minister_for_hardship

They may still have a presence in Tuam, albeit running a restaurant/cafe in the station afaik. Steam crane and a GNR cement wagon with hardened cement still in it might still be there.

Undecided, depends on what it is, who's doing it and is it worth the candle.

As rough as a badger's proverbial...

And a very limited number of colour schemes over the years. 2 or 3?

Quite prepared to play the waiting game for a MM 121. Sorted for an A, it might not be perfect, but it'll suit me fine.

Is it still a youth hostel or something??

Oops....presume this is a GS&WR owned or contracted bus doing the Prince Of Wales Route.

Open to correction, but the one pictured may have been one of the ones purchased in the last days of the GS&WR and delivered to the newborn GSR with a GS&WR coat of arms on the side? Judging by the state of the roads on the 'tourist routes' they must have had very short lives.

http://catalogue.nli.ie/Search/Results?lookfor=tractor&type=AllFields&filter%5B%5D=digitised%3A%22Digitised%22&filter%5B%5D=format%3A%22Photo%22'>http://catalogue.nli.ie/Search/Results?lookfor=tractor&type=AllFields&filter%5B%5D=digitised%3A%22Digitised%22&filter%5B%5D=format%3A%22Photo%22 http://catalogue.nli.ie/Search/Results?lookfor=tractor&type=AllFields&filter%5B%5D=digitised%3A%22Digitised%22&filter%5B%5D=format%3A%22Photo%22

A local told me there's some rails still down there in places, buried under decades of lawnmower clippings...he has recovered some cut stone masonry there also, possibly some of the remains of Summerhill or its outbuildings.

The were a number of smaller tractors used for per way work, there was recent published photo of a Massey Ferguson 35 on flanged wheels and a small 'train' of per way trolleys on the Harcourt St line before lifting. Think Cork had some Fordson Majors, read somewhere that they used travel up the disused Summerhill stub every so often to re-establish right of way years after it had closed, they probably to be found some shunting work in Tivoli too.

Welcome to Ireland, where logic doesn't exist.

Spotted this on online wanderings... http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/fig8-1927-30-claire-dulanty.jpg Fig.8 Great Southern Railways charabanc outing, Ireland c.1927-30 - click to enlarge. Charabancs were often used for group outings in the inter-war era and this snapshot shows colleagues or friends riding in a charabanc bearing the crest of the Great Southern Railways. The SVVS advised that the GSR was an Irish railway company formed in 1924 which also took over several private bus operators in Ireland between 1926 and 1929. They identified the vehicle as a 1927 Lancia Charabanc, offering the earliest possible year for the photograph, while the men’s appearance suggests a date no later than 1930 (Claire Dulanty)

That's it in a nutshell, probably the closest you can get to owning the real thing.

Found the XA class one...http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AEI-Western-Australian-Railway-WAGR-2-DO-2-XA-CLASS-LOCO-NILIGARA-BUILDERS-MODEL-/220906416755?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item336f0c6a73

A birdie informed me that a presentation A class was purchased in the uk and brought back here, whether it was the NRM one I was looking at that was sold off surplus to requirements or a duplicate I don't know.

Commissioned by AEI (holding company for MetroVick, the MetroVick brand ceased to exist in 1960), most likely to show off their portfolio to potential clients?

There was a silver A class in a glass case in NRM York last time I was there and a WAGR X class with some paint damage and bits missing popped up on ebay some time ago. All on presentation plinths and think they were same scale and all.

Had heard about it over the bush telegraph, but kept schtumm, not out of any sense of smugness but just in case it was some sort of cruel hoax!

Not a very taxing build, not many curves! http://photogallery.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/albums/userpics/10001/normal_P-19-002.jpg And this http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_303Dv_Vkry0/ScFTdvtYhGI/AAAAAAAADBg/H3zqj-opSiQ/s400/GWP3+-%3E+Lanica+Armoured+Truck.jpg is not a million miles from this...http://forum.irishmilitaryonline.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=5043&d=1267465560

It is a beaut. The red board instead of a tail lamp comes as a bit of a surprise to me. Didn't know they used boards other than on ng gauge lines. Was thinking, given the general interest in matters military, a WOI or Civil War era layout would be an interesting subject.

Thankfully a (very) few survive. A heavy car with a sewing machine sized engine and not blessed in the appearance dept.

Hardly surprising. Big difference in the scale of what was/is here vs the huge network that covered the uk. Plus the heaps and heaps of mechandise, T-shirts, bits and bobs and reproduction stuff that is for the massive uk market. Also a goodly proportion of stuff here went into landfill or melted down rather than being saved.

Wouldn't mind a pre-1925 layout, before pretty much every loco got plastered with battleship grey. Since many rural Irish stations changed very little between the 1900's and 1980's with a few subtle changes one could have a bit of scope. A station serving 2 or 3 companies would have been rather colourful places back in the day, think WL&WR locos were the best looking things on wheels, plenty brass and spit-and-polish.

Commer Garda Van, by Oxford diecast, seems to be a new release. http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NDA5WDUxMw==/z/tjoAAOSwfcVUHVoy/$_35.JPG