IRISH NARROW GAUGE RAILWAY ALBUM (Michael Whitehouse)

[leslie10646]

This new book has 224 pages. 275x215mm. Printed on gloss art paper, casebound with printed board covers. Unlike his previous two narrow gauge albums which covered the whole of the British Isles, this is solely IRISH NARROW GAUGE and of black and white photographs.

So you can sit back and in the company of Michael Whitehouse, who has once again delved deep into the family archive established by his late father P.B. ‘Pat’ Whitehouse, which includes the work of many other well-known names such as W. ‘Cam’ Camwell, Henry Casserley, A.W. Croughton and Ron Jarvis, revel in the joys of a visit spanning the fifty year period from circa 1910 to around 1960 and mostly to the remoter parts of the country.

The Syndicate will be selling this book by post, profits to Irish Preservation, as always (No.171's new tubes in particular).

£25    UK only  plus a token £1.50 for post and packing

I'm sorry that I can't supply to the Republic, as the postage is almost as much as the book! I'm seeking a way round this impasse!

I'll put up a sample page or two when they arrive.

PM me, or e-mail me if interested.

Leslie (Provincial Wagons and The Syndicate)

Just a thought, if you're buying a pile of kits from me, I can put everything in the same box and save on the criminal postage!

Edited December 7, 2020 by leslie10646

[Patrick Davey]

Hi Leslie - any County Antrim NG in the book?

Hope you have fully recovered from your recent mishap!

[leslie10646]

Patrick

The description only mentions the GCT - I'll provide a lot more info when the book lands here. (from darkest Gloucestershire).

Leslie

 

[Irishswissernie]

I will order one through you next week plus a few wagon kits. The photos should be great but I might be a bit more cautious about any text judging by the Publishers blurb; quite a few geographical boobs.

https://lightmoor.co.uk/books/irish-narrow-gauge-album/L8818

[airfixfan]

Spotted the changers on the Swilly and the West Clare in particular. Ron Jarvis visited the Co Antrim NG lines in 1939 so I am sure that the NCC lines will feature. Michael Whitehouse knows his stuff unlike whoever wrote the PR stuff!

[leslie10646]

Yes, I have to agree that their spelling of Carndonagh was entertaining - made more amusing today as I have a young man who went to school in Buncrana fitting my new heating boiler!

The perils of modern spell-checkers are probably to blame, I suspect.

AOL regularly changes PETTIGO FAIR (house name, remember) to Pettifog Fair

Edited November 10, 2020 by leslie10646

[jhb171achill]

6 hours ago, leslie10646 said:

Yes, I have to agree that their spelling of Carndonagh was entertaining - made more amusing today as I have a young man who went to school in Buncrana fitting my new heating boiler!

The perils of modern spell-checkers are probably to blame, I suspect.

AOL regularly changes PETTIGO FAIR (house name, remember) to Pettifog Fair

In the early days of "home computers" (as opposed to things the size of an "H" van with a 2.3 byte memory in WORKplaces), I was sending one of my first ever emails to the then RPSI Chairman, Sullivan Boomer.

OK, both an unusual Christian name and surname both, but the auto-spellcheck-correct-thing advised me that it wanted to send it to:

"Sultan Bomber".

I advised WSB of this!

 

[jhb171achill]

Off-thread, I know, but there were many, many nicknames among the RPSI faithful; many unsuitable for the gentle ears and delicate stomachs of civilised modellers.........

[leslie10646]

On 10/11/2020 at 3:15 PM, Patrick Davey said:

Hi Leslie - any County Antrim NG in the book?

Hope you have fully recovered from your recent mishap!

Patrick

There is a chapter entitled Narrow Gauge Compounds so we can assume the Ballycastle; and The Boat Train - Ballymena and Larne.

Hope that makes the content clearer?

Leslie

[airfixfan]

40 minutes ago, leslie10646 said:

Patrick

There is a chapter entitled Narrow Gauge Compounds so we can assume the Ballycastle; and The Boat Train - Ballymena and Larne.

Hope that makes the content clearer?

Leslie

Just what I expected as the Jarvis brothers visited the NCC Narrow Gauge lines in 1939. Looking forward to see some new Donegal and Swilly photos as well. We can hope for some new photos!

[Galteemore]

Yes - would be keen to hear from the connoisseurs re just how much fresh material is in here. Ballydehob viaduct is lovely but it’s a photo that has appeared fairly widely. 

Edited November 12, 2020 by Galteemore

[leslie10646]

1 hour ago, Galteemore said:

Yes - would be keen to hear from the connoisseurs re just how much fresh material is in here. Ballydehob viaduct is lovely but it’s a photo that has appeared fairly widely. 

I suspect that there will be a lot of stuff seen before, I'll be able to tell when I see the book - due on 26 November, by the way.

The two views on the publisher's website are one old, one new - to me at least! 

