jhb171achill

A well-known former RPSI member was a ship's engineer on trawlers in his earlier working life. He was a notoriously argumentative type (when I was RPSI treasurer he rang me in one of his many drunken rages at 02:30 demanding a refund for expenses he claimed to have incurred!).... Argumentative on North Sea trawlers, too. Can you imagine being cooped up with someone like that on a trawler on the North Sea for 2 weeks? Well, if that wasn't bad enough, he didn't get on with the skipper! One day the skipper told him there was something rattling in his (very tiny) bunk room and he couldn't sleep, because the rattle was right overhead, maybe a foot away from his head when sleeping. Our man found the issue, tightened it up, but at the same time put a marble inside a pipe which ran literally alongside his bunk. That was even noisier. They were several days from port. When the skipper complained that there was now a different noise, but it was louder, our man put a SECOND marble in the pipe. All day and all night they rattled back and forth in that pipe, while our man insisted he was absolutely puzzled as to what the cause was.....

I'll risk wandering off topic here (not like me)..... Many moons ago, I interviewed a former driver now gone to his well-earned rest in the Great Locomotive in the Sky. He started as a teenage cleaner (as they mostly all did) in 1917, and the allocation there at the time was six J15s. He remembered the numbers of them too, and what duties they tended to be on. Probably in many sheds other than Tuam, tricks were played on new entrants. Billy's first job was cleaning locos on night shift for tomorrow's trains, after they'd been lit up. One would do the goods up to Sligo, and another would head to Athenry. On his first night they told him the shed was haunted by the ghost of a dead driver who had been a "fierce man". Billy got his bucket of oily rags and set about cleaning one of the engines. He was the only person in the shed - or so he thought. At fourteen years of age he was still very gullible (by his own admission). He was a country lad, brought up on a sheep farm out in the sticks outside the town. But the WAS someone else in the shed, tiptoeing about. This "someone" moved his bucket while he was round the other side of the loco. When he came back to it, he assumed he had been mistaken in where he left it. But it was moved again. Now he began to get anxious. Next time he went back to his bucket it had disappeared/ Panic set in and he ran like blazes outside to where a steam raiser was preparing another engine. Steam raiser casually said, "ah, that's just Otto*, the ghost. Don't mind him. As long as you don't ANNOY him, you'll be fine!" (* Can't remember the actual name, but it was something odd like that) He was terrified out of his wits. Next day he sought out the foreman and told him he wouldn't be back, and told him the story. Foreman exploded in a rage (not at Billy) and told him he'd better be back, and there was no such thing as ***** **** ****&*&*&*&*^&% GHOSTS................ He said he never found out who did this, but the same trick was played on someone else at another time......!

I had a footplate run on a WP 4.6.2 some fifty years ago on the main line between Lucknow and Varanasi. Driver, TWO (barefoot!!) firemen and a coal-breaker, sitting up in the tender with a hammer breaking up huge lumps of coal. He has no less than twenty heavily laden bogies behind an engine marginally larger than "Maedb" and he was doling 70 miles an hour. Most amazing footplate run I ever had, all on the 5'6". Boy, those engines were POWERFUL!!!! To be fair, long straight dead-level track for maybe 50-60 miles. Despite a crowd of that many people (like an RPSI steam train with 35 people on the footplate!!!) there was room for everyone. Cabs on those yokes are so big you could host a six nations game there while in motion..... (Did I exaggerate?)

WOWWWW!!!!!!!! Amazing stuff! (Any chance of a YP, YG, YL, CWD or WP?)

I have got mine but haven’t got a chance to run them yet - but bizarrely I have two older IFM ones which, though lovely models, don’t like curves or points!!!

Yes, very much so. Cowan Sheldon had standard types of 10, 20 & 30 ton cranes, delivered in many gauges to railways all over the world. I have seen almost exact equivalents of those used by the GNR, GSWR, MGWR & gawd knows who else, in India (5’6” and metre gauge), South Africa, Myanmar and somewhere else that escapes me (possibly Indonesia). So, yes, that model would do for many an Irish application.

Very much so, yes, and it would allow an excuse for a GSR-liveried one to haul something other than maroon stock. Indeed. GWR-type, and even more so the designs of the LNER and SR, were so utterly unlike anything that ever ran on any line in Ireland, that even at a vague glance they just wouldn’t look right, but if all in maroon or lined CIE green, it would at least present the mixed appearance you mention.

Now that the iconic and much-anticipated 800s are on their way, attention turns to what they ought to haul. I’ve seen this asked here and there ever since they were announced. The answer is never simple in a case like this. If we look at the Cork line as a whole, most trains were hauled by 400s, the 500s, Woolwiches and the like, after all there were only three 800s. A bit like today’s Enterprise service where only SOME services are De Dietrich’s, with the others a combination of two (and occasionally three) types of railcars. Senior boarded an up Cork some time in the early ‘50s and it had an elderly 4.4.0, running late with an impossible load for the class of engine. So, going back well before the 800s entered traffic, what did they actually haul, and what equivalent models are the most suitable? First, the one thing they did NOT pull was uniform rakes of identical modern coaches! The railway as a whole had inherited a very wide variety of stock of many different types. More than a few were one-off conversions, for some specific purpose, of a class of no more than maybe a dozen or less of the same type. Some vehicles were even built as one-offs, such as the lobe Bredin bogie mail van. As with every line, main or branch, a mixture was the norm. The “Bredin” stock was introduced during the 1930s, thus being in traffic before the 800s. Contrary to popular belief, it was not a series of brand new vehicles built specifically to go with the 800s. The nearest commonly-available equivalent is RTR bogies of 1930s LMS design. The maroon livery of these is almost identical to GSR maroon anyway, which is handy. But no train was made up entirely of these. The dining car will be an older timber-bodied design, typically GSWR, but could be DSER or MGWR. There might be a SINGLE Pullman car, typically still in the short-lived GSR brown & cream; these were third class snack cars. Senior recalled seeing one newly painted in maroon, but as far as I am aware the others were brown and cream probably until the CIE green era. Mail was carried in older (usually GSWR) six-wheeled and bogie vans, and timber-bodied TPOs. First class coaches were typically ex-GSWR side-corridor bogies, like preserved RPSI 1142. Attached photos show the general idea; later I will post details of the nearest equivalent models available. Note, GSWR livery on the models is original; same vehicles would all have been maroon when 800 first set sail. Second last model is a 1930s “Bredin” composite, the most modern stock available when the 800s were new. These models (of Cyril Fry’s collection) may be seen in the Malahide Model Railway Muaeum.

There are wild wallabies on Lambay Island…..

That's what I was thinking, but more with 800s in mind.

Couldn't agree more. When planning Dugort Harbour, I adopted the approach of "less is more", as I wanted it to look realistic scenically overall. It seems to work that way, and yet it certainly provides more than adequate operational potential and interest. Arguably, operation of a terminus-type layout offers much greater shunting challenges the less track there is - just like real life.

Now this raises an issue. If any of these privatised delivery companies leave something on a doorstep and vanish, and Mr. Lightfingers happens along and steals it, who is responsible for replacing it or compensating the buyer? The manufacturer who employed this courier, the delivery company, or a perhaps-careless delivery man? And, out of interest, while we are not a legal advice forum here, out of interest - suppose the item was absolutely irreplaceable, and the potential buyer (resident of the delivery address) suffered significant loss as a result of not getting it, can he sue, and who?

During the covid lockdown, with tourism at a standstill, I started selling off crateloads of all sorts of old paperwork, historic banknotes and railway tickets, books, surplus model railway stuff and practically kitchen sinks via fleabay. I shifted loads and loads of items. Ebay was very busy then, and if you did a search for just about anything under the sun, you'd get loads of options. Often, I just advertised things "postage included" because I knew it would be a negligible cost no matter where in the world, with very few exceptions. If I did have to charge postage, it might have been €5 on an item(s) worth €60. VERY different now. I'd end up having to charge maybe €15 on that same item. It's not just brexit/trump tarriff type charges, or EU customs - it's a combinaton of that, plus a move away from nationalised postal services to private, profit-driven distribution and courier firms. A massive, massive disincentive to businesses, ironically derived by and 100% the fault of supposedly "pro-capitalism" countries. In my case, I neither buy nor sell internationally much now. Between here and Britain, I use the address of a northern-based relative and I either travel north with my free pass to retrieve it, or my relative delivers it on their frequent-enough forays to Dublin Airport. Defrauding Irish or UK customs? Sure, bring it on. I'm proud to do so. Since I started working and paying taxes sixty years ago this year, they've got enough out of me. And I refuse to send a solitary cent anywhere near Bezos, Suckerberg or Musk, or their ilk, unless I really have absolutely zero choice.

G'day! I'm seeing flocks of wild roaming kangaroos in rural Co. Leitrim...... Wallabies at Kilmakerrill, and kangaroos just outside Glenfarne..... 16 metre long snakes, and ten-foot-wide killer spiders nesting behind the loco shed at Manorhamilton.... And funny old men digging turf near Dromahaire wearing shorts and hats with corks hanging off them, mate..... PURE GSWR, yes.....

When I was in Myanmar about 6 or 7 years ago, I saw a plinthed 3ft or 3ft 6ins gauge 2.6.4T which was as close as dammit to a Donegal 5B!

I wonder if the PRs were all repainted black’n’tan relatively sooner than other stock? Of the few green coaches in my early memories, I’m pretty sure I never saw a green PR….. Superb scene! (Nearest designs to those six-wheelers would be GSWR….!) Is the loco a scratchbuild?

Was just thinking earlier, I was sure I remembered one with a single toilet! (It was locked out of use - I had to go to the next coach!)

I never was able to get one in the end, Leslie, at a price I liked, so it’s yet to appear at Dugort Harbour! In time, I hope, along with a B101, a good few Cs, and a G!

Book sold.

A complete one-off, livery-wise. The one locomotive ever painted like that (and all details appear correct in accuracy terms) specifically for the Cork-Rosslare boat train about 1956. A very elusive beast too, very camera-shy in this condition indeed, but for a good reason. It only carried the livery for some 18 months before being withdrawn and replaced by diesels.

I didn’t know they did one! Must have a look!

I’ve never been impressed with any of the “G” class models or even kits I’ve seen. The wheelbase and wheel diameter is usually quite wrong, and the body shapes on some aren’t great. The RTR Silverfox ones were (almost inevitably) slightly to totally wrong in livery terms. However, if a decent RTR ever appears, count me in!

"Spare Link" (aka the well known Mr Reneghan!) was a great source of interesting stories, from a driver's perspective. Since you mention the above, I am sure that I have seen a picture somewhere of a "G" at Mallow...... they made it onto the DSER too. On the DCDR they have proved to be very versatile. In the early 2000s G613 was regularly on the then-regular PW and "Work" trains, and all three that are there (611, 13 & 17) have also seen passenger service and extensive shunting. Despite mixed opinions of them here, across mainland Europe very many derivatives of the same class, some almost exact copies of the G's here, have given long, reliable and faithful service to their owners. The fact that several variants of basically the same design were produced from 1951 into the mid 1980s certainly says something. A RTR one would probably be a good idea. Models of small versatile shunters of British and mainland European countries always seem to sell well in their own markets. A good "starter" loco for someone just starting out in the hobby. In our case, of course, there are few alive today who ever saw one operating in traffic, and there were only seven of them (and three 601s)... I'm pretty sure I've seen a pic of one at Mallow, though I have absolutely no idea where, and I don't know what it was doing there - possibly delivered there for shunting the beet sidings?

I must say it’s fantastic to see such a growing interest in not just the black’n’tan era, but now increasingly the grey’n’green era! Only a few years ago, beyond modern image (supertrain onwards) period, Irish railway modelling historical interest was extremely niche indeed! Congrats especially to Mol, Lucas, 800, Roderick Bruce, Past-avenue, Leslie and quite a few others for advancing this - and, naturally, IRM with wagons, Park Royals, 800 and early diesels…..

Ah - I was quoting an old ITG source!!!