jhb171achill

I would be inclined to agree - albeit somewhat cautiously.

“Leaps and bounds” springs to mind!

Numerous narrow gauge variations in a number of South American countries…. 3ft, metre, 3’6”….

Delighted to be able to say that today the DCDR and Headhunters Railway Museum in Enniskillen took delivery of a number of former "Castle" models for display there on permanent loan. So it's out of the storage boxes for these fine models, and into the public eye. Several other items will eventually go to the Model Railway Society of Ireland and the South Dublin Model Railway Club. Other models have been retained in the Malahide Model Railway Museum, where they will be rotated to run on the upper level display track. These will include a total of nine trains representing the eras from pre-1925 to modern times, steam to diesel to Dart to Luas. Yes, even a 2-car 2600 in lime & navy livery. Future work will involve trying to get funding and display space for the remaining Fry-buyilt stuff which is still in storage - this consists of Fry's British models, which are mostly LNWR & LMS prototypes, which he was most familiar with.

Very nice work indeed!

It wasn't me, and I wasn't even there when I didn't do it.

Ah! Mea culpa....see my amendment above! The live steam 15mm scale GNR "PP"?

Absolutely fantastic to see this work started. Best of luck to all involved - at Ireland's only operational five fut three HERITAGE railway!

Indeed there was. I don't know the details, but they were built about the same time too. I think they. too, were 4ft 8 1/2.

Yes, you read that right. In 1961, the year the 121s were delivered, General Motors built a prototype six-wheeled version of one of these, which would spend its entire working life shunting within their works at La Grange. They offered the class for sale but the only customers they ever got were an industrial site who bought one, and the Lebanese Railways who bought 4 - which were used on passenger services just like our 121s. So there were only ever 6 of them. One, apparently, remains in storage somewhere there, though long out of use. All of them were 4 fut 8 1/2 inch gauge. They had 600hp engines - GM 567 type. This would presumbaly have resulted in them being categorised as "C" class - thus (probably) the C241 oir C251 series? In the parallel world of Rule 1, CIE got one as a demo along with the "real" 121s, and it ended up shunting at Dugort Harbour until it went on fire in 1970 and was scrapped. I thought that a beast like this might make a nice rainy-day project some time, if my eyesight holds up. So, I obtained a MIR 121 body kit some time ago, and if time EVER permits (which it may not!) I would like to hack and botch this body - which is cast metal and weights almost as much as the real thing - by shortening it a bit (I think these engines were about 30ft long) and putting some sort of 6-wheeled power bogie under it. It would need to be capable of DCC conversion. Which type of bogie wouldn't matter - the "real" thing is not real at all - no 5'3" equivalent ever existed. I was thinking maybe a power bogie off a British class 31 or something.... the other thing is that you can't actually SEE what type of power bogie it would be, as these engines in real life had a large, thick, heavy bar alongside, so whatever gubbins are below platform level are invisible anyway. I throw this out as what it is - any suggestions or comments appreciated, especially re a suitable bogie (121 body is narrow!), with both space and technical suitability for DCC.....

Wow! That depot itself is a masterpiece in its own right! The fact that its creator is a lifetime professional railwayman shows through in bucketloads…..

Coming along very nicely indeed!

Good to see ye! Looking forward to the pics........ (We can forgive the Liverpool stuff...)

Indeed they were, yes - but again they got filthy, especially in steam days.

Absolutely brilliant news, Leslie! Looking forward to seeing them. Yes, indeed, all brown-painted wagons had brown roofs, though these tended to weather to a nondescript dunduckety-mud colour!

There were no 4-wheelers (of old style) after the 1890s - bar one or two which made it to the 1910s, and which kept their footboards. In terms of the "new" 4-wheeled "tin vans", none of these, nor the handful of 1965-built 6-wheel equivalents, had footboards at all - these were only on wooden bodied stock. Six-wheelers - the default design of coaching stock from the late 1870s to the 1920s, with survivors in use until 1963 - all had footboards initially, though a very small number, usually specialised one-offs, seem to have lost them (Waterford & Tramore line springs to mind, plus one at least in Wisht Caark).

Wow! Has to be some sort of chemical reaction. Possibly, in order to expose the culprit component, do some experiments with the glue or the sand on the bent (scrap) bits?

Wow……..!! The AI thing will indeed revolutionise life - dunno whether mostly good or bad! My fear would be that it will be used commercially to try to make us buy certain things……

Indeed - jhbSenior was one - but of the “AND Sullivan” variety….

No, they’re in O’Donoghues pub; it’s the guard’s birthday.

Given that it’s supposed to be in the early 50s, perhaps this is better!

Many thanks, Gabhal Luimnigh! Dunno where she got the "expert" bit from!!! I had actually forgotten about that interview.... it shows the model railway museum off nicely though; hopefully more visitors. Serious point of course - people in general DO need to be more aware of their local, social and economic history - and the role of their local railway is a very important part of that - it's from where their Great Aunt emigrated in 1929 to go to Melbourne, Manchester or Massachusets............. and if you get a young mind engaged, IRM and others will produce more models in 10, 20, 30 & 40 years' time!

Wow - this is looking very promising! What area of the country are you planning to replicate? GSWR territory probably easiest due to the 00 Works J15s, and forthcoming Hattons Irish six-wheelers. Plus, the GSWR was the biggest company, covering the largest area.

I think that Mr. William Posters has got enough out of us all by now............

Murphy’s?