jhb171achill

For anyone who wanted to put together a very minimalistic small, sleepy branch terminus shunting layout, a thing like this and a loco and a few wagons is ideal. Services like the Clonakility line and Drimoleague to Baltimore in the late 1950s could often consist of simply one brake coach like this and a few wagons.

Looks well weathered!

This is correct - they did use black latterly! Plus, the green was in fact so dark that weathering and grime would have made it look black even if it was green. Bit like GNR blue domes, CDRJC red domes, and GSR / CIE grey livery - the all-enveloping smoke, coal dust, soot and oil patina that covered a hard-working steam engine almost made the actual livery invisible...

The level of detail on that beach alone is just fantastic.

When I saw this headline, I thought it was something to do with 12th July............

There needs to be a rusty supermarket trolly, some used nappies, cigarette ends, plastic bags, beer bottles and burger wrappers.....

The MM 182 looks, to me, to be too deep a colour for any era. The other shades are more accurate.

I wonder why some of those containers had a black band round the middle, and others maroon....anyone know? And - WHERE did they go to when they got to Larne?

Saw that only just now! Would that motor bogie suyit the GSR one? What do the wheels look like close up - hard to make out from that photo?

Wasn't even aware that any of them even ventured over there at ll..... but we can discount them pulling trains there! Youghal's the best bet, or as mayner says, very outside chance Galway - Tuam. Actually, Limerick - Sligo went all railcar prior to the 121s, so not on that service - but possibly a Tuam local?

Busy oil traffic today…. IMG_9942.mov

Simply the fact that they didn’t get round to repainting literally every single vehicle by the time the black’n’tan started to make its presence felt. The last dark green passenger-carrying vehicles in regular use, if we discount several narrow gauge vehicles, seem to have been several old relics in West Cork and at least one 6-wheeled brake third on the Valentia line.

In "time" terms, possible. The 121s appeared in 1961 and the very last six-wheelers were withdrawn in early 1963. However, there were only so many 121s, and they were actually used a lot on freight in their first year or two; passenger usage was all main line. None ever worked regularly on branches, and six-wheelers were by then only to be found on the Ballinrobe, Loughrea, ballaghadarreen and Kenmare branches, all of which were fully steam worked until after the last six wheelers were withdrawn. However, every good rule has an exception. Cork retained a couple of rakes of the six wheelers right to the end, and they were retained for use on Youghal excursions. It is therefore at least theoretically possible that a 121 hauled one of these - it would have to have only been in the summer of 1962. I'd almost lay money on it that they didn't, but they COULD have - and as always, "Rule 1" applies! I've an 00 Works CBSCR saddle tank on Dugort Harbour until the end of steam in '63, some sixteen years after the last of the real thing was scrapped! There's another exception. Several ex-GSWR FULL passenger brakes wre in use until 1968-70, and these are the inspiration for the Hattons black'n'tan brakes. THESE certainly WERE hauled by 121s, in particular on the galway mail trains - but in black'n'tan days. Correct - a 121 hauling anything in the darker green livery wouldn't have happened - it was not to be seen on main lines by the time 121s appeared. Lighter green in the circumstances described above. Of course, when 121s first appeared in grey, ALL passenger stock, including the most modern laminates, were green, or else the short-lived "silver". The earliest vehicles in black and tan started to appear when the 121s were some 18 months old.

Noticed today that one of the DD sets had blue 216, and another had one of the zebras, either 231 or 233.

Had forgotten about the Worsley etch, right enough…. probably easy enough to put together…. had a look at their website, though, and can't find it. Maybe they've stopped doing it? Power bogie an issue, of course, as you suggest!

Correct. That one was previously green, and as far as I am aware it's the only one which ever got the black'n'tan livery. I've no idea how many were green - again, possibly only one. I'm aware that one kept GSR maroon well into CIE days, but I do not know the details.

They only had 4 or 5 of them........... and, of course, they weren't out'n'about every day of the week. Presumably, if one was prepared to sacrifice chassis accuracy, a two-foot-rule-compliant one could be made up out of plasticard on a motor bogie from a diesel loco or railcar..........

Love the Lego one. Methinks I'll need one of them for Grandson171.

Somewhere, at some stage, there were comments here about modelling on of these. In the hope that it's of help, this is a pic my dad took, I believe in or about 1942, as he prepared to board it to go off and peer at track, or the underneath of a culvert or bridge somewhere. I don't know where it is, though if anyone here does, please advise! the GSR had several of these. For modellers, they were painted maroon with black chassis and roof. Lining, perhaps obviously, was paleish yellow, with yellow lettering shaded in red as per GSR norm. The GSR had several including one with the same body but narrow gauge wheels - this spent much time on the C & L, where Senior used it once to inspect the track. CIE inherited them, and at least a couple lasted into the 1960s, being replaced by those yellow Wickham things, two of which grace the rails at the Downs of Patrick. In CIE days they wore the dark green livery (never repainted in the lighter carriage shade), but I have a vague recollection of seeing one, or something like it, at one time in what looked like a varnished finish. I could be completely wrong on this, but I wonder if one was ever re-panelled and perhaps re-panelled in plain varnished sheeting of something like marine plywood?

Parental Advice Warning: Do not read the following, if you are Leslie or Galteemore.... Must say I thought that the UTA's black loco livery - which I remember well - suited formerly BLUE GNR 4.4.0s very well..... (I'll go off and flog myself now with a thorn branch till I bleed all over...)

Perfect! I will ping him accordingly. I think I'll put one at Castletown West. Mayner points out that they appeared from the early (rather than late) sixties, so it will suit me all the better. Even if I can't get the right types of containers for a while, it will look well. One essential thing, given my preference for a scene to look realistic, is that it can be removed from the layout, or placed back, with ease, as when operating with six-wheelers and 100% steam (steam fleet now eight strong) it would look out of place. But that's a nitpicking detail.... (even to me!)

Learned folks; As one whose ignorance of modern practice knows no bounds, may I ask a question..... The very earliest gantry cranes for lifting containers on and off wagons started to appear, as far as I am aware, in the late 1960s. Following the 1973 Rail Development Plan, a few more started springing up in various rural localtions. Is there a suitable model of something like this? I was thinking of 1965-75 period, and of a type that would be the smallest sort of gantry that was used in Ireland.

Actually, without wanting to derail this thread; I've an idea. As many here will be well aware, once containers and fitted wagons started appearing, and passenger trains started to be strings of the exact same type of aircon, air-braked, tube-like vehicles, my own interests started waning; on the retirement of the last 141s, I'm afraid that nothing in the modern scene is of the slightest interest to me. But - horses for courses..... However, there is, of course, and exception to every rule. I was tempted to get one 141 in supertrain livery, which if it dwelt among an otherwise entirely black'n'tan fleet, would be fine for the timescale I'm interested in - the fictitious Dugort Harbour managed to last, like the Loughrea line, until about 1975. So - by this time the "Rail Development Plan" is in its infancy, and those older, smaller, grey-coloured container gantries are appearing in various places. No reason why Dugort mighn't have had one for its last few years. Suppose I was to get some sort of gantry, which could be reasonably placed ON the layout when it's 1975, but removed other times, what sort of gantry would I get? Any container gantry experts out there? Such installations are itrems that I do not know the first thing about. If not Dugort, once Castletown West, currently plain track on plain boards, gets its scenery, I might put one there. It has to be removable, as it won't fit with steam engines!

Dang! Now I'll have to get a container gantry for Dugort Harbour!

They're just past Adavoyle right now, but there are cows on the line at Kellystown, and a man with a milk churn......