Ernies Massive Irish 1930's to 2005 Photo Archive

[Irishswissernie]

Merry Christmas &^ a Happy New Year everyone!

 

Here is a bumper bundle uploaded to Flickr today. Click on the photos to get the captions!

Some old,

some new,

some maybe GNRI blue!

 

 

 

Edited December 25, 2020 by Irishswissernie

[Galteemore]

Happy Christmas Ernie - thanks for the gift (and the others you give every day !). 

[airfixfan]

Agree with David and many thanks and Happy Xmas 2 Jim

[Irishswissernie]

Where should the wagon number go? Well I wouldn't be too bothered about it.

[Irishswissernie]

I don't think I have uploaded this one but then again I might have. This is the Group shot at Sligo taken by Henry Casserley of the SLS Party which RC Riley was with in May 1950 unless HCC. found someone to take it with his camera. It would be interesting to see if anyone can identify any of the participants.

I say chaps 2 of us havn't dressed correctly - no ties.

 

Edited January 6, 2021 by Irishswissernie

[Lambeg man]

m

Edited January 12, 2021 by Lambeg man
irrelevant

[Irishswissernie]

An enlargment of a Casserley Medium Format neg of L&LSR No 12 at Burtonport 24 June 1937. On close examination another loco can be seen in the shed. I thought it might be 4-8-0 No 11  which was supposed to have been withdrawn and scrapped in 1928 but its more likely one of the Barclay 4-6-0t's which had the same style square front buffer beam . Other L&LSR locos appear to have had a cut out on the buffer beam ends. It would make sense to keep a spare loco at Burtonport in case the service loco failed.

 

[airfixfan]

Photo of Barclay No 2 from 1932 leads me to agree with you Ernie

[Lambeg man]

Nice photo Airfixfan.

Edited January 12, 2021 by Lambeg man

[airfixfan]

Recently acquired about 80 Swilly and CDR photos and this is just one of them.

[Lambeg man]

Hi Airfixfan,

Do you know who the photographer was and the dates? LM

[jhb171achill]

On ‎06‎/‎01‎/‎2021 at 12:03 PM, Irishswissernie said:

I don't think I have uploaded this one but then again I might have. This is the Group shot at Sligo taken by Henry Casserley of the SLS Party which RC Riley was with in May 1950 unless HCC. found someone to take it with his camera. It would be interesting to see if anyone can identify any of the participants.

I say chaps 2 of us havn't dressed correctly - no ties.

 

Can't make it out exactly, but is that R N Clements below the "G" of "Sligo"? Counting the photographer, just 19 people - bound to have been more. I suspect Cyril Fry was also among them, and the Murrays of the IRRS, perhaps!

12 hours ago, airfixfan said:

Recently acquired about 80 Swilly and CDR photos and this is just one of them.

Jimmy, you'll have to get the hang of posting them the right way up - took me a while, but if I can, anyone can!  :-)

On ‎26‎/‎12‎/‎2020 at 9:49 AM, Irishswissernie said:

Where should the wagon number go? Well I wouldn't be too bothered about it.

Interesting wagon on the left - is it an NCC one? I suspect its one of the LMS vans brought over by the NCC when a good lot of their stock was converted into splinters by German bombs in Belfast.

One of our weathering experts here would have a field day modelling the GN van on the right; it hasn't had a proper coat of paint since it was built, by the look of it - and indeed, this was not at all uncommon then.

[airfixfan]

9 hours ago, Lambeg man said:

Hi Airfixfan,

Do you know who the photographer was and the dates? LM

Photo is from 1932 and send me an email Steve

[Irishswissernie]

Lots of snow yesterday most of which has melted but the rest has frozen overnight so a couple of snowy scenes on flickr today.

CDRJC No 6 at Donegal Town and A 'Woolwich' at Spencer Dock both sometime in the mid 1950's. These are part of a batch of 66 negs with no locations or dates received this week but all identified now. The photographer either had extremely poor eyesight or he just pointed the camera without looking through the viewfinder. Luckily the camera was a decent one as most of images are only part of the original neg.

A further batch of 70 odd Irish negs from the  early 1950,s plus some  ex Highland Railway glass negs  are diverting me from getting on with Four Masters Bridge (Sligo & Donegal Junction station Title finally decided) 

 

[airfixfan]

Thanks Ernie for that and obviously love the photo of Columbkille at the home of the Donegal Railway Heritage Centre. Great to see yet more old photos.

