Lambeg man

2 hours ago, GNRi1959 said:

Three days before the tram was taken to Belfast 28th Sept. 1957

Thank you both for that. Interesting that they were already hauling up the track before the actual last day.

2 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

The siding on the extreme right seems to have been lifted in the early 1950s, but the main goods road on the left was lifted not long before closure. The picture is very likely to be within September 1957.

Hi,

Any idea of a date for the above. Interesting is that the track on the left has been lifted, but the collection of passengers appear to be locals as opposed to a touring party of enthusiasts!

10 hours ago, airfixfan said:

Have a colour photo of NCC Railcar No 4 in the same location from August 1966 in my collection.

Yes, given that the car behind is one of the UTA built AEC Railcars (6 or 7) and appears to be 'dumped' like No. 4, I would have dated this 1966 or later.

Hi Alan,

I have very recently purchased an old Triang/Hornby DMU cheap as chips, purely for the motor bogie. This however had the old 'Super 4' chunky wheels. To get replacement wheels I tried contacting a couple of parties that were recommended to me, but none even replied. Then I saw this guy advertising in the 'Railway Modeller'.

Dave Good, trading as "Scalespeed", 32 Goldfinch Lane, Lee on Solent, Hants PO13 8LN. His website is www.scalespeed.co.uk.

I sent him all four of my T/H DMU power bogies. For about £25 (including P&P) each, all now have Code 100 wheels, have been re-magnatized, re-brushed, cleaned, etc. and he also fitted extra wires to allow electrical pickup from another bogie. Two of them power my two BUT sets, the other two are headed for an MPD and a Class 70 projects which are under way.

He does a big range of motor refurbishment. Turnaround time was about five days.

I can not recommend Dave's services highly enough. 

See "Recommended Service" on page 7 of this sub forum (from June 2010).

Another little story about TV adverts. Years ago they did a survey of the great British public as to which adverts they thought were the best. Hands down winner were the adverts featuring Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins... And what was it they were advertising was the next question... 95% replied "Why, it's Martini isn't it."

It wasn't. They were advertising the cheaper brand Cinzano!!!!!

The schumck about f**king adverts is that apart from the BBC, they are a necessary evil if you want to watch something other than 2 and a half hours of 'Strictly', endless hours of football programmes presented by a crisp promoting tosser who is paid £1.25 million a year to sit and chat with his golf buddies on a Saturday evening, endless sh*t about the countryside that is clearly intended to inform townies that there is life outside of the city and endless dross (each of which poses as a programme in it's own right) telling you what is going to be the subject matter of all the forgoing....

With regard to programme length, notice how much time is now spent between BBC programmes promoting other programmes, radio stations, etc? That is because all programmes/episodes are only 25 minutes long for an half hour slot. This is because at some point they will be reshown on a repeat channel - WITH ADVERTS!

Rant over.....

On 25/9/2021 at 7:19 AM, Irishswissernie said:

Tour on the Belfast Central at Maysfield. (Nagging feeling this might have been posted on here before)

Hi Ernie,

A lot of photographs were taken here in the Maysfields Yard on that day, probably due to the layover time while the ex-SLNCR tank No. 26 came off and the ex-GNR 'U' class took over the tour train for the run to Bangor. So a lot of noted (and subsequently published) photographers may well have been standing next to each other. Have to say though, all the ones in my collection were taken from the other side of the train. LM

On 1/9/2021 at 4:49 AM, Mayner said:

I love it! Living abroad I miss the distinctive regional accents found in Ireland and the UK.

An English girl I used to work with once said she loved my Northern Ireland accent. "I can teach you to speak Northern Irish if you like" says I. "Go on then" says she. "Okay, type this - I GOT A SHEET OF PAPER AND STUCK IN MY TYPEWRITER." (Shows how old this story is!) Anyway, she types this in. "Right, type that last bit again BUT replace all the vowel letters with an 'A'" says I. She does so. I said, "Now read aloud what you just typed in the second time"...

"A GAT A SHAAT AF PAPAR AND STACK AN MY TYPAWRATAR"... From Norfolk to East Belfast in one easy move..... For their tea that night she cooked her husband FASH AND CHAPS......  

On 25/9/2021 at 12:39 PM, jhb171achill said:

Then it's got mixed up with Senior's stuff! There's no chance of either copying from the other, as they didn't know each other.

Hi JHB, thanks for resolving that. LM

On 25/9/2021 at 7:03 AM, airfixfan said:

Well spotted Steve it is indeed the same photo of UG 47 at Adelaide

Thank you for the compliment Airfixfan. LM

Not sure where you are getting your material from but that middle photo of 'UG' No. 47 sitting outside Adelaide Shed is credited to Pat Whitehouse in an photo book album of his stuff titled 'Steam on shed'. Or did he poach Senior's work? I would be interested to know. LM

Sorry, but what is BRILL?

Hi Ernie,

I may be wrong, but have you not posted that GNR carriage picture before? I recall posting a guess on my part that the roofboard is comprised of two previous boards being bodged together, one half from a 'Dublin-Derry' roofboard and the other from a 'Belfast-Enniskillen' one. This would date the photo to 1958. W.E. Robertson has had a photo of the same roofboard published few years back.

12 hours ago, StevieB said:

Keep them coming, they are a joy to look at.

 Totally agree, they are all excellent viewing material.

The photo was taken by Jack Patience in August 1960. The engine is J 15 No. 182. It is a Wexford North - Rosslare local service and the picture is reproduced in his book "CIE 1958 to 1962". The postcard version (which I assume the above is) is one of a smallish selection of cards that used to be on sale at the old Transport Museum in Witham Street in the 1960's. 

18 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

2.  The last surviving item of rolling stock from the Ulster Railway Co., grounded as a store at Portadown from - I believe - about 1905, until rescued by the DCDR. It is currently undergoing full restoration!

Built 1862 and classified 'O 1' in 1916, No. 33 was withdrawn and grounded in September 1920. Sold to a farmer 1965?

On 8/8/2021 at 7:02 PM, jhb171achill said:

MPD railcar out'n'about on the NCC main line. Not sure where, but Senior was involved with the bridge rebuilding adjacent to it.

I think this is the relevant bridge prior to rebuilding to allow 'standard' double deckers (as opposed to the 'low bridge' type seen in the photo) to pass under. Like so many other rail over road bridges at the time, e'g' Derriaghy and later Balmoral. Done for the benefit of UTA buses, wonder who bore the cost of these reconstructions? (Photo by R.C. Ludgate)

22 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

That would fit perfectly. Senior was in charge of that job, and some of the old black & whites are also of that location, I think.

Many thanks for that Down distant. Nice to put a name to a face. LM

On 30/6/2021 at 12:57 PM, Galteemore said:

There is a fascinating story which appeared in a Railway World - I think - about 60 years ago. Some three shiploads of ex GN and CIE locos made their way to Spain, and some enthusiasts felt that they had possibly gone to be regauged for a new life in the sun. Sadly, all were simply destined for the flames like these two.

The story behind this is that in this time period the Irish government had imposed a ban on the export of scrap metal. Why I do not know, but they did. CIE, despite being government owned, got around the ban by declaring the locomotives were being exported in running order and as usable engines did not constitute 'scrap'. Yet they were consigned to a Spanish scrap merchant, not the Spanish National Railway Company!!!

2 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

They needed the wider buffers for sharp curves. Some bogie coaches were fitted with them too.

If sharp curves on the Valencia branch or anywhere else were the whole reason, why then were several ex-GNR Railcars, both AEC and BUT, that went to CIE fitted with these large 2' buffers post 1960? 

Thanks for posting Ernie. For some reason in this particular photograph the buffers of the Railcar look almost too large to be real. As a matter of interest, who was the photographer? Is this the early afternoon arrival from Bantry?

Sorry Jon, that's a negative. If the dates and train times quoted are all correct, Mr. Forsyth clearly had the use of a car. However a lot of the stuff is from the station platform, apart from frequent 'shed bashes' at Adelaide. He did photograph in the Knockmore area, but not apparently at the actual junction. 

I am sure many of you are familiar with the colour material of Irish railways that Colour Rail has put out over the years.

However in case anyone is unaware, they can also supply black & white photographs taken by David Forsyth in and around the Adelaide / Balmoral / Hilden / Lisburn / Portadown areas between 1961 and 1965. The thumbnails can be viewed on their website, but having purchased a number of downloads to aid my research for a layout based around Lisburn in the 1960's, I can thoroughly recommend the purchase of the downloads for their sheer quality (not apparent in the thumbnails). Some but not many have been published before, but there are some unpublished gems in there. Have a look if you're thinking of modelling the Belfast-Portadown section in the early 1960's.