Irish Royalty - Park Royal Coach Next For IRM

[jhb171achill]

Rolling stock for branch lines........

To such extent as any survived into the post-steam era, the rolling stock could be anything, hence perfect fodder for a small layout - you can have nothing more than a small terminus-to-fiddle yard set-up, but with an amazing array of stock.

Locos not so much. You're looking at a diet of 141s basically, with a "C" / B201 pre-1975 as well. If you go on into the modern era, like Ballina in the 1990s, you'll get an "A" or an 071 as well. The only time you'd get a 121 is as part of a "pair" in later days.

Rolling stock for passenger trains in the post-steam branch line times:

Either one or two passenger coaches: Partk Royals (either of suburban or main line origin); laminates of a zillion types of variation; an old Bredin; very occasionally a Craven, but they rarely strayed off main lines; or up to maybe 1969/70, an old wooden-bodued coach of GSWR origin - almost certainly a bogie corridor composite. 

Vans - Any type of tin van, either type of BR van, Dundalk "Dutch" van, or one of several variations of converted Bredins to brake gennies. The unique Loughrea coaches 1904 & 1910 too - and one of these was on the Ballina branch for a time too.

With goods, branch line goods trains were mostly covered goods vans of all the myriad of variations. All grey until 1970, but with some brown ones increasingly appearing in the 1970-6 period. Brake vans (obviously essential for ALL loose coupled goods trains) were mostly standard CIE 20-tonners, but Loughrea and Castleisland held on to ancient ex-GSWR 10-ton vans for a long time after such things were extinct elsewhere.

So all in all, plenty of scope, which is what brought many enthusiasts at the time from the Next Door Island; where many branch lines had a two-car railcar and nothing else. Just like a surviving branch line in Ireland (Ballina excluded!) would be today; on a different but related note, I always thought that for those interested in prototypical operation, a mini-West Cork system today would be an excellent exercise, as there would probably be no goods, and all trains would be two-car 26 or 28 class railcars! You'd operate the whole thing with three sets - one for the Banrty main line, another connecting for Skib, and a third connecting for Clon. Add a fourth on a Bandon commuter run, and away ye go!

[Mol_PMB]

One interesting thing that happened in the mid 1970s was an increase in services on many routes. With the completion of the A and C class re-engining projects and the delivery of the air-con Mk2 trains and the BR heating vans, there were more resources available and a new timetable with considerably more, faster trains was introduced. 
It turned out to be a over-optimistic and was dialled back a bit until the 071s turned up. But there was a big increase in passengers travelling, and in the late 70s and early 80s there was a very critical shortage of coaching stock, until the DART and Mk3 stock arrived. 
Short branch line trains were a consequence of this!

[west_clare_wanderer]

16 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Loughrea will feature at a book launch hopefully planned for Saturday 1st November, the 50th anniversary of the last train there. Quite a few rolling stock photos in it, too.

Great. Thanks for the tip off. I'll keep an eye out. 

[west_clare_wanderer]

16 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Rolling stock for branch lines........

To such extent as any survived into the post-steam era, the rolling stock could be anything, hence perfect fodder for a small layout - you can have nothing more than a small terminus-to-fiddle yard set-up, but with an amazing array of stock.

Locos not so much. You're looking at a diet of 141s basically, with a "C" / B201 pre-1975 as well. If you go on into the modern era, like Ballina in the 1990s, you'll get an "A" or an 071 as well. The only time you'd get a 121 is as part of a "pair" in later days.

Rolling stock for passenger trains in the post-steam branch line times:

Either one or two passenger coaches: Partk Royals (either of suburban or main line origin); laminates of a zillion types of variation; an old Bredin; very occasionally a Craven, but they rarely strayed off main lines; or up to maybe 1969/70, an old wooden-bodued coach of GSWR origin - almost certainly a bogie corridor composite. 

Vans - Any type of tin van, either type of BR van, Dundalk "Dutch" van, or one of several variations of converted Bredins to brake gennies. The unique Loughrea coaches 1904 & 1910 too - and one of these was on the Ballina branch for a time too.

With goods, branch line goods trains were mostly covered goods vans of all the myriad of variations. All grey until 1970, but with some brown ones increasingly appearing in the 1970-6 period. Brake vans (obviously essential for ALL loose coupled goods trains) were mostly standard CIE 20-tonners, but Loughrea and Castleisland held on to ancient ex-GSWR 10-ton vans for a long time after such things were extinct elsewhere.

So all in all, plenty of scope, which is what brought many enthusiasts at the time from the Next Door Island; where many branch lines had a two-car railcar and nothing else. Just like a surviving branch line in Ireland (Ballina excluded!) would be today; on a different but related note, I always thought that for those interested in prototypical operation, a mini-West Cork system today would be an excellent exercise, as there would probably be no goods, and all trains would be two-car 26 or 28 class railcars! You'd operate the whole thing with three sets - one for the Banrty main line, another connecting for Skib, and a third connecting for Clon. Add a fourth on a Bandon commuter run, and away ye go!

 

This is fascinating.  Thank you! 

It's a good job the 141s are my favourite locos! Oh, along with the G Class of course

I need to learn more about vans/brakes/steam heating vans etc. A couple are going to be essential for accompanying my single coach! I'm not particularly good at identifying types at the moment when looking a photos, although I am getting better. 

Yes, the difference compared to the UK rail system by the 1970s is marked, particularly the loco hauled branch trains. A fairly rare thing in that land of DMUs. 

