plate or a GSR number plate. If the former, black or green livery. if it's a number plate, plain dark grey would be the only accurate livery. In the 1950s some, but not all, had the numberplates removed and a large painted number put there instead. Nice catch - especially if the price was good!

Hattons will give you a different design - the GSWR type. Completely different, and appropriate to mix in with MGWR types; remember the old adage that pre- the "supetrain" Mk 2s and their equivalents on the NIR Enterprise of 1970, there was probably never a passenger train ran in Ireland composed of several of the same type of coach. (Now you see why us oul wans find Mk 2, Mk 3 & Mk 4 - be they in CIE, IE, NIR or RPSI ownership - sterile and boring!) So keep the Hattons order, and get a few of these, and a few of KMCE Models' excellent DSER six-wheelers (as shown recently on "Dugort Harbour") for an authentic mix-mash.

Being of a nocturnal disposition, ‘tis many a communication I’ve had with the same Garfield at times when anyone half normal is in the land of zzzzzzz’s……

Is my "O" gauge DCC'd Fintona horse kit ready yet?

2751 almost ended up in Downpatrick! There's a story behind it............................... (but it wouln't have had that livery for long it it had gone....)

Looking V E R Y nice, Owen!

That is an abolute masterpiece.

Yes, if its route was more or less a straight line - direct - it would make more sense. I don't think it will ever make economic sense as it is, unless they get Boris to dig a tunnel under the Black Mountain.

Most of them did. The last few sets only received it last year, but they've been doing a few at a time for quite a few years now.

Me too!

Amazing - I especially like the G class!

Exceptional work, Darius - I very much enjoy seeing this collection grow!

Off with their heads! The Spanish Inquisition has been informed….

On a bitterly cold morning, with a scattering of snow and a very heavy frost, B141 crosses Carrowmore Bog with the 07:35 empty stock for the morning branch train from Dugort Harbour in January 1965….. Looks like there’s more snow in the sky….

These have GOT to be the best pics of any model locomotive I've ever seen. Superb models, please build hundreds more!

Bbb

Zooming in on our DSER 6-wheeler, on trial (successfully) on a friend's layout the other day. Yes, it's still 1935, but the Bell containers in the background appeared via a time machine (hauled by a DSER 0.6.0, of course).

Dunno what all the fuss is about. All they have to do is tell the passengers to sit closer together.....

I’d love to see the Guinness loco at Whitehead restored to this, its original livery! They were a dark olive green, a bit darker than what Stradbally has, but not massively different.

Ex-DSER stock didn’t wander much, bar one dining car and a few other instances. I can’t state this as fact, but I suspect the reason that so much DSER stock was withdrawn earlier was that many vehicles were of non-standard lengths. DSER coaches (older 6-wheelers anyway) has different types of door lock mechanisms, but also the older DSER thirds were very cramped and uncomfortable. Senior’s recollections were the only detailed direct eye-witness accounts of travelling in DSER stock that I was ever aware of.

Well, threads are his business….

A few more pics I took at Brookhall Mill the other day, these ones mostly showing locos and rolling stock. Those GNR coaches look excellent, as does the inevitable (Leslie's) UTA Brown Van. After 1958 they started infiltrating the ex-GNR bits of the UTA's declining rail network, and were to be seen alongside silver, green and eventually black'n'tan CIE "tin vans" on both the Dundalk - Gt. Victoria St. stretch, and the Derry Road.

Sorry I missed the event! (Though I did see it on Saturday...!) A really excellent little set-up. I was familiar with several of these linen mills in the past, and this model really captures the atmosphere of the likes of Barbour Threads or the Island Mill in Lisburn......

This is looking very promising!

This was tested today at a friend's layout. It runs perfectly. Westcork, for a short whelbase vehicle these coaches were 28ft long rather than the normal 30ft, favoured by most Irish railway companies. The DSER also had some 31ft 6ins six-wheelers too. They, the BCDR and the CBSCR seem to be the odd ones out in design - with all sorts of variations of six-wheelers from 26ft to 37ft......... Carriages such as the above would have run on the main line to Wexford when new, from both Westland Row and Harcourt Street. When jhb171Senior commuted on the Harcourt St line in the late 1920s and early 30s, most of the remaining vehicles of this type had graduated to suburban trains on that line, along with some elderly non-corridor bogies and various older MGWR and GSWR six-wheelers which were brought onto the DSER in quite some numbers after the amalgamation; but they would almost certainly still have been seen on Macmine Junction - Waterford and the Woodenbridge-Shillelagh branches. Truly EXCELLENT model, and perfect (in green) to go behind a silver or green IRM "A". Awaiting the 1st class, 2nd class and brake 3rd versions eagerly!