"They never ran like that" (Ballast train fun)

[Niles]

No idea if a G ever met a plough van in CIE days, but they sure look well together (I suppose it possibly happened when a G was the unofficial Limerick Wagon Works pilot?). The pair have already had a few wanderings together.

 

Plough van 24582 was preserved by the Downpatrick & County Down Railway back in August, along with ballast hoppers 24122, 24145, and 26633. 

 

 

Edited October 16, 2022 by Niles

[Mike Beckett]

Pat and the gang need to get the finger out and make a G class.

No, not a Finger. A finger.

[Niles]

7 minutes ago, Mike Beckett said:

Pat and the gang need to get the finger out and make a G class.

No, not a Finger. A finger.

They should make a Finger too though. I need one for my Fenit Pier diorama. 

[Westcorkrailway]

Yknow this is perfect marketing for selling models even though “it never ran like that” I’d argue running like that in preservation fits the bill 

[Niles]

On 17/10/2022 at 12:33 PM, Westcorkrailway said:

Yknow this is perfect marketing for selling models even though “it never ran like that” I’d argue running like that in preservation fits the bill 

100%. Preservation/railtours have given rise to all sorts of weird and wonderful combinations that weren't seen in service. Be it 201s hauling laminates and Park Royals on transfers, double-headed 071s, Gs hauling ballast hoppers, 141s and Cs in multiple... It's all canon, as they say in fiction. 

[Horsetan]

On 17/10/2022 at 12:33 PM, Westcorkrailway said:

.....“it never ran like that” ....

...but it has now.

[jhb171achill]

On 17/10/2022 at 12:33 PM, Westcorkrailway said:

Yknow this is perfect marketing for selling models even though “it never ran like that” I’d argue running like that in preservation fits the bill 

Not only that, but the DCDR is a working railway behind the scenes. Recent ballast wagons, plough vans and "yellow machines" are tools needed to look after the railway, so even to the most detail-obsessed purist, whether such items ever "ran like that" or not, is entirely irrelevant.....

Also, there's another point. When a preservation scheme is set up, in an ideal world it will take over the entire stock of the working line to be preserved, á la Isle of Man. If the IOMR had been closed, with everything scrapped, decades before it became a modern tourist attraction, gawd knows what would be running on it - but it wouldn't be original. The BCDR closed in 1950 for the large part, with its stock of six-wheel carriages fast becoming firewood and a few henhouses. When the DCDR was set up, well over thirty years later, it was (and is) a case of take what you can get, even if it ran on Mars (as all yellow machines did).

Incidentally, this now gives the DCDR two ploughs - there's this yellow one and an old GSWR one.