Broithe

Bridge strikes all over the place lately - even Ballybrophy - there's only a couple of very small underbridges that I can think of in the vicinity, but I suppose you could also hit the parapet of an overbridge...

This sort of thing? They could be hot-cutting chisels from the same blacksmith. https://front-step-forge.myshopify.com/products/hot-cut-h-13-tool-steel

Sounds even more plausible.. All I dug up here was some Stafford-Uttoxeter rail, a chair-screw, a pick from a pneumatic drill and the entire back axle (with wheels) from a Bedford CF. Previous owner had dug a pit in the front garden to work on his camper van, then buried the bits that came off...

Sounds very plausible, they'll have needed to crush it up for processing through the kiln - would there have been a source of water-power anywhere nearby? This signal at the old salt sidings has somehow survived until now. There is still some inset rail in the yard beyond the fence. Just visible, between the yellow machine and the bramble. .

Living across from the old Salt Works in Stafford, I do pick up the odd salt wagon.. What is the odd sculpture/totem pole affair in the background here, and on the 203 pictures?

We've all done that after one too many...

I used Holyhead - Dun Laoghaire/Dublin as a train-delivered foot passenger regularly, up to ten years ago. It got steadily more difficult to access the train part here on the Big Island. In the 90s, I could get a train from Stafford at 00:02 to catch the 02:40 boat - with no changes. The last time I looked, I would have had to be at the station for 20:30 to catch the same boat - the timetable changed continuously and there could be two, even three, changes. Coming back here, the train would sit for hours at Holyhead - engine running, lights on and all the doors locked, so you couldn't even get on and settle down. The Waiting Room would also be locked - you just had to hang around a station that looked like a set from a war film, until they deigned to let you on the train. I came to the conclusion that it was deliberate sabotage. The attitude that foot passengers met at Holyhead was little short of open contempt. My rail journey on the Irish side of the water got steadily better, but, on this side, it just got too difficult. Even buying the ticket here was a difficult process, trying to convince people that it really was possible. There's little point in synchronising transport on one side of the sea, if people are going to meet the UK's randomised attitude to everything when they get here.

That was the first use of Hornby's original prototype laser scanner - made from a bicycle lamp and a milk bottle.

Imagine looking at this from the other end of the telescope - imagine being an established manufacturer seeing "four yokels from the back of beyond" produce market-leading quality products almost instantly. It must be quite alarming! It will drive others in the industry in the right direction, in the way that Toyota and Honda did in the 1970s, when they decided to make quality cars.

Port Laoise.

Kilkenny?

The local architecture is still interesting. I did wonder if the turkey in my roll had been machined by a baseboard manufacturer?

Plenty of other stuff to see, too.

Well, as reported elsewhere - Bantry was there, in the end. Definitely worth the trip to see the progress.

This is a week tomorrow - hopefully I won't be taken by surprise at the date on the morning this time, as I was last year...

If you are in anything at all like the vicinity, then you really should go and see this.

It seems to be working as I expect it is intended to for me, at least - as a public-spirited experiment, and in honour of my birthday today, I have just ordered a pair of IÉ plough vans. (Order 1875) All seemed to work as I would have expected it to. The confirmation email has just arrived, too.

I definitely took a vertical picture of the new (concrete) track from the footbridge, but I just can't seem to find it at the moment. Sorry. Could do with a run of the track-rubber along the top...

This should be reasonably accurately scaleable for the sleeper length. This is what came up when the main lines through the station were replaced with concrete sleepers a few years back.

The new wooden sleepers on the loop at Ballybrophy.

I was worried that it was John's elbow.

It's definitely an exhibition worth going to, there are a lot of aspects that are better than many others - spacing is one of them, I hardly ever had anybody 'in the way'. And I will polish my shoes before including them in any more pictures...

The creaking/squeaking of the turntable mechanism was most atmospheric - it must have taken ages to perfect!