jhb171achill

Ah! That explains it!

I must assume it's been under cover. Where is it exactly now? Looks as if it's had a comparatively recent repaint. If a laminate - by its very name this being obvious - had been left in the open for some 30 years, it would have physically fallen to pieces by now. I did not know there was anything Five Fut Three there at all. They have a Brexitese railbus, sister of the much-loved RB3 at Downpatrick. Oul heaps! They brought over a working steam loco from there too; naturally all narra gauge. They loaid a bit of track including a curve too sharp for any railway vehicle to traverse, locked the lot up in a shed and off they went to leave nature to reclaim it all.

I had seen it online - it's a kit, but I do not know who makes / made it.

Indeed…… I wonder what a “train carriage” is, and if the writer of this drivel is aware that apart from not being specifically for this line, it’s highly unlikely it often - if EVER - traversed Claremorris-Collooney; and that it certainly wasn’t running anywhere in 1874! That whole Riverstown thing was put together by people with zero knowledge, it seems, if anything you’d need to know to undertake such a project…. The coach would find a better home at Downpatrick….

Always thought Greenore would make a fantastic, versatile, unique and highly interesting modelling prototype. Obvious Cyril Fry did too; here are his DNGR models. If anyone wants a closer look, come to the model railway museum in Malahide and ping me in advance. With Hattons doing 6-wheelers in LNWR livery, Provincial’s GNR goods vans, cattle trucks and opens, a Ratio kit suitable for one of their few bogie coaches, and several GNR locos available in kit form, as well as a British 0.6.0 saddle tank that isn’t a million miles off a DNGR tank, tis surely a viable project?

A Fry SLNCR brake and a GNR cattle wagon. Straight out of Drumnagortihacket, between Glenfarne and Galtimore…. Note the extremely rudimentary passenger accommodation, usually only used by cattle drovers….

Indeed. I was pottering about the layout yesterday with several steam engines, but also five "A"s and two "B141s". Couldn't agree more about the super-smooth running.

Ah, but you haven't seen the OTHER side, Leslie.....................................

Great stuff! I'm hoping to have some good news for him in the next few weeks........

That brings me back. Jim was an absolute gentleman, always extremely courteous and helpful.

Yes, it would have been - though I don't know who made it, nor do Brendan or Steve - if anyone here knows, let me know! No - the guys who made the "Castle" layout were no longer apprentices by then - some had left the railway, others promoted.

The "delivery grey" was an utterly impractical livery - bear in mind when they went into traffic they were surrounded by black smoke belching A & C class Crossleyfailures and still quite a few steam engines! Both of which added to their cosmetic woes.......

“Jimmy, I see you - get outta that bush right now. Judge won’t be so lenient on ye this time. Not after robbin’ Guinness barrels TWICE as well as all that oul business you caused two weeks ago….” —- “…..no, that won’t work either. It’s FAR too heavy for us to move. We’ll need Dan, PJ and yer man as well as us….”

I did get the impression that the person from whom I bought the pair of them hadn't a clue - no boxes either........

I've two current-issue ones in black'n'tan which I may sell (I don't need the 6 or 7 I have!). Both are DCC fitted, but whoever owned them before me inexplicably chopped the handrails off!!! I got new ones which would be supplied with them.......... Haven't decided yet if I will sell them, but we'll see.......... I will certainly want a new B147, as that one is a particular favourite of mine from runabaout travels in 1976. I think I had it on the Limerick - Ballina train one day, and somewhere else a day or two later (maybe the Nenagh branch).......

An addendum; while the "Castle" Layout was built by various apprentices in Inchicore, under the tutelage of Tommy Tighe, the models were built for the castle by a number of people. Perhaps half were built by the late Kieran Magowan of the Model Shop in Monck Place, which many of us have fond memories of. Of the remainder, most of the locomotives were built by our own Brendan Kelly, with the other stuff built by perhaps half a dozen other people, most of whose identities we no longer have a record of.

