minister_for_hardship

Auctioneers in the general antiques trade hide behind feigned ignorance "caveat emptor" and let bidders make up their own minds.

All fake. Scrap iron from China or India that comes here by the containerload. The Southern Railway notice is a piece of rubbish with no basis in reality.

Assuming they're both from Inny Junction which is a more likely scenario how they ended up together and assuming that the format is "TO (somewhere) , (somewhere) & (somewhere)" i.e. a main centre, where MGWR jurisdiction ends/main terminus and a branch terminus. One may have once read "To Cavan, Clones Junct. & Killeshandra" and the other "To Longford, Ballaghaderreen & Sligo", and going to assume there was yet another for the Dublin-bound direction. If there was a sign at Kilfree I imagine it would have simply read "Kilfree Junction - Change for Ballaghaderreen (Branch)" or such like.

Pity they're mismatched, still rare survivor(s) having last guided a passenger in 1931.

According to this blog, there were seven of the rail mounted Lancias completed and one allegedly survived at Inchicore until the early 50s. https://railwayprotectionrepairandmainten.blogspot.com/?m=1 I think a civil war era layout at a show would be a great idea, I think we're mature enough now not to have fist fights over it. The DSER armoured loco has a further layer of interest in that it started life as one of a batch of L&NWR tanks acquired by the DWWR and regauged for use here. It carried the name "Earl of Besborough" as DWWR/DSER No 64 prior to armour plating and lasted until 1936 as GSR 427.

I think the As certainly they beat their UK and Australian MV cousins in the looks department. Nose doors and flat faced cabs, ugh.

Ah jaysus..

The smokebox door is hinged the wrong way round as well.

One headlamp, identifies as a goods train?

I would say they would have been a rarity until Ireland had joined the then EEC and farmers got Brussels money to improve their farms and acquire fancy new breeds.

Works now, just not at the outset.

Computer says no?

It was all spit and polish then. I remember reading somewhere that shed foremen on the Midland (England) felt the backs of the wheels with white gloves before they released a loco for express passenger duties.

Will the correct rude A class names be written on the inside of the cab?

What size of a skip for all of it?

Theres a certain irony in that the NYMR banned German reenactors at their wartime events.

Nein F. Shame there aren't any countries that had loads of German locos and stock...

Here they're having trouble harvesting here because people are objecting to cutting down all the nice trees, but also moaning they can't get timber products at their local merchant!

I'm also wondering why countries with no obvious partiality to railways like the uk or large uk expat populations, have steam rail tours or rail museums we can only dream of? I've seen cracking museums or have been on steam excursions in Italy, Czech Rep, Slovenia and Poland. I know Spain, the Scandi countries, Switzerland, France, Holland etc etc have these also.

It's easier to assemble, repair and house a set of old tractors, those things are physically manageable by one person for the most part and practically bomb proof, compared to marshalling a team of people to perform thankless and pay less heavy manual labour on a preserved railway.

Fence wire tensioner.

I think there may be a background perception in the general public that our railways aren't really "Irish"; are imposed upon us by outsiders and Anglo-Irish who would have made up the bulk of directors and shareholders, Irish persons of lesser rank being compelled to build and work them and far less fondly, remembered as a means of transporting our emigrant population to the transatlantic and cross channel ports. Maybe it may explain why our National Museum to all intents and purposes practically ignores their presence, and industrial heritage, preferring stories about prehistory, Vikings, Normans before skipping deftly onto what's called now the Revolutionary period. Additionally perhaps the dislike of many here shown towards old things in general as a reminder of inefficiency, bad times and maybe our erstwhile masters as well, especially wrt the built environment.

I believe the Leeds Industrial Museum, not far from its birthplace, had an interest in acquiring 5T, it would have been better off going there.Better off anywhere but here. The Jeanie Johnston was another Tralee fiasco, a scandal that is, of course someone else's fault, is now slowly rotting on the quays in the capital. Famously one 'colourful' Kerry public representative, I'll leave up to you guys to guess which one, suggested burning it. In the case of 5T it's worth keeping in mind these are the sorts of people you would have to deal with! Only interested in the making of money, things that go moo or the pucking of a football around a GAA pitch.

Theres a tight chicane underneath the motorway. 5T is massively oversized and expensive for the needs of the Suir Valley. I'm sure if there was ever a suggestion that 5T were to leave Tralee there'd be a host of objections from people who cared about it all of a sudden.

I'm afraid that's the way it is. Simply put there's neither interest nor motivation to do anything.