GSR 800

Park Royals have been announced https://irishrailwaymodels.com/blogs/announcements/irish-royalty-park-royal-coach-next-for-irm

jaysus it was 1 day 18 hours earlier this morning

Broithe must have some serious dirt on the lads to be on the direct line..

The detail looks excellent, top-notch; shame about the glitch. On the upside, you might be able to do a wee diorama of some of the inchicore sidings with a loco on the wrong end of a cutters torch

Looks like work may be beginning to clear the lineside for platform 11

Interestingly (though perhaps unsurprisingly) it seems the trend will continue with the 'Heuston West' Station for Dart Southwest, which will have a platform 11 adjacent to 10. I'd say this is the most likely answer, having the slot open if/when Heuston needs additional capacity

We're nearly at the halfway mark now, wonder if we'll get any hints at all..

Milne advocated for exactly that, along with shorter, more regular train schedules based around 2-6-0 and 0-6-0 designs, along with ending inchicores boiler renewal policy and standardising around fewer boilers, but CIE went diesel. In hindsight, this was a better choice, though the adoption of Milne's other proposals could have been beneficial (and may have saved some of the branch lines)

I like the first photo. The J15b's were quite nice looking locos, though not with the best reputation. Still an improvement over the J15As with their extremely conservative design. Neither class could beat the original J15, it seemed. I seem to recall someone, perhaps Milne calling for locomotives similar to the cattle engines to be built as a standard locomotive, presumably to replace the J15s. Perhaps their high maintenance (a feature of the wider MGWR fleet, apparently) put Inchicore off replicating the design. I think it was Nock who er...knocked the MGWR in comparison to the BCDR, noting that while the BCDR used its steam locomotives efficiently, it was not unusual to see dozens of locomotives sitting around Broadstone in the middle of the day!

Footbridge was truncated over the old CIE lines when the old platform canopy on the CIE side went. Footbridge over the main terminus was not removed until 1997 (by which stage it looked quite sorry for itself) from pictures I have seen when work was being done to the front of the train shed

that'll be for the ICR multiple-purpose diesels to haul

I've heard IRM will be producing the 800s...in black n tan only. Apparently, it will only be available in a pack with a Crossley A class which doesn't work, for the kettle to rescue...

Fitting name then... A very nice engine indeed. Will have to get one myself from alphagraphix sometime...

Can't say I'm surprised, considering how horrendously understaffed An Bord Pleanala are.....

I think the 800s are looked upon with the hindsight of the postwar years with little to show for themselves. Had they been given the opportunity, I'm sure that discussion would not have been had. Equally, significant expense had already gone toward rebuilding the 400s, they decided after looking at the expense of 402s rebuild to cut costs where possible. Interestingly, the 400s didn't compare particularly favourably to William Goulding, which could work at a similar pressure. I have yet to see a single photo of that locomotive, other than a three-quarter rear view of (what is apparently) her as a stationary boiler at Inchicore. One of the 500s met a similar fate.

Eyesight improving in the span of 7(!) years isn't a bad thing... Whatever the hell it is, it's still out in the field, though I haven't inspected it in a good long time. An old H van isn't far from it, though riddled with shot at either end... practising for crows, apparently.

I wonder if a new tradition will be started of kettles for Paddy's Day...

In no particular hurry, since it apparently took seven hours to get to Bundoran...

Likely a regular train rather than the Enterprise, as Galteemore says All except the Enterprise, customs were checked at Amiens Street and GVS so it could run nonstop.

It was a BUT railcar set on the Enterprise after the VS class, so doubt that. Did see a video in the early 1960s of a Jeep replacing two 141s on a Belfast bound train

I think the 22000s were a pretty solid choice, some of the larger sets perhaps but they are the J15 or AEC railcar of the modern era, can't have a layout without them. Part of me is almost hoping the IRM steam loco is not an 800, me SSM one has just had the chassis finished! The other part of me has a list done out of all the things that need to be perfect...

List them out, the price you want, and post photos of them.

BUT railcars, most were withdrawn in the 1970s.

Are they adding cocaine buns to the menu? That'd certainly make the train rides interesting

"This year's first major IRM announcement is in the next month. " Certainly carefully worded, perfectly ambiguous as to its exact meaning and has certainly drummed up plenty of hype...