Irish Railwayana

These web pages cover Irish railway memorabilia (for US visitors - railroadiana), with information on the existence of brass, enamel and cast iron signs, plus photos or sketches, where available.

BCDR carriage plate

The information complements data, since the early 1980's, on recorded auction prices for these signs to be found on my separate auction price pages. On this site a short history of the companies treated is given on the relevant page together with limited information on stock, signalling, officers, works and liveries, which, hopefully, will be of some use to fellow collectors of memorabilia. Not all Irish companies are covered, but both additional items and companies may be added as work progresses or, if items are few, these will be included in the pages for successor companies. A rough indication of coverage will be indicators through to (minimal through fairly detailed) below, although individual company pages will often be updated independently of the index page. Last revision dates are shown after . Rough file sizes are given for Text and Images. Thus, the GNR page has an image content of 158k and you may wish to switch off images to speed loading. Details of images, and their size, are specified. Broad grouping is under Standard Gauge, North and South, and Narrow Gauge, plus an unclassified page, with companies as follows:

North, standard gauge

1. Great Northern Railway, Ireland; - (Size 20k 158k, 28/2/05)
   • Great Northern Railway, Ireland: rolling stock railwayana; - (Size 10k 310k, 25/11/07)
   • Great Northern Railway, Ireland: lineside railwayana; - (Size 12k 657k, 1/5/08)
2. Dundalk, Newry and Greenore Railway ;- (Size 11k 98k, 9/6/07)
   • Dundalk, Newry and Greenore Railway: rolling stock railwayana; - (Size 4k 73k, 9/6/07)
   • Dundalk, Newry and Greenore Railway: lineside railwayana; - (Size 5k 99k, 3/11/07)
3. Northern Ireland Railways;- (Size 8k 69k, 19/5/06)
4. Ulster Transport Authority;- (Size 10k 122k, 25/11/07)
5. Belfast and County Down Railway;- (Size 13k 231k, 25/11/07)
6. London Midland and Scottish Railway, NCC;- (Size 11k 58k, 29/6/01)
   • London Midland and Scottish Railway, NCC: rolling stock railwayana; - (Size 7k 186k, 25/11/07)
   • London Midland and Scottish Railway, NCC:: lineside railwayana; - (Size 5k 198k, 27/10/07)
7. Midland Railway, NCC;- (Size 10k 186k, 1/5/08)
8. Belfast and Northern Counties Railway;- (Size 13k 161k, 1/5/08)
9. Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway.- (Size 10k 104k, 1/5/08)

South, standard gauge

1. Coras Iompair Éireann and Irish Rail;- (Size 15k 81k, 12/9/02)
   • Coras Iompair Éireann: rolling stock railwayana; - (Size 6k 177k, 1/5/07)
   • Coras Iompair Éireann: lineside railwayana; - (Size 6k 311k, 3/11/07)
2. Great Southern Railway(s);- (Size 10k 64k, 21/2/02)
   • Great Southern Railway(s): rolling stock railwayana; - (Size 6k 180k, 1/3/08)
   • Great Southern Railway(s): lineside railwayana; - (Size 7k 218k, 1/5/08)
3. Midland and Great Western Railway;- (Size 11k 43k, 8/12/03)
   • Midland and Great Western Railway: rolling stock railwayana; - (Size 6k 90k, 25/11/07)
   • Midland and Great Western Railway: lineside railwayana; - (Size 7k 160k, 1/5/08)
4. Great Southern and Western Railway;- (Size 12k 89k, 25/9/04)
   • Great Southern and Western Railway: rolling stock railwayana; - (Size 6k 132k, 27/10/07)
   • Great Southern and Western Railway: lineside railwayana; - (Size 7k 417k, 27/4/08)
5. Waterford, Dungarvan and Lismore Railway;- (Size 7k 63k, 1/5/07)
6. Waterford, Limerick and Western Railway;- (Size 11k 58k, 14/5/07)
7. Waterford and Central Ireland Railway;- (Size 10k 43k, 23/5/04)
8. Dublin and South Eastern Railway;- (Size 19k 150k, 9/7/06)
9. Waterford and Tramore Railway;- (Size 9k 50k, 25/9/04)
10. Cork, Bandon and South Coast Railway;- (Size 12k 117k, 27/10/07)
11. Other Cork railways (CMDR, TCLR).- (Size 8k 64k, 28/1/06)

