Dugort Harbour

[jhb171achill]

21 minutes ago, Patrick Davey said:

Lovely wagons!

 

I very highly recommend them.

 

[jhb171achill]

C231 shunts at Dugort Harbour in 1959, C201 seen passing in 1964, and the civil engineer arrives for an inspection visit in 1973….

[Flying Snail]

Always nice to see the C, but I have to say the little inspection car looks right at home there ... lovely.

[jhb171achill]

2 minutes ago, Flying Snail said:

Always nice to see the C, but I have to say the little inspection car looks right at home there ... lovely.

It was my first attempt at brass kits - it doesn't bear close inspection, though, and the paint job could be a great deal tidier (painting is not my strong point) - but it does look appropriately weathered!

[jhb171achill]

A42 trundles through Castletown West tonight (well, tonight in 1959) with empty wagons from the harbour, as the branch local with No. 472 sits at the up platform, having arrived twenty five minutes earlier. When A42 has passed through, 472 will run round and return to Dugort Harbour after the evening Tralee train has arrived.

Edited February 12 by jhb171achill

[Patrick Davey]

Love the station building, can we see more?  Looks like classic deepest darkest Kerry corrugated iron!

Edited February 12 by Patrick Davey

[jhb171achill]

1 hour ago, Patrick Davey said:

Love the station building, can we see more?  Looks like classic deepest darkest Kerry corrugated iron!

I'll get a pic tomorrow - cant go up there now or I will wake a 3-year-old en route! It was made by a friend out of cardboard. The design was mine and, yes, inspired by the style used on some West Cork stations, and the Kenmare and Valentia branches.

Incidentally, that Park Royal - an old IFM one, one of two I have - one bogie keeps derailing over several points. Nothing else derails on them, sop it's not the points. The other IFM Park Royal I have doesn't either. Anyone have any ideas how to tame an errant coach bogie?

 

Edited February 12 by jhb171achill

[Tullygrainey]

I'd start by checking the back-to-back on the wheels JB and also that they are rotating freely. Then check that the bogie swivels freely and that it isn't fouling anything on the body as it swivels. Also, is there any buffer lock with whatever is coupled to it at that end?

[jhb171achill]

1 hour ago, Tullygrainey said:

I'd start by checking the back-to-back on the wheels JB and also that they are rotating freely. Then check that the bogie swivels freely and that it isn't fouling anything on the body as it swivels. Also, is there any buffer lock with whatever is coupled to it at that end?

Seems ok on those scores…. Maybe a small weight on the bogie might be the answer….

[Tullygrainey]

Certainly worth trying

[jhb171achill]

On 12/2/2026 at 7:54 PM, Patrick Davey said:

Love the station building, can we see more?  Looks like classic deepest darkest Kerry corrugated iron!

Here we go; 

[ttc0169]

Looking well Jonathan

[jhb171achill]

A quiet evening at Dugort Harbour, after an hour of attempted indoctrination of an enthusiastic four year old….  As of now, A42 rests on the centre road after bringing in a goods train, while tomorrow’s down train from Tralee sits in the fiddle yard entrance awaiting an A class for its next jaunt to Castletown West… Meantime, silence in the fields above Dugort Harbour station, apart from a low breeze and the sound of lambs….

[Patrick Davey]

7 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Here we go; 

This is a masterpiece!!!!

[Tullygrainey]

16 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

 Meantime, silence in the fields above Dugort Harbour station, apart from a low breeze and the sound of lambs….

 

Lovely images. Really convincing. Are you sure it's lambs you hearing? I'm nearly certain those are cows

[Mol_PMB]

8 minutes ago, Tullygrainey said:

Lovely images. Really convincing. Are you sure it's lambs you hearing? I'm nearly certain those are cows

Better get their sound decoders re-programmed...

[jhb171achill]

5 hours ago, Tullygrainey said:

Lovely images. Really convincing. Are you sure it's lambs you hearing? I'm nearly certain those are cows

They’re behind the photographer…..

[jhb171achill]

5 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

Better get their sound decoders re-programmed...

When I inserted the existing ones, you wouldn't believe the hassle I got from the animal rights people. So I'll leave them as they are; all but one will make sheep noises, but the one on the right barks and meows, as I couldn't find my glasses when I was fixing it up.... The REAL problem is, my A42 moos..... 

Edited February 14 by jhb171achill

[jhb171achill]

“No, you have to get the bus now. There’s no train to Bandon for over two years now. So, once you get to Cork, go over to the bus station”…..

[jhb171achill]

“That thing’ll be useless on fair day!”

”Yeah, but it’s OK normally. It only uses a few shillings of diesel a day, an’ it’s only on trial anyway. Pat says they’ll have an engine and coaches on Thursdays and fair days….”

"Well, these crates won't fit in it. You could always get 'em in a van, but this thing can't even tow a van... They'll have to go up on the 4.30...." 

Edited Thursday at 15:23 by jhb171achill

[Mol_PMB]

I've not seen one of those in CIE livery before! It looks the part though, somewhere between railbus 2508 and railcar 2509.

 

[Galteemore]

Agreed. As a ‘might have been’ it’s quite convincing and plausible 

[Metrovik]

2 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

“That thing’ll be useless on fair day!”

”Yeah, but it’s OK normally. It only uses a few shillings of diesel a day, an’ it’s only on trial anyway. Pat says they’ll have an engine and coaches on Thursdays and fair days….”

 

 

Where can I pick myself up one of these? Perfect for my totally unprototypical layout! 

[DJ Dangerous]

2 hours ago, Metrovik said:

Where can I pick myself up one of these? Perfect for my totally unprototypical layout! 

https://railsofsheffield.com/blogs/news/heljan-oo-wm-railbus-in-stock-now

[jhb171achill]

17 hours ago, Metrovik said:

Where can I pick myself up one of these? Perfect for my totally unprototypical layout! 

