skinner75

I came across the page below, but it doesn't appear to have the Belfast-Dublin: https://digital-rails.com/wordpress/2020/09/09/making-tracks-routes/

Apart from if you head south, there is only Kilkenny between Laois and the sea! There are no counties as far as I can see where in some direction, there is only one county between it and the sea

I can remember a lot of the 70's Van Hool busses in Dublin having a reg with BIK in it, and also cars with ZV. So much easier with the modern license plates!

Anyone any idea whether the car license plates are from NI or ROI? Just wondering if the Donegal attitude was the same back then as it is now - buy car in NI, then don't bother getting a ROI plate on it

I came across this while surfing Youtube yesterday - impressive stuff! Makes sense with the distances involved, and that the line is freight only. Some amount of wagons being hauled for sure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf5iBbmas2w

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/zinc-price-slide-claims-first-victim-irish-mine-closes-2023-06-20/

May make for an interesting place to visit if you are in Berlin for a weekend city break: https://youtu.be/PDKyQo-I5NY

Unless there was a drop in the price of zinc & it makes more sense to sit on it till the price comes back up

They mentioned the price of zinc currently being low, so no point in mining something if the return isn't great

Looks like the Taras may not be seen for a while... https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2023/0614/1389062-tara-mines/

Dunno about lids, but looks like a red Tara with blue graffiti to me

https://www.corkbeo.ie/news/local-news/live-bus-jammed-under-low-27103488 https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2023/0612/1388682-cork-bus-crash/

Did they ever double-head that yoke?

A friend was drinking cans of this the other day - €2 a can in Dunnes

€50?

Found this on Adverts - may be just what is missing from someone's railway room!: https://www.adverts.ie/other-antiques-collectables/antique-and-collectibles/30297790

Cost of buying the extra land to extend to 4 lines between Malahide & Connolly would be quite the sum I'd wager!

They'll work out at a nice price per signal with that charge on top!

Came across this today - may be no more than wishful thinking, but still https://www.galwaybeo.ie/news/galway-news/closed-irish-rail-line-track-8448347

Ooh - smoke generator fitted on the top end models. This would be a great feature on a 121/141/181

Reminded me of this:

I really hope they don't electrify all lines here - I hate the look of overhead wires, and you can't pretend you are 'back in the day' when there are overhead wires above a steam loco for example! Then you read about something like this below, and think 'the planet is screwed': https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/09/mind-boggling-methane-emissions-from-turkmenistan-revealed

WinRar will do the job on Windows, available at: https://www.win-rar.com/

'It's only temporary unless it works' as the saying goes!

Only remembered when I was down the pub last night! Oh well, at least I can watch it on the RTE Player later this evening (link below) https://www.rte.ie/player/series/nationwide/SI0000001172?epguid=IH10000974-23-0041