Sharp fall in rail passenger numbers and freight hits Northern Ireland economy - On this day in 1926

This is the fella who got me into model railways back in 1975, with the birthday present of a Hornby Freightmaster set.

My parents never forgave him for that. The rest, as they say, is hysterical. 

Subway Surfers -- a bit of a mindless game, but good to play in short bouts when bored. I've come to learn that, presumably because of St. Paddy's Day, the game has had Ireland added to it. I'll attach pictures below.

A 2600 lookalike.

Looks like a mix of a 29000 and maybe a DART?

Good ol' 071 with containers.

I just thought it was interesting to see a more casual view of Irish Rail, in such a successful game too! I might post more examples on this thread if I find any.

This is a programme from the BBC Radio 4 series Rare Earth. Do not know if the link will work but if not you will find it on the BBC site. The BBC Player does not work here but BBC Sounds does.

It's 200 years since the first passenger rail journey saw George Stephenson’s Locomotion No.1 travel 26 miles between Shildon, Darlington and Stockton. Environmentalists love trains - making a journey by rail can be up to 80% greener than doing it by car - and there are exciting new inventions hoping to make train travel even greener. But can we pin part of the blame for global warming on the invention of the railways in the first place?. 

They never thought of that when they drafted those building regulations!

It's taking a a few knocks and I don't have the skils to repair it. 

Any ony know of a person on Ireland that does repairs to these things? I need the handle the band to hold the lens in and the back of the oil Bath to be reattached. 

I suppose we’re lucky that any were saved, if it weren’t for the preservation efforts of the ‘60s there mightn’t have been any left at all.

A road in Lisburn was closed after a lorry collided with a rail bridge on Tuesday morning.

The incident happened on the Lissue Road, which was blocked as a result.

The railway bridge forms part of the Antrim–Lisburn line, which is currently disused.

https://www.con-telegraph.ie/2025/12/07/unique-history-of-mayos-railway-network-from-times-past/

Enjoy...

So, here comes “The Heretic”. A railtour exploring the metals of anyone that will let this creature on their layout. As it is the tour is only starting out, only calling at Beagnach End;

And at Bantry;

So, as I help out @Metrovik at exhibitions and hopefully get on the circuit myself in a few years’ time, the Heretic shall explore further- with consent from layout owners of course. Exhibitors beware!

This would obviously be massive and difficult to build, and I’m never actually going to build it, but it was a cool idea and got me thinking about T gauge and it’s possibilities. Right now I’ve grabbed a piece of wood and I’m trying to see if I can fit a T gauge terminus on it. Maybe it’ll become a layout thread, but that’s beside the point. I wanted to open up a discussion about T gauge and it’s potential as a scale for serious modelling.

A lot of T gauge products seem to be lost in the depths of long-dead websites, so I can’t give too many helpful links. Tgauge.com seems to be the best source for models in this scale. I am also aware of Eishindo, a Japanese brand that seems to have produced a fairly complex track range, judging by the track library available on the model railway software SCARM. As, again, many T gauge products seem to have disappeared into the depths of the web, you’d need to do some digging to find any other sources.

I hope this can spur on some interesting conversations. Regards,   
LNERW1

The idea was to eliminate the problem i.e. the wet rails.

I thought if a jet of compressed air was sent down a pipe to just in front of the wheel it would dry the piece of rail that would be used next. My first thought was to use the exhaust gases of which there is a copious amount and it would be warm too. However I decided that with todays Green agenda that would not be a runner.

I remember being out in the snow in the work van and I stopped it to check the road ahead. When I got back I found that the hot exhaust had melted the snow behind it. This was the genises of my idea.

I contacted various parties and Iarann roid Eireann did sent me a nice reply thanking me for my idea but their current systems were working fine.

Just an idea. It would be cheap to install and maybe retrofit to older units if there was space inside for whatever gear was needed to get the system to work.

Then again it might not work!

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgv80mxry1o

The big claim to fame of Saint Catherine's monastery is that the monks who reside there claim that they have THE original burning bush, the one through which the Almighty caused to burst into flame and not burn while the Almighty  conversed with Moses.

Anyway, there is our hero, looking at the bush in the calm of a Sinal evening in the little yard in the monastery when something catches his eye...a fire extinguisher! 

I often wondered what would have happened if the bush had flared up into flame and a voice claiming to be the Almighty started pontificating from within it and the monks had cut lose with the fire extinguisher......

It's a good travel book to read. It is Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler

Hanging from the rear view mirror of the car with the top down was....an air freshener thing!

BBC 4 tv Monday 27 July7:30 PM k the Line with Barra Best

Just modify the rolling stock slightly...

Always go through your insurance paper work. Once I found they had a digit wrong in the reg number of the car, grand until you have an accident as the car covered by the cert will not be the car you are driving.

I'm going to try to be reasonably objective and judge by town populations. The largest town passed through (loosely defined as having a station once named for it on an operational line) without stopping is Dunleer (population 2,143). I wouldn't stop Enterprises there, leaving it to be served the six trains terminating in Dundalk and seven departing from Dundalk, plus the train that terminates in Newry.

After that comes Newmarket-on-Fergus (population 1,887), which would have every Ennis and Galway train call, so nine a day each way. However, the former station site is three kilometres away from the village's centre and would slow Limerick-Ennis times further.

In third place is Kilmallock (population 1,761), which I think would be a good choice if there were regular Cork-Limerick services. But there aren't, so I'll assume a similar stopping pattern to Charleville: six from Dublin, seven from Cork.

Up next is Ballysadare (population 1,747), which is quite close to Sligo. Sligo services largely don't skip stations after Maynooth, so eight trains a day would call. Sligo trains are already slow with many stops, however.

Finally for what I'll compare is what the census knows as "Killucan and Rathwire" (population 1,574). Also being on the way to Sligo, the same service provisions would apply. There's a passing loop already in Killucan, meaning trains already stop there. However, the station is isolated, located 2.6km from the centre of Killucan. It could be relocated to better serve Kinnegad (pop. 3,064) in addition, but at best the station would be 3km from Killucan and 4km from Kinnegad, and it would then be off of the passing loop.

With the old station site actually within the town, I'd probably go for Dunleer here. But it's difficult to select one station and there are many factors that could be considered, and I could be convinced otherwise.