minister_for_hardship

Irish railways were forced to mend and make do, from the 20s onwards. Great for visiting enthusiasts but a nightmare for the railway. One CME was quoted "I like historic locomotives, but I wish I had less of them!"

Singletons and batches of non standard locos generally tend to be short lived. By the time they need heavy repairs it's not cost effective to be tinkering with them any further.

If that is the case, it's really saddening and a further indictment of the uselessness of Tralee Town Council/KCC and local apathy.

1. There should be no shortage of Royal Mail vehicles of various eras, but no P&T or An Post in a useful scale. Renault 4 vans knocking about but an old, hard to find model and of course in HO. 2. Plenty double deckers and some BE single deckers but no commercially available CIE single deckers (apart from scarce and expensive kits) 3. Two varieties of CIE truck and green and b n t era Scammel Scarab have been released in recent years. 4. Major gap in the market here, earlier British marques shouldn't be a problem for the likes of Oxford.

I've seen things with dates on them long after much of the contents were consigned to the history books. I've a GSR Appendix signed and dated up to 1985!

Maybe one for the cottage industry 3d printing guys?

Dromod, Cultra, anywhere but Tralee! Suddenly that loco would become a priceless artifact if you suggested taking it away from Tralee! Classic dog in the manger stuff.

This hoary old chestnut again! I would say at this stage, with coaches out in all weathers for about 3 decades now, they would be beyond saving. Every couple of months it's brought up in online chatter along the lines of "whatever happened to.." or "wouldn't it be lovely if..." As Jhb has pointed out, the locals couldn't care less if the roof blew off the shed and 5T rotted into the ground where it stands. It's a sure fire bet the subject of the railway's future is one issue NOT exercising any of the local election candidates doorstepping this past while! Council minutes referring to the railway is much idle chatter followed up with the inevitable Greenway.

Definitely industrial/b na m. Someone's mistaken. And the CB&PR had identical couplers to the Muskerry.

"The first man is described as being in his late 20s to early 40s, clean shaven, with a large build and between 5ft 8in and 6ft tall." These aren't teens or kids messing around, fully grown adult men who you would think would have more sense.

It really stands out in all the photos, compared to the dull as ditchwater grey current ICR scheme.

I have a distant cousin in the US who is a Trumpette, I've unfollowed her without unfriending and I've done so with anyone else on the activist/overly political spectrum. I've noticed that I've confused the Book of Faces algorithm as it can't work out if I'm right, middle or left wing so I get random feeds from all.

I was the last of my peer group to use a "dumb" phone, I was still sending old timey texts when everyone else was messaging. When the speaker got stuffed, I moved onto smartphone. I do appreciate the fact I've got a powerful mini computer in my pocket now which comes in very useful when I need to find out where the next train is, how to change a van lightbulb or find out if cats eat pancakes at 2am. My current smartphone screen is cracked and the case is held together with gaffer tape. I don't see the value in chucking something for fashion's sake, so long as the thing works it'll do me.

At a guess, maybe it was a sample from a sign manufacturer that was never actually installed? The enamel around the fixing holes isn't chipped. The wording is unusual too, a station having roadside parking, but important enough to have a dedicated attendant?

The GSR appeared to have used an upper case "B" (like a Latin B) on nameboards, some free fonts don't have this character.

The GS&WR had an Irish language examination for clerks around 1920, along with Latin, Geography and Algebra. Have a few of the exam papers. The Tralee and Dingle had Irish in its company seal as well. Ironically, a contributory factor to the rough and tumble early years of the T&D was the fact that the rule book was in English and many of the staff could only understand Irish. A very early use of Irish in locomotive names were a pair of well tanks supplied to the Cork & Bandon named Sighe Gaoithe and Rith Tineadh (Fairy Wind and Running Fire)

Typical Councillor 'wouldn't it be lovely' brain-fart.

This I've not seen before. Black on white enamel from the GSR, usually the other way around.

Not keen on the external paint job. I know they're trying to incorporate that soulless Origami Tricolour logo into the design. The big areas of white or off white will look dirty in a very short time.

Kilmallock, Buttevant, Blarney.

If there's a suitable chassis out there, can't see a reason why someone couldn't 3D print a body, bar getting hold of an accurate drawing for such an unusual short lived loco could be tricky.

Waterford and Suir Valley can get what I assume are modern purpose built passenger coaches. BnM could too, if they had any imagination or even the faintest interest. But whatever makes money with minimal effort I guess (scrap)

It would have been an easy win to take one rehabilitated bog and make it accessible by rail, reusing some of the old equipment. Not everyone has the ability or inclination to hop on a bike on a greenway, which I believe some of the trackbed will be converted to. Even just to access parts of it with equipment for maintenance.

WW1 part 2 was always going to mean that materials to expand or at least keep that going were to be in short supply.

No offence, but (usually said by those who tend to offend) the 800 class were a waste of resources given their limited usefulness and smack of a vanity project. As far as I can see built for just one purpose, to start out of Cork without a pilot. Perhaps with a bit more thought, the J15 Nua class could have been improved from the disappointments they turned out to be? A Jeep-like loco would have been an ideal, go most anywhere loco, but unlike today there was no shortage of operational turntables for tender engines. OHLE was tried and trusted by the 20s and 30s, perhaps that could have been adopted for Dublin suburban rather than the Drumm units in a what if scenario?