Broithe

I remain unconvinced that privatisation is plausible for the railways - nobody is ever going to make a direct profit from railway operation, least of all in Ireland. It has a tendency to turn into a gravy train with little regard for the user. Bizarre levels of complication start to occur with regard to what is an individual company's responsibility. We had a crash here some years ago, when a failed wagon derailed a mail train on the other track, the loco of which went up the embankment into the end wall of a chap's house. Neither the owners of the loco nor the people they had leased it to nor the people operating it for them nor Royal Mail, whose train it was pulling, accepted responsibility, as they had been derailed by the wagon from the other train. The owners of the wagon had leased it to somebody else who had put its maintenance out to tender elsewhere - ad infinitum.. After about six years of argument, somebody made an 'ex-gratia' payment to reimburse the repair of the house. And one of the mail sorters died.

Living in England, I have to say that I haven't been on a train here for five years. We're ladling tax-payer's money into the system on a scale that British Rail couldn't have even dreamed of. I know people that work for Network Rail and 'financial efficiency' is not a term that they use much. Operators have walked away, unscathed, from promises that no sane person can have believed that they could fulfil. Fares have jacked up way beyond inflation. The journeys that I used to take now either take too long or are just not worth it. The complications of knowing just whose trains you are allowed to use and operators hiding opposition trains from their timetables are not for the faint-hearted. The only train they I've used in Ireland has been Dublin/Ballybrophy and I've never had the slightest problem - my catalogue of disasters over here is too long to go into. Irish Rail could be better, of course - but it could also be worse and more expensive.

It can be done like that, even I've managed it that way. The larger curved blades are better, I find, and you can systematically 'plane' the area in question. The straight edged blades have much more of a risk of leaving scratches or grooves.

Where do I send the bill..?

5, Ballybrophy's on it's third name..

Possibly an idea for IÉ to consider in these financially straitened times... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tama_(cat)

Perhaps we need a Laois sub-section..?

To be fair, it isn't easy to find. If you click 'My Profile' there's nothing there - I would never think to look in 'Settings'...

Click 'Settings' above right - then click 'Edit Profile' in 'My Settings' in the white box on the left. I think....

London to Brighton in four minutes - now, thirty years ago and sixty years ago.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23853863 ..not particularly mountainous, but still interesting..

Coconut grease is multi-purpose.

Fear not - help is at hand..

Yep, Thurles 1961 - give the man a coconut.

This video is always worth watching again.. [video=youtube;5nTtOOKan-U]

Where and when(ish)..?

Bridge between Cherry Orchard Avenue and Lavery Avenue - https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=dublin&ll=53.334919,-6.364936&spn=0.001341,0.002411&hnear=Dublin,+County+Dublin,+Ireland&gl=uk&t=h&z=19

They do have a reasonably-priced electric winch in Lidl, now and then.... ..also available without the swing-arm - for around €50/60.

Another one over here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-23811750 ..

And the dog wants to go for a walk, too, I see.

You can get black Dymo tape from a lot of stationers and just stick it on without printing.. ..or, maybe it might even be helpful to indicate routes by printing..? ..I think it comes in 9 and 12 mm widths..

Would dark brown do? An old cassette or video tape..? Stick it on and varnish over..

Digitisers appearing now - http://store.makerbot.com/digitizer.html ..