jhb171achill

Absolutely superb stuff yet again, Mol! I am highly impressed with your detailed research! I was only ever in old Bredin "standards" (originally, third, of course). It still had old red upholstery. I know there were lots of older compos about, though I don't recall ever being in one. I recall one journey to Tralee in one when I was about 16. I was on a runabout ticket, and I ended up in a Bredin which smelled of damp, filled (every seat bar mine) with a crowd of teenage young ladies all on their way to the Ventry Gaeltacht....... No, I don't still have their numbers; they are probably all in nursing homes now anyway......

Hope you remembered to re-gauge it to 5’3”!

Where did you get the “2”s? I’ve long had that on my “to do” list, albeit low priority! Since my layout is 1960s, when there were still a few green coaches to be seen, most of my BnT stock would have them on.

Now THAT’S original!!!!!!!!!!

Did all six go to Tramore? I had a notion only four did…?

You're right, Haulier - I had forgotten! Still have them here....

Just seen an orange 071 pass Malahide on the up line with about 9 hoppers and a grey 071 at the Belfast end…

Anyone want these? 23 copies dated between the above dates. €50 the lot plus postage. Can personally meet in Dublin area or Belfast.

The “staff changes” bit can be interesting, in seeing someone transferred, for example, from Cavan to Bandon, Lahinch to Crossdoney, or Arigna to Loughrea! I’m trawling these as we speak for any Kenmare-related snippets… Exactly The above bits are from the April 1947 one.

I've got most of the issues April 1947 - June 1950. Not a HUGE lot of railway interest - mainly aimed at "normal people", with articles about things like cricket at Lords, Bray head walking trails, jokes about Hitler, etc. Mol - if you want to borrow them some time, let's make arrangements next time we meet.

Didn’t know the mine was still operating!

Yer man's a bit like the policeman in "Allo Allo" with the pronounciation "issues"!

Wonder who Aryanrud Aireyan are!

Totally agree!

Not for the first time, IRRS livery descriptions can vary from the incomplete or misleading, through descriptions of plans that didn’t turn out quite as described, to the downright inaccurate. The original interior had upholstery which technically was grey, but like steam loco livery so dark that in certain light it almost looked black. There was a very fine mid-blue fleck through it. The table tops could be a very pale blue or a very pale grey; not sure in what order. The walls had a Formica surface and checked design as stated but it was off-white and GREY, not blue, in all that I ever saw. Pale blue might have been used on the check design, but I certainly never saw it. If it was, there wasn’t much of it. The mock-wood effect took over by, at a guess, late 1980s. The brightish blue seen in some model upholstery is not correct. In IE times a mid-grey with blue and orange bits has been used, with blue-painted seat frames, but that was way more recent. Park Royals variously had the same extremely dark grey upholstery as described above, as did some laminates, though you’d also see both with a sort of mid-brown “mock leather” seat covering similar to some Dublin buses. The Loughrea coach, 1910, also had that. As long as I remember, Cravens had a very dark grey floor Lino, with white fleck through it.

I only travelled that line twice. The first time, maybe about 1975/6, it was raining lightly and quite cold when we got in. In the views you have there of the buildings on the platform, only the middle one is the station, the others being post-closure additions. The actual station house, if you look at it, with its red-brick structure too, and absence of awnings or large entrance doors from the platform, looks more like a domestic house; in fact, at the time it struck me as very like the 1862-built house I was brought up in. I was invited into the waiting room, just inside that “hall door” where an elderly lady was boiling the kettle. I don’t know who she was - she looked too old to be an employee and wasn’t wearing a CIE uniform. It was like being invited into a rural country kitchen. Time just seemed to stand still in there, with small talk among what looked like 2 or 3 locals, only one seemed to be a CIE person. It was an unusual but pleasant railway experience. Sitting in there on a bocketty old chair, mug of tea in hand, cosy warmth from an old AGA cooker (or some such thing), under a weak 60 watt single bulb in the middle of the ceiling, while the drizzle and wind outside made it their business to be hostile….

Meant to add, Kenmare would make a great subject for a terminus layout, and one which authenticity would require but a single class of locomotive - J15s! Plenty of rolling stock available. Two or three Genesis six-wheelers, plus any amount of Provincial / CK Prints / IRM wagons. Or apply Rule 1, and once available, put a 3-ICR on it!

I'm not one of the younger guys, but I have a book on this line about 3/4 finished; I'm actually working on it tonight.... Several interesting things happened on the line - a train overturned in the valley soon after it opened due to an embankment subsiding after an exceptionally wet few weeks, plus the more famous Headford ambush. Loo Bridge station and stationmasters house were burned to the ground during the troubles and rebuilt.... and, many see the line as always all-steam; but in the last three years, AEC railcar sets appeared on specials (mostly GAA)....

Yes, there was. In those pics taken from the buffer stop end, the goods area (2 sidings, cattle bank and small goods shed) would be to the left hand side, out of sight behind the passenger building. Beyond that were the loco shed and turntable. The water tower remains the solitary evidence of this station in existence today (and for many years). Next to the station site, (behind the photographer) was the station master's house, now derelict-looking the last time I saw it, though looking inhabited in recent years. The "day's work" began in Kenmare, throughout the life of the line; the loco was Kenmare-based and did two (at one time three) return trips per day to the junction. From 1953 or so to the end, nothing but J15s. An old 4.4.0 had been there in the early 50s for a while. When it first opened, several types of GSWR tank engines were used, including the 33 class.

Lambay!

I’ll ask Barry Carse when I see him. He probably has photos of it.

Not sure, I could be mixing this up with something else, but was this where they used tractors to push stuff into wagons?

There were more than a few “one-off” alterations. I suspect you’re seeing opposite sides of that coach and for some reason they’ve altered one end of one side from original….

That four-wheeled van it’s towing was one of several mobile tool vans. Operating between Kingsbridge and Inchicore would be typical of their use.