Ah Garfield ye have blown me cover! Thanks, folks, for your encouraging ansd complimentary comments. I hope you enjoy it and that it is of value to modellers.
I suppose I should declare my hand; I was a modeller once and never lost interest. I am astounded by the quality of the models and layouts shown on this forum, which is why I keep coming back. At some stage in the future, if time permits, I would be back at it again. I had a layout loosely based on a CDRJC - sized system under CIE ownership in an imaginary part of the west, with a terminus in somewhere like Westport. It ran for some years in my attic until an issue with an overheated central heating system put paid to it. I never took any photos... It would never have aspired to the standards shown here so often, nowadays. And, of course, there was nothing ready to run...
To the book; we did a London launch at the IRRS London area meeting the other night and it all went well. Barry and I have a follow up project planned, though neither of us have time to pursue it probably till next year.
That goods train shown several times in the book, and which is on the cover, was the last train over the Burma Road, way back in '75. As Barry was taking these photos, I was busy gricing Loughrea with only two days to go until it closed.
Thanks, indeed, to a colleague who has just sent me a load of unssen photos of G's all over Loughrea station and branch... there's a project for ANOTHER day!