Broithe

Risky going there yesterday! Full Moon. The Vampire comes down every night... Get somebody to look at your neck. @murrayec is machining a silver bullet as we speak...

Ballybrophy has had speakers for a few years now, but I've never heard a peep out of them. I do remember hearing a marvellous announcement in Port Laoise a good few years back - "That's the Cork train coming in now". Nobody will ever beat Stafford's famous "The train now standing at Platform Four is the mystery excursion to Barry Island"... Or one I heard myself, about ten years ago - "The train arriving at Platform One is the delayed 16:25 to London Euston. This train may go no further than Watford Junction" - I was the only person who found it amusing.

Getting married on a turntable might be a little too symbolic for some..?

Cheap enough and quite effective - I once saw a layout where the chap had a road disappearing off into the backscene - it went into a 'tunnel' which appeared to go a good way beyond the actual wall that was behind it. A lit tunnel with regular roof lights, fading away into the far distance. It's an illusion often known as an infinity mirror, or some similar term. Created by a front sheet of plain glass, with a mirror behind. The image in the mirror is also reflected off the far side of the glass, back to the mirror and the viewer sees that, behind the 'first direct image', and so on. Like this sort of thing. The mirror is at the first break in the red strip lighting. There is nothing 'real' below that point, just repetitive reflections.

Almost wondered if that was a pantograph for half a second there...

Indeed, that is very true, but people do do strange things...

If Track 1 is running the trains, then it is possible that Track 2 was being used to power the points, but it would only work if it was turned right up to around 10. I can't see from the picture where it is set at. Even if this is the case and turning it up gets the points working, then the points would be much better running off the Accessories power from the two central terminals. And that would release a second track power supply.

The back of the controller will look like this. There's a good chance that the points run off the middle "Accessories" outlets. See if things are still connected there. As said, if they're all not working, it is likely to be a common supply isuue. Starting at the source and working 'downstream' is a good procedure.

You do wonder how many people end up at Collins Barracks when they've actually gone to Dublin as Bram Stoker fans, because they hear there's a Vampire hanging from the celling?

@murrayec may have something to say here? I don't actually remember this question being posted, but it has given me flashbacks to the trauma of doing Maxwell stress diagrams - which I wouldn't have the slightest idea of how to do now. It always seemed to me that trusses, particularly in roofing, were often down to personal preferences and a 'house style'.

Or Baldonnell? Although it might be a bit late to organise that this time. https://aviationmuseum.eu/Blogvorm/irish-air-corps-museum/

Malahide?

The Orthodox Christmas is on January 7th. You should still have time to convert - and eliminate some, or even all, of the time discrepancy?

I did put my pictures up here, and you can see the chap next to me sprinting off, in case they left him behind.

I keep a watch out for Ballybrophy-related stuff. This one popped up and I idly wondered if it was one that I was able to attend - and there I am, next to the Platform 1 sign! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/277433508783 I will be expecting my model release fee to be delivered by Brinks-Mat. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/277433508783

There can be a positive result from such adversity, it can cause the victims to strive harder for perfection, particularly in sporting activities. I expect that they progressed further into some cups than they might have otherwise.

No doubt you gave each other mutual support through these difficult times.

I see Marks currently has the Heller 1/24th Renault 4, Amongst a lot of other Heller stuff.

I found a set of doubles left in the bog for next year, so it would be narrow enough to take home for the winter. it did look like a very specialist alien abduction...

A landmark on the journey to where we are today. MIR, MM, SSM, PW, IRM + many I will have not thought of immedately

We went back under 194 today and, after a wet night, it is clear that the new drainage points are working - a drip every 2 or 3 seconds from each one. This picture won't win a Pulitzer Prize, but the blurred line below the pipe is one of the drips... We did a circuit from there, coming back out over 189. Nothing to report there, beyond the current situation on the track - all looking very neat. North. And south. We arrived there a little after 1pm and just missed a train in each direction...

Maybe they could print a tripod for the camera next?

This is what they need.

Today was another of those days. The pads have been boxed in now, so the reason for the platform remaining on site has been revealed. All the debris from the job is gone now and, apart from a few tyre marks, there's nothing to reveal that anything ever happened. The bees were still active, but not to the extent of the action on Saturday. Only noticeable to those who know they're there. Probably no more rail-based excitement here for a few more decades again. The reason for today's visit was to further reconnoitre a route that we failed to complete on Saturday. We will need to return with implements to restore a human-sized portal through a natural hedge that has healed up in recent years, but that can be done. We turned back on Saturday, just before the other side of that obstruction - and because we fell into a big, but completely invisible hole. I am standing on the bottom of it to take this picture of the dog laughing at me. I had time, on the way down, to consider when I last saw the old B&W version of Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

I'm under 194 regularly and I've never heard the bees before - the noise was very obvious that day, though.