Broithe

His reverence was not a fan of the newer presentations of the Thomas genre, suggesting that they sometimes showed "lamentable gross ignorance about railway practices".

Another aspect may be that Irish railways never really had a 'glamorous age', as most others did. It's always been a utilitarian transport provider. The lack of items available isn't always a bad thing, it does limit the expenditure, in fact... To some extent, the amount of Irish stuff appearing these days is becoming a problem to keep up with. With a current exposure to about one thousandth of the world's population, it is likely to remain a niche market. But, compared to the position just twenty short years ago, the leap into the future has been prodigious.

I believe that the No 1 end is the front, and the No 2 end is the back. That's certainly the case with children, anyway. But, I've never found it easy to control the sound level.

Ah, I might have some spare time tomorrow morning, but I would need to know your weight, as I would need to do a test with a couple of bags of cement. Also, it would be necessary for you just to bring a debit card - apart from the virus transmission issues of using cash, there is no way I could accommodate the weight of your wallet.

My main period of interest would be 1990/2010. This is, presumably, because I am so young-looking.

That's ridiculously dangerous. The two at the back have no masks and no distancing.

All of these things, plus MIR etc., are part of the evolutionary process that has got us where we are now. We were all amoebae once - some of us still are.....

I saw an odd one a few times through Ballybrophy, but I have no presentable evidence of any of the events..

And sometimes just the odd one. https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/44/25/2442555_16504068.jpg

Any chance of a special edition 224 model at some point? Would there be space to fit an additional servo-controlled catch inside, that could be operated via DCC, and induce the 'drop' at the whim of the controller?

741, I think.

It's always worth checking the evidence via @WRENNEIRE, he's known to have his finger on the Pulse...

You can, subject to experimentation with your own layout and stock, run straight (flexi)track much closer than the track on bends. Flaring out the track slightly as you approach the bend, to the point where clashes don't occur..

Me - working on a circuit breaker in a substation in Middlebrough in the mid-80s - putting strain gauges on the new porcelains of a breaker they had broken by mis-operating it manually, but were trying to blame us for... Unable to interpret all the different coloured barriers, cones and flags, I asked the bloke with the brand new Safety Officer" jacket and multiple clip-boards - "Is the cabinet completely Off?" - "Yes." was his answer. To be fair, I was as bothered about electrical interference overwhelming the gauge signals as I was about getting a belt. I negotiated the chicane to approach the cabinet, started to make a few connections and got a mains belt up my arm. Investigations showed me that the cabinet heater supply was still live. I counted to ten and returned to the Safety Officer - "You told me the cabinet is completely off" - "It is." - "I've just had a 240 belt off the heaters" - "Oh, we always leave the heaters on" - "Well, you can turn everything completely off, tell me when you have done that, and you can make a note on one of your clip-boards that, if I find a volt on anything in there, then I am going to kill you!"

Crikey! That would slow them down and give the fox a sporting chance...

Great, I was going to wait for a real turf-fired one, then I thought "Sod that!".

@Mayner used the term 'dog box' here :-