jhb171achill

Note the CIE open wagon. It would be interesting to know how far beyond Enniskillen CIE / GSR / erstwhile GSWR (WLWR) and MGWR stock penetrated into the GNR. Much to derry via Omagh, no doubt; but elsewhere? Certainly, flying snails were no stranger to Enniskillen - including on coaches. When the SLNCR had excursions they often borrowed a few MGWR six wheelers from Sligo.

I'm looking at this now. The info I have is that this is one of my grandfather's photos - that much is correct, but the implication is, of course, that this means that he took it. However, here lies a puzzle. The guy in the driver's position is almost certainly him, so either there was some sort of timer on the camera (which I very much doubt) or he set it up on a tripod to get someone else to press the shutter. He often accompanied locomotives that were just out of Inchicore on trial runs, especially when he had been involved in the design drawings for whatever amendment was being done. But that does not for one second explain the garb. There are other family pictures - quite a few - among his collection showing him attired like this, but after years of looking at that pic I only noticed the figures in the cab today. So what on earth was going on..... I have no idea. The young fella to his left could be one of a set of cousins from Co Offaly - jhbSenior was only born in 1918. I'll need to get this image looked at again and enlarged more. It's an old glass plate neg, which is why it's so clear.

Senior's dad, i.e. HJAB of Inchicore, took this in Cobh about 1915 / 20.

For people with A class dirty minds, Senior took this pic - yes, of a diesel - about 1990. It is so dirty that he probably thought it was a steam engine underneath........

Goodbye to the “hellfire” and “thrash”! Wonder how the preserved ones will fare…..!

Correct, Leslie, they became essentially a full part of the CIE "H" van fleet and were treated as such. In fact, to a modeller, they are even more important in that role as they would be as GNR cement vans. Cement vans were limited in what they did or where they went - but in CIE guise these vans could - and did - turn up literally everywhere on standard goods traffic. I would guess they even briefly made it to Wisht Caark. They were to be seen on UTA goods on the Derry Road and to Belfast for the short last few years of goods traffic to those places. And your faded GNR lettering about returning to Drogheda is spot on - while it wasn't intended to show through the new CIE grey paint, often these things did; it would not be unusual either to see a faint trace of a large "G" behind the CIE roundel. The "slap of grey paint" could indeed be just that (though it covered the chassis too )...... All in all a lovely addition to your range! Congrats again!

No, unless he gave them away before he died. I know that the handful of models still owned by his family don't contain any road vehicles. His railway-liveried road models consist of the above, a GNR lorry and a Dinky toy bus in CIE green. All are Dinky toys except the one above which is Minic. Other than that, his vehicles were just ordinary Dinky toy cars etc of the day. he didn't repaint anything else that I can think of. Today I listed and catalogued the very last of the bits and pieces in his spares box - down to broken signal posts, etc., so at this stage it would seem that no further material is likely to come to light, though I am following up one more lead at present. It would be interesting to see models of the pre-IOC buses indeed. Intrigued by the story of a model T on the CVR - never heard of that...... Senior recalled seeing the little ones on the DBST all right - they used to go out that way for summer picnics.

Worry not……. You’re the last man on the planet that anyone could call “lazy”!

Fry also had road vehicles on his layout. Most of these were just bought Dinky toys, painted by him in railway liveries. Prior to the establishment of CIE, the GSR had its own road services. In terms of passenger transport, this related to the takeover in 1934 of the IOC (Irish Omnibus Company), to form the GSR road services. Around the same time the GSR set up their tourism wing, which would develop into CIE Tours. In terms of road transport, the GSR established their road services division too. Fry acquired a Minic toy lorry and painted it in GSR road services livery. Since the IOC buses were red and white, a livery which the GSR perpetuated until CIE green appeared in 1945, the road services initially used a bright red livery too. This is not to be confused with the dark maroon used by the GSR on railway carriages, of course. Fry's model is interesting in that it shows this livery - probably the single solitary thing in existence that does so; but also it shows the lettering. Prior to the GSR, the Irish language and script style were studiously avoided by railway companies, whose directors would almost to a man been of the opinion that it dodn't matter. We are all aware of the bilingual black enamel GSR station signs, much imitated today (despite the exact gaelic font used by the GSR being seemingly elusive in either real or model form!). However, on their road vehicles, they has "GSR" or its Irish equivalent, on both lorry (or delivery van) cabsides, as well as bodies. Fry meticulously reproduced this on his repaint of this proprietary model as shown. Note that on each side, the English and Irish version; on one side one version is on the cab, and the same version is on the body on the other side, and vice-versa. It is interesting to see this come to life in colour. I was aware of the livery details, but had yet to see it "in the flesh"; which I did today, as the very last remnants of Fry's ancillary spares / accessories were being sorted. and packed away. I hope to include this thing in a future display at the Casino model railway museum. With a growing interest in the earlier eras in Irish railways, this is timely.

.....and it might now, Michael, so it might! Connolly driver told me today (well, statement of the obvious!) that neither Dublin or Belfast have anything reliable - and spare - to use on this service. A disgrace.

Got to be one of the worst duds yet!

