minister_for_hardship

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.

That explains a nickname for the 121s I heard a while back and didn't get at first, the "High Nellies"!

More than just a matt undercoat, yes alright. But still looks ad hoc and not quite fitting in with the rest of what they had. A pic here of a brand new 121 being craned off the boat, minus bogies and already carrying snails, numerals and wasp stripes. Perhaps sets of transfers were either sent over or sourced and made up Stateside. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/GM_diesel_locomotive_B124_being_unloaded_from_a_ship_at_the_North_Wall_in_Dublin.jpg (bit hard to see, needs a little enlargement and they can be made out) Don't know about if the rail side of CIE took cues from the bus side, apart from the outset where the first CIE logo and livery was a variation of the DUTC scheme.

I wonder was the grey that was applied to the 121's a sort of generic factory finish, as GM (or CIE themselves) might not have been sure of what they wanted? Why didn't they get the then standard(-ish) green? It is very much an odd man out in the loco livery scheme of things. The silver was proven to be a disaster from a point of view of showing dirt, why would they choose another light colour to get similarly filthy? Or is it too much to apply logic to what CIE did?

Perhaps more and better quality coal getting shipped in, instead of the coal dust and rubbish that the GSR had to make do with. Station nameboards being taken down/painted over and blackout restrictions in line with the uk. Greater risk of attack, passenger traffic might include children from larger centres getting evacuated to the countryside. Valuable items being removed from galleries and museums being shipped out to safety outside of Dublin. Military equipment/troop trains and perhaps a portion of Inchicore and/or Broadstone turned over to munitions production.

Have seen somewhere the theory that if the West Cork had lasted a little bit longer to coincide with the opening of Whiddy Island oil terminal, it just might have provided a lifeline for it.

I was assuming that the Civil War didn't happen, that for sake of argument an amicable outcome happened in '22. One could assume that resources that went into repairing destroyed infrastructure went towards bettering the position of the railway companies, although they would still have to contend with mass motor transport. Outside investment might not have been scared away and economic growth stunted during '22/'23...lines like the Listowel and Ballyb would still have gone to the wall (perhaps acquired and relaunched as 5'3'' by the GSR?) but maybe limped into the 1930s or expired on the outbreak of WW2 and coal shortages. If it weren't for the likes of the Lawrence Studio and Fayle (with a tiny cohort of others) there would be a very poor record of Irish Railways pre WW1.

With matchboarded coaches it would be difficult to apply a decal, unless you did what the West Clare did in pre-GSR days, mount it on a flat board fixed to the coach sides.

What if...what if the Civil War (and the destruction that came with it) never happened? Would the minor lines that were badly affected have lasted a little longer than they did?

Why couldn't they schedule more frequent services with shorter trains instead of building three monsters just to carry out this one task?