As we know, a bit like CIE building 34 "C" class and then closing most of the rural routes they were intended for, in the same way BR got a number of railbuses from different manufacturers for lightly used branch lines during a few years either side of 1960. In reality they didn't last long as these branches were sliced by Beeching's "axe".

My "back story" here is that CIE got hold of one of these things from BR as an experiment and re-gauged it. They tried it in Loughrea and Ballina, where it was deemed unsuitable, so they sent it to west Kerry, to do the shuttle connection btween "town" (Castletown West) and "the harbour". It acquitted itself adequately on this duty between spring 1962 and mid-1966, when an unfortunate incident in Castletown loco shed saw it being walloped against a buffer stop by an "A" with misbehaving brakes and a trainee driver....

At present it's "display only" as it hasn't been trained to deal with DCC, but that will follow. I saw it on fleabay and bought it from a German gentleman, of all people! He had expertly painted it. A unique little thing - I did, actuallly, have plans myself going way back to get one and paint it thus, so great minds must think alike. As you say, a credible "might-have-been"!

Edited Thursday at 15:25 by jhb171achill

[Colonel]

I scratch built one of those in 7mm scale, though it is now very much part of my 0 gauge project. Wonder what colour it would have been had they trialled one in the very early 60s?

[Mol_PMB]

12 minutes ago, Colonel said:

I scratch built one of those in 7mm scale, though it is now very much part of my 0 gauge project. Wonder what colour it would have been had they trialled one in the very early 60s?

2509 was painted light green for a short while around that time. I’d take that as a guide. It didn’t stay that colour for long, being repainted in BnT. 

[jhb171achill]

3 hours ago, Colonel said:

I scratch built one of those in 7mm scale, though it is now very much part of my 0 gauge project. Wonder what colour it would have been had they trialled one in the very early 60s?

If it was before 1963 it would have been the 1955-style lighter green with black roof. If after ‘63, Black and Tan.

I had toyed with the idea of buying a kit, long before this German man advertised this on eBay. Couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it!

Had I bought a kit and done it myself I’d have painted it green for the simple reason it would have been easier…. I like it in BnT though.

I still harbour notions about a UTA one with “wasp stripes” on a mini-shunting-terminus based on Fintona surviving into the 1960s….. I’ve a spare baseboard the right size….

[Mol_PMB]

7 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

If it was before 1963 it would have been the 1955-style lighter green with black roof. If after ‘63, Black and Tan.

I had toyed with the idea of buying a kit, long before this German man advertised this on eBay. Couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it!

Had I bought a kit and done it myself I’d have painted it green for the simple reason it would have been easier…. I like it in BnT though.

I still harbour notions about a UTA one with “wasp stripes” on a mini-shunting-terminus based on Fintona surviving into the 1960s….. I’ve a spare baseboard the right size….

 

From Ernie, 2509 in the light green with black roof as you describe, seen in 1960:

You'll be wanting an RB3 next! Photo from Jonathan Allen on Flickr:

 

[jhb171achill]

4 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

You'll be wanting an RB3 next! 

 

Aaaarrrrrgggghhhhh!!!   Where's me smelling salts!!

7 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

2509 was painted light green for a short while around that time. I’d take that as a guide. It didn’t stay that colour for long, being repainted in BnT. 

Yes- - it became CIE green about 1958 - CIE never ran it in SLNCR livery, I believe. So green from then until maybe 1963-ish. Five years or so, maybe six?

[jhb171achill]

8 hours ago, Colonel said:

I scratch built one of those in 7mm scale, though it is now very much part of my 0 gauge project. Wonder what colour it would have been had they trialled one in the very early 60s?

With "0" gauge taking up more space than 00, something like this also often struck me as an ideal "entry-level" yoke for this scale. I don't suppose anyone makes "0" scale kits of it? Or for a scratchbuild, what chassis / motor would you recommend?

[Galteemore]

11 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

With "0" gauge taking up more space than 00, something like this also often struck me as an ideal "entry-level" yoke for this scale. I don't suppose anyone makes "0" scale kits of it? Or for a scratchbuild, what chassis / motor would you recommend?

Heljan did an RTR AC Cars railbus in O

 

[jhb171achill]

18 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

Heljan did an RTR AC Cars railbus in O

 

Interesting......

You've got me thinking....

[Colonel]

Came out a couple of years after I made mine. Of course...

... and have  made the SL& NCR one in 7mm too.

 JB is right in that a 7mm scale, minimum space model railway could certainly be built around a railbus. Keep it to just a working diorama, with a single line and no points and you could do it in less than a metre. Go along the Iain Rice cameo route and a loop plus two sidings and fiddle yard need 10' 9" in old money - at least that's how long Northport Quay is.

[Mayner]

Jas Millhams S scale 1950s ex-GE Yaxbury branch complete with railbus was an eye opener in terms of scenic branchline modelling when I first saw it at an exhibition during the 80s in mimimum space branchline terminus form and later extended form with intermediate halt http://www.s-scale.org.uk/gallery5.htm, not a lot different from JHBs Dugort Harbour and Castletown West concept.

I picked up a nicely assembled (non-powered) sample of an Airfix railbus during the mid 70s, but destroyed the model attempting to motorise it not realising its potential value. Not sure if anyone would consider it worthwhile to kitbash the NIR Railbus out of a Hornby Pacer.

Then again David has proven that its perfectly feasible to build a SLNCR Railbus and thus GNR, DNGR? or even the solitary CIE variations in 7mm scale.

7mm or S scale 18-0' working diorama layout section of plain track possibly with halt and or level crossing, peat bog with turntable long enough for railbus and luggage trailer at each end!