jhb171achill

That's more like it.

I've been privately shown pics of some of these prints from this manufacturer - as far as 00 scale is concerned anyway, they are VERY rough indeed. I was tempted by the computer-generated images of the MGWR stuff - I'd have bought quite a few if it was good, but it's the opposite, unfortunately.

The likelihood of any new link to Letterkenny-hey being built on either the old Lough Swilly route (via the boonies) or the CDR route (via Tripoli and Cork, as shown) is nil. Absolutely nil. The only way to do it is a new route, like suggested above via Newbuildings, new bridge across to carrigans, and via your green line. Dunno if that passes anywhere with more then seven inhabitants, but none of the others serve anywhere of much size either; thus Letterkenny itself, as a single destination, would have to be deemed to be viable in itself. I wonder if the proposers of such schemes have surveyed the number of bus passengers between the two points? That will give the best possible guess with regard to viability. As far as the Derry Road is concerned, massive disruption, diversions or both would be necessary now to get it out of Portadown, let alone through Dungannon and Omagh. Experience in other countries of reopenings after decades closed often produce results like this. Expect some new stations to be nowhere near the originals!

I agree

Good point - I had forgotten that….

Is there any benefit in using a commercial delivery service (something I’m normally dead set against) instead of the clearly confused and inconsistent An Pist / Royal Fail?

One of the better preserved stations of the Irish narrow gauge. Note the similarities with Clogher valley and Cavan & Leitrim architecture.

An excellent topic for a model! Nice original find in the field....... wonder if it's still there.

I'm not sure what went wrong with them, but my recollections of them were that at any one time you'd be lucky to see one in use! Once NIR got 111 & 112 (113 came later), and there were spare 101s (themselves not the most reliable, especially 103), the "DH" class shunters saw little use and were gradually set aside.

It's got doors?

Something else to keep goldfish in!!

Is there enough damp in it yet to keep my goldfish in?

In all reality, for a location like that, and given the numbers and nature of the public throughout this island, the only thing suitable is something very small. If steam, you're looking at borrowing the Guinness engine. Maybe Derry docks No. 1 in Cultra? And it's not even No. C202!

The thing about an operation like this is its potential market - or lack thereof. Like Finntown, it is a very far way away from any population centre of any size. Finntown operates with small diesel mechanisms. The only operational standard gauge line in the country is at Downpatrick, where very small steam locos are used. As a former treasurer of both that operation and the RPSI, I can assure all that the cost of operating a "full-size" steam locomotive on ANY type of line anywhere in Ireland - be it new-build, old-build, or whether one like it ever ran on the line or not - is utterly unrealistic, unless the operator is prepared top personally subsidise train services there. Even with volunteer labour, such an operation will never come close to covering costs with steam. While the idea of a MGWR 2.4.0 exercising its legs along a 5ft 3 line in the west is a fantastic vision, one might as well wish for 800 to return to regular service on the Cork Main Line, with wooden-framed passenger stock behind it. And bear in mind that the DCDR struggled with financial paucity for a long time, and for an even longer time received a local authority annual subsidy. Much in preservation involves a conflict between the emotion and imagination of the enthusiast - and cold, hard, practical reality. All too often, that does not make for good listening at AGMs, nor does it make easy reading; but it's reality. Dromod successfully operates steam by using its own wood-firing and because it's just a short distance. If it was coal fired and went to Mohill, the costs would spiral colossally and even a quite busy operating day would probably COST money. Finntown operates a railcar; it it was a Donegal 2.6.4T being steamed, someone would have to piuck up a big bill for each open day. And so on, and so on. I do know that there was at least some discussion amongst some Connemara volunteers as to opinions on 5ft 3 versus narrow gauge; it is no accident that all railway heritage operations in this country (bar the DCDR) are narrow-gauge. Sooner or later, the issue of sustainability for this project must be faced head-on. A permanently (financially) unsustainable 5ft 3 operation, with a several-million-euro "new build" steam engine - or - a "scaled-down" version of the same with maybe a Sugar Company or "G" class diesel and a carriage in operation on open days, or something narrow gauge. In that descending order, descending cost to operate. Another matter; the DCDR has three steam engines (2 x ex-CSET and GSWR 90). It TAKES three steam locos to as good as guarantee steam all the time. In the DCDR's earlier days, with just one steam loco (borrowed from the RPSI), if it was out of action, diesels had to be used. An operational steam loco has three phasess of life within a ten-year cycle. (1) Newly restored, up'n'running and rarin' to go. (2) Mid life. A few tweaks here and there. (3) Withdrawal for mandatory boiler lift, inspection and almost certain attention to something above rail level. Therefore, when one loco is out of use, you need another. If at any point in time, one is undergoing major refurb, that means you need two others. Right now, for example, at Downpatrick, you've No. 1 nearing the end of its operational cycle, No. 3 in mid life and No. 90 out of traffic. The next stage will be 90 refurbed, 1 out of work for refurb (and museum display, no doubt) and 3 as the spare. That's the way it goes - same in the RPSI, which in all reality struggles to make some MAIN LINE trips pay. And the RPSI struggles to provide steam cover for all potential services it it doesn't have three operational main line locos, though, to be fair, it is faced with TWO operations, 150km apart. It is unrealistic in the extreme to compare what goes on at Bridgnorth, Pickering or Porthmadog with what happens here. We have one tenth the market that britain has, and a good third of the island's population lives in or around Dublin and Belfast. Add to that the fact that (present company excluded!) the general public on this island, of all backgrounds, haven't a fraction of the interest in industrial heritage as thge good folks of Brexitstan have. Stradbally pioneered operational railway preservation here almost sixty years ago. They have survived and thrived - because they have exactly the right model - for THIS island. Which reminds me - it's just over fifty years since I last travelled on it. It is HIGH time I returned. I have simply no excuse not to, nowadays! As an aside, with the unfortunate decline of the BnM narrow-gauge now, if anyone, anywhere, wants to establish a new heritage railway - or even a private one! - there are probably going to be a good many Wagonmasters on sale in the next few years - when they're gone, the3y're gone, as the supermarket ads say.

