minister_for_hardship

Its an attractive thing esp in regional colours, I don't mind it at all in Britain and in its proper context, it just seems to be a go-to, copy/paste design element now. It doesn't matter so much in a cafe or pub but in an historical or museum setting it gives me the ick. Irish railways had all their own distinctive heraldic coats of arms, modern era logos, advertising, typefaces...GSR & CIE Gaelic fonts. There's a deep well to draw on already.

One thing that slightly annoying me is creeping "totemisation" (if that's a word - it is now) here. British Railways 1950s hotdogs at Clon Model Railway, various local community displays and Inchicore open day!

Maybe they're fans of Guns N Roses?

Should have had more 500s, and forget about building the three enormous white (or is that green?) elephants.

Could be between "cattlebank and station?" From the cut of it, missing axlebox cover and what look like weeds growing out of it, it's likely not doing serious mileage anymore. Don't think rolling stock numbers started with "0" pre SuperTrain era.

Ebay photo listing of ancient looking open with a literal sh*te wagon load. Before listing disappears, it has MULLINGAR painted on top RH corner, PXP painted in two places and carries number ?731 (first digit could well be a 6 or a 9) and painted instruction "TO RUN(?) BETWEEN WATERFORD (?) STATION (?)" Presumably, given the cattle wagons in background this is filled with the manure from them. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/335714102551?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338722076&customid=&toolid=10050

If it looks too good to be true, it usually is. Fair amount of car boot sale grade rubbish in that same auction.

Likewise. Bank account breathes sigh of relief.

It did, two large esso ovals , 1 per side that were removed subsequently. You can see the oval shaped set of anchor points that held them on in later photos before those too were removed.

I dislike the freedom of choice being curtailed. That and the postage situation of delays, bureaucratic bumbling, expensive postage/Revenue shakedowns, that this is happening in the 21st century and it's kind of normalised now is wild. Everything's HO in EU zone, architectural bits and bobs, loco and rolling stock elements pretty much completely different, road vehicles are of continental outline. It's yet another unintended consequence pain in the face.

Reduce, reuse, recycle!

Sadly, you could write that about the present day and it would be equally true.

"This isn't a ballast wagon, it's a 'ballast van'. The presence of two of these in the working timetable listings for the 1975-1986 period had been puzzling me - why on earth would they use a van for ballast? Well the answer is that they were vans for people to shovel the ballast. 24803 and 24804 are listed in the 1985 WTT and here is the first of them, a 6-wheeler that looks purpose-built as a PWD mess van:" That wouldn't look out of place in Germany, very Continental looking design.

I guess by the 30s-50s it was probably seen as just another antique loco they had to work with, old pre GSR company brand loyalty having dissolved somewhat.

The railways would have generated tons of the stuff; accident report forms, luggage labels, returns of stock held at stations (everything from shunting poles to pen nibs), handbills, etc etc. There was a specialist collecting group called the Railway Print Society, unfortunately it folded a few years back.