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813 is shown in the Herbie Richards/Brendan Pender GSWR Carriage Diagrams book as a 3rd alright but centre corridor? Mark

Indeed! Sterling's value is a complete mystery to me at this stage. For each backward step their economy takes, its value seems to increase rather than decrease. Mark

Doesn't Portlaoise (ICR depot) have something similar? Or at least it did have when it first opened. Now that I think of it I haven't seen any images of it in a while. Mark

Much as I hate to say it, increasing freight traffic at Rosslare will have no impact on the South Wexford. Rosslare is a RoRo port and there is no need for another LoLo port, given that Waterford is just around the corner. Mr Carr spent most of his time at that committee meeting agitating for a motorway connection to Rosslare. I'm well aware of the historical reasons for it, but I really do not understand why Rosslare is still in IE's hands. It has nothing to do with their core business at this stage.

Re puffers in Ireland, there was one rusting against Letterfrack pier for many a year. Found the following re that vessel on another site Mark Remembering The old Clyde Puffer Pibroch at Letterfrack, Connemara... Puffers were once a familiar sight on the West Coast of Scotland and the Clyde. But times have changed and nearly all have disappeared. The Pibroch was one of a few puffers which was still afloat, well at least for some years. There was hope in the early 2000’s that she would sail again one day, but over the years nothing happened to restore her and so she rotted away. There were interests in saving the puffer but it is not known why nothing came out of it so in the end Pibroch was scrapped in Letterfrack in 2010. The 87ft Pibroch, a 157-ton coaster built for the whisky trade by Scott & Son of Bowling was still dodging in and out of Ireland's Atlantic islands including Inishbofin and the Aran Islands with cargoes of sand, tar, and farmer's flittings, when she was the oldest surviving working puffer, before resting rustily against the pier in tidal harbour in Connemara awaiting her final fate. The Pibroch was commissioned from Scott & Son of Bowling on the Clyde in 1957 by Scottish Malt Distillers and was used by White Horse to carry coal and barley to distilleries in Islay and return with casks of the finished product. She carried a White Horse emblem at her masthead. She was the first puffer to have steel hatches, which went some way towards stopping the ''evaporation'' of the return whisky cargoes, an occurrence which was not unknown in the trade. In 1974, the Glenlight Shipping Company bought her for cargo use in the Clyde and the west coast. In 1982, she was chartered to the US Navy's Holy Loch base, where she was tied alongside the nuclear submarines' support ship and used as a floating dustbin, with American detritus dumped into her hold. What was abandoned by the Americans was picked over at the docks in Greenock when the Pibroch unloaded. In 1987 she was sold to John Hawco of Beauly, who tried to employ her in the coastal trade, but after a year was sold to Eamonn Mylotte, who worked her during her final years. Strictly speaking, the term puffer applied only to steam lighters which had non-condensing steam engines, which made them puff like a locomotive leaving a station. The term continued to be applied after condensers were introduced and has passed on even to diesel-engined coasters like the Pibroch.

I was on the GSRPS inspection car trip on 28/1/1987. BTW, I'm not happy that you've lifted a photo of mine, without permission, from somewhere showing that inspection car at Edward St http://www.traleefenitgreenway.com/history/attachment/1987/ Here's an image from that day at the divergence from the North Kerry line near Bawnboy. Not sure how this trip is relevant to the current issue though?

Fabulous! Clearly a master at work.

Tks Fran! The CAD graphics on the website were throwing me. Mark

Fabulous! Can't wait. A question re the frame for the CAWS pickup coils. Will these be part of the diecast chassis or plastic pieces that could possibly be deleted? The version that A39 currently wears only came in some time around the mid 1990s. Previous to that it comprised of two separate frames (over each rail) which were of a thinner profile. And of course no loco had them before 1984 (i.e. A23R and A39R wouldn't have had them). Mark

JHB you must be losing your marbles if you think they would do anything to saveguard the future of the WLWR. The drawings associated with the planning application show one face only on the down main. Mark

How would the public know when the trains were running without the circular?

It seems Met Eireann now believes that every approaching front in the period between November and February warrants an orange warning for snow regardless of the actual chances of it occurring. The current warning relates to an occluded front approaching from the south-west, a combination which must have similar odds of producing snow as one has of winning the lotto. Mark

Tks for that. I'd always assumed that brown meant fitted here as well. I should have known they wouldn't have been that organised!

Re the colour change on vans from grey to red/brown, was this done purely for paint supply reasons or did the red/brown colour indicate a fitted vehicle or anything? Mark

Second attempt: