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.

click for 13K .jpg image of BCDR spitting plate BCDR carriage plate

The information complements data, since the early 1990's, on recorded auction prices for these signs to be found in 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 red ball through orange ball to green ball(minimal through fairly detailed) below, although individual company pages will often be updated independently of the index page. Last revision dates are shown after update . Rough file sizes are given for white ball Text and yellow ball 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:

There has been some delay in including pictures of recent sold items on this site. Thus the individual country pages do not reflect items auctioned in 2017 and 2018 nor do many have enlarged images. They should have these where they should be in a few months from January 2018, but for the moment all the picture data presently available for those years is provided in an unsorted format on the:

****** 2017-8 temporary all company photo update page ******



North, standard gauge

  1. Great Northern Railway, Ireland;green ball - (Size white ball 20kyellow ball 158k, update 11/12/08)
  2. Dundalk, Newry and Greenore Railway ;green ball- (Size white ball 11kyellow ball 98k, update9/6/07)
  3. Northern Ireland Railways;red ball- (Size white ball 8kyellow ball 135k, update 28/1/15)
  4. Ulster Transport Authority;red ball- (Size white ball 10kyellow ball 223k, update 29/10/16)
  5. Belfast and County Down Railway;green ball- (Size white ball 13kyellow ball 574k, update 29/10/16)
  6. London Midland and Scottish Railway, NCC;green ball- (Size white ball 11kyellow ball 58k, update 14/12/08)
  7. Midland Railway, NCC;green ball- (Size white ball 10kyellow ball 335k, update 29/10/16)
  8. Belfast and Northern Counties Railway;green ball- (Size white ball 13kyellow ball 300k, update 29/10/16)
  9. Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway.green ball- (Size white ball 10kyellow ball 293k, update 29/10/16)

South, standard gauge

  1. Coras Iompair Éireann and Irish Rail;green ball- (Size white ball 15kyellow ball 81k, update 17/1/12)
  2. Great Southern Railway(s);green ball- (Size white ball 10kyellow ball 64k, update 17/1/12)
  3. Midland and Great Western Railway;green ball- (Size white ball 11kyellow ball 43k, update 8/12/03)
  4. Great Southern and Western Railway;green ball- (Size white ball 12kyellow ball 89k, update 25/9/04)
  5. Waterford, Dungarvan and Lismore Railway;orange ball- (Size white ball 7kyellow ball 80k, update 29/10/16)
  6. Waterford, Limerick and Western Railway;orange ball- (Size white ball 11kyellow ball 112k, update 29/10/16)
  7. Waterford and Central Ireland Railway;red ball- (Size white ball 10kyellow ball 52k, update 28/5/09)
  8. Dublin and South Eastern Railway;green ball- (Size white ball 19kyellow ball 260k, update 29/10/16)
  9. Waterford and Tramore Railway;orange ball- (Size white ball 9kyellow ball 62k, update 23/1/15)
  10. Cork, Bandon and South Coast Railway;green ball- (Size white ball 12kyellow ball 165k, update 29/10/16)
  11. Other Cork railways (CMDR, TCLR).green ball- (Size white ball 8kyellow ball 93k, update 28/1/15)

Narrow gauge

  1. County Donegal Railways Joint Committee;orange ball- (Size white ball 12kyellow ball 408k, update 28/10/16)
  2. West and South Clare Railways;green ball- (Size white ball 9kyellow ball 125k, update 29/10/16)
  3. Clogher Valley Railway;orange ball- (Size white ball 7kyellow ball 202k, update 29/10/16)
  4. Cavan and Leitrim Railway;orange ball- (Size white ball 9kyellow ball 203k, update29/10/16)
  5. Cork, Blackrock and Passage Railway;red ball- (Size white ball 8kyellow ball 34k, update 26/9/13)
  6. Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway;orange ball- (Size white ball 9kyellow ball 149k, update 28/10/16)
  7. Tralee and Dingle Light Railway;orange ball- (Size white ball 6kyellow ball 28k, update 14/1/12)
  8. Other Irish narrow gauge and trams, etc...green ball- (Size white ball 24kyellow ball 213k, update 29/10/16)

Unclassified

  1. Unclassified Irish;green ball- (Size white ball 7kyellow ball 442k, update 4/11/16)
  2. Signalling;green ball- (Size white ball 4kyellow ball 1273k, update 5/11/16)
  3. Posters;green ball- (Size white ball 25kyellow ball 782k, update 4/11/16)
  4. Britain in Ireland;green ball- (Size white ball 4kyellow ball 421k, update 4/11/16)
  5. Fake Irish railwayana;green ball- (Size white ball 14kyellow ball 60k, update 28/1/15)

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 October 2018 at issue No. 197).

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.

Contact: You can e-mail me at home. 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). Subsequently the monthly Railway Antiques Guide (RAG), with much of interest to collectors, had been appearing since September 2003 up to August 2018. It was published by Tim Petchey and available by subscription, price £3.95 per issue plus overseas postage, from the RAG Office, 23 Gloucester St., Winchcombe, Glocs. GL54 5LX. Specialised auction houses provide quite a bit of data in their catalogues. Links to auction houses are given on www.lennan.be. Various published sources for company information are noted on individual pages. 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. Keys to sources for photos are given on the auction prices site.

Updates: Updates proceed at a leisurely pace, rather than to any regular deadlines and have done so since 1997.
It should be noted that the owner of this website accepts no responsibility for the content or the accuracy of the information on the websites to which it links. or indeed for this site.

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.

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.


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

red ball Return to auction price data on original pages red ball

red ball For genealogy, go to my Lennan genealogy pages red ball



On line on Geocities 27/7/1997. Transferred to this site June 2001. Revised 31/12/18.

This URL: http://www.irishrailwayana.com/
Original URL: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/8690/
Original auction prices: http://gallery.uunet.be/ken.lennan/ then http://home.tiscali.be/be040028/ then http://home.scarlet.be/be040028/
Main rail prices site now: http://www.lennan.be/ + genealogy, holidays, etc.
1st genealogy URL (recent updates on main site): http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~lennan/

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