GSR 800

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Have you tried Mike Edge in GB? Gave me a reasonable price for getting 800s chassis up and running. Not sure if he does coaches, but worth giving him a shout?

we were promised an announcement within the year...I'd imagine if there was one it'd be around the time of some of the big shows?

These look fantastic. The detail is truly on another level. Rockefeller once said his idea of enough was a little more....so may I be so bold in asking will there be anything steam-powered to haul those RPSI coaches? Non existent! I recall footage on the DSER lines running specials for horseracing in the 1950s. People were opening the doors and getting off en masse on the trackside, while the train was still moving! To boot, another train was coming in on the other track. One man was very nimble indeed to avoid it!

I'm considering that for a timeline where the MGWR lines get some investment in the 20s and 30s under a better-managed GSR (or country!), which allows for more modern locomotives to oust the rough-riding MGWR 4-4-0s. Whatever it was about MGWR locomotives, they seem to have had a terrible time between rough riding and high maintenance. It's a shame too. The likes of the C class were very handsome machines indeed. Interestingly, speaking of bearings, apparently, the 800s tended to wear out the rear set of bearings due to the weight at the back. Perhaps a legacy issue originating from the Pacific design?

Some detailing work, upgrading, patching and painting was done this week. The ornate window frames on the station building were added. These were made from toothpicks! Quite interesting to see how far this area has come. Next up was the water tower in front of the signal box. Mullingar had three water towers at the station, plus a water crane on the island. Only the one on the Galway side is left these days, unfortunately. Both water towers are Peco, though the new one has a considerably shortened tank and stack. This was achieved with a blade run a few times along a convenient score line, then breaking it off. After this, I added some roping around the base. I cannot for the life of me remember what this is called. I knew once. At any rate, the rope is for hanging paintings steeped in tea. It looks quite overscale, but I don't mind. Interestingly it doesn't appear in the 1957 photo above but does in other photos. The other tower is similarly inconsistent. While doing this, the roof on the main station building has been replaced with a simple piece of framers card. The previous roof was strips of plastic roofing, but I wasn't happy with how it looked. I think it makes a big difference without taking away from the building. Back to the 50s and 60s... Looking much cleaner than A1, A30 is on similar goods duties in 1957 A15 is running light engine toward Dublin as a 141 slows with a passenger train from Dublin. A15 will split the train and move it to the Sligo side of the station A Plethora of Diesels at dusk! B141 is on the Galway Mail train Meadbh takes on water as she prepares to take her express onto Dublin. The PW gang are joking that they've lifted some of the track on the Sligo side to prevent her from going any further in that direction! Thanks for looking

Like many an Irish rail vehicle, its quite possible it had an altercation with a cow... There was an IRRS journal that showed the cow after such an incident, I don't think anyone will be modelling such a scene any time soon!

All Fleadh'd out: 1963 The railwaymen and women at the station and yard can finally take a bit of a break the week after the Fleadh. A great success, though the Bishop is apparently not too happy with some of the carry-on during... B141, the first of her class, brings her Dublin-bound train to a stop. J 15 162 trundles past, en route to the shed. She is soon for withdrawal, likely joining dozens of other locomotives at the gantry for scrapping. The Craven is being trialled...lucky passengers ..... Hello friends, my apologies for the hiatus. Mullingar is currently undergoing an overhaul and that dreaded word...' rationalisation'. One of the main issues I had with Mullingar was fitting it into my available space. The original layout was end-to-end, but this was not particularly satisfying and prevented any ability to operate the Sligo side other than as sidings. I've also wanted to model a terminus, hence Amiens Street. But now there were two models. What to do with them? After various attempts, the idea came with a 10x6-ish board. This gives just about enough room to loop a line back for Sligo. Mullingar's platforms were shortened somewhat to fit within this, with the shed and yard to be placed on the other side. An offshoot board will serve for Amiens street, the 'scenic fiddle yard' for the layout. So far so good, I will update as it progresses. The island platform structures will be interesting, the canopy is very ornate and intricate. Perhaps a job for the 3d printer..time shall tell. Thanks for looking.

Simply wonderful stuff. Detail on the backhead is excellent.

Absolutely fantastic. The little Peckett is a favourite of mine. Can't wait for more!

DMToys is very good

Likely 401. You can just about make out the top of the 1 on the bufferbeam, and she was kept around with 402 for a good while.

road usage tolls are being considered (Though I'm sure they would be quite unpopular) more reasonable proposals include replacing the tax system based on emissions with one based on the weight of the car. (Bad news for those who have bought some of the massive electric cars!) Increasingly, however, there's admission Evs aren't the be-all and end-all, so it's very possible for rail to make inroads (no pun intended).

I'll get out my shovel and do it myself if they wont...madness it was ever closed in the first place. An interesting one is the 'Maynooth loop'. It seems to be to allow Sligo-bound trains to utilise the quad track from Heuston to get around Dart + services as far as Maynooth.

Run up to Cultra and hook up a compressor to Maedb's whistle

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

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

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.