jhb171achill

I've a set of most or all of them, if anyone is interested in me fishing out any article for them and posting it here....

Interesting.....painting a coach under a bridge! Only in Ireland.............! Apart from anything else, given that date, these would have been amongst the very earliest things painted in that liver which was only very new then......

No. The grey and yellow livery was gone from most of these locos by about 1965/66, though two of them seem to have retained it until about 1968. That's still two years too early for any brown wagons of any sort. However, the broken wheel appeared about eighteen months after the 121s started work, but on GREY wagons rather than brown. The broad guide is this: Up to 1963: All wagons grey, all with flying snails (by this stage, almost all stencilled on but a few older ones still painted on). 1963-1970: All wagons still grey, including earliest cement bubbles. Some still with flying snails, but increasingly with broken wheels. On "H" vans and "Palvans", the broken wheel had white letters and a tan surround, but on all other stock it was all-white. 1970-1987: Wagons painted brown, though many grey ones, including the ODD one still with a snail*, lingered on to the extent that when loose-coupled freight disappeared about 1976, a good 20% or so of the wagon fleet was still grey. But all new stuff, and everything fitted, brown after 1970. Broken wheel always white. 1987 to present: Brown, but no logo. After around 1990 the brown has got a very slightly more reddish tinge. 121 class locos: 1961-mid 60s: Grey & Yellow (not silver, as I've seen described; that's mixing it up with 1950s A, B101, C, D, E401 & G601 classes). For two locos (I think), grey and yellow was actually repainted and lasted until about 1968. 1968-1972: Black'n'tan 1972-1987: "Supertrain" orange and black 1987-end: Same, but with the "tippex" white stripes added and (first) the "set-of-points" logo, later the "three-pin-plug". (* I saw a "H" van as late as 1975 or 1976 still with a "snail" on it (grey, obviously)....) I'd love to have seen one of these things in late 1950s green, or even Belmond dark blue; but that's just the deluded ramblings of an oul wan!

Sure about that? The so-called “works” was nothing but a siding under a bridge. The old carriage shed was virtually derelict (what was left of it) before the line closed - and the Black and Tan livery didn’t exist when it closed. If such a repaint did happen, it’s going to be on a derelict siding under a bridge in a freight yard after it’s main line has closed. Possible, but why not do it in Glanmire, where there were better facilities?

It was an unusual one on two other counts as well. First, it was on two levels. Secondly, it was not purpose-built as a works for a railway company; it was a former industrial premises (originally) of non-railway background! Yes, an ideal layout potential.

Indeed. Even worse in the days of the 4 and 6 wheeled tin vans - whether in silver, green or black'n'tan livery they always seemed to be FILTHY whereas passenger-carryong stock was kept remarkably clean.

I must say I like the SF BR genny in RPSI maroon.........

Tin vans have a much greater and wider field of application than many realise. As well as being tagged onto ALL diesel hauled passenger trains in the 1960s, they also were to be seen (when new (and silver)) on the back of steam trains, both branch and main line. They made occasional appearances in goods trains carrying parcels and newspapers, especially on the Dublin - Dundalk - Portadown - Belfast goods. Until 1965 they were to be seen unhooked at Portadown awaiting hitching to either the Derry (Foyle Road) goods, or stuck on the back of an AEC set heading that way. On CIE main lines, they were often seen on the back of AEC sets too, carrying parcels. As well as THAT, mail trains could often have up to half a dozen of them, right from the late 50s through to the mid 1970s. I saw a photo (might be one of Barry C's unpublished ones) of a Cork down mail some time early 70s, with the first four vehicles being tin vans, then a TPO and some other stuff, and another couple of tin vans at the end. Note: if buying Silverfox ones, tell him to put a silver roof on it - he makes them BLACK, which is wrong for the silver livery - but correct for all other stock - which he puts light grey roofs on! We BADLY need an IRM range of these things....

