Provincial Wagons' new GNR(I) Class Y5 passenger van

[leslie10646]

A couple of pictures of my GNR Class Y5 van, which has been available for over a month now.

 

The vans were originally built about a 100 years ago as Bread Vans, but were subsequently rebuilt for use as luggage / sundries vans. The obvious big change was the fitting of sliding doors, a feature beloved of the GN. The vans were to be found hanging on the back of passenger trains, especially on secondary line passenger lines like the that from Dundalk to Omagh and Bundoran. Latterly, they were quite a feature on the much-lamented "Derry Road", often hauled by AEC and later BUT railcars. They lasted through to the 1960s and at least one was repainted in CIE green.

 

The kit comes with transfers for several numbers in the series and costs £35 (roughly €40) post paid.

 

As usual, if you are ordering more than kit, I'll knock off a little as I save in postage.

 

Of course, the reason for producing the van was to give people something to pull behind their 00 Works U Class.

 

 

[kirley]

At last pictures of your layout Leslie??

[leslie10646]

Well, Kieran, the photo was taken on "Portadown Jct" - in fact the van is sitting on the Down line from Dublin, which runs behind the roundhouse -  on a train running wrong line! The turntable is there, the tracks are there, but the roundhouse isn't!

 

It was a convenient place to photo the van.

 

Doesn't the camera lie? There's not a stone of ballast under those tracks, there's the illusion of sky only because I painted the plasterboard behind the layout blue, the Park Royals, plus 141 Class are sitting on the Portadown Goods Loop - having been dumped there for convenience. 

 

As I said, a total illusion.

 

Alas, sadly, also a delusion on my part, as for personal reasons the layout is likely to be abandoned. Life can be a mess - but Provincial Wagons continues!

 

Leslie

[kirley]

Sorry to hear it's demise is possible, if it comes to that please take a few photos showing the layout in it's entirety, with or without ballast.  After your descriptions of it over many years I'm intrigued to see a picture of it.