 

16 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

One interesting thing that happened in the mid 1970s was an increase in services on many routes. With the completion of the A and C class re-engining projects and the delivery of the air-con Mk2 trains and the BR heating vans, there were more resources available and a new timetable with considerably more, faster trains was introduced. 
It turned out to be a over-optimistic and was dialled back a bit until the 071s turned up. But there was a big increase in passengers travelling, and in the late 70s and early 80s there was a very critical shortage of coaching stock, until the DART and Mk3 stock arrived. 
Short branch line trains were a consequence of this!

I do really like the '80s and '90s era transition from Supertrain to IR, but the one drawback is the demise of traditional wagonload freight by the end of the 1970s. That decade seems to give a sweet spot of old and new. Plus, it is very easy to model nowadays with IRM covering the ubiquitous H vans and Bulleid corrugated opens. Supplemented of course with a few kitbuilt examples of other types of rolling stock which hung on. 

[Mol_PMB]

13 minutes ago, west_clare_wanderer said:

 

This is fascinating.  Thank you! 

It's a good job the 141s are my favourite locos! Oh, along with the G Class of course

I need to learn more about vans/brakes/steam heating vans etc. A couple are going to be essential for accompanying my single coach! I'm not particularly good at identifying types at the moment when looking a photos, although I am getting better. 

Yes, the difference compared to the UK rail system by the 1970s is marked, particularly the loco hauled branch trains. A fairly rare thing in that land of DMUs. 

 

I do really like the '80s and '90s era transition from Supertrain to IR, but the one drawback is the demise of traditional wagonload freight by the end of the 1970s. That decade seems to give a sweet spot of old and new. Plus, it is very easy to model nowadays with IRM covering the ubiquitous H vans and Bulleid corrugated opens. Supplemented of course with a few kitbuilt examples of other types of rolling stock which hung on. 

I would strongly recommend seeking out a copy of this little book:

It is an illustrated stocklist of locos, carriages and wagons published in 1979. A great help in understanding the types of rolling stock in use in the 1970s.

There were also 1981 and 1987 editions, perhaps not so ideal for your chosen period, though not much changed between the 1979 and 1981 editions.

 

Edited Sunday at 10:24 by Mol_PMB
correcting typo

[west_clare_wanderer]

24 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

I would strongly recommend seeking out a copy of this little book:

It is an illustrated stocklist of locos, carriages and wagons published in 1979. A great help in understanding the types of rolling stock in use in the 1970s.

There were also 1981 and 1987 editions, perhaps not so ideal for your chosen period, though not much changed between the 1979 and 1981 editions.

 

 

Thank you sir! 

Off to Ebay I go..... 

[Mayner]

16 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

One interesting thing that happened in the mid 1970s was an increase in services on many routes. With the completion of the A and C class re-engining projects and the delivery of the air-con Mk2 trains and the BR heating vans, there were more resources available and a new timetable with considerably more, faster trains was introduced. 
It turned out to be a over-optimistic and was dialled back a bit until the 071s turned up. But there was a big increase in passengers travelling, and in the late 70s and early 80s there was a very critical shortage of coaching stock, until the DART and Mk3 stock arrived. 
Short branch line trains were a consequence of this!

CIE introduced a concept of operating more frequent short trains at higher speed (on the main lines) in the 1973 timetable, 001 Class hauled MK2D sets typically loading to a max of 5-6 coaches. Increased frequency was typically by adding an additional fast or non-stop return working daily with 'named' services on Dublin-Cork, Limerick and Waterford routes.

CIE decreased service frequency, and resumed running longer slower trains as CIEs losses increased in response to the 1st Oil Crisis, CIE began speeding up services in 76-77 by using pairs of Bo Bo on fast heavy passenger trains before the introduction of 071s. Typically MK2D stock was used on more lightly loaded Up Morning-Down evening Diagrams, while pairs of Bo Bos hauled conventional stock on the more heavily loaded morning services from Dublin to the provinces. 

Intense TV marketing "The Great Train Robbery"  of the new trains in the early 70s seems to have lead to a 10% increase in traffic, but the Governments introduction of free secondary education in the late 70s and the opening of the Regional Technical Collages in the 70s probabably lead to an increase in young people remaining in Ireland and taking the train to the city or colleage early on a Monday morning (Ballina Sunday) and returning home of Friday evenings.

"Branch Line" trains were not exactly common in Ireland during the 60s-70s. Apart from Loughrea the last of the rural 'feeder branches" had closed following the 1963 closure of Ballaghadereen, Youghal was more secondary main-line with direct passenger services from Cork, seaside excursion trains could be quite long. Limerick-Ballybrophy was operated as a main line served by two daily return services daily until Ballybrophy was modelled in the 1980s.

CIE withdrew the Ballina Branch Passenger train following the 1963 closure of the Burma-Road passenger service and diversion of the daily Limerick-Sligo train to Ballina. The Ballina-Limerick trains appear to have typically loaded to 2 coaches (Laminate or 51-53 Stock) 4w heating Van, 4W TPO.

A through Ballina-Dublin passenger services was introduced in 1972? when a Ballina coach "Brake Standard" was attached to Mayo Line trains between Dublin and Claremorris and worked to an from its destination by the Claremorris Pilot loco a 001. 

Later a 1951-53 Brake Std and a Park Royal were fitted with Storage Heating for use on the Ballina Branch.

While Cravens and Park Royals tended to be used on mainline or suburban services, currently apart from the Silver Fox 1951-3 Brake Second/Standard there does not appear to be a suitable rtr brake for someone modelling the 60s-80s era.