The big difference will be in the way they are printed. Lightmoor are right at the top of today's publishers for quality - the dull prints of yesteryear are a thing of the past - these will delight, if I'm any judge.

[airfixfan]

We shall have to wait and see the book. The bottom photo is new to myself and at least unlike the Mulligan book they have printed the photo the right way round this time.

[jhb171achill]

During the first lockdown I posted some of Senior’s NCC narrow gauge stuff. Hoping to get that all properly scanned at some stage.

[leslie10646]

To help the waverers on this book - the full contents. Note the misprint page number, but Co Antrim seems to get a good slice?

[jhb171achill]

2 hours ago, leslie10646 said:

To help the waverers on this book - the full contents. Note the misprint page number, but Co Antrim seems to get a good slice?

“A round trip into Eire”....... cringe!!!!!

[minister_for_hardship]

1 minute ago, jhb171achill said:

“A round trip into Eire”....... cringe!!!!!

Oof! 

[Galteemore]

I can only presume that the trip recorded in the photos took place between 1937 and 1949? The Republic is clearly recognised in the heading to Part 1 so I can only assume that the choice of words is deliberate.

Intriguingly an LMS Jubilee class loco was originally named ‘Irish Free State’ and then quickly changed to ‘Eire’ after Dev’s change. It still bore that name right through to scrapping despite Costello’s declaration in 49.

Mind you, mistakes do happen in these books. Colin Boocock’s lovely ‘Irish Railway Album’ includes a nice 1950s shot from inside the cab of SLNC ‘Sir Henry’ at Glenfarne heading to Sligo- but is described as ‘facing the border with Eire’ so wrong on several counts !

 

Edited November 16, 2020 by Galteemore

[airfixfan]

Have contacted Lightmoor about some errors in book description. Plenty on the Donegal and the Swilly which technically do not belong in either of the 2 categories listed!

[Colin R]

The Cork Blackrock and Passage Railway is one I can't wait to see what other photos there are of this line, I hope they have some photos of the carriages as I am trying to find out what some of them looked like, I hope I can convince Worsley works to update thier basic CB&PR coach kit.

Also if there are new photos of the Cork and Muskerry that would help modelling wise, I happen to like Photo albums as they give so much more information about a time and place that is now lost to us all.

Regarding sales in the republic, I wonder if someone like the Donegal lads would take a bulk purchase.

Colin Rainsbury

 

PS put me down for one

Edited November 16, 2020 by Colin R
addition text

[jhb171achill]

8 hours ago, Galteemore said:

 Colin Boocock’s lovely ‘Irish Railway Album’ includes a nice 1950s shot from inside the cab of SLNC ‘Sir Henry’ at Glenfarne heading to Sligo- but is described as ‘facing the border with Eire’ so wrong on several counts !

 

Double cringe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I recall, on an RPSI May Tour in the 1990s, I was doing the (crowded!) bar the whole weekend. At the counter, a crowd of the usual suspects were waxing lyrical with all the bar-room intellectualism that accompanies such scenes. One well-known bar-room bore, who will remain nameless, was regaling several of our English visitors with various "wisdom".... talk was of "LONDONderry", "Eire", and a long discussion took place among them about the exact spot at which we entered a "foreign country" at the border, and precisely where it was.

Now, I'm the only sober one among them - I'm working! They're all poleaxed. I'm bored, but perversely curious as to what would come next.

Our attention-seeking bar-room intellectual was eventually silenced, and politely advised that he was speaking from, let us say, an opening not normally used for speech - by one of the English guys on the tour! Hilarious stuff........and no, I don't remember what livery the dining car was at that time!

But yes, I pored over that book in class in school, when I should have been listening to French verbs; stuff about the capitals of European countries; the history of...some boring old stuff about wars....; the economy of Canada and the USA; genitive, perfect, imperfect and pluperfect tenses; the scribblings of Wordsworth; the main points of a map of the route of the River Rhine; calculus, sines and cosines and algebra...........

Not a word about railways, of course, in any of that oul guff, as I saw it back then!

But Boocock's images of a filthy "C" class in Wisht Caaark, boy, with a couple of 1880s six-wheelers behind it, or some of his atmospheric Donegal and Sligo-Leitrim images....YES!

[NIR]

You still occasionally hear of 'Southern Ireland', like that ever happened

[jhb171achill]

4 minutes ago, NIR said:

You still occasionally hear of 'Southern Ireland', like that ever happened

Indeed; genuinely, as one who has travelled on almost every "May Tour" since 1978, and worked on them all since 1984, I've overheard and been party to all the variations of knowledge and / or curiosity of our esteemed visitors from our neighbouring island.....

(Many, of course, are SO much regulars now, they're genuine, good and lasting friends, not just "passengers"!)

