DERAILED

As part of my ongoing clear-out I have a box of 36 slides taken on the Festiniog Railway circa 1978/79. The Cob, Boston Lodge Works, Tan-y-Bwlch etc. Need a good home. €5 plus p+p or can be collected from Enniscorthy.

Eight issues from the 1980/90s - plenty of Irish content including Bord na Mona, C&L and the Tralee & Dingle. €8 for the lot plus whatever the postage is. Can be collected from Enniscorthy. Issues Nos.157, 186, 189, 196, 202, 208, 210, 218.

Sorry, forgot about that. The price of a pint of Guinness + a Kit Kat. Say €5 including p+p.

Slide of 1st northbound DART (8am ex. Bray station) on July 23, 1984. Slide is perfect i.e. the numbers etc. on both DART units are absolutely sharp. This poor scan was made with an iPod plus a hand held slide viewer! The coke tin on the platform is the signature item in the photo which gives the date (who needs Terence Cuneo's mouse) and I had an almost identical similar pic published in the IRRS Journal. Any interest? €5 including p+p

(11) 5" x 7" black and white photographs taken along the Harcourt Street line circa 1979 - long before the Luas was even contemplated. Prints are good quality i.e. better than the attached scans. €12 including p+p or can be collected from Enniscorthy for €10.

World of Rare books appears to be run by people who don't have English as their first language - at least that's been my experience - and they do post to Ireland if you contact them. However, I've never proceeded with a purchase because of their shambolic customer service.

The Foyle Valley Railway Museum closed for good last Friday 27th March and the future of its collection is still in doubt. I had been dabbling with the idea of starting a Facebook page to see what interest there might be in saving the museum but a glance at what's already online yesterday has put me well and truly off such an idea. Pictured below is what the local youth of the area think of their heritage and the late, unlamented, Derry City Council appear to have been cut from the same cloth. When I first came on the preservation scene in the late 1970s it was the same old story in Derry - bickering within the NWIRS, fighting with the Council and all leading to this inevitable catastrophe. Three generations of my family worked for the CDR but this sadly is not going to be carried on by my generation. Has anybody got any - positive - news? What has happened to all those people from way back such as David Lloyd, Redmond Gallagher, Danny Doherty .... More here: http://www.derryjournal.com/what-s-on/arts-culture/rail-experts-call-for-foyle-valley-museum-artefacts-to-be-safeguarded-1-6663183

Great Southern Railways "IRELAND GEM OF THE SEA 1930" by ALFRED S. MOORE Touring Ireland by Rail in 1930. Printed in Dublin. 52 pages, profusely illustrated, with photographs, period advertising and a fine route map. Rusty staples and mildewing to front cover. €20 including p+p on island of Ireland.

Sold.

Strip of 5 negatives of ex.CIE G-Class Deutz locomotives at the Irish Sugar Factory (Thurles) circa 1983. Includes G616, 617 and 615 - the latter one that didn't survive. Negs are nice and sharp - unlike my pics here which were mutilated by the flash. First €10 secures.

Sold to DartStation.

Two original 10 x 8 photographs taken in St.James's Gate brewery. €10 including p+p on island of Ireland. The one with Heuston in the background has slight creasing to the sky but can be scanned and easily cleaned up with paint - I've just done it with my archive copy! The red copyright stamp does NOT appear on the prints. Hurry as they go on Adverts and eBay tomorrow.

+1 The Facebook page has already started to resemble the one set-up to save the Waterford/Rpsslare line i.e. all sorts of unrealistic/irrelevant posts and pie in the sky ideas. Time will tell.

Some more background to the origins of the Tralee/Blennerville saga here: http://irishrailways.blogspot.ie/

Two comparison shots of Blennerville station - I prefer to remember it as it appeared in the 1984 (Joe St.Leger) pic rather than its present incarnation.

Best of luck Eamonn - an heir, a spare and a substitute.

Sorry about the poor scan above but if you press Ctrl + it should enlarge enough to read. Two more T&D items from the archive. 5T at Liverpool on way home and the 'welcoming' committee in Dublin.

Good luck in your dealings with local officials/business interests in Tralee. It should be borne in mind that some of those who drove away enthusiasts in the first place are still in the mix.

jhb171achill - Loads of sense in your post. The FVR needs to be handed over to a volunteer based organisation or it's curtains. One thing that didn't exist back when I was active (1978/98) is the internet/Facebook revolution, and what this means is that a new volunteer organisation with literally hundreds of members could be put in place overnight! This, as I know from my own experience, would have taken years previously. I'm happy to pay an annual sub to such an organisation but my presence as a volunteer or a founding member would not be in anyone's interest.

It's news to me that IRN is gone - gone quiet but not gone surely? The person (me) was NOT banned if you look at the username on Boards - account closed which is a very different thing and I can't see what that has to do with the sad fate awaiting the FVR. There can be few if any preserved railways in these islands that have/had so much potential as the FVR and it's difficult for this outsider to apportion blame but surely differences can be buried for the common good? A narrow gauge - cross border - steam railway in the North West should be able to rake in grants. Even the C&L was able to cash in on cross border funding and it's far enough from the border.

I wonder how many here have been following the Foyle Valley Railway saga on IRN here: http://irnirishrailwaynews.yuku.com/topic/676/Foyle-Valley-Railway-Museum?page=1#.VNz2PCxcpgA and it would be great if it could be brought onto this forum. I have been giving out about the demise of the Foyle Valley Railway for years and writing to all and sundry about it but I can't contribute on IRN as it's a 'Parks Free Zone'. To be honest my heart isn't really in it anymore but it does deserve maximum coverage in the hope that even now something can be done! I started a thread about it on Boards.ie four years ago here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055970708 but I can't contribute to it anymore less my alternative username is spotted by the over zealous Mods. jhb171achill - I know that you contribute on IRN so perhaps you could bring the discussion on here?

I think 84m is one of these two seen here at Mallow in the late 1990s.

And here's Clifden just prior to its purchase by the present owners. Photo possibly by Des O'Donoghue from Ennis.

Whatever about 84m, what about this priceless survivor - ex.Mallow - and believed to be at Belturbet. Should be in Cultra! The carriage was CIE PW Departmental No.465a. ex.Waterford, Limerick & Western Railway Family Saloon No.900 of 1891 (?) - I have mislaid my file on it. The carriage was used by the WL&WR as a Royal Saloon in 1897 to transport the Duke & Duchess of York from Limerick to Killaloe and Adare during the occasion of their visit to Ireland. Full details here: http://books.google.ie/books?id=EznE...reland&f=false The Duke of York was later to become George V on the death of Edward VII in 1910. This carriage is probably the single most important 'unpreserved' railway vehicle on the island and it does not deserve to end its days marooned in Belturbet. A considerable amount of time, money and voluntary effort by the GSRPS went into rescuing the carriage from Claremorris in the mid-1980s.

The MGWR six-wheeler at Clifden is another survivor from the GSRPS (Mallow). Many of the signs and other memorabilia were 'fabricated' at Dromod in the mid-1990s. The entire development at Clifden is a horrible mess but I'm sure Failte Ireland approve.