minister_for_hardship

Looks like an active rail line, hope they got IE permission.

https://ifiplayer.ie/monsignor-reid-collection-castlerea-train-station/ Have a watch. Early CIE days (1947) but chances are it hadn't been painted since GSR days given shortages were still an issue even by then.

No this is fake, a 'replica' of a sign that more than likely never existed. It shares features with other known fakes, tellingly they only show up at car boot sales, garden centres and general antique auctions (always minefields for the uninitiated); never at a specialist auction.

Enniskillen, Bundoran & Sligo Railway. Again, another piece of rubbish.

Did they hang around that long to get into a Barry Scrapyard state?

One man bands and private 'train sets' are doomed to eventual failure without a hardcore of helpers and the backing of the community. T&DR 5T would have been better off going to the UFTM, the public could at least view it there.

At the risk of derailing(!) the thread title, I think there is an interest in railways in this country but not so much as to support a heritage line with elbow grease or funding as an armchair supporter. Heritage railways are great, provided 'someone else' does the work, that's why greenways are an easy win, 'someone else', the council or whoever, does all the work.

Not aware of any Land Rovers with CIE, although the ESB were (and still are) big users of those vehicles. Many years ago I came across what looked like a furniture removal truck in a scrap yard, still had faded Orange paint and CIE LOCO DEPT writ large on it. The make I did not take notice of but looked 50s or 60s in origin.

Light rust and marks from a few years outdoors fixed to something. Still a fake.

Not at all, named after a sandwich innit?

The urinal was still on the site 2 or 3 years ago, but in pieces, perhaps a tree had fallen and hit it.

Hopefully the new owners will take care of it and not gut and modernise the place out of all recognition.

I'm a great believer in "if it aint broke, don't fix it".

Looks like something that was paired with or adapted from a steam wagon or WW1 era truck.

I may be able to assist. PM me.

https://www.oxforddiecast.co.uk/products/saro-bus-county-donegal-railways-76sb004

Well, gricers have no business being anywhere the public isn't allowed to be fair without official permission or supervision. Not on a modern rail way operating at high speeds. Have heard of photographers/phone photographers doing really stupid things to get that Instagram cool pic, sometimes literally on IR metals. The past is a different planet, I don't think we should tolerate gricers swarming all over per way like they did in days of yore. If you saw the photos of the Buttevant aftermath with public wandering and gawking around cranes and lifting gear, no one in their right mind would think that's ok now, but par for the course back then. Don't think people could have been that bothered reporting them, even if someone did, by the time the law came out they would be long gone. There was a near miss with a few graffiti lads a couple of years ago, they are lucky to be still in the land of the living. For what it's worth the law isn't taking these offences as seriously as they should. There's a bit of boys will be boys about it all.

They're hardly 'kids', these appear to be at least late teens if not 20 or 30 somethings with money to spend on cans of paint which aren't that cheap. Questions would have to be raised on where they get current branded IR vests. Further IR should pressure YouTube to remove any movies showing them at 'work' as this only gives them the oxygen and publicity these guys crave. Its also vital, where possible, to remove vandalised stock from service for cleaning. If it gets cleaned asap it's going to be a fruitless exercise for them. I do like well executed urban art, like in Waterford and elsewhere, in a proper site, this stuff is only an imitation of what gets plastered on trains from New York to Naples. An illegible mess, the artistic equivalent of a dog p*ssing on a wall.

Spectacle plate retrieved by a friend of mine from a ditch some time ago. No lettering visible.

Fake. Had it from someone in the antiques trade, a foundry in New Ross churns out fake signs by the bushel. Worth 10 or 15 euro, scrap iron value. I wouldn't pay any more for a novelty sign.

The second Kingscourt signal is a rare bird now, manufactured by Courtney and Stephens iirc, likely made under licence from the Railway Signal Co. and missing its spiky ball final, similar examples were to be seen on former GSWR, CBSCR and Macroom lines up to the Fifties.

Yellow armed distant on former GN turf, 1964.

"Sí Gaoithe" (sp.?) was the name of a very early C&BR well tank supplied by Adams of Bow, the 4-6-0T Bandon tanks never carried names.

According to Shepherd's MGWR book, it saw very little use post 1925, it was said to have been unsuitable for dealing with staggered rail joints which predominated on the former GSWR. Ended its days as chassis for wagon no. 3408.

At a guess, part of the MGWR track laying set?