jhb171achill

Not "Enterprise"; but the jhb171 family all decamped to rural Co Galway over Christmas for a family gathering chez one of us who lives down there among the green fields and stone walls. Upon planning today's return to the Smoke, one of our number looked up the Ironroad Erin website last night to book a tocket for today Athenry - Kingsbridge. The website said 9last night) that there were no trains at all on the Galway line today, but there was zero mention of any engineering works, or perhaps trees down on the line, ICR-killing leaves on the line, or other such disturbances. Had we wanted to book Dublin - Sligo, or Cork - Thurles, etc etc, no probs. Westport, no probs. But nothing to Galway. So this morning we looked it up again. In two minutes flat, Relative had booked and paid for the 13:05 ex-Galway (Athenry 13:20). No probs. And she travelled on it, and the wifi worked.... What was wrong with that website last night?

Indeed; an interesting discussion, and one which I'll bring back to B134! Galteemore's dad, referred to above, for those who don't know, was RPSI Treasurer for, I think, 27 years. This period spanned from when the society was only a few years old, until the late 1990s when I took over. At this time the RPSI was truly an amatuer organisation; today it must, of necessity, be semi-professional in function and fully porfessional in standards. Galteemore Senior, let's call him JR, saqw the society take its earliest financial steps, and presided over its finances through not only its financially delicate early years, but this aganist the background of the "Troubles". Keeping a voluntary body stable and afloat throughout a thirty year long, slow-burning civil war is not exactly a walk in the park, especially when the domestic market, north AND south, was in almost constant recession. People simply did not have the disposable income in the 1960s, 70s and 80s that they have now. Nothing close. Despite JR's best efforts, the best treasurer on the planet can't get people off settees on Saturday afternoons and into trains; but boy, did JR try. As (pre-treasurer days) I well knew, on-train sales were but part of widespread and imaginative efforts top raise money. Along with a very youthful Galteemore, his brother, a couple of friends (Mike, I know you're reading this!) and members of my own family, we visited agricultural shows, selling books about tractors, we sold "Britains" toy balers and much spreaders to persons of a rural disposition at such events, we sold books on and off trains, and at every station we got off the train and flogged badges, posters, gawwd knows what, soft toys (and, yes, toy tractors) to the unsuspecting public on station platforns who were either waiting for the 14:25 to Woodlawn, Glarryford or Thomastown, or in the station to rubberneck at a steam train. JR and a couple of other members compiled a book about Belfast trams which I hawked about bookshops, convenience shops and newsagents in Belfast, while JR did the same in Carrickfergus and many another place, I am sure. Plus, there was the shop at Whitehead; a portakabin with a leaky roof which was the nerve centre of the Giant Teddy Bear Raffle; the ancestor of today's "Everyone's a Winner" raffle on board trains. Why sell teddy bears and toy tractors if ye are a railway organisation? - I hear you ask. Before continuing, the following answer is not for the faint-hearted, is X-rated, and parental advice and smelling salts may be necessary. The answer is, quite bluntly put, that Irish railway enthusiasts, north and south alike, will not buy railway books and specifically railway-orientated stuff on board trains. In contrast, English enthusiasts (yes, and Scottish!) will, do and did! The May Tour (90% English bookings) always sold more railway books than every single other sales outles source, in any year. And I don't mean 10% more: probably 95% of the sales of railway books and RPSI-branded merchandise was sold on the forst weekend in May! So, JR (quite rightly) took an early view to flog what people would buy - on Portrush Flyers and Mullingar excursions (there were no Santas back then). This meant plastic "train whistles" for three-year-olds, "Thomas" flags, furry toys, colouring books. With attendances at agricultural shows busy all summer from as far afield as Newtowncunningham, Co Donegal, Upton, Co Cork, Fenagh, Co Carlow, and all sorts of other places, the toy tractors, balers and all things haulage-truck-and-tracxtor related, were the only show in town. With a very respectable differential between what the RPSI paid for them and what we sold them for - what we found we COULD sell them for, the money rolled in and went directly to steam locos and the RPSI's newly-acquired coaching fleet of ex-CIE and ex-UTA / NIR steam stock. I took over as Treasurer in 1988, and would continue in this role until 2000, whenh pressures of family life and a million other things made me ralise I hadn't the time to devote to do this effectively. I remained on the finance committee for probably another twelve years. The challenges mounted financially all the time, as the society went through its growing pains from a relatively inexperienced amateur group of people to the necessarily hardcore professional body it must be today. All the while, JR was somewhere to be found in the background, chipping away at the ever mounting challenges of balancing the books as railway and engineering prices exploded through one roof after another. But JR wasn't the only one. At an early stage in my own financial career with the RPSI, a cheque for £1000 sterling arrived in my letterbox one day. No, it was not for me to buy IRM goodies, or even to buy Provincial Wagons goodies; it was FROM our own mr. Provincial Wagons himself, but in his alter ego as the cheque-writer for the small band of London-based railway enthusiasts called "The Syndicate". I was delighted to accept it and respond accordingly. This, i was to learn, was not the first such donation, nor would it be the last. In addition, any time an appeal went out for a new loco restoration project or the like, another cheque would arrive. These illustrious gentlemen carried oput their own equally relentless fund raising activities in the London area, where Irish ex-pat railway enthusiasts are a fantastic lot - most being members of the RPSI and the IRRS. The purpose of the "Syndicate" was to simply raise money for "good causes" in railway preservation in Ireland. I had known Leslie before that, but from now, I looked forward to receiving these donations from the "Syndicate". Folks, when you see JR on board trains, or his sidekicks, or you are invited to divert your inciome stream in some way towards the "Syndicate" at RPSI / IRRS / other events in London or that general neck'o'the woods, PLEASE do so. There are many railway preservation projects, but the "big" ones like the RPSI lead the way - and don't forget Downpatrick either. RPSI & DCDR are the only 5'3" steam operators on this island, and both - in their own ways - face ever-mounting expense. The RPSI has lost its northern market now, with the sad and untimely death of NIR's only steam driver. With Dublin being several times the size of Belfast, and statistical evidence many decades old showing that people in the greater Dublin area in general spend a higher proportion of their disposable income on days out than their counterparts in the north, it stands to reason that the Dublin market - and commercial profit - is way bigger than that the RPSI has had on NIR metals - but - any income is valuable, and any loss of income results in something worthy of restoration languishing on a siding, until the elements take it to its rest. Downpatrick, meanwhile, is facing damage caused by a flood which Noah would have been proud of. Hope that ark didn't have traction motors; such would have made a nice Chapter VIIIIIIIIXXVVIII of 1st, 2nd & 3rd Deuteromonosis. I digress; why earn money, why donate money? Because locomotive restoration costs zillions. We see, all the time, amongst the uneducated press in local papers, "Why don't they reopen the XXX line for tourists and steam tyrains? Sure it'd make a fortune!" No, it most certainly would not. Even if the tooth fairy waved a wand, and built it, plus ten new-build steam locos for it, someone has to maintain them, replace boilers when necessary, etc etc etc etc. DCDR and RPSI already HAVE operational steam engines - but not only that. They now also have carriages, premises and colossal insurance bills. The meter's running. JR, the Syndicate, and others who have made often substantial private gifts to the various societies over the years (one of whom will also be reading this), are all too well aware of this. And so to B134; WITHOUT the efforts of the aforementioned, B134 would now either be under a tarpaulin in a yard, almost certainly never to run again, or already scrapped. And that's it; we owe the aforementioned a great deal of gratitude, and may the Syndicate keep syndicating away, and JR continue raffling, for many many years to come; we should support them as much as we can. Phew.