But I still C R I N G E at the utterly ghastly label given to this annual tour as the "International" Railtour. C'mon, lads, get a grip. It hasn't scaled the Andes, had 171 speeding across the Nullarbor Plain, or had a side trip to Darjeeling or the Harz system yet, and No. 4 has yet to see a Norfolk Southern goods yard. Good old 186 has never ascended the Devils Nose, nor had a photo-op hooked up to the Blue Train in De Aar. No. 461 hasn't crossed Glenfinnan Viaduct or rolled into Zurich Hauptbanhhof yet, and with the covid an'all, that's not going to happen any time soon.

Edited November 17, 2020 by jhb171achill

[leslie10646]

Getting back to topic ......

Yawn.......

There is a great pile of the Book in my hallway - I've been through it - I only recollect about half of the shots, I haven't bothered with the verbiage, but can attest that you will not have seen these photos so beautifully reproduced before.

Rather too much on the Monorail (but gloriously reproduced Lawrence photos), but otherwise pretty good - and YES, Patrick the Co. Antrim narrow gauge is well represented. Plenty of nice stuff in Donegal, both CDRJC and LLSWR, over thirty pages of the C&L.....

Available from The Syndicate (ie PM me!). Now that I've weighed the book (1.4Kg) and nearly had a heart attack - I must ask a little for postage and packing - say 5%, so £26.25 to UK addresses. If you've already paid me, I'll stick to my original deal.

Obviously, if you're in the Republic (if THAT politically correct??), I will post to a relative, or friend in the UK and leave you to arrange a handover.

If you're narrow-minded (pun definitely intended) this is the Irish book for you!

Leslie

Edited December 2, 2020 by leslie10646

[airfixfan]

What can you say? Mine arrived today and this gets a 5 Star rating for all aspects. Superb photos including many pre WW2 and as usual superb reproduction of vintage photos by Lightmoor Press. Essential for all lovers of Irish Railways not just fans of the Irish Narrow Gauge. Thanks Leslie and 5 out 5 for quality of packaging as well. Buy a copy and enjoy what will be a classic book!

 

[Irishswissernie]

Mine arrived today as well.  Excellent and very securely packaged. A quick perusal reveals only 3 Casserley views much to my relief as I have just used my Funeral Fund to purchase more Casserley negatives including a fair number of County Donegal and Lough Swilly originals at last Saturdays Auction. 

 

[airfixfan]

Exactly what worried me as well. Some little errors here and there. Good to hear those Negsxare in good hands especially as they feature my 2 favourite railways.

[leslie10646]

Thanks, Jim and Ernie, for the positive comments. Glad you are enjoying it. And thanks, too, for the support from a bunch of you - the pile I had has gone and I'm reordering!

Like Ernie, I was relieved / surprised at how FEW of Henry Casserley's photos were in the book. Especially as Michael Whitehouse's Dad (Patrick of Railway Roundabout fame) would have known Henry well.  God Bless A W Croughton for the wonderful images he took - they certainly were new.

Still available from The Syndicate to the UK at £25 plus a token £1.50 towards post and packing - sorry to now move to charging a little for packing / posting a book which WEIGHS 1.4Kg and needs decent packing!

As I reminded you above, if ordering kits from me, I can pack book and kits together and usually save on postage to you. Sneaked a couple of bread containers into one customer's book pack!

Leslie

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by leslie10646

[David Holman]

Saved mine for Christmas and just spent a pleasant hour reading through it, with many hours of pleasure to come.

 Some familiar photos, but many new ones, to me anyway, and very inspiring. Add another dozen or so locos and layouts to the wish list!

[Colin R]

On 7/12/2020 at 3:06 PM, Irishswissernie said:

Mine arrived today as well.  Excellent and very securely packaged. A quick perusal reveals only 3 Casserley views much to my relief as I have just used my Funeral Fund to purchase more Casserley negatives including a fair number of County Donegal and Lough Swilly originals at last Saturdays Auction. 

 

Sounds like a new Donegal book is in the making for both railways, it appears that these railways are finding there feet when it comes to publicity, the modelling charm of both Donegal railways does not fade and any new photo albums that come along with photos about both lines I have not seen before, will alway be welcome.

 

Colin R 

[airfixfan]

The Donegal Railway Heritage Centre has published 3 new books on the CDR since 2017. The Heritage Centre has its main focus on Drumboe in the early part of 2021. Gathering a lot of material on the Swilly at the moment myself for another project in addition to Strabane. Narrow Gauge Steam 2 by Kelsey publishing due out in a few days has 3 Irish NG articles in total.

[WRENNEIRE]

I didnt see any reference to the Cavan & Leitrim
Was it because of this little stocking filler that arrived over the Christmas?

 

[airfixfan]

There was a refence to this on IRM  a few months ago.

[airfixfan]

The Cavan and Leitrim is covered in this new book. On pages 200/201 there appears to be one of those elusive ex Clogher Valley full brakes attached to a Railcar trailer at Killybegs