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The numbers on the lower sides of each coach are the same as the ones on the end, Wiggy, tho spaced in pairs eg 92 10. As visible on the generator van. Zooming in on the original pics, there are traces on the diner and possibly others of a smaller, lighter-coloured almost vestigial number next to the larger ones on the side, which could well be in the format you have described. If I get a chance, I'll take another look tomorrow or later in the week and report back!

The 12:35 Enterprise, all in the new livery and as seen at Belfast Central today (15 Aug 2017) was made up, from the Dublin end, of: Driving Trailer 9003 Trailer 9104 Trailer Buffet 9401 Trailer 9213 Trailer 9205 Trailer 9210 Trailer 9208 TGV 9608 GM 228

Thanks for the tip Turfburner! The Holy Grail of UTA railcar pics - possibly before Mr Allen's era - would be one illustrating the 'turquoise train' I recall seeing from the seafront near Carnalea, in the early 1960s - if only to prove I wasn't having phantom memories! 'Diesel Dawn' has a pic of MED 14 (undated but probably early 1960s, from the still-present but painted-over circular UTA roundel plaque on the front) in 'Eau de Nil' but with 'ivory' upper sides and front and I have a Colour Rail pic of a dark green 1st batch MED with ivory upper cab front and wasp striper lowers, with what looks like an 'Eau de Nil' slam-door trailer behind., York Rd 1961. Neither of these entirely seem to match what I recall seeing, which was a full train or most thereof, probably an MED, painted in the pale blue-ish green livery seen on a lot of MPDs 1959-61, in regular service on the Bangor Line some time in the early 1960s. A pic of such a set seems as elusive as the Holy Grail and even Richard Whitford had no recollection of such a railcar set operating on that line, which train is also in danger of acquiring mythical status! Anyway, hence my interest in that non-mythical, but equally mysteriously light-coloured, vehicle, behind that MED at Antrim!

I got all the available MED drawings from Mark Kennedy at the UFTM (and that was from Whitla Street, before the stuff was moved to the rail gallery at Cultra!!) in the early 1990s, and while that lot included the slam-door trailers, there was no drawing available of them after conversion, so it's only photos of these I've seen. The only types of MED trailer I modelled based on these drawings were the 'lightweight' one (ribbed, low roof, bottom pic) and the original slam door version, pre-conversion to open layout (top pic): The other type of real life MED trailer was a pair of coaches converted (so the works drawing says) for dual MPD or MED use, 526 and 527, the former I snapped at RPSI Whitehead in1992: 535 and 536 were MPD trailers, I believe: Edit - 528 was the trailer for Railcars 6 & 7, not sure if it could or did run with MEDs. Not sure why the vehicle behind the MED in that pic is in that lighter colour c.1967-69, whatever it is. IIRC the only MED driving trailers were a few of the ribbed ones, which had small corner cabs added, so the vehicle in the pic won't have had a cab at the far end, though it does look to have the sidesole conduit which identifies it as a proper railcar trailer, rather than a random coach along for the ride. Sorry to hijack the thread! PS are Jonathan Allen's pics available anywhere these days? Only ever seen a few eg IRT&T and neither of the two Turfburner posted....or are you one and the same??? At any rate, it's great to see people like Mr Allen and Richard Whitford took the trouble to record so much of the coming and going of the UTA's pioneering railcars.

To digress a bit, that's an intriguing MED pic, TurfBurner. Looks like it was taken in the late 1960s - the MED is in NIR livery and has even the frontal valences removed, but (mostly) lacks the painted-over lower sections of the cab front windows and more battered appearance of MEDs in the 1970s. The intriguing thing about the pic - for me anyway - is the colour of the second vehicle, which looks like it might be one of the slam-door non-corridor compartment trailers after conversion to open configuration, done in the late '60s IIRC. These converted trailers are usually seen in matching maroon & light grey - but this one is a distinctly lighter shade in a single, solid colour, much too light to be UTA Deep Brunswick Green (which I think they lost anyway, when converted to the open layout, without a slam door on both sides, for every compartment, seen below in original configuration). So, whatever type of vehicle the trailer is - and maybe it's not even an MED trailer - what colour is it? Even allowing for the shallow angle, it looks a bit shiny for grey primer. Late 1960s - and the pic can't be taken earlier than about 1967 - is by conventional wisdom too late for the 'Eau de Nil' colour (aka Catherwood Blue, but a primarily green shade in my recollection) applied to many MPDs from about 1959 on (and to MED 14, and possibly a trailer or two, about that time). I've never seen a pic of an Eau de Nil railcar, dated later than 1961 or maybe '62, certainly not as late as the late 1960s. So I wonder what we have here. Any more pics or info that might help clarify this, TB?

In a word...WOW! lovely work, Kieran!

This was my effort at getting that slightly convex cab front profile about right, here for an 8-13 series MED model, built about 1994. I agree entirely with Colm's observations on the shape and its similarity to 6 & 7.

VERY nice! Another classic Irish railcar lives again!

Looking great Kieran! Railcars rule!!!

Gorgeous, Colm! And that colour really does suit most locomotives so very well, as I think Triang/Rovex found out too from therir sales figures - their Midland red 3F 0-6-0 number 3775, sample recently acquired via eBay, was my favourite childhood steam loco! A red' jeep', though, that would be sheer heresy! Anyway, lovely model!

