Broithe

Droppers soldered to each rail would be more secure, long term. The rail joiners still rely on a 'frictional' connection to the rails, which can cause resistance issues over time.

Another safety issue with round bales is the potential for them to roll down slopes. This is the aftermath of one that emerged through a hedge into the front of a Transit - killing the chap who played the cello on the early ELO hits.

Print off a few of these..

There is almost always a tendency for upward pricing pressures to be much more efficiently transferred towards the end user than downward pressures are. People will need to keep their eyes open - price changes are happening preemptively already. On the Germany/Poland issue, a friend of mine buys a good bit of German stuff, mostly sourced in Poland for cheaper carriage, and often lower prices, too...

There is a 'plug-in' form of the more usual 'chocolate-block'-type connector that can be very useful - it can even be cut down in size, if you're confident that there won't be any further connections required.

There are many possibilities - it depends rather on the number of individual connections at each board joint. It's a planning issue, really. Places like Maplin would have a variety of potentially suitable connectors. Another point is, how often would the boards be disconnected?

For the more modern layout, these round bales look fairly good.

PL 38 is 3 Amp, 16 strand wire. 3 amp cable of any type will equate to that - the 16 strand element is just what provides flexibility, which is rarely a strong requirement on layouts. You want about 0.5 mm² for three amps continuous.

The only real vote you have is the pound/euro in your pocket. It is everybody's civic duty to decide whether or not they wish to support dodgy behaviour, should it happen. Market forces will prevail.

It will be very necessary to have your wits about you - there will be opportunities for people to 'work the system' and the red tape will increase, rather than decrease, I suspect. There will be no requirement for the UK to keep a VAT-style system, they could go back to multiple rate purchase tax arrangements, where it would be very difficult to know what was really going on. It all remains to be seen. Watchfulness will be required for a long time to come.

Not mine - pinched from Twitter - see the link...

It is a great resource.

There's a few on eiretrains..

August 2016.

About thirty years ago, BBC Radio 4's I'm Sorry I haven't A Clue had a round where panellists were invited to propose modern proverbs. Willie Rushton's contribution has stuck in my mind ever since... Never trust a dentist with blood in his hair.

Dentists have been using this system for many years - it allows you to position something without the risk of it setting too quickly in the wrong place and yet gives you the benefit of an almost instant set when you are happy for it to happen. Best used indoors and out of sunlight.

Oooh, not my picture, I'm afraid - just one that illustrates the point.

Still going at 92. I still say "Left hand down a bit" when asked for my advice on something that I have no knowledge of... From The Navy Lark, for those who may not remember - an odd comedy series - most of the characters used the actors' real names.

Hornby (I think) had a system whereby an eccentric on a tender axle rubbed a bit of sandpaper onto a metal 'reed' in the tender, using the box of the tender body as a sound-board. Quite effective for the time and the chuffs were speed-related, too, though it did compromise low-speed operation a bit.

I can't even 'flnd' it....

This seems to be the most recent that I can see - from November.

I wonder? It might be preferable, if going all the way to Limerick, to aim for a train, or trains, via Limerick Junction - if the timing still fits with your journey plans.

Excellent!

The figures for 2016 may well turn out to be be a bit higher, based on where the parking has reached now compared to then.

I have no real data, but I'm confident that most of them are going to Dublin. The number of cars there seems fairly consistent from day to day. People from nearer to Port Laoise and Templemore would, presumably, use those stations. Southwards there's only really Rathdowney - northwards, there could be a few from Roscrea, perhaps. There are a lot of people that live "in the wilds", as well, of course. I don't actually know anybody who commutes through there - there is a bit of hospital traffic, which is probably fairly steady, though it will vary from day to day. My drop-off and pick-up was for a hospital trip and, as they had to be in Dublin before 9am, we arrived for the 06:40, most of the cars were already there at that time. I arrived back to pick them up from the 15:00 arrival and there were no gaps where cars had left in the meantime.