jhb171achill

This has got to be the single, solitary most stupid proposal ever put forward. It puts decisions like abandoning freight, selling goods yards, closing West Cork, Tramore, Harcourt St, the BCDR and the Derry Road into third place. It’ll kill the line, already hamstrung by having filthy 29s on some services, and Castlegregory branch speeds over the entire route. Maybe that is what the No Trains Authority wants?

Some of these ads on things like fleabay or done deal are borderline fraud…… Indeed. Listing it as “vintage model locomotive” might be better.

Is that clown STILL trying to sell that thing!!!

I knew it. The Brexiters invented all that stuff........ SUPERB! Greeat work.

That’s the trouble with terminology today - it has to be gobbledegook to “impress”. Back in the day, when the English language was used on the railway, you had brake standards, open composites, side corridor seconds, corridor thirds, six wheel lavatory firsts, and the like. Obvious. Now, it has to DBSO-2F, BSK(II), SGHT MK 2-SO(T) and the like…… No doubt when the De Deitrichs and Mk 4s go, we’ll be faced with an array of identikit vehicles, but called “A”DFGH-1, “B2”-EV, SSD5 and so on. Rant over.

Even by the NTA’s standards, this is a several light years beyond stupid, as are the Cavan & Leitrim style speeds over the entire route.

The Enterprise is probably the most comfortable of all these days.

Tis true; “Dunluce” was / is No. 74. Good to meet you again yesterday, Galteemore!

Re-liveried LMS loco as NCC

It would take three weeks, probably!

As far as I’m aware this is underground. Probably looks like a massive underground car park, wherever it is.

Yes, there is space thus allocated, but no actual construction. The area is, as I understand, used for storage.

On the main lines nowadays the only steam locomotives which are feasible to opetare are those which can do all of the following: 1. Haul a train with sufficient seats to pay the colossal cost of the operation, between IE charges, crews and coal. That instantly rules out several RPSI mainline locois, never mind shunters. 2. Haul a train at a sufficient line speed to fit into a timetable slot. This also rules out many RPSI locos which are bigger and faster than shunters. 3. Have sufficient coal and water capacity to travel longer distances than any shunter 9or 90) were built for. Gone are the days when many rural lines here had only one or two trains - or none - on a Sunday, and perhaps only 3 or 4 each way on a weekday. The railways are (happily) getting busier by the day, and with the population predicted toi go on rising for the next 20-30 years at least, this one ain't gonna get easier, Consequently, the emphasis will increasingly be on reliable larger locos which can keep time. Downpatrick os the place for 5'3" gauge steam long term. There really is no other likelihood of that anywhere. Plus, technically it's "main line"; the line from Downpatrick out as far as where the Inch Abbey line diverges to the right, plus North Junction to the southern limit of the line, is part of the former BCDR main line from Belfast to Newcastle! No. 90 will return to traffic as soon as finance and manpower allows there, and there are always the two Sugar Co. locos. The RPSI's two no. 3s have both worked there in the past - in fact the Guinness loco was the first steam loco to operate there in preserved days. Bottom line: 3BG, LPHC3, CSET3, 1 & 90 will not be able to operate tours on the NIR / IE systems again.

Ah - thanks for that (and apologies, Gareth, if you're reading....!)

Good to meet so many familiar faces last week. A few pics from Brookhall, and Alan’s outstandingly good BCDR models! IMG_0531.mov

Easter running today - oil tank transfer. IMG_0554.mov IMG_0552.mov IMG_0553.mov IMG_0551.mov IMG_0550.mov

And the translation reads…… ”Numma eighteen on menu extra flied lice and chips” (I’ll show meself out…..)

I couldn't resist it - I told him too!

That's racist, Ted.

I like the 31s too, or indeed anything in the "BR Blue" era! I witnessed the start of this in a family holiday to North Wales at a time when steam had just ended on that line, and what went past all day was 101 class railcars (THEY call them "DMU"s), class 47s on long-distance expresses to Holyhead - often loading to about 12 bogies, as far as I remember - loose-coupled goods trains and class 24 or 25s...something like that.... most trains were a mix of blue/egrey and maroon carriages..... and I had better hearing and less years on the clock. Senior went over to Brexitland about once a year on Permanent Way Institution jaunts, and took a few pics in various parts of Britain; thus:

Correct on all points; as early as the early 1950s they had 1920s GSWR bopgie compo on the line, usully with an elderly MGWR 6-wheel brake 3rd. But as you say in the early 60s a traditional rake of three six-wheelers reappeared for a while, as above, before 2111 appearing for the final steam fling. While I don't have the number, in the very last few years a modern silver "tin van" was also to be seen attached to 2111. 610 was a regular on the line in its last few years.

Absolute utter mess, presided over by the NTA - who, if murmerings from those in the know are to be believed, are as anti-rail as the 19450s UTA. UTA / NTA. One also hears that the car parking and provate bus lobby don't want any railways anywhere near any airport; an unfortunate relation to the idea of Dublin Port wanting all trains well away from the place. Can we EVER get ANYTHING right? In China, this would be built in a week, with CPOs slapped on every carpark in the way.

Looks very like it!

Lovely old flat-sided Belfast & Northern Counties six-wheeler in the middle there!

Looks superb. This should be a very interesting project. Within which period are you setting it, or will it be a bit of everything?