Some final pics of the model, basically finished, barring any touching up needed. Next to her is my original model, made in the very early 1990s when they still carried this attractive suburban sector livery, but hacked from Lima Mk2b coaches rather than the Tri-ang Hornby Mk2a's used for the newer model. The latter also has the benefit of flush glazing, separate handrails and some buffer beam detail. Some additional pics are in the gallery: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/2410-uta-nir-00-conversions/

A few more pics, with bodies lightly varnished and a coat of grey on the roofs. All cars were numbered prior to varnishing. Driving trailer 744 and intermediate 763 definitely ran together in this livery with power car 87 - I snapped this set in Bangor about 1991, pic at bottom of this post - but I have numbered the power car 85 because 87 is my original model and she had frames across the three LH side motor compartment windows, which I decided not to have on this model as that was quite rare. Photos confirm that 85 definitely carried suburban livery about this time. There seem to have been several subtle variations in the arractive 'suburban' sector livery - different markings on the corridor connection cover, power cab front hi-vis diamonds flatter or squarer etc. Handrails (but not yet jumper cables) have been added to the power car only, so far. Major job now is flush-glazing, then a final coat of paint on the roofs and fitting the remaining handrails. We can but hope that the welcome preservation of a 450 Class set in Downpatrick doesn't mean that the prospects have worsened for the survival of an 80 Class, once NIR retire their Sandite set. Having served NIR well since the mid-1970s, the class is definitely a worthy candidate, if ever there was one!

Thanks for posting! When I made my own 80 Class sets back in the early 1990s, I was aware of Shane mcQuillan's build but it was only recently that I tracked down an actual copy of this magazine, on eBay, and even then I didn't manage to get part 2 of the article! Here's another model, nearing completion; this time in suburban sector livery. As with my 1990s version, this is finished in cary spray, except I couldn't find the original Triumph Honeysickle (cream) and ended up using Ford Ivory. While the suburban cream can look different in different lighting, I think this paler cream is a much better shade than my original choice, which looks rather yellow by comparison. As before, NIR logos are hand-painted, lining is Trimline vinyl and 'Suburban' branding is 5mm Helvetica Letraset rub-down lettering. Still to do is a coat of varnish to protect the transfers, painting the roofs, numbering, re-fitting and painting the grab handles & power car jumper cables and then flush glazing. Power is a Hornby SWB motor bogie, fitted in a lengthened HST chassis. Seating is modified RTR for the trailers and plasticard scratchbuilt for the power car. All three vehicles are from 'cut & shut' Tri-ang Hornby Mk2 coaches.

Hi Kieran Ah, seating, the bane of the railcar modeller! I have used Foremost Models F.150 coach seating strip not sure if still available), which is as you say about the Comet variety, tough and tedious to cut. The Southern Pride individual seats recommended by Colm sound spot on for this sort of project. For my last 80 Class set, I re-used the Tri-ang Hornby Mk2 donor coach's seat units, cutting away tables with hacksaw cuts and doing a bit of 'cut and shut' with the rest, to get toilets etc lined up. This was actually less hassle than cutting up seating strips and neater, as I find it hard to cut thosee strips precisely and there's a lot less sanding of sawn edges needed. For the power car I just made the bays up from simple plasticard structures. When painted and seen through windows, it doesn't look too bad. ...if only, because it's more or less invisible! Keep this pics coming - inspiration, galore!

I wondered what all those blue seats were doing dumped on the platform in York Road when I took these pics on 8 Feb 1992:

Great videos, pics and info there guys! Especially great to see these units in the liveries that suited them best, back in the 1990s. They looked like trains and they sounded like trains, powerful and rather dangerous; somehow I just can't warm to the CAF units, all very pretty but it's like trams or toy trains against the real thing.

I knew it, I should have put in a 'smiley' back there! That was just my ironic way of making the point that Translink is, in a sense, a re-incarnation of the much-maligned UTA (with Belfast Corporation Transport/Citybus thrown in), though having a much less unfavourable funding environment to cope with than its predecessor (which was crippled by inherited debts and spending limits and still managed to design and build innovative railcar trains). PS nice vids there guys! I used to love the sound of MPD engines roaring in harsh disunity as a set climbed up Dhu Varren bank out of Portrush and hope someday to hear a decent recording. It's great you guys are now capturing while you can the throaty rattle that was the hallmark of the 'thumpers'. On the subject of videos, the latest set's new owner, TrainModel, is working with a friend on a video showing this and his other NIR stock, which should also be worth watching out for. This was all I could manage, if nothing else it shows the unit could cope with my terrible trackwork, which of course is designed to replicate badly-maintained UTA trackage

Must be a late production version, as the label seems to show the early 'Ulster Translink Authority' livery. Surprising nobody has revived the Model Irish Railways marque or at least bought out some and re-released at least some of their stuff; it's a niche market but these days you'd think there'd still be decent sales to be had of kits like this and many of their wagons.

I last made models of the NIR 80 Class back in the early 1990s but about three months back I was persuaded to make another set for a member at irishrailwaymodeller.com, where I posted a thread describing contstruction. Before despatch I thought I'd take the opportunity to picture the new set alongside the others. It's nearest the camera and is another bash of RTR 00 gauge coaches, in this case Hornby Mk2as with an HST power bogie. Otherwise it's basically similar to the earlier units, apart from some refinements like buffer beam detail and wire hand- and grab rails.

Love that MED - those and the MPDs WERE 'the train', when I was a nipper (north Belfast, just up Duncairn Gardens or the Limestone Road from York Road terminus, and a short hop across the bridge to Queen's Quay). Nice RUC Hotspurs, complete with early cream wheels, showing good attention to detail in the finish; the unpainted ones in the 'barracks' yard look like the more modern Tangis. Your Army Landrovers look like canvas-backed rather than VPK- (glass-fibre 'armour') fitted (eg no roof hatch or sentries) but they are even complete with what I presume is the common 'confidential telephone' yellow lettering on the sides and the Humber 'pig' looks like it has the ATO's 'Felix' symbol painied on its side. And those Leyland Altanteans...all in all, your layout's like a time machine back to '70s Belfast, warts and all!