Indeed! Well, it's "alternative" history is that after withdrawal from the Wisht Carrk-boy system in the early 1940s, it was sent to the remote West Kerry area where it was used on the Castletown West - Dugort Harbour section, a remote outpost of some 5 miles long. Later, it was retained at Castletown itself and lasted almost until the end of steam, the last CBSCR loco in traffic, as the resident shunter and spare loco.

I know Fry's daughter, who is now in her late 80s. An amazing lady, who has been of immeasureable help to me in many ways.

During the time the large “0” gauge layout operated at Malahide Castle from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, a number of models were built to operate on it. Amongst the public, there was a common perception that the models which operated on this were Fry’s actual collection but this is not so. For one thing this layout was 2-rail, whereas Fry’s were 3-rail; for another, many of the mechanisms in Fry’s own models were worn out and never have withstood the intensive operation in the castle; but most of all, under the legal agreement between Fry’s late wife and the then Dublin Tourism, his collection were not allowed to run again. When the new museum was established, the priority was to display Fry’s own models, not the “Castle” ones, so until now they have no home other than storage. But there’s news. First, a taster: here are but a few of the Castle models: The news is this. For the last three years, this has excercised the efforts of those involved in tryingmto ensure that these models may be displayed also. One of Fry's provisos was that his OWN models were not to become part of a collection of other people's models, so even if there WAS room in Malahide, we couldn't put them all in - and in reality too, we already have a number of Fry's English models which remain in storage. I may organise a viewing evening for these at some stage.... So, what to do with the Castle stuff - and, indeed, the huge layout upon which they ran, which is in storage in a warehouse? Over the last few years the solution has come in the form of several other museums and model railway clubs, who have agreed to take a number of these models on long term loans. The necessary legal paperwork has now been drawn up, and final lists are being prepared (this evening, in between posting pics here of Dugort Harbour!) of who gets what. There are two model railway clibs involved, and two railway-themed museums. In the latter two cases, the models which go there are of prototypes related to the areas where those museums are. The idea is that these models can be spread about to be seen by the public, and hopefully give some local publicity to the Malahide Model Railway Museum. I should soon be in a position to say what's going where. This relates to modwls only. It does not relate to the large layout structure, for which numerous attempts to find a home for it have come to nought. However, only recently, we have had a meeting with a possible provider of a new home for the actual structure, which contains many fine bridge structures. This was built in the 1980s by apprentices in Inchicore Works, and it was only later, and by good fortune, that a home for it could be found at Malahide, hence its survival. There remains a ceiling-level "O" gauge elevated track in the new malahide Model Railway Museum. Some of the "Castle" models have already been retained to operate there, and today some more were allocated. I will post more news as the current situation develops.

The oul fella was out cutting turf one day in 1957, and caught a picture of the afternoon train on his old box camera. Driving home later, he noticed a Woolwich cold in the cattle siding at Castletown. It had blown a couple of tubes, according to the signalman, and had been sitting there a week. Yer man says it’ll be scrapped now.

Ah! It's that oul crew van again. Since they started lifting several local lines in the area in the late 1950s, this van and its accompanying rail wagon has often ended up stabled in the old loco shed road at Dugort Harbour, as that's where they loaded lifted rails onto a ship heading for a scrap dealer in Liverpool. Spotted through the hedge from a moving Ford Popular in 1958.

Track renewal is under way; it will turn out to be the last. It’s May 1960. The local train has A42 today, as it slows across the repaired IMG_6695.MOV track as it enters Castletown West. It shows the excellent slow running of the IRM “A” class. IMG_6694.MOV

In 1961, you’ve some people with tried-and-tested black’n’white photography, some with colour. Three views by different photographers of a mid-day local goods extra leaving Dugort Harbour for Castletown, one of the last regular steam rosters in the area. Within a year, a “C” would take over.

Lazy day in 1966; B165 shunts at Dugort Harbour while the old crew car, an ancient 6-wheeler with the centre axle removed and a pair of wagon doors fitted, reposes in the disused loco shed road. It’s been there since the lifting trains on the Valentia line finished.

It’s spring 1966, and the afternoon train to Tralee awaits departure at Castletown West…..