Green, Maroon & Blue, Orange & Black

PLEASE NOTE : It will probably be necessary to publish some mini-blogs this week due to pressures of other events, necessitous domestic activity and preparation for Fellowship meetings this coming weekend. Oh, yes; and old age!!!

105 Years of History

In 1921 part of the United Kingdom became totally disunited. Under an Act of the UK parliament, The Irish Free State a k a The Republic of Ireland came into being. The tensions that caused this momentous split still resurface in Ireland from time to time.

In some ways, Ireland is different from the rest of the UK. In other ways things look very much the same as across the sea. 

Rail transport immediately exposes a difference. The gauge of the railways throughout the Island is 5 feet 3 inches, 4.5 inches broader than the rest if the UK.

The Railway Regulation (Gauge) Act 1846 or the Regulating the Gauge of Railways Act 1846 or the Gauge of Railways Act 1846 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, that was designed to standardise railway tracks. It was granted royal assent on 18 August 1846, and mandated that the track gauge – which was the distance between the two running rails' inner faces – of 4 feet 81⁄2 inches to be the standard for Great Britain and 5 feet 3 inches to be the standard for Ireland.

As far as fbb can gather, the anomaly arose from the fact that an early Irish railway engineer chose 1600mm (rather than non-metric 5'3") for his first lines.

It Started With A Model ...

fbb has bought one if these for Peterville Quarry Railway ...

... because he liked the colour orange. More of this expenditure later. But the old buffer realised that his ignorance of anything and everything public transport on The Island of Ireland was limited to omnibological snippets from Belfast (UK) and Dublin (Republic).

Railway coaches in the Republic were orange for some time, but in the past were a glorious shade of green ...

... very different from UK's Southern malachite ...

... and the more sombre BR diesel unit green.

Some Irish Railway coaches were a darker shade ...

... although fbb has failed (abysmally!!) to find details of when, where and why.

He did, however, find these in model form ...

... which found themselves on the "Enterprise" services between Dublin and Belfast ...

... operated jointly with Northern Ireland Railways (NIR).

The Parent Company of much of the public transport in the Republic is CIE ...

Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ), was founded on 1st January 1945 under the Transport Act 1944.  It united the Great Southern Railways (GSR) and the Dublin United Tramway Company (DUTC). The GSR operated rail, bus and lorry services.  It had come into existence in 1925 when all the railway companies lying wholly within the Free State were amalgamated into one concern.  Under the Transport Acts of 1932 and 1933 the GSR was given the right to compulsorily acquire its road competition. It’s most notable acquisition was the Irish Omnibus Company - the ancestor of Bus Éireann.

The logo on the green coaches ...

... is known colloquially as "the flying snail".

Buses also appeared in green with flying snail ...

... in different shades, it would appear.

Dublin buses also used to be adorned with the flying snail ...

... but are probably better known for wearing the CIE logo.

But we digress ...

... as the orange will feature further in tomorrow's blog.

There will be more logos to explore! 

This may well be obvious ...

... but this less so.

This one is very Irish c/w hat and shamrock ...

... although, mostly, the headgear and foliage do not appear.

Can you guess this one?

But orange and black dominate tomorrow's blog!

  Next Irish railway blog : Tues 28th April