Quiet Man Coaches

[Jawfin]

At the high, high risk of looking like a moron, can I ask if anyone knows which coaches (as in, just the numbers) were involved in the, "Quiet Man," film at Ballyglunin?

[GSR 800]

I am just guessing but possibly CIE laminate coaches?

[Garfield]

I am just guessing but possibly CIE laminate coaches?

 

Think they may have been introduced slightly after The Quiet Man was filmed (early 1950s). Either way, the coaches were six-wheelers, although I'm afraid I don't know their numbers.

 

[video=youtube;L6YrqZ7HZ-0]

[Weshty]

They are Victorian era six wheelers (3rd, 1st and brake) headed by a D17.

[Jawfin]

The brake is where the real interest is Looking for information on it in particular

[jhb171achill]

They are all ex-GSWR six wheelers of 1880-90 period, and the one John Wayne steps out of is a composite; he emerges from the first class part.

 

The line from Limerick through here (ballyglunin) to Collooney was ex-WLWR, which became part of the GSWR in 1900. For the next 50 years, despite being in the (predominantly MGWR) west of Ireland, GSWR stock was most common. The locomotive is a "southern engine" rather than a "Midland engine" as you'd get more normally in the west.

 

The laminate stock looked entirely different, was bogie, and was introduced from 1956. The film was produced in 1950 / 1, and released in 1951. The carriages and loco in this clip illustrate perfectly the 1945-55 CIE green (used on buses, lorries and station paintwork up to 1963). It also illustrates the all-over dark grey on locomotives: in this case on No. 59, very work stained as that was the actual service train set.

[jhb171achill]

The brake is a standard GSWR product of maybe 1880/5; I can't make out the number in the film - can anyone else? If so, I'll identify it accurately. Worsley Works make a brass kit, I believe, of most of these coaches. They'd make absolutely superb models.

[burnthebox]

jhb171achill, from what I can make out, the number on the loco is 69

Edited March 11, 2015 by burnthebox

[Broithe]

jhb171achill, fromwhat I can make out, the number othe loco is 69

 

I would say it was 59....

[Broithe]

Interesting picture, though not much help.

 

 

http://starsandletters.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/help-save-quiet-man-train-station.html

[jhb171achill]

Loco's 59 - one of the well proportioned "60 class" - pity one wasn't preserved.

 

It's the carriages whose numbers I can't make out......

[burnthebox]

Loco's 59 - one of the well proportioned "60 class" - pity one wasn't preserved. .

 

I'm blaming Specsavers, Loco no 59 it is

[jhb171achill]

Hahaha! I had a specsavers moment too some years ago; when I first saw that film clip I assumed they were ex-MGWR design coaches! Or at least one was - unless there's another train clip in it - they are not remotely like MGWR!

[Glenderg]

Still looking for Inisfree on the railway map.. be right back...

[jhb171achill]

It's on a branch line from Ballygobackwards Junction, of course. On the Great Cork, Bandon and Lough Swilly Railway....

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

Inisfree ain't to far from me unfortunately wrong side of the country

 

[Glenderg]

Yerra that was my problem all along, and i looking at the AL&STRR map...

(Aysht Lumerick and South Tipprareey Ridin' Railway)

 

now known as limerick junction :-)

[WRENNEIRE]

Only one Innishfree for me:

 

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight's all a-glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,

I hear it in the deep heart's core.

 

Some years ago a wag applied for planning permission in the Sligo Champion to build a small cabin and some hives for his honey bees

I cut it out but God knows where I put it

[DiveController]

Only one Innishfree for me:

 

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight's all a-glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,

I hear it in the deep heart's core.

It's a long time since I heard that, Dave. Still good.

[DiveController]

Inisfree ain't to far from me unfortunately wrong side of the country

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18182[/ATTACH]

No, it's west, to be sure, but …..further than you think

http://www.villageofinnisfree.ca

[Mayner]

[video=youtube;L6YrqZ7HZ-0]

 

59 a D17 or GSWR 52 Class loco seems to have been Tuam's regular passenger engine used on Tuam-Galway local services in early CIE days. Its possible that the ex-GSWR 6 wheel coaches were in regular use on the service at the time.

