jhb171achill

Amazing - I especially like the G class!

Exceptional work, Darius - I very much enjoy seeing this collection grow!

Off with their heads! The Spanish Inquisition has been informed….

On a bitterly cold morning, with a scattering of snow and a very heavy frost, B141 crosses Carrowmore Bog with the 07:35 empty stock for the morning branch train from Dugort Harbour in January 1965….. Looks like there’s more snow in the sky….

These have GOT to be the best pics of any model locomotive I've ever seen. Superb models, please build hundreds more!

Bbb

Zooming in on our DSER 6-wheeler, on trial (successfully) on a friend's layout the other day. Yes, it's still 1935, but the Bell containers in the background appeared via a time machine (hauled by a DSER 0.6.0, of course).

Dunno what all the fuss is about. All they have to do is tell the passengers to sit closer together.....

I’d love to see the Guinness loco at Whitehead restored to this, its original livery! They were a dark olive green, a bit darker than what Stradbally has, but not massively different.

Ex-DSER stock didn’t wander much, bar one dining car and a few other instances. I can’t state this as fact, but I suspect the reason that so much DSER stock was withdrawn earlier was that many vehicles were of non-standard lengths. DSER coaches (older 6-wheelers anyway) has different types of door lock mechanisms, but also the older DSER thirds were very cramped and uncomfortable. Senior’s recollections were the only detailed direct eye-witness accounts of travelling in DSER stock that I was ever aware of.

Well, threads are his business….

A few more pics I took at Brookhall Mill the other day, these ones mostly showing locos and rolling stock. Those GNR coaches look excellent, as does the inevitable (Leslie's) UTA Brown Van. After 1958 they started infiltrating the ex-GNR bits of the UTA's declining rail network, and were to be seen alongside silver, green and eventually black'n'tan CIE "tin vans" on both the Dundalk - Gt. Victoria St. stretch, and the Derry Road.

Sorry I missed the event! (Though I did see it on Saturday...!) A really excellent little set-up. I was familiar with several of these linen mills in the past, and this model really captures the atmosphere of the likes of Barbour Threads or the Island Mill in Lisburn......

This is looking very promising!

This was tested today at a friend's layout. It runs perfectly. Westcork, for a short whelbase vehicle these coaches were 28ft long rather than the normal 30ft, favoured by most Irish railway companies. The DSER also had some 31ft 6ins six-wheelers too. They, the BCDR and the CBSCR seem to be the odd ones out in design - with all sorts of variations of six-wheelers from 26ft to 37ft......... Carriages such as the above would have run on the main line to Wexford when new, from both Westland Row and Harcourt Street. When jhb171Senior commuted on the Harcourt St line in the late 1920s and early 30s, most of the remaining vehicles of this type had graduated to suburban trains on that line, along with some elderly non-corridor bogies and various older MGWR and GSWR six-wheelers which were brought onto the DSER in quite some numbers after the amalgamation; but they would almost certainly still have been seen on Macmine Junction - Waterford and the Woodenbridge-Shillelagh branches. Truly EXCELLENT model, and perfect (in green) to go behind a silver or green IRM "A". Awaiting the 1st class, 2nd class and brake 3rd versions eagerly!

The last uses of these vans - I.E. loose-coupled goods trains in general - was, I believe, either 1976 or 1977.

I was delighted and privileged to be invited to Brookhall Mill today, and meet the formidable Mr Weaver, who told me off for trespassing round the mill doorways…… Photos don’t even begin to do justice to this layout - the level of minute and highly accurate detail in it is phenomenal. Very many thanks, Patrick - and of course also for the good company and choccy bikkies…. Classic W H Mills architecture, all hand-made. Locos and rolling stock

It's yet to be released, so Ken will doubtless outline that once he's ready. I was purchasing other stuff too, so I paid for it all together...........

It's an extremely clean, crisp job.

Some of you will have seen this beauty on "Dugort Harbour" this afternoon. It is a trial 3D print from KMCE Models, which Ken has kindly asked to me to test and trial. I was aware that this has been in development for some time, and the finished result represents the first purpose-made, ready-to-run Irish 6-wheeler evfer in 00 scale (or any, for that matter). It runs on a 3D-printed articuloated chassis which Ken has developed and which runs very well. It was suggested that a very light drop of oil on the central moving part of the chassis might aid operation, so I initially decided to test it without, just to see what happened. The print is extremely well executed, very sharp indeed, and hardly surprisingly it performed perfectly - without oil. I have both hauled it and pushed it, over medium radius curves and points. I don't have anything short-radius right now, though I will eventually have one quite sharp curve, so I will take it to visit a friend's layout in the next week or so, and I will report back here how it goes. This is a truly excellent model (not just because it has correct GSR maroon!), and far exceeds my expectations. The first two wagons behind it are also KMCE products - DWWR vans of two of the different varieties offered. I already had some of these - again, early pioneers - and excellent ones too - of genuine Irish pre-GSR types. The sort of turn-of-the-20th-century scenes so ably captured by the late Richard Chown, much discussed here; and our own Galteemore, Mayner and David Holman, may now be played out in 00. Add to that the Provincial Wagons models of earlier prototypes, like the GSWR guard's van and his older convertible and cattle vans, and we now have the start of a credible range of 1910-1950 stuff - and not before time! I am delighted to hear that Ken is considering some other variations on the theme - a DSER first class coach, for example, and others. These will be complementary, rather than "in competition with" the Hattons CIE coaches. I had requested the above in GSR maroon, but there is no reason why it should not have been finished in the older (darker) CIE green, as some of this type lasted until the late 1940s. As an aside, there seems to have been a pogrom of DSER stock in 1949-50, so I'm pretty sure no DSER six-wheelers lasted long enough to have the lighter green; but a layout based in the 1945-50 period can have a mix of GSR maroon and dark lined green, and including both GSWR (Hattons) types, and DSER types. The background is quite simple - passenger trains in these times scarcely ever had even two coaches the same type. Quite prototypically, a typical train on the DSER might have one of these, a DSER bogie, a GSWR six-wheeler, a Bredin and a MGWR bogie. (jhb171Senior recalled large numbers of MGWR & GSWR six-wheelers being drafted onto the Bray - Harcourt St., and Bray - Amiens St. routes very soon after the GSR came into being. He recalled going to school (on the Harcourt St line) in "unusual" coaches instead of this one above....). One of the above in CIE green will add this very type of variety to a train of the Hattons ones; both complement each other perfectly. Should KMCE produce other variations, this will absolutely add to the variety, as well as the authenticity. (Now all we need is the then-plentiful MGWR types!) These models are by far the best news I have heard in a long time. Irish railway modelling has just taken a great leap forwards; I have no hesitation in thoroughly recommending all of the above-mentioned. I should aded, it comes with seats inside, and just needs glazing and door handles to complete.

I'll put up a post about this coach, under "DSER 6 Wheeler" on the section about "Irish Railway Models" rather than Dugort Harbour, as such.

They've hidden the other side, as they are camera-shy.

It’s not often we get very early colour shots from GSR days; but here in 1943, ex-CBSCR 472 leads the midday mixed into Dugort Harbour. More of the carriage, currently being trialled, in due course!

Those Donegal images are absolutely outstanding in quality! Excellent stuff, Ernie, very much appreciated - keep 'em coming!