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Orange Bubbles on the network.

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Just wanted to ask does anyone here have any collections or links to photos of the orange bubble in service. 

I've only a handful and they are just the few I could find on Google and one or two posted here.

Any and all will be much appreciated thanks.

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  • 5 weeks later...

I think ernie Brack has at least one if not several on Flickr. I'll post a link if I find it. Unfortunately there are not that many pictures floating about of the bubble since the orange livery since the livery was earlier, and changed to the ivory within not that many years and less availability of color film. Most of the 'ivory'/covered in cement

Drogheda A54R 17jul73 pn

 

Mixed with ivory livery

eire - cie 149 ennis 83 JL

 

I think this is belong to @jhb171achill and has been previously posted on the site

 

 

image.jpg

Edited by DiveController
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Yes, that's mine. Note the non-standard CIE logo, different proportions.

From some research, it would appear that they started painting them orange about 1970/1. Standard wagon grey all over before that. Any built after that would have been orange when new.

The lettering "B U L K   C E M E N T" was stencilled. The grey chassis didn't stay grey very long!

The chassis was NEVER black with orange bubble; but once they were repainted cream, with both logos, chassis were black - highly unusual for Irish wagons.

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Seeing single "bubbles" in a goods train back in the day was commonplace. Seeing a uniform rake of ANYTHING was exceptional.

I made a note once only, of a goods passing Lisburn northbound. It must have been about 1970. I can't find it now, but what I do recall is that it was mostly "H" vans and Bullied opens, a few vans, then maybe one open, then another couple of vans etc... and strung through this lot were Lancashire Flats with Guinness and THREE bubbles. There were 34 wagons in all, including - if I recall correctly - two brake vans, one at each end. I suspect the leading one was travelling "light". This was absolutely the norm.

Block trains of a single type of wagon only became the norm after about 1975, when goods facilities nationwide were severely rationalised.

The same with passenger trains. Someone asked me recently what sort of rakes Cravens first appeared in, and was surprised to learn that almost never did you get a train of Cravens only - in fact, with no Cravens being firsts or dining cars, and most main line services still offering two classes and many also having catering, a train of Cravens only was something that personally I NEVER saw, not once. Laminates of the various types, Park Royals, and the last few Bredins were all a common fleet with them, and a typical main line train was maybe three Cravens, two Laminate standard, a Park Royal, a laminate-like dining car*, and a genny van.

 

(*  None of the "laminate" dining cars were actually constructed with laminated frames, so technically they weren't "laminates". They had solid frames. The DESIGN was similar, though, of course.)

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