minister_for_hardship

14 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

A fantastic and highly informative thread. I'll be looking for a couple of these things laden with turf on my own layout. Little details like these carts really make a scene in a rural area, like a little grey Fordson tractor (who remembers them?) or a 1960s Massey 135............. plus the inevitable Morris Traveller (I have one of those as well).

Talking of "travellers", and without starting ma predictable conversation, a common childhood memory was of driving on holiday to the west and seeing the old horse-drawn vans they lived in alongside country roads, along with the above carts or a batterd old Commer van. Tarpaulins aganist hedges for the men to sleep under, and washing all over the hedge. I wonder is there any sort of horse drawn vehicle which could be made to look like one of those - I had considered having a traveller encampment near Castletown West station once I get around to the scenic part of it!

There was a brief revival of the arc roofed Traveller caravan in the 70s or 80s, Slatterys used hire them out to tourists.

The little grey Fergie was the death knell for farm horses and donkeys though. 

13 hours ago, Galteemore said:

Letterkenny and Burtonport Extension Rlwy - a component of the Lough Swilly. Some graphic designer has clearly grabbed an image from somewhere and gone with it. Shame as it’s not the worst I have seen.

This was spotted at Borris, on the viaduct. I wouldn't mind but the info boards were very well done with heaps of excellent photos they must have sourced from the IRRS and/or the O'Dea collection. I didn't read all of the text but didn't see any obvious clangers in it. One 3D rendering got Borris station buildings pretty spot on although the train was depicted hauling some odd looking open wagons.

Wait. What?

1 hour ago, jhb171achill said:

A friend of mine was at the Clonakilty model village today, where they have an old Sugar Co. Ruston painted bright red and with something like a circular bin lid attached to the front to make it look like a "steam train".

Fine; but a plaque on it says that it was the engine which ran the train service on the Tralee - Fenit line! You couldn't make it up.

Some dunderhead must have seen the pic of the then GSRPS Ruston at Fenit, put 2 and 2 together and came up with 6 and three quarters. And as a final insult it's gone full James The Red Engine.

Some of the information boards and public installations of railway related things in this country are comedy gold, wild assumptions from local "historians", things copied and pasted from Google. Fire any old rubbish together and it'll do!

There's a cast plaque, which wasn't cheap to produce, at Manorhamilton station riddled from end to end with spelling errors. It has to be seen to be believed.

On 23/3/2023 at 5:21 PM, irishrailways52 said:

1895!!!

did they seriously think they would get away with that

Possibly years referring to the opening and closing to regular traffic on that line, and an attempt to link that actual coach to the line in what is known in the newspaper business as the "desperate local angle".

Was it one of the former Westrail's fleet I wonder?

9 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

Indeed…… I wonder what a “train carriage” is

It's a yoke that do be pulled by train engines. I thought that was obvious.

2 hours ago, airfixfan said:

Know of a good home for any County Donegal or Lough Swilly modeld surplus to requirements!

Donegal town railway museum?

CIE 254A, the A the suffix for Internal User/Departmental at an antiques fair.

At a saucy 96 euros it did not come home with me.

On 6/3/2023 at 11:58 AM, jhb171achill said:

Anyone seen the repaint on the RPSI genny van?

It’s a strange purply magic-mushroom colour.

I'm all for inclusivity but letting colour blind people pick the paint out?

The pinstriping position is a bit odd too.

14 hours ago, Broithe said:

During a post-fire renovation of a local pub, I was tasked with remounting some pictures - amongst them was a mirror identical to this.

I was struck by the spelling.

Probably up to the mid- 20th century, there was no Whisky/Whiskey spelling 'rule'. If you look at older advertisements, they flipped between one or other way of spelling.

On 12/2/2023 at 10:44 AM, spudfan said:

The old maxim of "measure twice, cut once" does not seem to have been followed here. I wonder if this had happened on Irish Rail would anyone have been held responsible or the units just stored in Inchicore as a new expensive sound barrier?

$276 million was spent on 31 Spanish trains before it was realized they were too big to fit in the tunnels (msn.com)

Deafening silence when quizzed by media 'no one available for comment' - state bodies here tend to circle the wagons (pardon the pun) 

3 hours ago, hurricanemk1c said:

Lot more than just that, as the gauge is over 350mm would have to meet the full CRR requirements (for a loco have a look at document CRR-036A). Restoring it would be the simple part, everything else around it wouldn't be and probably not worth it when there's currently two heritage railways with steam, and more on the horizon

Both railways are pretty remote from Dublin, and the main tourist trails, to be fair.

Seems a shame that a brewery not short of a few bob, a turnover of 2 billion, wouldn't restore one to working order as an attraction at St James' Gate.

Or one of the barges.

On 16/2/2023 at 6:05 PM, jhb171achill said:

complementary, rather than "in competition with" the Hattons CIE coaches. I had requested the above in GSR maroon, but there is no reason why it should not have been finished in the older (darker) CIE green, as some of this type lasted until the late 1940s. As an aside, there seems to have been a pogrom of DSER stock in 1949-50, so I'm pretty sure no DSER six-wheelers lasted long enough to have the lighter green; but a layout based in the 1945-50 period can have a mix of GSR maroon and dark lined green, and including both GSWR (Hattons) types, and DSER types. The background is quite simple - passenger trains in these times scarcely ever had even two coaches the same type. Quite prototypically, a typical train on the DSER might have one of these, a DSER bogie, a GSWR six-wheeler, a Bredin and a MGWR bogie. (jhb171Senior recalled large numbers of MGWR & GSWR six-wheelers being drafted onto the Bray - Harcourt St., and Bray - Amiens St. routes very soon after the GSR came into being. He recalled going to school (on the Harcourt St line) in "unusual" coaches instead of this one above....).

One of the above in CIE green will add this very type of variety to a train of the Hattons ones; both complement each other perfectly. Should KMCE produce other variations, this will absolutely add to the variety, as well as the

Did they ever stray beyond the former DSE or did they mainly stay put until withdrawal?

I was quietly impressed with the added sound effects until they stuck in a United Statesian chime whistle.

Maybe a lot of spares or interchangeable bits that had been cannibalised whereas more modern but one-off locos or those in tiny classes were more likely to be cut up?

Usefulness or lack thereof could have something to do with it too.

I guess you could say it identifies as a steam loco now.

Clonakilty is not really a museum or a place to learn anything about the West Cork, it's a railway theme kids birthday party venue.

I'll have another look but flicking back and forth to a page to find out who took it and when is equally if not more annoying!

EDIT looking at it again, there are pages with say two images, two photographers credited, but you don't know who took which photo. Dates or even year of image not stated. Not really good enough in my opinion.

Recieved a copy as a gift at Christmas. It's annoying that few of the images give the source or the photographer credit. Some I recognise from Irish Railways in Colour.

GSR horses in horse boxes.

Race specials and horse fairs you'd have long rakes of those horse wagons. The Midland had ones with a compartment for the groom and even a built-in dog kennel, perhaps catering to the hunting set.

The ones with groom's compartments still retained oil interior lighting long, long after it had disappeared from regular coaching stock.

A p*ss poor imitation of the bogus T&DLR notice also doing the rounds. It looks like something manufactured in a backyard Chinese foundry. More fool whoever buys that piece of junk. Websites hosting these dont care even if they are reported unless they are human body parts or associated with a failed Austrian artist.

The other Tayto (the Free Staytos) did a choc bar a few years back. It wasn't the rip roaring success they thought it would be, in fact I think its discontinued.