minister_for_hardship

Saw a rock-fall on floor of Goggin's Hill last time and it looked recent. Think it may have been part of the above-ground air shaft that had fallen in. It hasn't been looked at or maintained since it closed so exercise care.

Doesn't stop them re-imagining the past. I very much doubt many that indulge in say, WW2 military modelling were knocking around back then. The present scene doesn't inspire me either. Neatly demarked car parks, soulless modern buildings and structures made as ugly as possible with indiscriminate use of galvanised steel barriers and palisade fencing. Little or no activity between trains to speak of.

An Post did have R4's in green briefly. Logo seems to be a bit smaller in reality.

The last run of the Dublin city trams was accompanied by crowds 'celebrating' their passing by breaking windows and ripping off parts of the tramcar as souvenirs. Gardai had to be called in.

As Irish as Hirohito.

Anyone not aware of the campaign might think there's been an outbreak of petty vandalism.

Not having a working layout is like having stuffed animals on display in Dublin Zoo, or being offered a pint of lemonade in the Guinness Storehouse. It seems nothing can be done in this country without stuffing it up.

I would like to subscribe to your newsletter or political party...

The 'silver' is just the silvery-grey colour of the alloy it is cast out of. A contact of mine showed me one he got recently. I'm assuming they only got a coat of paint when the whole loco got painted, this snatcher might have come out of stores to replace a faulty or damaged one.

Simply awful. Ballymun part deux.

Brightly coloured houses are a recent thing, the local co-op/hardware store back in the day would have a limited palette of masonry paints and whitewash would be far cheaper anyway. Business premises might go with colored paints, but nothing as garish as today's shades. Doors might be picked out in brighter gloss paints and window frames would have been white or brown perhaps. Old coloured postcards of streetscapes would be a good guide. Owners of whitewashed thatched cottages tended to paint the doors and windows in bright reds, blues and greens.

The semaphores in Cork are operational, not ornamental, but living on borrowed time. Clonakilty is nicely set up, but could have been done better. The stock doesn't resemble anything that ran on the West Cork or Ireland for that matter. Wouldn't be too much of an ask to have someone build a Bandon tank and some genuine stock. It's fine for childrens' parties and that's about it - as an interpretation on what the West Cork was like before it closed...forget it. Tralee - Blennerville is closed for maybe 10 or 15 years now, and the way it's looking I don't see anything happening here, despite the exhortations that had been made online a few months back. I think Ballydehob and those places along the S&S missed a trick without making reference to the railway anywhere. If it wasn't for the viaduct you could be forgiven for thinking that this part of the SW was never served by rail.

How about GNR Oxford Blue/Cream?

Some lining would be nice, they look a little spartan on the outside at least. The irony of naming a coach after a county not connected to the rail network for over a half century....

Well, it was intended to be a 'comedy'.

More the national pastime of holding grudges. The French were 'a great bunch of lads' until that incident.

Move over Diarmuid MacMurrough, Cromwell and Captain Boycott even...

We can have something as silly as a National Lepreachaun Museum in Dublin city centre but not this.

Political soundbite here. Project is best described as being on a geological timescale. http://www.northcountyleader.ie/2016/06/07/refurbishment-of-casino-malahide/

The dearth of mineral resources kind of put paid to early industrial revolution activity, that and being seen as being primarily agrarian and in a position well down the pecking order compared to England/Wales/Scot. Don't think it could have kicked off any earlier than it did.

Proposed Railway station at Tara. Yes, that Tara, you read that right. http://archiseek.com/2012/1942-new-capital-city-for-ireland-at-tara/ (no 9 on the drawing, for non-Irish speakers.)

A nice splash of colour and a relief from 'Austerity Grey'...

Found yet another grounded wagon week before last, from peeking through bushes appears to be a cattle wagon, or else its got some upper planking missing.

Detached snails, wagon is not long for this world so took photos of them in place before removing them. Oddly, one is a slightly different shade of green from the other, unless it had been standing for a while exposed to sun on one side only. No other tonnage plates / wagon plates in evidence.

An invaluable collection, some curious inclusions and omissions from a gricer point of view, though presumably the photographers set out to get a broad flavour of the country as it was, rather than getting every railway location.