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jhb171achill

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Everything posted by jhb171achill

  1. Ireland had its issues, DLT, yes! In the Republic we had Todd Andrews, who managed to strip west Cork of all its railways among other things. He wasn't quite as bad as Beeching, especially given the population involved - but both Andrews and Beeching paled into insignificance compared to Craig in the north, who removed every single railway line in the six counties, and by extension several border counties in the south, bar Belfast - Derry (even that was proposed for closure at one time), to Dundalk, and two of three suburban lines from Belfast. At his worst, he actually proposed removing ALL railways bar the Belfast - Bangor commuter line! Had he done so, I wouldn't like to see the M1 and M2 today at rush hour...... Ireland had its issues, DLT, yes! In the Republic we had Todd Andrews, who managed to strip west Cork of all its railways among other things. He wasn't quite as bad as Beeching, especially given the population involved - but both Andrews and Beeching paled into insignificance compared to Craig in the north, who removed every single railway line in the six counties, and by extension several border counties in the south, bar Belfast - Derry (even that was proposed for closure at one time), to Dundalk, and two of three suburban lines from Belfast. At his worst, he actually proposed removing ALL railways bar the Belfast - Bangor commuter line! Had he done so, I wouldn't like to see the M1 and M2 today at rush hour......
  2. The Schull & Skib rolling stock had one of the smallest loading gauges of them all, so I'd go for something bigger perhaps. The West Clare would be a better equivalent. jhb171Senior always said that the C & L track, in great contrast to its rolling stock, was very well built and maintained to the end.
  3. Diesels galore, mid 70s! "Rails Through North Kerry" & "Rails Through the West", published by Colourpoint, Newtownards!
  4. A useful addition to the RTR stuff available! Congrats to Silverfox!
  5. David, that is truly superb. I hadn't seen pics of Fintonagh for a while; without seeing it in the flesh, frequent admiration of the illustrations will have to do! What's next! Mention is made above of a LLSR 4.8.4T....... and compact termini. Not my place to interfere, but perhaps you might have considered a small terminus like Westport Quay? If you make it in Midland Great Western days, "flyaway" cabs plus an actual daily passenger service are possible. I have track plans if you're interested and I can direct you towards photos. Sligo Quay is another, though less compact and no passengers. The passenger service at Westport was typically a loco plus two six-wheelers - an ideal combination for such a small thing, and some of Arigna Road's wagons could make a guest appearance!
  6. I'm inclined to keep a notebook of email addresses and phone numbers these days as I had a scare with my computer about 18 months ago, and for a while it looked as if I had lost everything, including two half-completed book manuscripts, the result of many years work! O
  7. If it's of interest for a model, it appears that the thing spent its short life in "works grey" (more like light wagon grey rather than the dark grey used on locomotives). Lettering was black.
  8. That is just jaw-dropping stuff, excellent!
  9. Hi folks Apologies for posting this under "Spain" but there's no Portuguese thread. On returning from a holiday in Portugal it strikes me that online information on the Portuguese railways seems very sparse. Any ideas? I'm particularly interested in the Cascais - Lisbon line, especially in pre-1926 electrification days. Regards J
  10. Hello folks Does anyone know of any photos of pre-1965 Majorca Railways (not the Soller electric line), or anyone who has modelled them? Regards J
  11. Experience elsewhere in Ireland has showed that without exception, when "for-profit" companies, local authorities, or "local business personalities" become involved in heritage railways - or heritage anything - disaster results. A few sobering facts. The whole of Ireland - north and south - has just over 6.1 million people. England has over 60 million, before even including Wales and Scotland. Culturally, per head, England has a much greater uptake of interest in industrial heritage than probably anywhere else on the planet. Ireland is in the opposite category. The only main line preservation outfit in Ireland - the RPSI - has a membership total of some 1000. Virtually all the active working members live in the general area of Dublin or Belfast, which are both on the eastern side. These two cities and environs are home to over a quarter of all of Ireland's people. Ireland has but one broad gauge preservation society, at Downpatrick, about 45 minutes from Belfast. It has an operating line 2 miles in length, with one steam locomotive bearing the brunt of public services. The Downpatrick & Co Down's membership is just 200 or so. Also based there, having no access to the main lines, is the Irish Traction Group, who own the country's only collection of operational diesel locomotives (the DCDR has three shunters too). When we go to our third biggest city, Cork, it has a population of 125000. Beyond that, there are four cities with populations varying from 75000 to 90000. Everything else is what may to us be biggish towns, but by UK standards would be at best medium to small towns. Funding is less easy, as unlike the UK, there are almost no wealthy benefactor individuals. (Right now, there's one. Within the last thirty years, there have been three more. None would be anywhere remotely near the position sometimes found in the UK, where one man pays to restore an entire locomotive). We have no William McAlpines, or Pete Watermans, nor did we ever here. Let's look at narrow gauge. There have been several narrow gauge preservation projects around the place. Just as virtually all British preserved lines rely heavily on BR Mk. 1 coaches, so do these on small 4-wheeled ex-industrial diesels. Only one, the ISPS at Stradbally (incidentally the oldest), has steam - in the form of an ex-industrial 0.4.0WT. Right now: Finntown - defunct. @ Giant's Causeway - operated by a modern severn lamb style railcar. * About a mile and a bit * Dromod (Cavan & Leitrim) - small industrial diesel and many unrestored exhibits. half a mile @ Tralee - defunct * Waterford & Suir valley - industrial 0.4.0 diesel - about 10 miles, on former 5ft 3 trackbed of Waterford - Dungarvan line * West Clare at Moyasta Junction - about a mile or two. @ One ex-WCR steam loco had been operating, but out of traffic now. Small industrial diesel haulage. Foyle Valley line, Derry. Defunct, historical collectaion under severe threat now, with one hulk of a Donegal 2.6.4T left out rotting and vandalised in the open, all fittings long, long gone. City Council owned it and have sold it to a non-railway group, with non-railway 9indeed, non-heritage) interests. It will NOT reopen on that site anyway. * No relation whatsoever to original line - no pretence of "preservation", even though operating on sections where there once WAS a line. @ On an original line, with an original station present - but nothing original operating. Finntown did have a Donegal railcar, but with the line defunct it's in storage. The Tralee project, to succeed, needs to be substantially rebuilt, and substantially refurbished, by enthusiasts. A recent group of enthusiasts formed already appears to have been hijacked by others, and nothing has been achieved thus far. These, folks, are the realities. I'm not trying to be negative, and I really hope that something can be made of most or all of them. I write the above for the information of UK readers; enthusiasts here are all too aware of the matters described!
  12. That really is outstanding work, especially on the paint finish - something which often lets down otherwise great models!
  13. That is truly stunning work! A real gem.
  14. Absolutely fantastic work - love the brown vans and CIE coaches.
  15. Nothing more than volunteer worker's time.... it'll be done eventually.
  16. Sam's layout was dismantled many years ago. His sons retain the constituent parts.
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