Broithe

Stanley Waterford 104 Mk II.

I have a vague idea that there was a layout in a carriage at Crewe 10/15 years ago. This could be 'real life or is it just fantasy'? I will ask the person who was there with me, he's (fairly) reliable...

Until late last year, the shed was not considered to be part of her responsibilities, but, with the door open all day in the warmer weather, it was decided to check the internal area as well. Before that point, she would just sit on the doorstep, protecting the open entrance from unauthorised incursions. So far, she has proved to be well-behaved - probably better than me. Occasionally, other cats do venture into the garden, but they are not treated as colleagues, or even welcomed as visitors. As for the smell issue, she seems able to put up with me...

Well, I got the rest of it yesterday and was able to remove a bogie and transfer it to the tender. My assumption that the carriage bogies would be identical was wrong - although they would fit, the connector arms are longer there. It would work, but be a little unsightly. The redundant arm could always be cut off on the final bogie on the train, of course, so we can use either to refit the caboose. The loco action was binding in a few places, but it's reasonably free now - it would have been an issue with the light weight and the tender-driven layout. The pony truck was not retained, so it fee off whenever the loco was lifted - it has a wire clip holding the pivot-end in place now. It's all rather fragile, partly because of the age, I suspect - and I have little faith in it surviving long in service. We shall see... This is all largely about indoctrinating his four-year-old lad and infecting him with the bug.

Seeing @Gabhal Luimnigh's shed progressing so nicely elsewhere, it occurred to me that security can be an issue in some locations. I'm lucky enough to the services of a self-appointed Security Officer, who has controlled rodent activities very successfully. Indeed, so successful has she been at her chosen profession that she has felt able, this winter, to take on additional duties as Fire Warden. It is only recently, after three years, that I have found out her postal address, when I called to a household where she was dining, and discovered that they believe that they 'own' her. With everybody out in the daytime most days, they've had no idea of what extracurricular activities she has taken on. However, I am no longer allowed on the furniture.

. This reminded me of one of many similar events when I had a 'proper job'. We made high-voltage circuit breakers and had many "events" which were caused by plated bolts having the plating scraped off as they were tightened. With vibration and the effects of the fairly intense electric field, the bits would often eventually line up and cause the insulation to fail, in quite a spectacular manner. The company had the policy of always buying the cheapest rubbish available and hoping for the best, but this was getting desperate, stuff was blowing up everywhere and a solution was wanted (in reality, they just wanted to be seen to be actively seeking a solution, whilst hoping that the problem would soon be overshadowed by something bigger). A meeting was called and I suggested that we might get a lot less debris if we used stainless steel fasteners. This would have involved spending a few pence more, but I might as well have suggested using platinum. A few years later, we were taken over by a French operation who made similar stuff, but to a much higher standard - and I remember a bloke actually laughing at the state of the bolts we used. We then went to S/S everywhere... Not only were the fasteners a bit flaky, in the true sense, but they were also very rough - to the point that they usually required a spanner to spin them in loose. This led to a near double fatality, when some bolts were removed from a pressure vessel which was still (unknowingly) pressurised. The tightness as they came out, still loaded up, seemed 'normal' to the chaps undoing them, until the last few let go and fired the whole 4 tonne thing up through the roof, derailing the travelling crane that was holding it, ready to be lifted off, and filling the sunken area they were working in with a dense, asphyxiant gas....

The white runs from the lead flashing is good.

Track Safety Coordinator..?

We'll need to check that weekly...

With only a very small amount of rearrangement along the back, at the wall, you would have the space for a reasonably substantial swear jar, which would help in reducing the financial shock of future projects.

Some of the gates do manage to keep their heads down. And some get extended - twice. Three times, if you count the additional side gate. We're not going to keep everything, and sometimes people just aren't interested in some things to any great extent. There were many magnificent things in the past, typewriters, mechanical calculators, even VRCs, that aren't of much interest to 'modern people', beyond the transient curio value. As long as a representative selection survives, that is probably enough.

Was the Killarney motor museum the Lucey one? That was originally in Port Laoise whilst he was still practicing as a vet, before retiring and moving off south west. I called there once, in the hope of having a look round, but he was on holiday and the housekeeper thought I didn't look trustworthy enough to be let in. Understandable. really... It's not all black and white on the 'old stuff' front. I realised, during the lockdown, whilst I was trying to cycle every road as the radius went up, just how many roadside pumps were left. I initially expected there to be about a dozen, but I'm heading for three figures now. In the same size area in England, I know of four. There is a similar higher Irish survival rate for things like wrought-iron field gates, milk stands, lime kilns, etc. https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1IgMK3uJ3xIxafN0Y9ScYVvMhA5ZF7nvO&usp=sharing https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjzK7xj

Whatever next? A microwave crematorium?

Any dusky pics need to be of maidens.

Not dazzle, per se, but this is an interesting approach. This is Tirpitz, pretending to be a block of flats. It's towards the end of the fitting out, in Wilhelmshaven, 1940.

I was under pressure to 'do something' for this Valentine's Day scam last Wednesday, so I decided to make a proper go of it. I booked us a quiet table for two. I expected to be complimented on my thoughtfulness. However, it all turned into a total disaster. Apparently, I was supposed to know that she doesn't like snooker.

Other ghost trains may be available. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150723-why-britain-has-secret-ghost-trains

How long can a thread title be..?

Go to your first post here - click the three dots in the top right corner - click 'edit' - edit the title text to suit - click 'submit'.

As you started this thread, you are able to edit the title, if you want to. Something like "A possibly fictional steam engine and its place in the socio-economic history of railways in Ireland"...?

Some US ships still carried dazzle camouflage in WW2. The ship in the picture, along with 23 others, was built in sections in the Rocky Mountains, then transported 1,000 miles to the coast for final assembly.

For the sake of completeness, this is Mountrath & Castletown/Kilbricken - https://www.google.com/maps/@52.9634348,-7.4660293,102m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu - not so easy to see from the Street View, but still fairly complete. Catching a glimpse of it fleetingly as you go past can have you thinking you've passed Ballybrophy.

Within the last year, I have had two fairly local people tell me that you could get a train from Mountrath to Kilkenny - probably the same similarity misremembrance. I have no idea, but I may investigate one day...

There's a lot more evidence of the station in Mountmellick, than there is in Attanagh. https://www.google.com/maps/@53.1200704,-7.3384635,3a,20.1y,201.38h,89.98t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sG5hIm-GsDLpksyQfOHfhsA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DG5hIm-GsDLpksyQfOHfhsA%26cb_client%3Dsearch.revgeo_and_fetch.gps%26w%3D96%26h%3D64%26yaw%3D213.32684%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu

Was it ever possible to run a train from Mountrath & Castletown/Kilbricken to Abbeyleix without reversing in Maryborough/Port Laoise? My mother's family had connections in Waterford and would travel from Rathdowney to Attanagh via a pony and trap, to catch the train southwards.