jhb171achill

Yes to all !!!!!!

Absolute shame. Hope somebody gives it the attention it deserves.

That is a quite outstanding layout! The scenic detail is the absolute best I've seen. The middle shed on the right is a masterpiece. I can just imagine that green door flapping about in a strong wind on a stormy night and banging against a wall outside and being flittered - with the wall (to the left) damaged too, and replaced by those rusty corrugated iron sheets - or, a loco with poor brakes or a rookie driver walloping it when it was shut and transforming it into lighting-up wood for the steam engines!

The final livery of 102 with black round the windows and the darker blue was short-lived, and she only wore it in her last days shunting Adelaide yard. Many of the fittings had been removed from the front by then, as well as the nameplates. So no trains were ever hauled by that livery, which was designed by the then loco engineer in York Road. I saw it daily at that time. At this stage, two trains came in from Dundalk each morning, with "pairs" up front usually, sometimes a single 141. One was cement, the other Guinness. I think the fert stopped in the latter days. As far as I recall, but I'd need to check, one of the "pair" shunted the yard at least to some extent, while newly-painted 102 sat forlorn at the back; while the other went back to Dundalk. I recall a pair of 121s struggling there with what for those days was an uncharcteristically heavy load one day. Mind you, I also recall steam locos shunting in that general area too! (GVS, Lisburn)...

On the basis of the above, and turning to modelling, a reasonable background for a small-space model railway could be a terminus with a single passenger coach (green six-wheel passenger brake or brake laminate of 19XX series, a "G611" class loco (or two!), and if ever available a good RTR "C" class too, a CIE brake van (CK Prints) and some goods vans and beet trucks. Perhaps a very good starter set might be sold, with a "G", coach, and half a dozen wagons and a van!

Yes, a couple of IRRS specials indeed. The pic above at Attymon showing a Park Royal and two tin vans would be on a day when the regular coach was away for servicing in Galway. When that happened, once every two weeks or so, they sent something like this. More usually it was a laminate with a heating van. Park Royals were extremely rare beasts indeed at Loughrea; the only time you'd be likely to see one usually was in the consist of one of the Mystery Trains from Dublin. Even GAA and pilgrimage trains often consisted of (standing room only, no doubt) the branch train, one coach with possibly a Galway-based laminate as well, trundling up to the junction and adding its people to a main line special! In other news, I spent all of yesterday with Barry Carse going through hundreds of slides with our next project in mind. He has amazing shots of all sorts of specials with consists that nobody would ever have thought of.

Yes, a reasonable conclusion! Had the 800s lived a FULL life, they’d probably have lasted to maybe 1985! Doubtless like that - but - “Supertrain”???

As others mention, a G with a specially adapted modern laminate brake (No 1910 of 1959) took over from steam and an old wooden composite in early ‘63. The G611 class (as you say, never the earlier three because they had no vac brakes) worked most trains but alternated with the C / B201 class on busy days. Of the seven, G611, 613, 615 and 616 seem to have been the most common, but 614 the least. By spring 1975 the G class were being sidelined and most of the remaining months had B201s. 141s and even a 181 made rate appearances, but increasing ones in the last year. Had the line survived, 1975 would have been the last year for the Gs anyway; so your period is 1963-75. The book is complete and has been awaiting publication for some time now. Hopefully this year. Six wheeled passenger stock was finally retired from service the same time the Gs started at Loughrea. The only stock they ever hauled was thus modern, on the Loughrea branch. Coach 1910 was replaced by a similar vehicle, 1904, a couple of years before closure following damage sustained during a rough shunt at Loughrea. Even though a G never even saw a six-wheeler at Loughrea, for the few months one was trialled earlier on the Foynes branch, the passenger accommodation on that line was a single elderly MGWR brake third six-wheeler.

Interesting! I think the black looks much better.

Ya will ya will ya will! yawill yawill yawill yawill yawill….

Possibly Omagh, yes. Separately, I have seen a pic somewhere of a railcar set in UTA livery at Strabane with a CIE "tin van" in tow..... the Belfast Newspaper Train used to drop CIE fitted vans of various sorts at Portadown which were added to the first down Derry Road service. In GNR days, these would have been the GNR's "V" vans, but after the 1958 breakup, those which stayed south were very quickly replaced by new CIE stock (tin vans). The UTA retained a few GNR vans for traffic from Belfast until the mid-60s. Thus, quite a few ended up in UTA dark green, but as far as I know only a single one ever got CIE (light, obviously) green. As an aside, the GNR's 1940-era bogie "P" vans, of which the last survivor is at Whitehead, ended up in CIE green and even (in one, or possibly two cases) black'n'tan, and those that ended up north seem to have avoided UTA green but were repainted maroon by NIR for postal traffic between Belfast and Portadown. Two, I think, were still doing that into the early 1970s. As a further aside, the whole subject of what the Americans call "tail traffic" at the back of passenger services is a whole arena of variation, and thus major modelling interest.

I'd assume it likely went on to Derry to stable? Tin vans got to Derry laden with newspaper traffic!

An IRRS jaunt over the INWR remnant just before it closed (1960) saw CIE green (albeit on an GNR railcars) tread the rails of Dundalk - Clones as well. A green "A" plus green laminates also made it to Ardee with the IRRS. Wasn't aware of that, but possible, of course. The Carrickmacross CIE locos were based in Dundalk. Had the Wisht Caark section survived even to 1965, black'n'tan would have been regularly seen there on something other than the lifting trains! The West Clare also just narrowly escaped the start of the black'n'tan era. Imagine a black "F" or black'n'tan Walker railcars!

Interesting survivors…. The “A” class never got that far, and while I don’t think a 121 did either, I couldn’t swear to it. But 141s - yes, over a period of about 18 months they made several appearances. Goods trains saw many a CIE wagon - flying snails were no strangers to this route, and in the last couple of years, a few “roundels” too! Worth adding, other than the still-existing GNR lines, the “A” class did make it to some other closed GNR places. I think they got to Warrenpoint, and they certainly got to Monaghan (via Cavan).

The sound of those yokes has never been heard by the majority of people, but I was one of the lucky ones.... and despite this, IRM have managed to capture it very accurately indeed. I remember the first time I heard it - it was 102, and she was only days in traffic. Compared to a usual A class (both Crossley and then-new GM variant), and endless AEC and BUT railcars at the time, or a 121 / 141 / 181 it was just so different. Well done to whoever created that sound again!

Wow times two!

Serves the seller right.

Indeed, and several other fast suburban tanks of 2.6.4T or 2.8.4T type…. I think maybe “E” class? I saw two out of use in Delhi but I can’t remember the details.

I'm just thinking at this level of detail. a "WT" Jeep would have to have a fully-working Willie Graham, Barney McCrory and Frank Dunlop in the cab......

Unfortunately that’s just a few years before I was there. I’m pretty certain none of those were still about - certainly not in traffic. I didn’t see any even in scrap lines.

Not as a regular thing, though….. another “one-off” would be a transfer of a handful of empty cattle trucks somewhere in the Cork area once….. in their last days.

Yes, the SPS class 4.4.0s and SGS class 0.6.0s were in daily use well into the 1980s, possibly early 90s. I missed them, unfortunately, though I saw a near-equivalent 4.4.0 in India, out of use.

Aha! Must ask the Wee Birdy…..!

An XE would be nice!

It's that live Fintona horse, I can feel it in me waters.