minister_for_hardship

I never knew working steam and, all things being equal and if there was stuff available, would love to do a pre GSR layout maybe something offbeat like a WOI or Civil War theme. The death of steam/new diesel era has a lot of variety as well, down at heel steam side by side with (a few) clean diesels. The present day has relatively little interest for me, even station surrounds have become really ugly looking with Euro-cobble brick platforms, hideous palisade fencing and awful modern steel footbridges more suited to an oil refinery or chemical plant.

And many adults, "ooh look at Thomas" (typical parent with kid pointing at an ICR)

I wouldn't even class Clonakilty as a museum, more a place to bring the kids to a birthday party and whatever tins of Valspar are on the shelf at the local hardware shop will do as being 'close enough'. Even the P&T phonebox is decked out in a paint scheme it clearly never had. Met one of the founders of Clon once, not an enthusiast at all, just someone who wanted to bring an attraction to the town. Cultra should be better than this, should be on a par with the likes of NRM York.

Might need to tweak it by erasing the dots over the letter 'I'. Oh and there's a 'B' missing! But even the GSR mis-spelt placenames and left out accents over letters. A few more... (C. Creedon scrapbooks, Cork Library) (last one is from NG railway museum site, Tywyn.)

From O'Dea collection. Cahirciveen, smaller size. http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000304860 Mallow, large size, suspect painted over in reversed colours. http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000307962 Ballaghaderreen. http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000303866 Foxrock. http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000303779 Arigna. http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000304126

If you want to put the dots over the letters and you're using MS Word, go 'Insert' and 'Symbol' and it brings up a grid of symbols and accents and select the one you want. Most nameboards had the dot over the letter (called a séimhiú), modern Irish uses the letter 'h' to create the same effect as typewriters couldn't manage the dots. Nameboards also came in a few sizes, with smaller than usual ones for signal cabins or perhaps narrow gauge locations. Some like the Sallins one came with a frame around them, others were just screwed onto 2 timber laths and fixed to concrete uprights without a surrounding frame. In this case the enamelled white border would be visible, though CIE periodically painted over the enamel nameboards in black and picked out the letters again in white (bit of a pointless exercise) and might neglect to paint the border in again. Small signs of the same style were often used for station facilities, either back-to-back in a frame hanging from the station canopy or fixed on the wall above the relevant door or fixed to the door itself. Here is Askeaton, in the smaller size and (unusually) in modern Irish. https://stationroadaskeatoncommunity.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/img_0123.jpg

Hadn't thought about the timberwork, the vertical panelling is not typically Irish, unless you count DW&WR arc roof cabins which are completely different to anything anywhere else. I assume the full balcony type would have more timber exposed to the elements and rot would set in quicker, maybe that's why they didn't continue with them.

The bottom levels once contained banks of dry batteries and of course the underside of the lever frame, a few windows would be handy rather than fumbling around in the dark. Think you would see window(s) on all but the smallest cabins or cabins situated on platforms.

It does have the look of a contractor-supplied cabin, but didn't think Irish cabins featured a full width balcony often, if at all?

Have they painted the dome and boiler of Blanche black? Thought they were meant to be red like the rest of it, only to get covered in soot/dirt when in service? Great place, only it does feel a little cramped, not much scope for adding to the collection.

Plan to do just that. Main timbers appear to be oak which is reasonably solid but planking might be a cheaper wood as it's quite rotten in a number of places.

Numbered plank is from same wagon, no 'B' suffix. Also number seems a little on the high side to be from a smallish system like the Bandon. Had a look under the alum sheet and there are CIE snails painted on the timber underneath (snails at top LH corners, numbers are at bottom RH corners) This sheeting must have been put on in CIE days in an effort to 'recondition' old wagons, I would think.

3rd one might be a butter wagon? Outside planking, vents and ventilated roof.

No sign of ventilation slits that you would see in a cattle wagon, not even boarded-up ones, so probably just a regular goods van. No cast number plate or any sign of one having been fixed to frames (bolts/boltholes etc) No 'To Carry X Tons' plate that you'd expect, might have been taken off when the sheeting was put on it? Rusty remains of label clips.

Had a 3 digit number, think it was 937 off top of my head, with no letter suffix. Had a lot of bracing timbers at the ends like something 19th cent as opposed to post 1900, and it was quite small, so small I thought it was NG at first.

Got a piece of timber with numerals from a grounded wagon lately. Wagon had been sheeted over with aluminium so imagine paint would not have faded so much. Numerals are pale green on dark grey. Will post pic when I get a chance.

Not enough tables sold, but there will be a Cork model show in new year, Feb. if I recall correctly.

This is now cancelled.

How does it not fall over..? Is it a Listowel & Ballyb jobbie?

This company (Davison & Associates) selling prints of his photos, seem to own their copyright. http://www.fatherbrowne.com/ There's a pic of what may be Portarlington, of a GSR staff member trying to manhandle a calf onto a train which is priceless.

The U class turned out in primrose yellow were nicknamed 'Banana Boats' (a hit of the time was Harry Belafonte's 'Banana Boat Song'!) Latterly the U's were predictably known as 'U Boats'.

You might have to delve into the records of the SL&NC of that period, unless they happen to be mentioned in passing in the Turf & Trains book. Don't think there would be too many toting cameras in that neck of the woods around the time of the Emergency/WW2 (delete as applicable, depending on what jurasdiction you're in)

I imagine turf traffic was at its height during the Emergency and perhaps a year or so afterwards until things got back to normal? Maybe a brief burst in conjunction with Mr Bullied's turf-burning experiments and of course the Turfburner itself before tailing off again.

Re fert, you would expect farmers to be applying it in summer if they wanted a second cut, hence there would want to be a supply flowing to the co-ops and obviously there would be no activity during the winter.