Broithe

A friend of mine had his 3-litre Capri stolen in July 1976. He reported it and started the insurance palaver. After several weeks, there was still no report of it anywhere and the insurance money finally arrived, so he could see about a replacement. Three days later, he got up to go searching for a 'new' car and there it was, on the drive, cleaned and with 4,000 miles extra on the clock. By this stage, it was still a stolen car and it didn't belong to him any more. After some argy-bargy with the cops and the insurance company, he bought it back with the money they'd given him for it, although they initially demanded more than they had told him it was worth... It was never resolved where it had been all those weeks. The consensus was that somebody had probably 'borrowed' it to go around Europe in the hot summer of that year.

Even the paving slabs are excellent - especially the ones around the 'adjusted corner'.

This is still the UK's warning sign for an ungated level crossing. I suppose it's more recognisable as a 'train' than a generic diesel silhouette would be.

For the first few seconds, I thought you were giving away that you are in your late eighties...

Nice - well worth doing - and, if it hadn't worked, you could have kept gerbils in it.

Mmm - thinking further about this, there is a precedent - this highway bridge in Prague actually has the Metro running in a tube underneath it - https://www.google.com/maps/@50.0650592,14.4285975,3a,51.1y,87.9h,96.91t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s8WDelnI3bpaj29L7Pyq-8A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 - like a 'tunnel in the sky' - it does stop passengers being blinded by the sudden light, before they are plunged back under the ground at the far side of the valley.

When you've finished the current project, you could build a metro system running in the ducting. U-Murphbahn.

He surely has to produce a calendar for next Christmas?

Attempts to create the aroma of Guinness and egg sandwiches also failed to surmount the obvious health and welfare issues.

Do you have a loyalty card? Those points must be adding up...

And two more...

A brief survey today revealed that the work on improving and expanding the car parking arrangements has commenced. This should be a great improvement, things were getting rather squeezed, although the "recent events" may have eased the pressure for a bit. Some new ballast has appeared on the through lines - possibly salvaged from the pile that was located on the site of the car park extension? There was some, probably unrelated, activity going on under the road bridge, but I couldn't make out what it might be. 4004 was pushed in by 225 whilst I was there. All looking good - for a station that has seemed to be under almost constant threat for the whole of living memory.

One day, there may be a special edition boxed loco, with the wheels just protruding from the bottom of the packaging - enough to allow it to run, but without leaving the box. And they all will live happily ever after.

In Dublin - until March 25th - 10am to 5pm, Monday-Friday - access is free. See Page 5 in here - https://www.araireland.ie/sites/default/files/Newsletters/ARAI_Winter_newsletter_2021_22.pdf

The Viggen was unusual in having reverse thrust available. There is the odd video of them being driven backwards on the ground.

It could be a Proses one - they do various types and gauges - some have "valves" to control the flow. https://proses.com/prestashop/12-ballasting-solutions

This account is definitely worth following.

It's just a matter of what Google guesses as you do an image search for "railways of ir"..

Obviously, IRM will shortly be producing Bord na Mona items, but we may have to wait for (at least) the second wave, before we see this in RTR form.

In the late 60s, I did most of the Thames in a giant two-man fibreglass kayak. It was a real 'lump', but it was OK once you got going and we were going downstream. We had borrowed the vessel, and the name of the owners was emblazoned down both sides - RAF Transport Command - I doubt that we had the Russians worried and I never spotted anybody trying to take covert photos of the internal technology.

This looks plausible? https://transportsofdelight.smugmug.com/RAILWAYS/IRISH-RAILWAYS/MIDLAND-GREAT-WESTERN-RAILWAY/i-P5F4CVZ/

I'm ashamed to say that I've only just got the "OMg" joke... I'm just off to celebrate with a glass of Milk of Magnesia.