Branchline121

Wikimedia Commons has a few old ones, particularly from Robert French: Same as above, but better quality; Castlebar, 1880 Aftermath of Armagh disaster, 1889 Clifden, c. 1898 Athboy, c. 1900 Achill, c. 1900 Armagh, 1909 Clifden, 1914

I would say there still is a big human aspect to the railways, but it's harder to see these days under stringent safety regulations and reduced mileage. It's a bit more obvious in places like Inchicore I'd say.

Stadler has been awarded the contract for the Enterprise replacement, and CAF are launching a judicial review against it. I didn't even think you could have a JR for this sort of thing. Unfortunately it seems likely this'll cause delays to their delivery. A bit of a joke.

Thank the lord

It could work. A main line connection would be handy for a heritage railway and the planned platform on the Navan branch at Drogheda would be useful. It also isn't too far from Dublin, where almost ⅓ of the country resides. The old shed at Navan could be used as an engineering shed, and there's plenty of space to store stock at the station. Using an intact line for preservation has been done before successfully between Dieren and Apeldoorn in the Netherlands, so it could theoretically work. I'm not sure how the intermediate stops at Beauparc and Duleek would work. Both are now private residences, but the platforms are there. Political willpower would be most important I think.

Craigavon Craigavon

A personal favourite of mine:

If you could save one steam locomotive from being scrapped in the past and have it preserved, which would it be? Personally the biggest contenders for me would be a K1 (preferably one of the Broadstone examples) or a J26 for MGW representation. I would’ve also liked to see a VS preserved, namely 207 (because it’s named after the Boyne) or maybe Bulleid’s CC1, purely because of how unusual it was. 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.

Seen some photos showing that charging infrastructure for the battery DARTs is being installed at Drogheda on platform 3. I assume they must be getting close to entering service, provided it works. It’d seem that Drogheda is nearing the end of an era, with the commuters soon being replaced with DARTs and an electric Enterprise on the horizon.

Did Portadown station ever have a proper roof? Almost all pictures I’ve seen just show canopies on the platforms except this one: Usually the captions on these photos aren’t wrong, but did Portadown really have a roof like this? I tried looking at old OS maps but it’s hard to tell the difference between the canopies and an actual roof. Although it looks like there’s a roof behind the station in this photo: I’d be interested in seeing if there’s any other photos of it if they exist. Also on a slightly unrelated note, did Armagh have a roof? Photos of the station show supports spanning the tracks but I can’t find any old enough to confirm whether there was ever actually one there.

I’ve been thinking about this again recently and while building over the A5 in Omagh initially sounds ridiculous, if the proposed A5 upgrade/bypass ever goes ahead, I could see the A5 between the Crevenagh and Derry Road roundabouts being replaced by the railway as the road loses its importance (ironic considering the road was built on top of the railway). A similar thing could be done with the A5 in Strabane once it’s superseded. This would allow both stations to be nearer to the town centre than would’ve otherwise been possible. An issue though with the A5 upgrade is that the portion between Strabane and Derry is located on top of the optimal alignment for if the rebuilt Derry Road was to remain east of the Foyle, so it’s likely that the Derry Road will have to follow its original route. That makes a Letterkenny branch easier, but might complicate things with cross-border construction, or if they ever want to revive railfreight around Derry.

Hardly seems like a good idea… Demolishing the old station to build a smaller one marginally closer to the town? Surely having trains terminate on the main line in the way of freight (and Rosslare trains too if that ever reopens) would be in conflict with the goals of their ‘Freight 2040’ strategy.

It may have took 20 years but at least we’re (nearly) getting there.

Correct, it was an error on my part. It should be fixed now.

The coaches have been exported to GB, courtesy of Belmond. Here's a picture of them in their new life: