jhb171achill

While the LLSR was more a case of long lines with long trains, who's to say it might not have had a shorter line? Derry out to Moville (though this could have had busy passenger traffic) or somewhere further north. Bearing in mind that lines like the Carn and Burtonport extensions were built with government grants, and in a million places throughout the west funds were often sought for some very short lines (or long sidings) such as, for example, Gubbardletter or Inishlyre off the Achill branch, a loud and persistent local community with an idea how their village coulde become a major port - however utterly deluded and unrealistic their notions might be - could well have attracted such support. Add two six-wheelers or a scruffy bogie brake 3rd, one of those beautiful Lough Swilly 4.6.0Ts and a few wagons, and there ye go!

Interesting!

Those things had completely different body details and (especially) window spacing and shapes. It’s definitely been built as a carriage rather than even a comprehensive conversion of a railmotor.

That can only have been in late 1962 / early ‘63; no BnT before that, no steam after…. The chassis - most definitely not a six-wheeler; other than on the BCDR (where the very last few alone were up to 37ft), the standard six-wheel coach length was 30ft. In fact, the very term “six-wheeler” is a construct of railway enthusiasts, like that ridiculous term of “wok-through” for 6-car railcar sets on NIR. Railwaymen always referred to them as “thirty-foot(ers)”.

I’d be with you on the lack of any real Kerr Stuart connection in this instance. I wouldn’t think there was even the remotest likelihood of anyone thinking if a new-build railmotor at that stage. Way more likely it’s been intended to be towed - perhaps. Railmotors, per se, has already been widely discredited when this thing was built; all of the several railway companies in Ireland who had ever had them (DSER, GSWR, BCDR, GNR etc) had found them to be a disaster.

It wouldn’t have been an actual railmotor as such, LM - though possibly the chassis alone was made at some stage with that notion in mind.

Food AND heating? Well for some!!

The 15:40 from Achill to Claremorris departs from Newport in the last light of day on 11th November 1973.

Hi I would perhaps go into Marks Models in Dublin (Hawkins St) and ask for a decent quality train set which would fit the bill.

Very interesting post, Steve. Why it was built to a length which was non-standard not only to the GNR, but to every other railway too,is something I would have no notion about. However, I would discount any idea that it was built using railcar / railbus parts or chassis, or as something specifically to be hauled by one. It would be too heavy, despite its length, for a glorified road bus to haul. It might well have been built for that branch, though. My best guess would be that somebody decided that a full-length coach was an extravagance, as passenger traffic on this picturesque little branch line never amounted to that much.

Lishen, boi. Ye are in Caaaarkk now, so to hill wit dem ****** jackeens, ok? Ye are nowww in DE REEEEEEEEEL KAPPITAL, boi!!!!

Very good thinking. Sourcing suitable short wheelbase bogies shouldn’t be a problem - with the double footboards hiding them, the “two-foot rule” may be liberally applied. Many of the CBSCR “shorties” Mayner mentions were culled in early CIE days, but sat about for years in that museum graveyard that was Albert Quay. They were replaced by (I think five) ancient GSWR bogies of 35-40ft long, for excursions on the T & C. These feature in many pics at Courtmacsherry, even behind “C” class diesels, or double-headed 90 + 100. These yokes, being ex-GSWR, are even MORE suitable for the Hattons stock, as the GSWR is by a very long way the closest design to them! Latterly, with Cork’s inevitable sense of independence (!), they were in a non-standard livery - all-over DARK green, with no lining or snails, just a number. This seems to have been a Republic of Glanmire application to secondary stock, boy, as some ex-CBSC stock was similarly treated, boy.

This is a truly exceptional piece of work.

Yes, that's the "stripey" one I referred to.

As a schoolboy I watched it, without the sense that more mature-aged enthusiasts had of the extent to which its days were numbered. To me, it was just another steam train. Filthy locomotive, dark green carriages heading somewhere far-distant and exotic, like Dungannon......

Shunting at Dugort on a sunny day in 1966….. Cloudy the following day as B141 brings the morning passenger train across the remote Lettermore Bog en route to Castletown West. On the approach, a recently withdrawn GSWR bogie rests in the old cattle siding. IMG_5539.MOV

Looks great, Paddy! I like the way you've enhanced the trackwork and associated vegetation.

1958, and 472 eases away with the mid day mixed to Castletown West.

With a dead donkey logo in it…

Yeah, but I’m finished in the loo now. I did open the window.

Indeed; forgot about the two greens! That’s 12 liveries, then.

Even the ones with no teeth, one leg, extreme flatulence and hygiene issues?

You've won a 5-week luxury holiday for seven in the Maldives! Add to the above: 10. CIE green with stripes on top of the front of the roof, and 11. GNR navy / cream with UTA numbers and logo. Both 2 & 11 were both limited to very few vehicles, and also very short-lived.

For ten points and a bonus prize, and a chance to win a luxury Porsche, how many livery variants can you identify for AEC railcars? (There are 11......) Neither the first nor the last instance of official drawings differing from the eventual real thing!

Here’s hoping!