minister_for_hardship

They were either cast alloy or painted timber, had two brackets at the back for hooking them on coaches. Each train had boards with the train 'name', Failte/Slainte/Cu na Mara/Deiseach/Seandun/Sarseal and separate origin-destination boards in Irish and English versions. Must have been a RPITA for someone to put them all up/taken them all down/change them but sure labour was cheap.

Speaking of that general area, is that 4' 8 1/2'' 0-6-0ST and brake van still knocking about up there?

There's a cluster of GNRI ones out towards Greenore direction, by the sea. Someone posted photos on this or another site some time ago.

http://www.irishrailwayana.com/uta2686L.jpg Maybe in early UTA days, they ran off a few, before they decided to paint them on for cost cutting?

Have an MRNCC one and it's cast iron. Would doubt they would fit lowly wagons with brass plates, brass is usually reserved for loco worksplates and the odd carriage plate but I have been surprised before. Hard to tell from pic if brass or just painted with gold paint. Need to see 'in the flesh'.

Plus preserved railways (which are pretty scarce and low profile here) and the ever present 'Thomas'. Never underestimate the power of sentimentality. God knows how many different variations of Flying Scotmen or Mallards were produced over the years. People never seem to tire of them.

Oh no, a new but equally ugly Santy 'head' board https://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/RPSIDublin/photos/a.254791681390467.1073741828.254769308059371/311362669066701/?type=1&theater

IIRC, he declined a knighthood as well.

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?