David's Workbench

[jhb171achill]

8 hours ago, Galteemore said:

Not quite a pay train but similar / this little account gives some glimpses of life onboard such a contraption https://svsfilm.com/nineelms/bug.htm

A superb article. It woul be interesting to hear a smiliar tale of someone who worked on the Irish ones. JhbSenior never mentioned anything much about them, though he would have seen the last one in the 1930s - No. 92 I think?

[Colonel]

Fascinating - thanks David!

I can't imagine Fairy or Sprite could do 85mph, but comparative dimensions between them and The Bug are interesting, Bug first in each case:

• Boiler pressure: 175 v 150
• Cylinders: 11x18 v 8x15 or 9x15
• Driving wheels: 5'7 v 5' or 5'2
• Heating surfaces: 550 sq ft v 273/362
• Water capacity 1000 gallons v 500
• Coal: 1 ton both

 Bug was clearly much more powerful and the larger drivers would certainly give a greater top speed, but the pay trains had longer lives and covered much greater distances. The Green Bibles giving the 1901 WTT as as a two week cycle:

• Tuesday: Inchicore - Tullow - Kildare - Limerick
• Wed: Limerick - Ennis - Sligo
• Thurs: Sligo - Limerick
• Fri: Limerick- Roscrea - Maryborough - Waterford - Bagenalstown
• Sat: back to Inchicore via Carlow

 The second week took in Cork, Mallow, Tralee, Foynes and so on. No wonder Sprite is recorded as covering nearly one and a quarter million miles in its 37 year career!

Edited May 4 by Colonel

[Colonel]

 A tad more progress with the pay train, but still keep finding stuff to do. 

 Loco crew and a policeman arrived promptly from S&D Models, so they have been painted and positioned on the loco and coach balcony. However, made a bit of a horlicks with the loco cab roof, while the transfer rivets haven't turned out as well as I would have liked either. So, new roof and a sand down of the loco buffer beam and coach sole bars needed, so I can apply individual plasticard cubes to better represent the rivets.

 Meanwhile, also realised I'd missed out the the water tank filler caps...

 Ho hum!

  Have decided I won't apply lining, as judicious use of weathering powders has taken away the overall blackness which I've never liked. More weathering to do on the chassis though. At times I wonder if a model is ever finished.

 

[Galteemore]

Now that’s lovely. Really looks the part. I should point out that RIC uniform was dark green and tended to be topped off with a flat cap, although helmets were worn on occasion. My great-grandfather was an RIC sergeant serving from the 1890s up until 1922 - making the papers on one occasion for nicking a GNRI driver who was misbehaving at 2am on Derry’s walls…..

[Colonel]

Yet another little job then, but thanks for the info - I just looked up Edwardian policemen, reasoning that uniforms would be the same, given Ireland was still part of the 'empire' then.

 Every day's a school day!

[Flying Snail]

32 minutes ago, Colonel said:

Yet another little job then, but thanks for the info - I just looked up Edwardian policemen, reasoning that uniforms would be the same, given Ireland was still part of the 'empire' then.

 Every day's a school day!

I think he might pass for a member of Ireland's other police force at the time, the DMP: Dublin Metropolitan Police. However, as the name implies it wouldn't have had jurisdiction down the country in places like Northport Quay

[Galteemore]

1 hour ago, Colonel said:

Yet another little job then, but thanks for the info - I just looked up Edwardian policemen, reasoning that uniforms would be the same, given Ireland was still part of the 'empire' then.

 Every day's a school day!

Sorry Yes, it was an unusual model of policing outside Dublin.  The RIC were armed as a matter of course (DMP followed UK unarmed pattern, later adopted by the Garda). Rifles/carbines were carried at the trail, as with Light Infantry and Gurkhas. You were never allowed to serve in your native area, as family pressure could be brought upon you to bend the law. My great-grandfather, although from SLNC territory, spent his career entirely in BNCR country. The modern Rifles regiment of the British Army looks just like the RIC on parade !

Edited 4 hours ago by Galteemore

[Colonel]

Indeed - since been looking up the history (ok, Wiki). Seems they were armed to the teeth and almost paramilitary in nature - perhaps unsurprising given that things got volatile at times, long before the Easter Rising.

 The pay trains would have been quite a tempting target, so am guessing my coach 'strong room' may have contained a small arsenal, as well as the cash! Fairly sure Henry Forbes of County Donegal fame chased off would be attackers of one of his trains - armed with a pistol, I believe.

 

[airfixfan]

Forbes did act directly to defend CDR interests

[cheesy_peas]

Back in GS&WR days there were railway police, I have seen a reference to a company policeman with regard to an 1870s murder case. I'm not certain if Irish railway police would have worn "custodian's helmets" as their British railway police counterparts did.

[Galteemore]

13 minutes ago, cheesy_peas said:

Back in GS&WR days there were railway police, I have seen a reference to a company policeman with regard to an 1870s murder case. I'm not certain if Irish railway police would have worn "custodian's helmets" as their British railway police counterparts did.

That’s interesting. The last ‘railway policeman’ in Ireland retired as recently as 1983…..https://www.btphg.org.uk/?page_id=8045