minister_for_hardship

The CIE red/cream scheme of the early 60's was quite pleasing, West Cork stations were famously freshly painted red/cream shortly before final closure.

The acres upon acres of grey plastered all over CIE stations in the 70's/80's was quite depressing!

Can any of the savants tell me what this could be? Grounded in Drimoleague. Quite small, pre-GSR perhaps?

There was a convincing uk might have been fictional layout in RM a few years ago, can't recall where it was meant to be...but various people approached the builder when on exhibition 'remembering' having had caught a train there or having passed through by train!

Think they're banned now. No wonder the old folk years ago were all bronchitis with those things and open fires and bad chimneys.

Maybe a case of people modelling what they remember nostalgically, all those who modelled pre Grouping in the 70s are by and large no longer with us and the Big Four era is slipping out of living memory.

Curiously, those fantasy paint and assemble yourself Warhammer things are quite popular. Rather ugly brutes but I suppose they are your modern day equivalent of lead soldiers. I see the stores have areas where kids can come in and do their own work on tables provided, quite a good idea.

The Downton Abbey set was underwhelming, to say the least. I guess a certain amount of the downturn can be attributed to changing tastes, but in all seriousness offering a set like that.

It's like buying a brand new motor with a Model T engine under the bonnet...

Really? For a premium loco released in the 2010s that's just beyond belief. I don't mind a 'budget' range, but having a decent motor rather than something found in a lucky bag.

The starter sets of 30 years ago are pretty identical to starter sets now. A tiny primitive 0-4-0 loco that whizzes around faster than an A4 and stalls on points. This is Christmas cracker contents stuff nowadays.

Would it be the flats of the MGWR Bretland track laying yoke and an old steam loco cab stuck on? http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000148456 (similar flats under the gantry at Mullingar) The tank could be 2 or 3 tankers joined end to end?

No, grey is still not doing it for me, wartime and austerity and the late GSR plastering most everything in grey come to mind. And removing the front handrails is like shaving someone's eyebrows off.

The Thais - a great bunch of lads.

Had noticed on a display board outside Bangkok main railway station that railways in Thailand, or rather Siam back in the day, started off as standard gauge but were regauged to metre gauge. A visit to the site of the "real" Bridge on the River Kwai is a must for those of an enthusiast persuasion, a few Glasgow-built steam locos, loco and truck/railcar of Japanese origin (a reminder of WW2) and a Garratt were on display. There's a small well-hidden railway museum in Bangkok itself. And at Bangkok Noi there's a depot (with a few steam locos in residence for runs up to Kanchanaburi). Thai rail staff don't have a problem with giving foreign devils permission to have a wander around. Not much H & S in evidence.

Another weirdo. Cork's coal gantry 'Pat'....a bodge job of an ancient tender, vertical boilered steam plant and an 'agricultural' looking cab which lasted until the end of steam.

No hard and fast rule. Animals aren't that heavy and you get big/small ones (obligatory Fr Ted reference) so it would be at the discretion of the people loading them up although you would need to allow space for them to lie down if they were going to be there for an extended time. The GSR appendix had notes about feeding/watering animals and looking after their welfare if they had been in transit over extended periods and cleaning/disinfection of wagons.

I think it may be grass, there would be a big rush around fair days and markets with animals taking up the entire loading bank and pens (perhaps when they got full you would have drovers standing around minding animals waiting to be penned in the goods yards/station approaches) and the rest of the time there may only be single animals or small groups travelling occasionally taking up only a single pen giving grass time to grow. I'm assuming on fair days something like an ancient 6 wheeler would be hooked on for drovers and dealers.

More loading, this time at Killorglin interestingly there seems to be a chalked destination to the right of the doors.

Not all places could handle livestock, though most could. Locations in suburbia, very small halts or stations that were not road connected generally wouldn't have a cattle bank. The GSR Appendix listed the exclusions and the MASSIVE 'Handbook' Of Railway Stations had a glossary of what stations could handle which traffic, crane max loads etc.

Criss cross patterns in the concrete surface of the bank (to stop cattle from slipping in the wet) and signage like this were usually in the environs of a cattle bank. Here's a clip from the 1970's with Friesians (for the cow gricers) being loaded...

Are Leprechaun hunts part of the tour itinerary for our American friends?

The ESB were users, iirc Latil trucks were imported by Thompsons of Carlow.

Cattle Market Dublin 50's/1960's. All appear to be either completely or largely black or red, white-ish or mottled red/white. No clearly defined black/white Friesians at all. Believe they only started appearing in numbers from 70's onwards. So Kerrys/Dexters/Shorthorns would be the main breeds at the time with Shorthorns probably being the more numerous. Here we go... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shorthorn#/media/File:Light_Roan_Shorthorn_Heifer_DSCN1872b.jpg Lots of horned cattle can be seen which is almost unknown now, horn buds are destroyed in calves to stop them growing for safety when handling and to stop them getting caught in feeders etc.

The railway modeller equivalent of property speculation.