[Irishswissernie]

I have some time on my hands over the next (at least) 10 days thanks to the current Pandemic as my Son-in-Law has tested positive so I and the family are 'confined to Bracks er sorry barracks'

The downside's to this are that he is isolating in the loft which means I can't access the Railway room with its secret store of jelly babies and Cadburys chocolate - oh and Glengarriff and most of my railway books. Also this means that Madame can't go to work so she is knitting scarves for Africa whilst watching irritating daytime TV and keeping a beady eye on me to ensure I do not go upstairs.

Also a bit worrying is that the neighbours up the street are both in Hospital one on a ventilator  and her husband with covid Pneumonia. They are both some 11 years younger than me.

Ah well cheer up Boy! I do have access to my computer, scanner, negatives and slides.  I have therefore started  the massive task of getting some semblance of order into the negative and slide collection. Luckily some 200 'new' negs arrived so there is a mass of material for uploading to flickr in the pipeline - some 1,000 Irish and 300 Scottish  images awaiting upload.

Some boring  Ernies Railway Archive Flickr statistics,  Total Hits 41,800,431, Last years hits, total 7,734,166. 

Enough of this, here are some scans:

 

[Galteemore]

On 6/1/2021 at 12:03 PM, Irishswissernie said:

I don't think I have uploaded this one but then again I might have. This is the Group shot at Sligo taken by Henry Casserley of the SLS Party which RC Riley was with in May 1950 unless HCC. found someone to take it with his camera. It would be interesting to see if anyone can identify any of the participants.

I say chaps 2 of us havn't dressed correctly - no ties.

 

Bloke to the left of the sign is probably Dr P Ransome-Wallis, a GP from Herne Bay in Kent and noted photographer. He features in another shot by HCC on Ernie’s site on the same day, and is named in the caption. Ransome-Wallis was a remarkable character who knew both Stanier and Churchward personally, and whose knowledge of locos was such that as a medical student in Edinburgh he was asked to lecture the local loco crews on valve gear. During WW2, he was a Navy surgeon and on a visit to the US saw the trial steaming of a Big Boy at Alco’s Schenectady plant. As a man acquainted with some of the finest loco works in the world, one  wonders quite what he made of the SLNC set up at Manorhamilton....

Edited January 21, 2021 by Galteemore

[Galteemore]

Cracking view of Burtonport today. Casserley lived in the London suburbs beside the West Coast Main Line. This must have felt like the far end of the world....

Edited January 24, 2021 by Galteemore

[Irishswissernie]

 

I think he liked going into the backend of nowhere for a bit of a change. I also have the negs from a trip he did from Kyle of Lochalsh to Dingwall in April 1952 behind a Clan Goods which I have started uploading to Flickr today.

I stuck living in Limehouse in London for for 6 years in the 1970's renting the bank flat at 660 Commercial Road near the Londoner Pub. It was like living in a lighthouse looking down on the seething masses. The flat had a large patio at the rear about 30 feet square and about 100 feet above the ground. You could sit out there and look out on Sir Christopher Wren's Limehouse church surrounded by trees and imagine I was back home in Darras Hall, Geordieland for a few minutes. I'm pretty glad I am sitting in Haltwhistle, Centre of Britain during my current 10 days of Isolation rather than down there!

I am allowed out on tuesday! meanwhile here is another Casserley gem of No 12 at Creeslough on his journey in 1937

[Irishswissernie]

I have acquired 60 odd original Irish colour slides and have just captioned them today.

Here is a poser! Where do you think this semi rural scene is? No doubt familiar to our more senior members.

 

 

[murphaph]

Gut instinct would be St. Peter's road in Phibsboro for one of the bridges.

[Irishswissernie]

Spot on! First bridge carries the North Circular Road . The former M&GWR exit from Broadstone now converted to LUAS. Taken in 1960  Here are 3 more Cork & Limerick Junction 1960 or 1961. Not captioned up yet.

 

[Irishswissernie]

Some more CIE Green on flickr

Limerick ex SLNCR 2509 14 sept 1960

Mallow C217 13 sept 1960

Cork, Albert Quay 12 Sept 1960. Did this lengthy coach with its 6 wheel bogies actually travel over the Bandon system? I think it would have given that it would have been transferred via the Cork City Railway and it could have been stored easily elsewhere without that hassle.

