Garfield

What? There's no Euro 2012 thread yet? I'm shocked! Missed the opening game, but caught the Russia v Czech Republic match. The Russians looked a class act... but of course what the Czechs were really missing was a Richard Dunne in defence! Already getting butterflies in my stomach about the game on Sunday. Filmed these guys heading off in their van to Poland from Longford for the tournament... I've never been so jealous! http://www.longfordleader.ie/news/local/van-to-poznan-1-3933614

I'll try and dig out details of who manufactured them... can't remember right now. Edit: just saw the pics of your hoppers and they look like they're the ballast hoppers Jouef produce. A different type to the ones NIR use...

I'm biting my tongue here. It's bleeding now... may need to go to casualty...

The Daily Mail didn't think much of the flame being brought south to Dublin: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2155401/If-irritated-carried-torch-look-away-Z-listers-Jedward-run-Olympic-flame--doing-IRELAND.html That rag is still stuck in the Stone Age...

Nice... it really looks the part!

Am I suffering from a case of déjà vu, or were these videos posted before? I think I need to lie down...

The NIR ballast hoppers are ex-SNCF wagons. In model form, they were produced in a limited run, so getting hold of them is hard (I know, I've been trying to get some for my French project!).

Boskonay needs one of these to take the pain out of track-laying on his layout!

In 6 hours I'll be Corailing across France.

Malwarebytes anti-malware tool is good...

Yep, nice footage!

Again: wow!

I'm sure a lot of coaches will carry the vinyls for a while longer. SNCF aren't exactly quick at repainting their stock! Sure there's still lots of blue diesels zooming around the place... that's like having locos here still wearing the Supertrain livery or NIR maroon!

Yep, just a few months ago. I'm gonna miss the brightly-coloured Téoz coach rakes...

It was already there

Looks great, Fran! CSX and Norfolk Southern both tried to mount seperate takeovers of Conrail (direct NYC heritage), but ended up with a compromise deal where both companies split Conrail and its assets between them.

Yep, as the others have said it's an expansion joint.

Wow! Surely it's only a matter of time now before we see some of these locos together in a lash-up.

Yep, I think it was originally meant to be a temporary arrangement last year when there were some track upgrades taking place in the Paris area, but its still the case now. Bercy is a LOT quieter... no TGVs About Corail... all long range services are under the 'Intercités' banner now. 'Téoz' was scrapped a short while ago.

Nice! Have to say I love the En Voyage livery... it especially suits the BB67000s. Any time I travel behind a Sybic, though, it's always one in the old béton colours. I'm not complaining, though! Meant to say... one of the things I miss about not getting Clermont-Ferrand trains from Gare de Lyon anymore is that Bercy doesn't have station pilots - the train reverses into the platform. At Gare de Lyon they have older electrics that bring the coaches in, the loco in charge of the service hooks up, and the pilot waits until the train has departed before whirring off to its next duty. A nice opportunity to see some older motive power...

Do you have the Jouef Sybic? Stunning looking model...

You couldn't just enjoy the joke, could you?

Belfast Central must surely earn the title of 'Most Inappropriately-named Station on the Island' award. Central it ain't...

It's in the Île-de-France region, not all that far away from Paris. Speaking of which... I'll be getting some French loco-hauled action this week when I travel from Paris to Clermont-Ferrand. It's usually a Sybic that's in charge of the trains on this route. For years, the train departed from Gare de Lyon, but last year switched to Bercy. It's not as grand, but the route out of Paris now involves travelling by some marshalling yards, normally with long lines of decommissioned locos occupying some of the roads and some 'locotracteurs' pottering about.