Narrow gauge

1. County Donegal Railways Joint Committee;- (Size 12k 138k, 1/5/08)
2. West and South Clare Railways;- (Size 9k 49k, 9/6/07)
3. Clogher Valley Railway;- (Size 7k 113k, 1/3/08)
4. Cavan and Leitrim Railway;- (Size 9k 111k, 25/11/07)
5. Cork, Blackrock and Passage Railway;- (Size 8k 15k, 25/5/06)
6. Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway;- (Size 9k 95k, 1/5/08)
7. Tralee and Dingle Light Railway;- (Size 6k 25k, 10/3/07)
8. Other Irish narrow gauge, etc...- (Size 24k 123k, 25/11/07)

Unclassified

1. Unclassified Irish;- (Size 7k 159k, 25/11/07)
2. Signalling;- (Size 4k 460k, 27/4/08)
3. Posters;- (Size 25k 160k, 24/4/08)
4. Britain in Ireland;- (Size 4k 133k, 27/4/08)
5. Fake Irish railwayana;- (Size 14k 33k, 3/11/07)

Data was principally compiled from auction records, advertisements and contacts with individual collectors. An entry reflects the fact that the sign included is still likely to exist somewhere. Where items are known to be in recognised collections, this is indicated (abbreviations being, IRRS - Irish Railway Record Society, UFTM - Ulster Folk & Transport Museum, RPSI - Railway Preservation Society of Ireland, NRMY - National Railway Museum, York, DRM - Doncaster Railway Museum, BFRM - Big Four Railway Museum, Bournemouth, FRY - Cyril Fry's collection at Malahide Castle, Dublin), otherwise private is indicated (data on nameplates comes from Ian Wright's book "Nameplates on Display"). In certain cases, where generic plates are known to have existed, but no evidence remains that they have been saved, a '?' appears after the plate in question. For serious expertise on all subjects devoted to Irish railways, readers are referred to the Irish Railway Record Society, Heuston Station, Dublin 8, and its scholarly and attractive Journal (in February 2007 at issue No. 162).

Objective of site: To stimulate interest in, and appreciation of, the variety of Irish railway signs by a broader audience, as well as getting into contact with others who share my fascination for the subject. Also an attempt to bring some logic and depth to the market for eminently collectable items.

Contacts: You can e-mail me at home or office. Snail mail to Ken Lennan, SPA2 2/112, CE, 200 Rue de la Loi, 1049 Brussels, Belgium. Any photos of Irish railwayana for insertion are particularly appreciated. Also, I always welcome any corrections or additions to the data.

Reservations: Apologies for the unsophisticated display and poor photographic skills. Some company coats of arms, which are to be added, progressively, to fill existing gaps, will be speculative ('Source:KL' indicated), particularly as far as colours are concerned. They will have to be drawn on the basis of whatever information is available.

Credits: Credits for a number of b/w images go to an earlier "must" publication for all kinds of railwayana, the Railway Collectors' Journal (RCJ). As from end-2002 the editor was Dick Whittington, The Glen, Braunton, N. Devon, EX33 1HL - (tel/fax 01271-814315). The RCJ announced that from end-2005 material will be published on the Prorail site rather than in printed form. The monthly Railway Antiques Guide (RAG), with much of interest to collectors, has been appearing since September 2003. It is published by Tim Petchey and Lindsay Ferris, and available by subscription, price £3.50 per issue plus overseas postage, from the RAG Office, 23 Gloucester St., Winchcombe, Glocs. GL54 5LX. Talisman Railwayana Auctions (TRA) are held at the beginning of most months. A catalogue, with colour photos of many items for this telephone auction, is available on subscription. A source for several colour images is the catalogue for the quarterly Sheffield Railwayana Auctions (SRA), 43 Little Norton Lane, Sheffield S8 8GA (on the web for some time). Kiddlington (KRA) auctions, perhaps the most consistent venue for signalling items, now have their catalogue and pictures on the web. This house has also granted permission to reproduce photos. Onslows is also online, with some great pictures of posters, a speciality of this location (but save them before they disappear). Various published sources for company information are noted on individual pages. Other more general works on Irish railways will eventually be included in a bibliography. An essential source, for Makers' Nos. is the Irish Steam Loco Register by J.W.P.Rowledge and, for liveries, the chapter on Irish Railways in Britain's Railway Liveries 1825-1948 by E.F.Carter (which additionally provides a colour sheet). As far as liveries are concerned, sources often differ on details and no attempt is made to arbitrate these differences. Errors in potted histories should not be blamed on these sources, which will be studied over time to refine the material. Hopefully, information from articles in the IRRS Journal will progressively be integrated, or references given.