 

"A Decade of Steam" gives a reasonably good account of CIE steam working in the early 1950s from an engineman's perspective. 59 is described as "Tuam shed's favourite" with the enginemen reluctant to send the engine to Inchacore for firebox repairs in case they would never get it back.

 

The 52 Class appear to have had a reputation of higher speed and smarter running on the Tuam-Galway local trains, than the larger 60 Class working the Limerick-Sligo train. Possibly it was less of an effort for the Tuam crew to put on a bit of a show with a lighter train and a relatively easy section of line, than for the Limerick or Sligo crew to keep time with heavier trains on a difficult road over a much longer distance.

[minister_for_hardship]

Always wondered why CIE had no problem with this parody of itself, making no attempt to 'fictionalise' or even cover up the then current logos on coaches and loco etc.

[skinner75]

I would say it was 59....

 

Yep - I'd say it's a 59 alright

[Mayner]

Always wondered why CIE had no problem with this parody of itself, making no attempt to 'fictionalise' or even cover up the then current logos on coaches and loco etc.

 

 

Much more attractive than gritty post war reality a bit of the blarney & splendid scenery was what was expected of Ireland at the time.

 

The movie must have attracted a lot of Americans to visit Cong & Connemara and profitable business for CIE Coach Tours.

[minister_for_hardship]

Much more attractive than gritty post war reality a bit of the blarney & splendid scenery was what was expected of Ireland at the time.

 

Going through the Saga by Rail: Ireland (Boyd) was interesting to note that food and clothes were far more available in the ROI post war than in the uk.

He even noted C&LR section level crossing keeper girls were attired in the 'New Look', so maybe Ireland in Dev's era wasn't such a dull, grey place after all...unemployment and emigration notwithstanding.

[jhb171achill]

In a parallel life, I was interviewing elderly people about ten years ago who had lived on a now-deserted offshore island (Achillbeg, Co. Mayo). They spoke of emigrants bringing the most modern clothes back with them from Britain (when they could get them) or the USA, for their local female relatives. Plus the all-important postal order, upon which they depended.

[Broithe]

In the UK, in the early '60s, you could live in idyllic places that had no shortage issues of any sort - and a few miles away, you could be in Dickensian ghettoes that had hardly changed for a hundred years.

[Weshty]

The brake is a standard GSWR product of maybe 1880/5; I can't make out the number in the film - can anyone else? If so, I'll identify it accurately. Worsley Works make a brass kit, I believe, of most of these coaches. They'd make absolutely superb models.

 

 

Cough! SSM supply four variants of these coachs, 1st Class, Composite, 3rd Class and Brake and they include all the requisite glazing, whitemetal detailing (buffers, gas canisters, vents, springs), Maunsell (i.e.wooden centred) wheels.

[Weshty]

Yep - I'd say it's a 59 alright

 

It is #59

 

From Five Foot three Magazine #9 Summer 1970, R.M Arnold Page 3

 

"There were many fair specials and Tuam, rather than Galway, was the senior shed of the area. Old Dick Cole, very quiet spoken, tall and angular, was Tuam’s senior

driver and, week in week out, always worked the morning passenger. He was courtesy itself on my first visit, always taking me on the footplate and indeed well over half of my runs over this branch, with various drivers, were not in the train, a useful thing if I hadn’t had a ticket (though I always had) for

there was a searching ticket check at the one intermediate station on the branch, Ballyglunin. If any of you have seen that excellent film “The Quiet Man” you will have seen No.59 at Ballyglunin (disguised as somewhere else) and I never saw Cole with any other engine."

[jhb171achill]

My profuse apologies, Weshty; I actually meant SSM!!!! (Though Worsley do some too!).

 

The late Billy Lohan told me in an interview many years ago that in his time, Tuam's allocation was six J15's. This was several decades before the 1950s, though.

[Mayner]

A bit more on the GSWR 52 GSR/CIE D17 Class

 

I managed to unearth my well thumbed copy of a "Decade of Steam"

 

 

[No59 3pm Galway Train at Tuam during Easter 1952 B] A Decade of Steam on CIE in the 1950s RPSI 197?

