minister_for_hardship

Weirdly, some quite large industries were slap bang next to a railway line or within spitting distance, but carted everything laboriously to and from the nearest station. Like they were allergic to them or something.

Fenit Harbour Commisioners had a privately owned loco for a bit.

Strange that (GSR) Sentinels only lasted in active service up to 1940, considering their modernity, doing much the same kind of work the G class would do later on. The railcar version was known to be loathed by crews.

Must be the one that's in Dromod, in a very poor state now. Come to think of it, think CIE had a few converted farm tractors as shunters in various places. Don't think they had flanged wheels though.

That stretch of road was built after the West Cork closed, maybe mid-late 60s completed. Hell of a lot of suburbs and industrial units have been built in the area and landscaping done since. Plus there were flyovers built around the Sarsfield roundabout recently, covering even more of the area with asphalt. Assuming there is 'something' buried thereabouts, you would want to narrow the search area down first, else it's just needle in a haystack territory. Let's just say if (and it's a big IF) a loco was lost in the area, there should be supporting evidence...correspondance by the GSR relating to the incident, possibly a newspaper report and photos taken.

There was only one 0-6-2T, the Barclay one, it didn't make it into CIE days...withdrawn sometime around '35 I think. http://www.spellerweb.net/rhindex/Ireland/GreatSouthern/MacroomLoco.jpg Sounds too good to be true, I don't doubt JSL took a pic of a wheel, would love to see it, but was the wheel attached to anything? Or just lineside debris? There was a similar story told in the uk, derailment...loco couldn't be recovered and left be and a chimney protruding out of the ground was pointed to as hard evidence that the loco was still there...but the chimney wasn't attached to anything. It had broken off and was left there after the loco was recovered. A loco, even as scrap, is worth big money. I don't see how a railway company would just leave something that valuable even if it had to be cut up in pieces and carted out by hand. There was one well-known case of a Furness loco that fell into a large hole and that is still there, there is written proof the company just filled in the hole after it exhausted all options at getting it out. Maybe this is worth a thread in its own right.

There was another tale, in the Turfburner book, don't know if there's anything to back it up....that CIE were mulling over the purchase of the frames for the unfinished Leaders...

I'm 99.9% sure that a pic taken of a G at Thurles for sugar work in Maher's book had 'on hire from CIE' in the caption. Maybe CSE hired them when their own stud were under pressure at peak times and offered to buy when CIE had no more use for them, the branches they were designed to serve being closed down for the most part.

Heard the same story. No-one can provide a pic of this bridge, or info as to where it is. Still, it's not as far fetched as derailed locos ending up in Irish bogs that were never recovered, still waiting to be dug up.

From a guy in England, don't know where he got it from originally. I suppose if any of the NCCs company records of staff survived you could find out who it was issued to, looks like a staff id no.

Yes, the Tuam one was a monster. Got burnt out in the shed in Tuam sometime in the late 90s or early 00s and cut up there. Last time I saw it, the doors were wide open in the shed and no soul around. Fairly easy for the vandals to do their dirty work.

Distillery sidings and locos were big in Scotland, all we had was Allmans Distillery. It had a total of 2 x 5' 3'' steam locos during its existance, one was sold to the GSR. Courtalds (sp?) up North had pair of 5'3'' Pecketts. CSE Carlow had a couple of unusual and camera shy Cockerill VB locos. The beet factories used hire some of the G class Deutzs from CIE from time to time.

It's a track circuit indicator, shows if a section is occupied by a train, or not as the case may be.

There's still a few grounded wagons in ever decreasing numbers to be seen.

The columns, or rather, what's left of the columns are boxed around with plywood to prevent injury to people using reopened platforms. Rumour has it that the hat will have to be passed around to replace the canopy!

Indeed. It looked like a carbon copy of a story that was circulated some time ago. Happy are those who do not see, yet believe.

I'll believe it when I see it.

They were known as the 'Krugers' after Boer leader Paul Kruger. The carbuncle on top of the boiler is a sandbox.

Dual gauge didn't happen a lot in Ireland, Ennis and the LP&HC lines in Derry are the only ones I can think of.

It would be too small (N is 9mm) which it just about 2' gauge. The correct one for 3' is 00n3. (12mm)

A mate from the uk was shocked at the amount of roadkill on Irish roads...'why doesn't someone from t'council go round picking them up?'

The drivers look a bit small to me for that, besides it seems like an expensive way to get a GSWR 4-4-0.

I think this wins the prize for butt ugly GWR. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/GWR_Dean's_ten-wheeled_goods_engine_(Howden,_Boys'_Book_of_Locomotives,_1907).jpg

The smokebox is huge in comparison to the rest of it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.