Broithe

It is often a bad idea to watch a 'factual TV programme' about anything that you have more than a passing knowledge of. In terms of enthusiasts parting with money, there can be a general tendency to make the "Will I? Won't I?" decision easier to take as the distance from home goes up. It can become an "It's now or never" choice. On the Big Island, I live about thirty miles from the Severn Valley Railway, but I've never been there - because I can always go next week.... (Well, in 'normal' times I can)

His own channel has a good bit of railway stuff on - mostly UK, but some continental places from various tours.

There are a few well-known ones - Pete Waterman, Rod Stewart, Nail Young, etc., but there are others. Here's two, from the opposite ends of the musical spectrum. Antonin Dvorak - http://music-toronto.com/train-spotting-with-a-famous-composer/ Captain Sensible.

Further events as part of the weekend of yellow festivities are occurring.

Shortcuts westwards over Donegal were not actively discouraged. There were many of the coastal signs, some are being re-established. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mayo,+Co.+Mayo/@54.3267829,-9.3462255,138m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x48595d749ddbec0d:0x91b3fcc43f2cb67c!8m2!3d54.0152604!4d-9.4289369

The Eagle has landed..?

An ambitious bike ride today had a zigzag return path over the bridges to the northeast of the station. This first one is 173, on the R434 Durrow to Borris in Ossory road. From here, you can see 174, barely a hundred yards away. It seems odd to have built two bridges so close together, when a small road realignment would have meant you could get away with one - maybe there were "important land owners" in the area at the time? This is 173, seen from 174 - it's a 'standard' stone arch structure. This is 174's rivetted girder structure, with 173 visible in the distance. The bridge crosses the track at quite a shallow angle, perhaps felt to be too much for an arched structure. The end piers are in the same style, though. The southwestern side has a parallel farm-access 'footbridge'. The northeastern side is more open. This bridge would be known locally as The Skew Bridge at one time. It can also be seen from Bridge 176, to the southeast. Bridge 176 seems to have had a 'new' parapet some time in the past, the remains of an original one can be seen at the ends. Two bridges can be seen to the southwest - the nearer one is a farm access and the further one is the M7 - surveying that one on a bike might attract unwanted attention. There are track access gates here, both pedestrian and vehicular. The next available road bridge is 179, just to the northeast of the station, a 'skew' bridge, but not as shallow as 174, so it is an arched structure. Again, a 'new' parapet is apparent. And, lastly, a reasonable view of Bridge 182, at the station itself, that I may not have included before. And, I was warned by the sound of an approaching train, so managed to capture it. I had been surprised by the silent approach of a grey 071 and an empty flat train at Bridge 176 - it approached with remarkably little sound and I had no time to get the camera back out of my pocket...

An Accurascale Facebook post yesterday said "Don't miss out, bolster your wagon fleet here: " I considered starting a rumour that the accidental use of the word 'bolster' was a Freudian slip indicating a potential release in the immediate future. But then I thought it might just dilute all the other rumours already circulating...

As long as it doesn't end mammatus up... Anyway, what are we supposed to do for six whole hours?

"The Market" is a place that few people really understand - it often seems perverse. 50% of what I own is from boot sales, charity shops and "do you want this before I throw it out?" When I had a 'proper job', I could barely keep up with the stuff I rescued from the skips. I have to wear blinkers when I go to the tip on the Big Island... There are even times when a higher price seems to be an additional selling point - women's haircuts, lampshades, posh cars, etc. People are often more amenable to paying over the odds for something that they want, rather than for stuff they need. And a 'rising market' will attract people who think that it's worth paying an inflated price, if the selling price they can get in the future will be inflated a bit more. And vice versa. It's a market, things are offered and the terms are accepted or rejected, when all is said and done.

My other forum does that - "New Posts" shows a list of threads added to since you last looked - clicking on a topic in that will take you to the first unread post in each thread- handy. Well, it used to - it has, for some unfathomable reason, started taking you straight to the latest post, so there is a risk of missing stuff, if you don't 'look up' to see if there's anything earlier that you hadn't seen. We also have "Recent Activity" - this shows each post, like, profile change, etc, in time order. It also shows, for a while, deleted posts, which can be entertaining - these are usually spam and unintended duplications - five insertions of the same post is the current record, if anybody wants to try to beat it...

Can you still get Brut Class 33..?

"Fog in the Channel - continent cut off"..?

I just entered the name of the town - and it's placed me between the 'main pub' and the chipper, That seems handy enough. My 'place of residence', in the legal sense, is on the Big Island, but I've been there less than half the time over the last three years.

I ventured out beyond the 5km today - up the bog road to survey Bridge 194. This would imply that there are three other structures between here and bridge 190 above. One of them, 193, presumably, is this nuclear-bomb-proof culvert next-door. I can see what looks like one other, non-public, structure via google maps, about half-way between 190 and 194. The 'girder' of 194 is an interesting structure - a corrugated plate, formed from z-pieces, rivetted to joining plates.

Mmmm... Would that include an NIR layout? Or even IoW? Or do they, perhaps, mean the physical location of the actual layout?

http://www.waterfordmuseum.ie/exhibit/web/DisplayImage/K0qfsMMKxRJps/1/Manor_Street_Railway_Station_Waterford_City.html;jsessionid=F97116E9EA89A5324353A6620110FB0A

What? Surely you have this on repeat in the car. Interestingly (perhaps), just before I started at Stafford Poly, Wizzard played there, supported by, of all unlikely people, Bob Marley and the Wailers...

Last Train To Charleville?