 

Drew Donaldson, Jack O'Neill & W McDonnell

 

Long out of print the book written from an enthusiast and an operating perspective provides a warts and all overview of the Classes in use on CIE in the 1950s together with an excellent selection of photos. Perhaps the IRRS might be persuaded to do a re-print or update.

 

The book is divided into chapters on Goods Locos, Dublin Suburban Tank Locos, Other Tank Locos and Passenger Locos.

 

 

Class D 17 Jack O’Neill & Drew Donaldson

 

 

“I have heard these locos described by an English enthusiast as “poetry in motion. They had fine roomy cabs by Inchacore standards and could run like the wind. Nos 3,11,12,14 & 58 were based in Waterford. 12 & 14 were superheated in the early 1930s and usually worked Waterford-Limerick passengers and the Macmine branch train.”

 

Drew Donaldsons first introduction to the class was on Whit Monday 1940 when No11 in saturated form (GSWR condition double smokebox doors & raised firebox) “worked up imperceptibly but inexorably into the 60s before Pallas on the Waterford-Limerick train connecting with the Down Mail her exhaust the merest whisper”. In post war years no 59 was giving a good account of herself in sharp contrast to the leisurely loping of the D14s over the same Athenry-Tuam section. Drew appears to have recorded speeds in the mid 60s with saturated 59 and the superheated No16.

 

“59 a “beautifully steady engine” was a great pet Athenry shed who struggled with a leaking foundation ring afraid to send their inamorata to Inchacore in case she might never return.

 

Drew goes on to say that early in GSWR (possible typo for GSR) days a D17 was painted green in an attempt to persuade the directors to adapt the livery.”

[josefstadt]

Great information John. The book, A Decade of Steam on CIE in the 1950s, was published by the RPSI 1974. There is no ISBN number given. Writing about No. 59, the text also includes: 'If you want to see poetry in motion, watch out for a film "The Quiet Man" in which all the thunder is stolen by No 59. For what film star, however shapely, could hope to compare with this grand old lady?"!

[GSR 800]

Bit strange that they didnt give her a belpaire firebox.Although knowing CIE they would want an excuse to replace her with a vickers C class as soon as they could. Typical CIE never thought of the beuty of such great engines just"close as many lines and ..scrap as many steamers as possible". And now a huge chunk of NI has no railway.

[Weshty]

Several of the D17s did get belpaire boilers, no.18 being a classic example.

 

Thanks for the shout out JHB!

Edited March 16, 2015 by Weshty

[GSR 800]

Was one of the Ds part of the loco swap of 1911?

[islandbridgejct]

The lead coach with the duke in it is a 4 compartment 1st/3rd, two 1st compartments in the centre, two 3rds at the outer ends, no central luggage space or toilet, so that makes it a 300 series. Numbers were 300 to 384, 914 and 915. They were built as 1st/2nds from 1879 to 1893. By 1950 the only ones still in service were 300, 307, 308,310, 315, 316, 318, 328, 329, 330, 331, 381, 383, 914 and 915.

 

The van is a full brake with side duckets and no birdcage, assuming it's the same one in the arrival and the bridge shots. That makes it a 1011 series (earliest one listed), built from 1885 right up to 1908. Numbers in service in 1950 were 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 14, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 64, 66, 71, 73, 74, 258, 1004, 1005, 1010, 1011, 1018, 1019, 1020, 1070, 1071, 1072, 1073, 1074, 1075, 1076, 1077, 1078, 1079.

 

I can't see enough of the others to know what they are.

 

The GSWR seems to have turned out carriages to a series of different designs as required, and numbered them sequentially regardless of series. An almost identical van, but with birdcage, was built in significant numbers in the same time period, and the number series are interlinked with this, at least at the lower end. Also, the lower numbers are on the later builds, as if they were replacing earlier vehicles with the same numbers. I know the GSWR did this for locos (52 class and 101 class) so it's not surprising to find it in the carriage roster too.

 

It really is a delight to see Ireland in Technicolor in 1950, and does counteract the general impression we have of it now as a dreary time. Definitely as good as, or better than, a John Hinde postcard - and probably about as realistic. I'm severely smitten.

 

(All information based on Richards and Pender, GSWR Carriage Diagrams, Transport Research Associates 1975, and none of it cross-checked, so it could be wrong.)