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jhb171achill

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3 hours ago, Galteemore said:

Unfortunately, I think it would have been over-commercialised and sentimentalised. Think Disney World. The tram did run again - once. When the Belfast Transport museum was opened - initially at Queens Quay, a horse was requisitioned from Harkness hauliers to jog the assembled dignitaries down the yard. The Lord Mayor took the reins at one point ! 

A railway attraction. Over commercialised? In Ireland? Are you serious? 

When I see Cultra being commercialised over the faux brewery tour that is the Guinness Storehouse then maybe.

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7 hours ago, minister_for_hardship said:

A railway attraction. Over commercialised? In Ireland? Are you serious? 

When I see Cultra being commercialised over the faux brewery tour that is the Guinness Storehouse then maybe.

Fair enough!  I meant commercialised in its broadest sense, and the outcome would depend on who was running it! What I essentially meant was that the mere prospect of Dick running up and down between the metropolis of Fintonagh and the contiguous attraction of the junction is unlikely to stir the soul for many. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon it ain’t. So the only way such an attraction would survive in that location would be as  part of a wider ‘interpretive centre’ or ‘experience’. The aesthetic sparseness of the original being compromised by the clutter of cafes and market stalls.
 

Having spent much of my early life fundraising for the RPSI, I am keenly aware that main line steam in Ireland is kept running by flogging cuddly toys, raffle tickets, and other ‘gizzits’ on board a slick series of money-spinning Santa/Easter trains, with support from other commercial inputs such as the London ‘syndicate’. It could not be otherwise.  

What I am also thinking of is the Giants Causeway scenario, where the original bucolic charm has (necessarily?) been overtaken by something very different. And did the Blennerville experience really replicate the charm of two grey tanks battling through to Dingle trailing a caravan of dereliction behind them?  
 

To revisit the original scenario, as an astute traveller to our land observed 250 years ago, ‘nothing lasts long in Ireland except the miles’. The tram would eventually have been replaced by some fibreglass monstrosity on an agriculturally welded angle iron chassis pulled by a tractor painted brown. With ‘Dick’ written on the bonnet. 

Edited by Galteemore
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GC I never did see. Blennerville opted for a sterile Thomas the Tank version of what formerly was there. The public treated it as a glorified fairground ride, a curiousity, even the most ardent enthusiast came away with a "meh" feeling about the whole enterprise.

Apart from publicity photos with entrants of the Tralee Lovely Girls Festival hanging off of it, I don't recall it being promoted all that seriously.

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In the mid 1930s there was MUCH less traffic on the roads compared to today. Or - is the coronavirus in full swing?!!

This is Glanmire Road, exact date unknown but likely to be 1936-8. The station, of course, is on the right.

The two carriages were across the river at Albert Quay station. Such were the necessities of “austerity” in those days, that rolling stock could often be just “touched up” instead of completely repainted. These two will be in the maroon GSR livery, though mostly faded and dulled  - no lining, as befits much of the secondary stock.

 

22C8C1F2-ED3B-4330-BAC3-B6DC4CBAC976.jpeg

EE5C0846-C5EC-48AE-A2AA-C2D0C521483B.jpeg

Edited by jhb171achill
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25 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

In the mid 1930s there was MUCH less traffic on the roads compared to today. Or - is the coronavirus in full swing?!!

This is Glanmire Road, exact date unknown but likely to be 1936-8. The station, of course, is on the right.

The two carriages were across the river at Albert Quay station. Such were the necessities of “austerity” in those days, that rolling stock could often be just “touched up” instead of completely repainted. These two will be in the maroon GSR livery, though mostly faded and dulled  - no lining, as befits much of the secondary stock.

 

22C8C1F2-ED3B-4330-BAC3-B6DC4CBAC976.jpeg

 

Fabulous photo of Cork Kent station.

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2 hours ago, Midland Man said:

Looks a bit crazy.

 The Achill railcar ended up like that  I think.

There were a number of these, several adapted for 3ft gauge.

The Achill one was a different design and a “unique”-looking one-off! It survived out of use well into the 1930s, gradually falling to bits....