Updates: Updates will proceed at a leisurely pace, rather than to any regular deadlines.
After a lull since their initial creation, the pages were worked on intensively in January and again in June 1998 (with some additions and editing in 1999 up to February 2000 and the inclusion of some photos from the late Cyril Fry's collection, now at Malahide Castle, through April 2000. In May pictures gratefully received from D. Cronin were integrated. In November there were several other additions. A bibliography was added to the GNR page in February 2001 and in June there were some further additions from contributors. Most by that stage had a minimal amount of background information, although only some had begun to accumulate illustrations of railwayana. As of July 2001 new web links were progressively added. It should, however, be noted that the owner of this website accepts no responsibility for the content or the accuracy of the information in the websites to which it links. A long-term objective of tidying up images, and reducing their download time, began in June 2001. Large pages were split between rolling stock and lineside railwayana and thumbnails were introduced for larger images (use the back button to return to the sending pages) in July. A number of images were added in November 2001. Three coats of arms from Keldale (site gone as of November 2005) suppliers of hand painted railway heraldry, were included, by permission, on the BNCR, WLWR and CBSCR pages. Due to failure to credit one photo, images were reviewed to ensure that copyright is respected and the necessary permission is received for reproduction. Photos without an attribution are photos taken by myself. Those with source DC are the many very kindly provided by D. Cronin. Photos from auction houses will now, as far as possible, refer to the month and year of auction. The IE logo (used on pages presently without crests and the CIE page) comes from Marco van Uden's extensive company logos on a previous page of his site now moved. I am also grateful to Edmund Calvert-Harrison for permission to include his BNCR trespass photo (plus additional material furnished and now included). Images yet unverified will be indicated by a blank "Source:". Speculative coats of arms for WCIR and CLR were added in January 2002. The CMDR crest was subsequently revised. The use of clipart of a sailboat in that image requires the following declaration - "This publication includes an image from Corel Draw ® 9 which is protected by the copyright laws of US Canada and elsewhere. Used under licence". Additional images were added to many pages through February 2002 and several in June 2002 and September 2002. In August 2003, I integrated additional photos accumulated over the year were added and individual signalling items on company pages copied to the signalling page. In December 2003 additional photos were added. Further photos were added in March and May 2004. In September 2004 the Cork pages were reviewed and more photos from DC (who has long since passed me out with the most extensive collection of Irish artefacts), ECH (in particular, see the signalling page, but with copies also reproduced on, the principally NCC and GNRI, company pages), and coas and monograms, courtesy GH, were added. I would stress that, for the latter, these are my own scans from pictures of the originals published in the RCJ. More photos were subsequently added in mid-November 2004 and January/February 2005 when links were also checked. In June, August and October 2005 some more photos were added. In January 2006 a number of images from back issues of the Railway Antiques Guide (RAG) were added. In May 2006, substantial additional material was integrated and a new 'fakes' page was added. In July, some old photos were replaced with new ones. In March 2007 a number of additional photos were added. In April and May, images were added to several pages (including several great photos from MMcM) and a significant number of links were added to the posters page. In October/November 2007 images were added to a number of company pages.

The concept is a project for all enthusiasts. Your feedback is really required! Please send anything on Irish railwayana that might be of interest to others.

Links: Will eventually have to get round to a more general links page (as on the auctions site), other than the specific company links already included on individual company pages. For a start, the IRRS is progressively getting into companies (tongue in cheek to Tim M. - "It's about time I had some all-Irish company competition. Have been waiting since 1997, in particular given the magnificent resources the IRRS has available, unfortunately in far off Dublin"). In June 2001 developments in Irish companies from 1946 were on line from the Society. The RPSI is also putting old journals on-line. The Irish railway web scene is progressively looking up! There is also a general history of Irish railways available from another source.

Copyright ©: The material on this website is subject to copyright. Copyright in images, etc., where an external source is indicated, belongs to the original owners of that material. Where no external source is shown, permission is granted for use of material on this site for non-commercial purposes, on the basis of an acknowledgement of source.

This page has been accessed times since it went on line.

Go to first Northern page, Great Northern Railway, Ireland.

Return to auction price data on original pages

For genealogy, go to my Lennan genealogy pages

On line on Geocities 27/7/1997. Transferred to this site June 2001. Revised 1/5/08