[Irishswissernie]

Picked up this neg recently.

 

[GSR 800]

On 30/1/2021 at 3:52 PM, Irishswissernie said:

I have acquired 60 odd original Irish colour slides and have just captioned them today.

Here is a poser! Where do you think this semi rural scene is? No doubt familiar to our more senior members.

 

 

 Can't be certain, but apparently outside Broadstone?

 

[Irishswissernie]

Yes it is Broadstone looking towards Liffey Junc.

[Galteemore]

Fantastic view. Typically varied MGW style consist. What a wonderfully Irish railway it was.

 

Edited February 7, 2021 by Galteemore

[Irishswissernie]

Here's a 'plug' for a model C Class today. C221 on the return Banagher Goods 8 June 1961

 

[Irishswissernie]

I recently acquired a set of Railway World Magazines for 1959 primarily to obtain a copy of an article on the SLNCR Auction at Enniskillen in 1958 but on glancing through the articles in the other 11 issues my eye was caught an article in the April 1959 issue entitled 'The case of the Vanished Engines' This actually covered the fate of 22  withdrawn steam locos 19 tenders and  20 spare boilers etc sold at auction by CIE and subsequently exported from Dublin Docks to Spain. The author J H Price determined to find the actual fate of the locos and if they had been exported for re-building for further service ( Spanish railways had a history of importing old locos for further service although the gauge of the Irish locos would have entailed extensive rebuilding) Sadly whilst some Tunisian metre gauge locos imported by the purchasing company were re-conditioned at the same time, the Irish locos all met their fate in the blast furnaces of the Ensidesa Steelworks.

Ex GNRI 25 below thus met her end a long way from her homeland some 10 years after this view on 19 April 1948 at Derry shed.

 

[Galteemore]

Yes that was an interesting article, which I read in an anthology years ago. Interesting mix of CIE and GN locos went across on those shipments.

[airfixfan]

Nice photo of Foyle Road shed

[Lambeg man]

11 hours ago, Irishswissernie said:

'The case of the Vanished Engines' This actually covered the fate of 22  withdrawn steam locos 19 tenders and  20 spare boilers etc sold at auction by CIE and subsequently exported from Dublin Docks to Spain. The author J H Price determined to find the actual fate of the locos and if they had been exported for re-building for further service ( Spanish railways had a history of importing old locos for further service although the gauge of the Irish locos would have entailed extensive rebuilding) Sadly whilst some Tunisian metre gauge locos imported by the purchasing company were re-conditioned at the same time, the Irish locos all met their fate in the blast furnaces of the Ensidesa Steelworks.

I've read that this sale of so called "serviceable locomotives" was due to a ban at the time by the Eire government on the export of scrap metal. I have no idea what the purpose of the ban was or when it was rescinded. Despite what CIE (a government owned body!) declared, it was obvious to any Californian Lawyer that the stock was purchased by the Spanish for scrap and there was never any intention of the locomotives being "refurbished".  Surely the gauge issue was a giveaway?

Edited February 19, 2021 by Lambeg man

[Irishswissernie]

I have been sorting out a batch of slides from 1968/9 supposedly Class WT's working Sunday School excursions and specials between Belfast, Portush and Derry. Amongst them is this one of No 4 said to be at Coleraine but definitely not so with the collection of CIE stock on the right which also includes a shunter.

Can anyone identify the location.

I have also added one of the others ,a double headed Portrush excursion  leaving York Road in June 1968. 

Edited February 25, 2021 by Irishswissernie
Edited to remove sexcursion, should be excursion (but as it was the swinging 60's - possibly was!)

[NIR]

1 hour ago, Irishswissernie said:

 

No answer but a question:

Anyone know what the yellow vehicle on the leftmost track is?

It has a very modern track maintenance look about it.

Edited February 25, 2021 by NIR

[Galteemore]

My dad thinks Limerick or Connolly might be candidates. Bottom pic - looks like a tamper. Note Lough Erne at far right. Apparently pilot loco would drop off at Kingsbog Junction after the formidable climb up Monkstown Bank and then run back light to Belfast.

Edited February 25, 2021 by Galteemore