Broithe

Link?

Hell! There's a Tiger approaching.....

I presume that the idea was to 'raise awareness' or something like that. BTP officers are easily recognisable just by the sheer number of pockets - even if you're not near enough to read the badge.

British Transport Police - http://www.btp.police.uk/ - a national service dedicated specifically to the railways. I've never actually seen one of them, if you get hassle on a train and somebody does turn up, then they will invariably be a 'real' copper from wherever you happen to be. I imagine they spend a lot of effort in combating metal theft, but I don't really know. They did once have an actual engine, which was really a little embarrassing, I thought. I saw it once and wondered what they would actually do with it...?

Moving on now - 40 minutes late. https://twitter.com/IrishRail

Difference should be clearly visible. Plastic frog - or metal frog.....?

Porter? - looks a posh place, bet they have a commissionaire....

Should be - it was good last year.

I wonder if this chap'll be performing as the support act..? http://iraallen.com/

Ah, right - I thought it was getting cramped last year...

Portlaoise? Is that the Abbeyleix event?

I would go to that....

http://www.irishrail.ie/news/meet-the-managers.

Very nice. Three points, though. 1, You might distress the mirrors on the vans, few of them get very far without hitting something. 2, If you want some finer chain for the cement wagon, you could ask your Domestic Supervisor for her advice. 3, It wouldn't hurt to have a little bit of track on that railing for future photo opportunities.

They seem to have bodged up doorways in the sides, several of them. I do wonder about the weight situation, though, a carriage full of turf must be way over a carriage full of people and a few bits of luggage. Nip into Easons and have look at the real picture - the book is on the stand in the middle of the floor at the far end. The picture shows the first three carriages, and the fifth, to be of one type and the fourth is a similar, but different type. The book also contains some other railway pictures, including one of a fatal mail train derailment - I showed the book to 'my agent' over there - and it turned out that his wife had lived across the road from the unfortunate victim of the crash - small world.

I'm not sure if this has been discussed before, but, having escaped from the clutches of the Train Man Senior ( nice to see him back in action ), I looked into Eason's and treated myself to a copy of Father Browne's Laois - on page 108 is a most interesting picture, a turf train at Portarlington during the Emergency. The picture in the book is from the footbridge and clearly shows the first five "wagons" of the train. They are, in fact, converted passenger carriages, With planks fitted inside the windows and loading doors roughly made from planks, too. The roofs have been removed and they are filled with turf right up to the roof-line. I can't find the actual picture online, but this small image is probably of the same ( or similar ) train. You can just make out the sods of turf where the roofs should be. http://fatherbrowne.com/

Nice.

I worked here - https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=stafford&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Stafford,+United+Kingdom&gl=uk&ll=52.795733,-2.107074&spn=0.002851,0.004823&t=h&z=18&vpsrc=6 - from '74 to '93, and it spent a good bit of time stuck on the bend with the tilting mechanism jammed.... There's some bits of it in Crewe, with a small layout in one of the carriages. The driver's compartment was a bit like a cave - not much visibility.

Good plan - people assume that it is the rails expanding in the heat, but I believe that a bigger part of the problem is actually the wood shrinking as it dries. And vice-versa. And, having the track on the ground does reduce the effects of temperature/humidity variations, too.

As we weren't fully exposed, to rain, snow, etc, we had what you might call normal 'indoor' scenery, that wouldn't survive fully exposed. Some of the 'grass' went to hay very quickly and cardboard buildings also changed colour over time, but this wasn't always for the worse. The Peco backscenes also faded very quickly, but this just made them look a bit more 'distant' really. Expansion was our biggest problem, but it can happen in the real world, too. We also had some problems with lack of connection through some of the track joiners after a long period of time, you might like to make provision to directly connect each piece of track. It could be worth the extra trouble at the start in the long run. Miniature gardening is a subject in itself. This book is very good, though there are many others, too - http://www.amazon.com/Gardening-Miniature-MARTIN-BAXENDALE/dp/0706367626/ref=la_B001HPSB26_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1403516965&sr=1-2 .

I had one that was sort-of half outside - it was under a car-port - we had various small problems. There was quite a bit of expansion/contraction with temperature, even more so with humidity variations. We had to fit expansion joints eventually. Some of the scenic materials faded very quickly in the summer sunlight. Flies, bees and wasps seemed to die between the rails almost deliberately. Poplar seeds would stick to anything even slightly greasy and fur up the works. Cold damp weather would promote an oxide layer on the track and cause poor pick-up. However, it was worth it all for the length of track that it made available for full-length trains.

Positive vibes, man.

Costa Rica were the "no-hopers" in a group where the other three were past winners, with a total of seven World Cups between them - this is the best thing to happen to the World Cup for a long time.

Some quiet days, but here we go again - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-27948541 .

Named - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-27939845 - famous for ever now....