After the UTA takeover in 1958, many GNR railcars were still quite new and with fresh paintwork. A bit like the late 1980s addition of IR "set-of-points" logos to as yet un-tippexed locomotives, an interim livery for several years was the same GNR livery but with the GNR crest and "G N R" letters painted out, and the UTA "roundel" put on instead. Some of these were kickin' about like that until the Derry Road was in its last days, though by closure I'm pretty sure railcars were by then all green. I never saw a railcar in GNR livery, only carriages (and wagons). There were wagons marked "G N" on the UTA until they got rid of goods in 1965, and on a few ballast hoppers a bit beyond that. I'd say there were a few ex-GN goods vans on CIE which retained those markings until the late 1960s. I saw a wagon at Tralee's Rock St yard in the mid-70s with CIE marking, but these had been weakly applied, and the "G" of "GN" was clearly showing through. Perusal of IRRS or Ernie's images will show the odd wagon with "G S" faintly showing through CIE livery.

It's All-Ireland day in 1965, and Kerry are all set (as usual!) for Croke Park. Two locomotives leave Dugort Harbour with five packed coaches. At Castletown West they will add on another six bogies and a dining car for the journey to Dublin. Unfortunately, today will see a three point win by Galway......

There were still a handful of coaches in blue and cream (and GNR brown!) as late as 1964...... so possible, if (as leslie suggests) unlikely. I remember seeing a coach in brown in Lisburn about 1964/5. Last one I ever saw, and by some margin. A couple of years later, I saw a 3-car GNR AEC set in the same place, with one car in UTA green, one in UTA blue and cream, and the other brand-newloy painted in the then-new NIR maroon and light grey!

Yes

Funds are tight at the moment but I’m getting tempted……

It not only got to Thomastown that day - it got to Waterford, and on out to Clonmel! Wonder what the locals made of it. There's a pic of it there in Barry's and my book "Rails Through Tipperary". We believe it was probably a one-off.

Basically, for a small layout / shunting layout / simple-to-build / starter - or large-scale outdoor - a station with a loop and one or two sidings, made up in just about any configuration imaginable, is perfect. Probably the single best actual prototypes for something like that are Westport Quay, Tramore or (loco operated) Fintona.

Thomastown! On 9th October 1988, NIR sets (power cars) 68 and (now DCDR preserved) 69 were on a Clonmel - Waterford - Dublin Sundays-only public passenger train. They were on loan to IE at the time. The normal 071 + Mk 2 set was unavailable that day due to being in use on a GAA special. The two NIR sets were at that time in use on Dublin suburban services. A third set was on hire from NIR too, and in use on the Cobh line. Always thought Glenfarne (or Belcoo) would be a good candidate for a large-scale outdoor line - say 15mm gauge.

Even NIR 80 class railcars passed by there!

Some Fry models which I took pics of today for their social media pages.... 1. Giant's Causeway stock 2. Oil burner no. 342 in GSWR / GSR grey 3. Donegal "Phoenix" No. 11 - strangest thing ever, when ye think about it 4. CDR No. 7, the pioneering diesel railcar in Ireland and further afield. Just think, this is the ancestor of all those gaudily-coloured HST Pendolino ICR 450 class "customer tubes" which dart about the place here and in Brexitstan.......... 5. The "miissing link" between No. 7 and an ICR, No. 19 (of 19 & 20 - the CDR's last two new railcars, now resident in the Isle of Man) 7. The early days - Waterford & Tramore No. 4. Pity one of these old "singles" didn't survive - but one nearly did, being earmarked for preservation while still in traffic, but scrapped after an accident in 1934, by which time it was by a very long way the last "Single" in traffic in Ireland, or the neighbouring island..... 8. Fry's excellent little model of one of the pair of Dublin & Blessington railcars, which operated over that line from 1928 to closure in 1932.

Talking of which, after the 1925 amalgamation, the MGWR men nicknamed "K" class 2.4.0 No. 27 "The Beast" after the GSR had renumbered it as No. 666! (Superstition led to some drivers being reluctant to drive this locomotive!)

A recurring theme of mine since teenage years is either a 3ft gauge Achill line, ending up post-West Clare with stuff from there, Leitrim, Dingle and the newest Donegal railcars! Or, an Achill line in the 1980s with 141s trundling single dingy Park Royals along behind a spluttering Dutch van..........

Rasp ripple on one DD today, plus the zebra again on another.

Yes, I do get that (though perhaps not all preservationists do), but as far as possible this stuff needs to be hidden. I remember being somewhat shocked - as were my fellow committee members - when a council-chartered marketing consultant whose remit was to advise DCDR & Down Council on how to develop the railway - pointed at the Sligo railcar, a NCC brown van, a past-its-best G class loco and some other stuff stationed opposite the main platform at Downpatrick. To us, it was valuable railway heritage. But this man introduced to us the hitherto “foreign” concept that (a) 99% of the public see it as unsightly junk which demeans the place, and (b) places like heritage railways make their living out of such people, and scarcely get a red cent from those who populate keyboards with opinions about “they really should restore No. 1234, it’s a crime to see it rotting away”! His point took many of us aback - me certainly, as the historical side of railways forms my primary interest and always did. But he made his point, and to such extent as was practicable we made an effort to tidy the place up and send scrap-like images on wheels to sidings as far out of sight as possible. Now, of course space often mitigates against anything like this happening - but in retrospect, I (and my fellow DCDR people of the day) realised that this person was right…..