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 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 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:

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; - (Size 20k 158k, 11/12/08)
   • Great Northern Railway, Ireland: rolling stock railwayana; - (Size 10k 766k, 29/10/16)
   • Great Northern Railway, Ireland: lineside railwayana; - (Size 12k 1505k, 5/7/15)
2. Dundalk, Newry and Greenore Railway ;- (Size 11k 98k, 9/6/07)
   • Dundalk, Newry and Greenore Railway: rolling stock railwayana; - (Size 4k 98k, 3/8/12)
   • Dundalk, Newry and Greenore Railway: lineside railwayana; - (Size 5k 164k, 5/7/15)
3. Northern Ireland Railways;- (Size 8k 135k, 28/1/15)
4. Ulster Transport Authority;- (Size 10k 223k, 29/10/16)
5. Belfast and County Down Railway;- (Size 13k 574k, 29/10/16)
6. London Midland and Scottish Railway, NCC;- (Size 11k 58k, 14/12/08)
   • London Midland and Scottish Railway, NCC: rolling stock railwayana; - (Size 7k 320k, 29/10/16)
   • London Midland and Scottish Railway, NCC: lineside railwayana; - (Size 5k 524k, 1/11/16)
7. Midland Railway, NCC;- (Size 10k 335k, 29/10/16)
8. Belfast and Northern Counties Railway;- (Size 13k 300k, 29/10/16)
9. Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway.- (Size 10k 293k, 29/10/16)

South, standard gauge

1. Coras Iompair Éireann and Irish Rail;- (Size 15k 81k, 17/1/12)
   • Coras Iompair Éireann: rolling stock railwayana; - (Size 6k 425k, 30/10/16)
   • Coras Iompair Éireann: lineside railwayana; - (Size 6k 542k, 30/10/16)
2. Great Southern Railway(s);- (Size 10k 64k, 17/1/12)
   • Great Southern Railway(s): rolling stock railwayana; - (Size 6k 329k, 5/7/15)
   • Great Southern Railway(s): lineside railwayana; - (Size 7k 583k, 30/10/16)
3. Midland and Great Western Railway;- (Size 11k 43k, 8/12/03)
   • Midland and Great Western Railway: rolling stock railwayana; - (Size 6k 151k, 19/1/15)
   • Midland and Great Western Railway: lineside railwayana; - (Size 7k 271k, 29/10/16)
4. Great Southern and Western Railway;- (Size 12k 89k, 25/9/04)
   • Great Southern and Western Railway: rolling stock railwayana; - (Size 6k 185k, 31/10/16)
   • Great Southern and Western Railway: lineside railwayana; - (Size 7k 662k, 31/10/16)
5. Waterford, Dungarvan and Lismore Railway;- (Size 7k 80k, 29/10/16)
6. Waterford, Limerick and Western Railway;- (Size 11k 112k, 29/10/16)
7. Waterford and Central Ireland Railway;- (Size 10k 52k, 28/5/09)
8. Dublin and South Eastern Railway;- (Size 19k 260k, 29/10/16)
9. Waterford and Tramore Railway;- (Size 9k 62k, 23/1/15)
10. Cork, Bandon and South Coast Railway;- (Size 12k 165k, 29/10/16)
11. Other Cork railways (CMDR, TCLR).- (Size 8k 93k, 28/1/15)

Narrow gauge

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

Unclassified

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

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 31/12/18.