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On 4/18/2020 at 12:24 PM, jhb171achill said:

In the mid 1930s there was MUCH less traffic on the roads compared to today. Or - is the coronavirus in full swing?!!

This is Glanmire Road, exact date unknown but likely to be 1936-8. The station, of course, is on the right.

The two carriages were across the river at Albert Quay station. Such were the necessities of “austerity” in those days, that rolling stock could often be just “touched up” instead of completely repainted. These two will be in the maroon GSR livery, though mostly faded and dulled  - no lining, as befits much of the secondary stock.

 

22C8C1F2-ED3B-4330-BAC3-B6DC4CBAC976.jpeg

EE5C0846-C5EC-48AE-A2AA-C2D0C521483B.jpeg

 

I think Cork is one of my favourite Irish stations, mixture of the overall roof and that graceful curve through the station - features of any truly great railway station! ;)

Though asides from much less traffic on the roads, there were fewer trains as well.

I remember first seeing the 1933 timetable and having a double whammy shock of how few services even the "mainlines" had as well as the journey times. I suppose though that railway journeys truly were that then - journeys, you had a sense of actually going somewhere so to speak.

Now we have the dual luxury of increased frequency and increased speed but along the way much of the luxury and delight to be savoured from such journeys has sadly passed us by.

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11 minutes ago, Midland Man said:

Love the 70s feel what are the wagons a 1st pic?

In the first pic, the left hand one is of late GSR, or more probably early CIE origin. The one on the right, the inside frame one (brown) is one is a series built at Inchicore in the mid 1930s and designed by jhbSeniorx2. Examples of these were still in traffic into the 1970s.

I had a chance of getting one at one stage, but I had nowhere to put it!

Pics 2 & 3 are standard CIE "H" vans built in the late 1950s. In pic 3, the one on the right is an early '60s "palvan", as are the two in the next pic.

In the last pic, it's two ex-GNR vans, dating from 1954 - very much the GNR equivalent of CIEs H vans, and mostly built for Drogheda cement traffic, but widely used everywhere.

Edited by jhb171achill
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12 hours ago, Midland Man said:

Is that 102 or one of the Ivatt designs?

102 was a J15.

This is 201, of the 201 class. Ten were built between 1887 and 1901 as shunting engines, designed by Ivatt.  They all lasted to the late 1950s, so are suitable as models to mix and mingle with A, C, E401, D, G601 and B101 class diesels, as well as laminate coaches and AEC railcars, among other things. While this pic was taken in 1939, 201 was the last to survive, still working in Cork until withdrawal in 1963.

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The 201 or J11 Class was basically a tank engine version of the J15 both classes shared the same boiler and motion and appear to have been considered the "maid of all work" in terms of GSWR tank engines.

Bill McDonnell wrote about their work in the Cork Region in "In a Decade of Steam", although built as goods locos some incl 201, 207-209 were fitted with steam heating apparatus for working passenger trains.

They were built as shunting and transfer locos  and seem to have been mainly used on the Cork Area, including passenger trains between Cork and Bantry, in addition to shunting, trip working (Glanmire Rd-Albert Quay & the "run of goods"  Glanmire Rd-Rathpeacon) and banking heavy goods trains from Cork through the tunnel to Rathpeacon Marshalling Yard. I haven't seen any mention of them working in the Dublin area.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Mayner said:

The 201 or J11 Class was basically a tank engine version of the J15 

They were built as shunting and transfer locos  and seem to have been mainly used on the Cork Area, including passenger trains between Cork and Bantry, in addition to shunting, trip working (Glanmire Rd-Albert Quay & the "run of goods"  Glanmire Rd-Rathpeacon) and banking heavy goods trains from Cork through the tunnel to Rathpeacon Marshalling Yard. I haven't seen any mention of them working in the Dublin area.

 

 

The "bible" (McMahon & Clements) makes a mention of use in or around Dublin also. Occasionally, they appear to have also made rare appearances on passenger trains in West Cork. But of course, the Cork city area does seem to have been their main home. Attractive little things, I thought.....

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