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Sorry Fran I feel exactly the same. I have ordered one Hunslet with sound but I can't justify either an 800 class or ICR as I want my models to operate on my 1980's layout, not sit on a shelf. I too will order at least four C class locos when they eventually appear.

Could it have been a special train to the Irish college in Ring? The bogie van would have been used for carrying bicycles? The genset in the 3200 van would have supplied power for train lighting. I travelled on a similar type but longer Irish College special from Westland Row to Galway in the summer of 1972 and my bicycle travelled with me on the same train in a bogie van.

Wow This is a new one on me. Never heard this before. Were they used anywhere else? You would need a decent sized genset to heat a carriage. I always thought that the first electrically heated coaches were the mk2s, apart from the Laminates fitted with storage heaters for the Loughrea branch. In the 1970's the bogie steam heating vans, the 3200 brake standards and the push pull railcar conversions were all fitted with either a lister or italian genset but only for trainlighting. Heating was always by steam from oil fired boilers. The Italian ones fitted to the push pulls had a tendency to self combust and extensive fire proofing was added in the 80's just to keep a few sets running. Also in the 1980s there was a discussion about converting the Cravens to electric heating but it didn't proceed.

If my memory serves me right in the 1980's, the standard CIE cast iron chair had 4 holes but was usually only held in place with two bolts, one either side of the rail. Sleepers used to rot where the bolt went through the sleeper and at the triangular nut underneath. The linesman would see the loose chair and could drill the sleeper through one of the spare holes, insert a new bolt and nut underneath the sleeper and resecure the chair to the sleeper.

Wow! I worked there in the 1980's and it brought it all back.

Speaking to Fran yesterday in Wexford he did hint that both a break van and a mk1 GSV were in the pipeline but neither were imminent.

When did they start painting them brown? I think that I remember a lot of gray wagons still around the the 1970's

Planning for the new layout has been based on the following seven principles espoused by an American track planner called Bill Beranek. Walk Along Mainlines Narrow Shelves Long Mainline or Branch-line Runs Trains Traveling Through Scenes Once View Blocking Peninsulas Staging Yards (both hidden & open) Prototypical Operations It’s worth watching him on YouTube, you will learn a lot. On this layout the emphasis will be on operations more than scenery but I do hope to gradually add scenery over time. The basic shape of the new layout will be around the walls with a peninsula up the middle, similar to the old layout but in a space twice the size. This gives five straight sections for stations or scenes. The new layout would have space for a helix or a turnaround at the end of the peninsula if I want to incorporate one. I didn’t have the space for this on the last layout. My first idea was to put a helix at end of peninsula to get the track down to staging around the walls under layout. It would even have been possible to both go up and down with the helix and add a complete upper deck to the layout and making it double the size. Advantages All five sections can be used as senic areas, maximum possible mainline run, trains can be reversed when staged, very easy to add extra staging tracks, possible to build a double deck layout. Disadvantages Complicated benchwork, lot of hidden trackwork , time taken to travel up and down the helix during operating sessions. I decided early on that a double deck layout is not for me as neither deck is at the optimum height and that the disadvantages of the helix outweigh the advantages. My next thought was no helix but putting staging around the outside of the layout behind a view block backscene. Advantages Almost as much senic area and mainline run as option 1 Easy to incorporate a junction with a branch through the backscene Disadvantages Access to staging, viewing stock in staging, height of backscene, no reverse without shunting in staging. Again I think the disadvantages outweigh the advantages so the next option would be to use one of the straight areas as double ended open staging Advantages Simple benchwork, easy access to staging Disadvantages Shorter mainline, no reverse loop, tight radius on turnaround at end of peninsula, difficult to incorporate a branch line. This is closer to what I would like but my next idea was to do away with the turnaround at the end of the peninsula and put open staging on one side of the peninsula with the branch terminus on the other side. The main line would run out of staging go around the room and back into staging Advantages Simple benchwork, easy access to staging, possible to interconnect north and south staging and run trains in one direction around the layout, possible to have a triangular junction, branch line included, possible to have a continuous run. Disadvantages Shorter mainline, only four scenic areas This is actually very similar to the concept of the old layout. It is the way I plan to proceed and am working on a track plan, so more to follow.

Photography was never my strongpoint. Even now I am terrible at composing a subject. At the time I had a cheap AGFA camera and took awful photographs in black and white which I developed myself. I much preferred to wander around, observe and store memories. The photos in the IIRS archive or in Rails in Kerry are way better that any I took. But on the subject of memories there was plenty of time to wander around and no restrictions on going anywhere. The loco was a 141 class, and after we arrived in Fenit the driver uncoupled from the train and drove it up the line and parked it in the cutting outside the station. He left it idling there unoccupied all afternoon. There was a very sad end to the day in that on the way back to Cork that evening the train crashed into a vanload of travellers at an accomidation crossing and several were killed.

I was on that tour in 1972 and if I remember rightly the turntable was still working. I also visited the branch a year or two later on a local when the Cork- Tralee train was extended to Fenit on summer Sundays.