I have to say that in terms of pre-1960 models, if the posts here are any indication, or the number of enquiries I get from modellers a third my age in some cases about what ran with what back then, the interest levels and knowledge base in the “grey’n’green” era seems to be rising over the past few years - small though it is in the grand scheme of railway modelling. The recent efforts of Messrs. IRM, Provincial, JM & OO will no doubt have helped immensely. One doesn’t have to remember this era personally. It is an era which is by far my personal biggest interest, and that of many younger than me, but my very earliest railway memories are from about 1961.

Airfixfan may well comment on this too - but given the location of Donegal Railway Heritage Centre, and the cross-border residencies of several of the volunteers involved, it would be perfectly feasible for them to arrange for it to be posted either in Donegal (Irish / EU postage) or in the north (Brexitsterling postage).

Could be off a traction engine.

No…… nothing brown ever had the snail, other than a couple of (untypical) breakdown vans which were painted brown for the PW Dept.; one featured in many lifting trains in the late fifties. The “flying snail” was replaced by the “broken wheel” in 1963, but all forms of routine goods wagons - be they goods vans, guards vans, cattle or open wagons - remained grey until 1970, with many never becoming brown. A 1960s scene will have nothing but grey wagons; some will still have snails, but any repainted 1963-70 will have CIE roundels.

Can we put some rats into the 26, 28 and 29 class railcars?

Some of the other small companies taken over by the GSWR a long time ago were the same - old and very inferior passenger stock, which the GSWR dumped almost instantly - along with their wagons.

I would think that those "uncomfortable" flat-sided coaches would have been withdrawn just about as immediately as the GSWR could manage it. I've never heard of any getting GSWR livery - but more importantly, Inchicore was churning out brand new bogies by this stage, so there was a very good stock of quite new 6-wheelers drifting about to replace them.

Mystery solved then; the yellow posts for invasive weed, and the thing on the platform sides to measure the heights of rats in relation to rail level...................

Anyone know what these things on platform faces are for? They’re to be seen, all with different numbers and settings, all over the place. Also, at various spots on NIR, especially between Central and City Hospital, there are dozens of roughly metre-high wooden posts on embankment sides, painted in a very bright day-glo yellow. Same question….

Once the new 00 Works J15s are about the place, and the Hattons six-wheelers, the "grey'n'green" (and silver) era will get a well-deserved further boost. In an era where all trains consist of a set of entirely the same vehicles, and there are but two types of locomotive on the island, the 1950-70 period is surely the most interesting in railway history.............

He's been too long in a small hostelry up in Buckna or Bollyclurrr, so he has, with Cushendall's best poitín, so it is.

Superb!!!!

In all reality you’ll see little there which isn’t here too - if anything - in terms of Irish railways. For those into British or worldwide stuff, especially the more specialised aspects of it, there is much of interest, though.

I rarely look at it. IRM is the “go-to” for matters Irish; quite possibly RMweb serves better those who choose to model the 7ft 5 and seventeen-nineteenths gauge Arbroath to Pembrokeshire line in 1852. (Not 1853, very obviously)….. My understanding is that it is administered by a small number of unpaid individuals; if that is the case (and I can’t verify or deny it), one might understand; however, the ads are excsessive, all over the place, and annoying to the most patient. I made a comment to this nature on it one time and they barred me straight away! They did, to be fair, re-instate me - though I see little content there that isn’t here too. Life’s too short. I’ll stick with boring people here, rather than both of them!

Perfect; thus, what the brexitstanners call a "DMU" is hereby and henceforth officially a "CR".....

Some interesting stuff there, all right. (I wasn't aware that Ballyshannon was in "Britain", though!)

Oh no, just curious! I'm all for retro stuff, as you might imagine! And yes, I'd love to see an NIR railcar in UTA green or GNR navy & cream; and an ICR or 201 in older CIE dark green, complete with pale green lining and "snails"................