Garfield

Sets F-H aren't duplicates though?

While no 5ft 3in gauge Fowler locos operated here, Guinness did have a Hudswell Clarke diesel loco of a similar vintage, which also featured an 0-4-0 wheel arrangement with jackshaft drive... They also had a Carpenter/Hibberd loco at their Park Royal brewery in London, which also bears a vague resemblance...

Alstom have come a long way from the period when they supplied the 8200 DARTs and 2700 railcars.

Hi Adrian, Would you mind PMing your name and contact details? Commitment would really be down to how active you want to be and how much time you want to commit to it... it's all about enjoyment of the hobby at the end of the day.

If only there was some way of getting freight from the 'Tactical Rail Freight Terminals' in Sligo and Galway to the Limerick Junction intermodal hub without having to go via Dublin...

It's still 11 months away so hard to predict what the likely situation will be just now? I'm sure the MRSI will be able to adjust their plans in order to comply with any measures that might be required, though.

There were three variations on the green livery: plain 'standard' green, 'standard' green with eau-de-nil waistband, and the unique dark green with eau-de-nil waistband worn by A46. Inchicore began a transition to B&T from the green livery but had a change of mind and decided that all-over black with a white chevron over the windscreens was a better option (probably because it helped to hide the oil deposits and grime which emanated from the Crossley exhaust), so the B&T and all-over black (or black with yellow cab faces) existed side-by-side.

Only if taken in isolation, though. The O'Dea photo in question is A11 with 'standard' green and waistband, which is also the subject of a rather nice colour photo here: Of course, as part of the research phase we were also privileged to be given access to photo collections which aren't available either in print or online.

By "mainline" I'm guessing anything ex-CIE/IR or NIR? In that case... E Class: E421 and E432 at Downpatrick; E428 at Dunsandle. G Class: G611 (ITG), G613 and G617 (ITG) at Downpatrick; G601 and G616 at Carrick-on-Suir (both ITG) Prototype Sulzer 1100/B113 at Cultra NIR Hunslet/BREL No. 102 'Falcon' at Cultra

To this day, the residents of Dugort swear that the ghosts of the permanent way gangers can still be heard muttering about the damage 'Maedb' caused on the branch...

This is getting ridiculous. Can we move on?

Are you right there, Mich... "No! Of course I'm not!"

Oh I know... but in comparison to the rest of the stock in what was clearly a staged promo shot, it's still a curiosity...

There really is; whether pristine or dirtied up, it's an underrated livery.

No. 554 looks like a GS&WR 'convertible' wagon, which is quite something, given it would have been quite elderly even then and the other wagons appear to be newer GSR vans.

It seems a few ended up without exhaust cowls at one point or another, although I'm unsure whether this was temporary or not. I've seen a few photos of them in this condition but it's very much a 'lesser spotted' feature.

Only a stone's throw from me, then! If you want to PM your details, I'll keep you in the loop...

@eeiknh@skinner75 Nice one! I've had expressions of interest from a few other lads, too, so I'm hopeful that this will gain momentum. If you want to forward me your details via PM, we can see about arranging a meeting in the not-too-distant future.

Hi @controller, Have you tried any other decoders in the loco to establish if there is a problem with either the Loksound decoder or the loco itself? For further support, you can drop us a line at support@irishrailwaymodels.com.

That would be great, Dave, but a three-hour round trip to attend club nights isn't feasible, I'm afraid. Happy to report there has been interest already, especially from the Westmeath, Offaly and Galway areas.

Now that the photo has your attention I'm going to throw this out there to see if there's any interest: I'm now based near Moate in Co. Westmeath and I'm curious to see if there are other modellers in the wider Athlone area who might be interested in getting together to form a model railway club in the region? It might also be of interest to anyone located in north Offaly, Longford, east Roscommon or east Galway as these areas are all within 30-45 minutes of Athlone. If you think it's something you might want to get involved in, leave a comment below or drop me a PM and if there's enough interest we can move on to arrange a meeting to explore further possibilities.

As far as I know, 015 is owned by Jackie Whelan, who operates the setup at Moyasta. There may be a few others involved, too.

Hi John, A12 is perfect for the mid-late 1960s period. The yellow panels weren't unique but were less common than the all-over black livery.

Welcome aboard!