minister_for_hardship

There's a kit for the vertical boilered Cockerills knocking about, expensive (for the size of it)and in HO. Not 100% sure were they the same as the CSE Carlow ones, photos of the Irish ones are not easy to come by. http://www.portail-trains.com/coin-des-passionnes/petites-annonces/ads-entry-8667.html

Yes, we could have become a dumping ground, the SL&NC and other cash-strapped lines could have an influx of woebegone British rolling stock. Perhaps a train ferry, or ferries?? Or British companies having more of a stake in Ireland a la Midland Railway/LMS and its NCC offshoot.

What if the D&KR's lead had been taken up (or the D&DR and UR had been forced to regauge to 4' 8 1/2'' instead of 5'3'') and all the standard gauge railways ended up actually "standard gauge". Imagine there would have been many more purchases of second-hand British stock and maybe a few continental interlopers.

Did NG railways not have to adhere to RCH wagon/rolling stock standards, or unlike standard/broad gauge railways, they could they pick and choose what stock specs they wanted? Since they both had the'chopper' type, it wouldn't be a big deal to have a standard height for these?

The Kiltimagh ones have gained yellow (not eau de nil) stripes and the PR's at Clon didn't look quite right colour-wise, probably too dark a shade of green. Seating layouts might well have been altered in all of them, esp. the one in Clon serving as a cafe.

The Swilly was looking for a loan of a CDR loco around the time of the War of Independence, the Donegal declined, fearing their loco would end up derailed and stuck in a bog somewhere. IIRC there were through CDR excursions onto Swilly metals, think they were for pilgrimages?

There wasn't any lettering, just a plain black background.

There sure is! I can think of a location where there are two, one quite close to the line and the other maybe less than a km away as the crow flies. There's a third I just thought of, which can be seen approaching the terminus of this particular line... One privately owned, one is a museum and one is ruined with access cut off by the rail line.

Was reminded of this thread when I came across a reference to the territory of the CBSCR parodied as 'Come Bask in Summer's Ceaseless Rains'.

Wonder what the jerry-built 'sheds' under the footbridge legs were for? They're in the pic taken in '61 and they seem to be gone in '67.

There would be far less trackwork now, look up osimapviewer and find Charleville c.1900 (historic 25'' series) to get an idea how extensive it was then compared to now. Imagine there would have been a bit of trackwork lifted around where the water tank is after the demise of steam and Croom Branch closure and maybe something like the Gasworks noted on the map would be redundant, derelict or even demolished by that stage.

There was also a large water tank (still there) and small signal cabin (dubbed Charleville 'B', gone since 1980s?) at the Cork end.

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.