2ft wide will just give enough room, I think, for a curve in N gauge; thus N or 009 track to represent 3ft gauge, so maybe a build scale of about 3mm-ish to the foot, if you7 want a circuit. Anything bigger in scale, it'll be an end-to-end layout.

Finescale, I’m thinking….

Is this poetry O or OO scale?

Only seeing this now. I can get all of these details - am I too late?

Same idea as the sort of trans-ship goods sheds you’d have got at Dromod, Belturbet or Strabane….

What scale will you use?

Great work, coming on well!

Recalls teenage ideas I had about a layout based on an imaginary narrow gauge line on Achill Island…. That’s the thing about a fantasy layout - you can have the Flying Scotsman hauling Festiniog stock with a De Dietrich driving trailer on 7ft gauge track, and no-one can say it’s wrong….. but IF such an island had existed, and IF it had a railway, it’s reasonable to assume a branch off the West Clare….. Now, THAT would be nice, and very easy to operate; a single Walker railcar, for example…. and a loco and few wagons for the goods….

The Holy Stone thing I can see, but sure the airport at Knock would be a bit far-fetched…..

It’s the best I’ve seen. I’m aware if several good G scale models having been made using these. Always thought the Wisht Clare stock, from locos to carriages and wagons, was of very attractive / interesting designs.

Stunningly good!!!

In my case, mulled wine, then wine (my daughter ran out of mulls) and now multiple Guinnii.

You too!

Indeed; apart from the well known pair of GSWR Plough Vans which lasted well into Irish Rail days, there was still a MGWR bogie flat in use in the mid 1970s. I saw it at North Wall one afternoon….

“So remember, write to me from Maynooth, and remember to give Gerry that parcel. I’ve it wrapped ‘an all in the bottom of your case” ”Its fine, don’t fuss!” ”And you’ve two cheese sandwiches in the bag, and a Kit Kat. Make sure you have the tea in the flask before you change in Mallow or it’ll have gone all cold” ”I’ll be fine, I’ll write you when I’ve settled in!” ”Have a good journey, son….ahh, it’ll be SUCH an honour to have a priest in the family!”

Arrival, Dugort Harbour, of the connection off the 08:00 from Cork, July 1969.

When trains ran on Christmas Day…. “So yer man has me on the Tralee passenger on Christmas Day - again. That’s three years. He’s at that on purpose, I’m tellin’ ya. He could’ve put Tony on it - sure he’d be glad of the overtime. But no, he puts me on it. An’ he puts Tony on the Cork railcar on 27th - two days off he gets. Wish they’d transfer yer man back to Kilkenny……” Happy Christmas to all here!

The day before the big autumn fair, 1965…. Cattle empties have been arriving since 04:12, and now B141 brings in the last three. It will take this loco, currently pilot engine in Castletown (C207 has broken down again), and A55 to get everything in place before B144 arrives with the morning mixed. A55 will return light to Castletown to take the up Tralee goods, while B141 remains, because with the run-round loop full of cattle trucks, it will have to back on to the incoming train to release B144.

The day before Dugort Cattle Mart, December 1957…. “It’s not just the coupling, the axle’s broke too - look underneath!” ”John will have to take the other van off the cattle empties….gonna be some fun tomorrow with this thing in the way an’ forty two cattle vans comin’ in….”

The orange surround, white letters, was also prototypically correct, but only on "H" vans and "PalVans". In fact, far more grey H's had tan and white ones than all-white, though I saw both. On open wagons, older timber-bodied vans, ex-GNR vans and (post 1970) everything brown (without exception) the rojundel was always all-white.

You've thought that out WELL!

All churches have a church mouse. I wonder what an 00 scale one would look like….. Plus, Fr. Hedclogher of the parish might need a cat to catch it with…..

Couldn't agree more!