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Drimnagh, yes, what you say would be theoretically possible. What would be required would either be that the owner had such a bottomless pit of money that he could hire IE or NIR to maintain it to their standsrds, prvide crews and in the fture crew training and road practice with it, and pay for all that. He could operate tours with it, possibly subsidised by him, possibly making money for him, depending on the vagaries of a market infitesimally smaller than in GB. Or, he could operate it on a private line of his own making, or if an outfit like Downpatrick had room for it (which they don't!) he could approach them about keeping it there under whatever arrangement the two parties chose to come to. I mentioned last night that such private sponsorship was extremely rare in Ireland - which it is - but it is not totally unknown. At Downpatrick, one of the the three G class locos was rescued and restored by a Society member (who is now sadly deceased, but it all came from his wallet). There is a privately owned Wickham Car there, undergoing restoration at another member's expense. The ITG own another one there, plus the other 2 G's. At Whitehead, a separate, but also deceased former RPSI member put up almost all the cash for the restoration of loco 85 about twenty years ago, and the same man made several other very hefty donations towards its maintenance over the years. Another gentleman at one stage offered to fund about 50% of another main line steam loco's restoration, provided the other half of the money could be had from grant aid. After two or three year's intense lobbying for such funding, despite initial broad approval, the scheme never got off the ground. About 15 years ago, another RPSI member offered to assist sunstantially with the restoration of a passenger vehicle, though the work did not progress for a number of reasons. Finally, at Downpatrick again, a 6 wheel passenger coach is the subject of a current restoration effort at the expense of one of the members.

There was a clip on "Reeling in the Years" (an EXCELLENT TV programme) some time ago which showed a very brief glmipse of a 121 in greay and yellow - I think on the Mallow-Waterford line but may have been elsewhere. Next time they are showing the mid 1960's era look out for it....