Its hard to believe that its over a year since my last post. What a year it has been. I got the layout to the stage where all the track was laid and fully operational. I did spent a lot of time running trains for the grandkids and am hopeful the the hobby might not be lost on future generations. I had a dress rehersal for a full operating session and then life intervened. The two of us were rattling around a large house that was impossible to heat, using perhaps a third of the living space so we made the momentus decision to downsize and sell the house after 32 happy years there. I had to dismantle the railway, pack it all up and put it into storage in my daughters attic. We were very lucky, we got a good price for the house and found another close by that meets our needs, a key one being space in the garden for a timber room for my model railway version 2.1. The selling and buying took six months and then after moving in in December we made the decision to completly refurbish the new house and so are currently homeless but actually are lucky to be able to stay in any of our three kids houses, the one condition being that we help look after the grandkids. While I haven't posted very often this site has been a constant in my life keeping me in touch with the hobby over the last year. I really appreciate what everyone contributes and IRM for running an add free service. I have a great team of Romanians working on the house but have assumed for myself the role of clients representative, resident engineer , assistant plumber, assistant electrian, assistant dogsbody. The result being no time for modelling. We hope to move back in around Easter. Below is a picture of the timber room that I was allowed purchase. Its nominally 16 x 12 in old money, about 15'8" a 11'8" internally, fuly lined and insulated. It is currently being used for storing our furniture so I hope to have vacent possession in a couple of months. I am currently designing version 2.1 of the layout so more to follow.

I think if you were to analyse the market, the vast majority of your customers are aged from 50 to 80 who are able to remember what a railway looked like. Loco hauled passenger and freight trains have now almost dissappeared, track has been rationalised and we are left with silver green tubes which transport a lot more passengers a lot more efficiently but don't generate any interest from the younger demographic. The only model train that kids are exposed to nowadays is Thomas the tank engine. I am smack in the middle of the above age bracket and growing up was able to observe much of what was still a victorian steam railway albeit with diesel locos and 1950's and 1960's rolling stock. I worked in CIE during the 1980's so have chosen this era to model. I am extremly grateful to both Paddy Murphy and IRM for producing incredible scale models at very reasonable prices. I have bought full price examples of almost all the models that been produced so far that could have run somewhere in Ireland in the 1980's plus or minus a decade. The magnasite wagons seem to have been a commercial disaster which is a real pity as they are such beautiful models. I will buy Park Royals, H vans GSVs, C Class, Jeeps, 20 ton Brake vans etc etc as soon as these are produced. I am sorry to say that the ICRs just don't row my boat which why I didn't order any.

Be careful what you wish for as your wallet may not be able to stand the pressure. Chatting to Fran at Wexford he hinted that both a break van and a GSV were needed to go with all the wagons and coaches they were producing. He also mentioned that not one but two loco announcements would be made this year.

My priority wish list if anybody from IRM reads this: GSVs to go with the Cravens and Park Royals, BR vans perferably but would accept an unrebuilt DEW van as an alternative Either a 20 ton or 30 ton brake van to go with all the Bulleid stock now on order. A re-engined C class The footbridge that we were already promised My origonal intention was to only buy what ran in the 1980's but the recent offerings have reset this to 1970's and 1980's I know I will probably buy whatever is produced but the layout is filling up. 10 years ago I did not think I could ever be in this situation

Really interesting video. It brough back many memories as I travelled on that RPSI tour behind 186 in 1972. The dedication that this group of people have shown over the last 40 years really is amazing. It also shows just how powerful the farming/ landowner lobby is and how negligent CIE have been in preserving the right of way for the state. I am probably in the minority here but I am a great beliver in the economic and social benifits of greenways. I see no justification for rebuilding the line to Foynes. Ireland is just too small for rail freight other that a few specific freight flows which are completly dependent on the location of a small number of factories. At the moment we have concentrates in containers from Ballina to Waterford, timber from Mayo to Waterford, Botox from Castlebar? Tara Mines? CIE had a network of container gantries all over the Island but transhipment costs killed the market. Why are we fixated in investing in a form of transport that is 200 years old. Why not think outside the box? At the moment most freight in an out of Ireland travels to and from Europe in standard articulated trailers which are rolled on and off ferries by special tractors. A road tractor delivers the trailers to and from the port. They are currely building a huge number of storage bays in Rosslare for holding the trailers before pickup or after drop off. Why not move the ports inland? My sugestion would be dedicated carriagways for transporting standard articulated trailers from ports to an inland hubs. Instead of diesel trucks the tractors would be unmanned electrical vehicles, powered by low voltage electricity (not batteries) similar to luas trams. The trailers could be transferred direct from the boat to the system. The carriageway could be single width with passing places to minimise construction costs. The whole lot would be controlled by AI to maximise efficiency and reduce energy consumption. While it would not be quite as efficient as steel on steel for that part of the journey, the benifits of a single mode of transport from factory to port and vise versa would far outweigh the extra energy costs which would still be green electricity so no additional carbon. Perhaps the line from Rosslare to Waterford could be converted to trial out the system? There is no reason why the network could not be extended to include city suburb to city suburb carriagways.