I wonder when or if the PO and customs will ever get their act together. Ridiculous. I am happy to publicly post that I will go out of my way to disobey the rules on these issues - due to their disarray and nonsense - by having stuff posted to all sorts of addresses outside the jurisdiction where I can get them at some future stage without paying €129 in charges for something worth €2.

Indeed - 12 is normal, never more. Occasionally 10 or 11, or even 8 or 9 (they pass my house so I see them - one passed not long ago...) but on one single occasion I saw just three.

Many did, I understand! His reply was matter-of-factly, “I like the green livery”! Des Coakham I would believe 1000%, but I’m afraid livery inaccuracy with AlphaG is plentiful!

Undoubtedly, yes. Apart from race meetings, the odd visit of a horsebox to just about any station was possible, when the "gentry" travelled - along with a flat truck with their carriage on it. I'd be interested to know the source for that.... green would be an odd colour for it, though I'm not doubting it. Disclaimer: if this is from an Alphagrahpix kit colour, many of the liveries used on those pre-printed kits are entirely incorrect.

Note on horse box liveries. Unlike other non-passenger stock, horse boxes on Irish railways were generally painted in the passenger coach livery of the relevant company, but inevitably the plain colour, without lining. The coach-style lettering on the NCC one pictured above confirms that it is painted in (undoubtedly badly faded) LMS maroon. Thus, BCDR, WLWR, DSER and NCC ones = maroon; GNR and MGWR = brown, and GSWR ones a very dark purply brown. I'm unsure if any survived to receive UTA green, but the GSR painted them maroon, and CIE painted them green up to about 1962. To buck the trend, any repainted by CIE after that were never black'n'tan - they were plain standard wagon grey. None ever got the post-1970 brown, as far as I am aware; few were ever in use by then. As often, there exceptions to the rules! SLNCR horse boxes were - I think - grey, but at least one parcel van seems to have been in the (again, horrifically faded) carriage maroon. Donegal and Lough Swilly ones were grey. I've no information on other narrow gauge lines that i can think of.....

The plan is - a mix of Fry’s models, his photos, and in a few cases other photos of the prototype of other models he made. A bit of his personal history, too - and yes - a plan of his layout.

No, though “I know a man”; there eventually will be one.

That’s SOME “nudge”!!

A lot of the ones with the more elaborate beading were re-done at different times in their lives by the GSR, and more especially by CIE. Many later (1950s) re-panelling was done in steel or aluminium sheeting.

Wondering how it’ll be on a sharpish curve I will have…..

OK, lower one a Mk 3 set, no doubt. I wonder is the top one a 2700?