jhb171achill

Any idea where I’d get one…. or which make?

Question for the learned: I'm getting to the stage of putting grass and bushes etc on my layout. I see that grass applicators are some €80-ish or more, and then i'd need one of those mini-hoover-like things to scoop up stray fibres. Does anyone have one I can borrow, or buy 2nd-hand; or if I bought one is there anyone out there who might then buy it 2nd-hand from me? I am reluctant to buy a thing like this which will only really be used once!

The van is a "P" van, used for newspaper traffic mostly, but also any sort of general parcels traffic by rail, and mailbags on occasion. The CIE van next to it looks like an ex-GNR one; for modellers, it isn't brown - nothiong with a flyiong snail ever was - it's grey covered with a lot of brake dust! Bear in mind that as now, but more so in the past, "weathering" tended to be a brownish rather than greyish colour, due to oxidisation of brake dust from brake shoes. Can't make out what type of coach it is - no doubt ex-GNR - but as a very outside chance possibly NCC; but it's in UTA green, of course. I wonder if this could be when the loco was heading north following its sale to the UTA?

I wonder will it show a South African 12AR threading its way through the Finntown area, or a West Cork 4.6.0T?

“Just as well Johnny Mac isn’t on this morning, this thing would wreck his back…” “Ye hear he’s being moved to the buses in Tralee next month?” . ”…..well, it says so in the paper here. Abandonment order, it says. Listowel, Newcastle West, the lot. At least we’re safe here coz’ the buses and lorries can’t get past Sheehan’s Bridge without reversing….”

“……..yes, I knew your father well, when he was station master in Knocklong… give him my regards, tell him I’m sorry I missed him…” . ”I can’t get the boot opened…” ”You’d have been better bringing your uncle’s Fordson and that turf trailer he has….” . 162 prepares to leave with the midday mixed in July 1960, and A55 leaves Castletown with the morning down passenger in April 1964.

This clarifies the details of the Galway main line; often thought by many to have been FULLY double at one stage, but it wasn't quite........

Someone told me at some stage that the presenter, the excellent Anne Cassin, had relatives on the railway herself........... yes, she seems to have travelled on a 29. Mad things to put on the Enterprise - why not an ICR? RTE included a shot of Inchicore Works, footgae of T & D cattle trains at Castlegregory junction, and interior shots of a driver in a West Clare "F" class diesel. Typical lazy research. Airfixfan, of this parish, was of course featured, along with several of our good colleagues from the Donegal Railway Heritage Centre and RPSI Whitehead. Why, oh why, oh why, though, have they a black dome on "Drumboe"! Fix it, lads, fix it before I run outta smelling salts..........!

As a happy owner of a Midland 2.4.0 I highly recommend it!

Well worth awaiting!

Wouldn’t have thought so - the GSR stripped all of its maintenance equipment bar the odd screwdriver!

Even Ennis, narrow gauge, until Feb 61!

If you mean sheds, lots, though in many cases roofless but still used. If you mean loco works for heavy repairs etc, York Road (NCC) for one. Limerick was also still doing some heavy work. Cork, Dundalk and Waterford were still doing minor repairs. If you mean steam, the above applies until late 1962 or thereabouts. If you mean diesel, later in the decade, pretty much only Inchicore & York Road.

At one time - but had also been double at some stage earlier, I believe. Correct!

Exactly the same as other green steam engines - if you look at modern photos of "Maedb" (800) in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Co Down, you'll get the actual paint - better still, go to see it. The green - with black and white lining, eau-de-nil "snails" on the tender and numerals on cabsides, is the same green applied to coaches prior to the "light green" period of 1955-62; and also allpied to buses 1945-63. Prior to 1945 thyey were plain grey all over, with cast number plates (grey too!). They would never have been black.

Looking fantastic! Most interesting track layout...... perfect for 009.

"......an' de Achill branch was a narra gauge line built to take emigrants to Scotland, and shure the Connemara express ran along it...somewhere.....an' the last train carried all the dead of Mayo after the famine......."

Perfect back story; straight out of a mid-60s IRRS Journal!

Superb - the music too! One of your compositions?

Love the "troubles" stuff! At the 25th anniversary of the GFA, a timely reminded of how far we've moved away from all that...........

Absolutely fantastic stuff, Ernie. As others have said, it is very greatly appreciated by all here and beyond.

Let's hope it's better researched than some of their railway-themed programmes in the past........ Look out for an authentic clip of a 141 class with ferts leaving Stranorlar in, oh, I'd say some time in the 1850s, as the colour in the film isn't great..... or a nice view of the Wexford Goods in the Barnesmore Gap, to the tune of "Are ye right there Michael are ye right"......... and learn how, as the last narrow gauge railway (with just three yards between the rails), it closed down on 31st December 1970..........

Anyone travelling on this next week?

This is true. Deserving as it would be, you’d find Irish enthusiasts inexplicably short of change….. When I was RPSI commercial officer in the late 70s / early 80s, I worked closely with galteemoreSenior. Upon questioning why, as a railway society, we tended to put more effort into selling teddy bears and plastic Thomas-the-Tank flags, I was told that Irish railway enthusiasts were - to put it mildly - very adept at keeping their wallets SHUT. In contrast when the May tour came about, on which the vast, vast majority came from Brexitstan, THEY couldn’t wait to empty their wallets towards a good cause. Manning the bookshop showed this up well. Six Irish enthusiasts would appear, read the new-issue books cover to cover, and when we tried to persuade them to either BUY, or get out of the way and let their English colleagues behind them get a look in, they would fish out a few washers and coins from a neat little wallet, mumble something about the price, or they be back later……and th’oul dog ate their homework. Cue Dave from Manchestah behind them. In two minutes he’s scooped up a pile of books, the then equivalent of a couple of hundred euros. He’d pay you, and stick a £20 note in the donations box. Down the train, raffle time. 1. British visitors: waving tenners in the air. Don’t care what the prize is - likely to donate it back anyway. 2. Irish No. 1: leafs through all the book prizes before announcing that he has the book or doesn’t really want it. Buy a ticket? “……eh, I don’t think I’ve any change…” 3. Irish No. 2 hears you coming and sticks his face to the window, watching a thorn hedge passing by with intense interest. Don’t believe me? Ask GalteemoreSenior, now raising on-train funds for almost sixty years……

Hand-me-downs from the GNR, courtesy of jhbSenior, who unofficially gave much assistance to the SLNCR, knowing they had no money. A consignment of ballast for the SLNCR arrived in Enniskillen one time from Goraghwood, following a bad embankment slip somewhere down the "country lane" - which was a description used by Enniskillen PW staff to describe the SLNCR. I understand that the financial department in Amiens St. was not put to any trouble regarding sales invoices for same to the SLNCR. The track above is ex-GN, from the same source. I doubt very much if Amiens St. were well-appraised of this arrangement either. Correct.