Broithe

Imagine trying to make this stuff, in our sort of quantities, at a reasonable price, without the Chinese...

I've had a few events on the Big Island - one train back from Holyhead, about 2005, had the in-car automated station announcements one station out all the way back. On another occasion, 1998ish, we ended up down some virtually disused siding somewhere around Queensferry, and had to reverse back out onto the main line. In 1999, I took an interminable diversion, on the way from Bristol to Birmingham, as they weren't confident that the thing we were on was running well enough to get up the Lickey Incline. I woke up once to hear a very gentle clickety-clack, when our intended route was all continuously-welded. We were doing about 20mph as we trundled along to get back to a 'real' track. That was about 2000. I found a quiet carriage and settled down on a through train to Holyhead, about 2007. Luckily, when it stopped at Chester, the front was well off the platform end and the driver found me on his way back to alight onto the platform - and informed me that my bit of the train was being detached from the continuing part - first I'd heard of it. In 1963, waiting with my father at Kingham, it became clear that his train wasn't stopping, and we all went off to the next station in the station master's Morris Minor van.

https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2020/0121/1109770-model-railway/

And he did release this tribute song, as a thanks to the Health & Safety inspectors who had got him that far, although he only made it to 37 years old in the end...

Mmm, I did find this in a museum in Shropshire, if you ever get caught out in that vicinity.

Recently, in order to accurately set a few clocks, I checked the time and found myself digitally located in Maryborough. To be fair to them, I wasn't that far away, geographically, but the name was officially changed in 1929. It's interesting that it has somehow survived into this digital age, when I haven't heard anybody use it in general conversation for most of forty years. The time was right to the second, but the location was ninety years out of date...

Ballybrophy's still there. Or, for the last few months, they could just leave the lid off the tank...

It's almost that time again. Saturday, 10am - 5pm, Sunday, 10am - 4:30pm. If attending, then I would suggest being aware of potential swamp conditions for the car parking arrangements... Details - https://www.staffordrailwaycircle.org.uk/exhibition/

Is there a tampo mistake? Should there be another 's' at the front of "lime works"..?

Multi Purpose Vehicle.

No hi-vis - asking for trouble.

I bought a 'generic' Nikon lens hood, which turned out to be indistinguishable from a real one. I presumed it was coming from China, but it would be under the VAT ransom threshold, so i wasn't too bothered. When it arrived, it had been posted in the Solomon Islands. I doubt that I could have posted back "Thanks" written on a small piece of tissue paper for the total of £1:02 that it cost me.

Adelaide - 1992. https://www.lococarriage.org.uk/ireland_1992.html

Today's inspection tour revealed few alterations. The polite notice at the end of Platform 2 has been renewed. And one has also appeared at the end of Platform 1, too. The 'new' bridge is starting to look older than the 'old' bridge ever did... Some more interesting masonry textures.

See if it works with hair - there's a few on here who might be interested...

Done.

If we're saying things again, then I'll (re)say that I usually find 'modern urban' layouts a little disappointing. They often look a little sparse and artificial. This proves that that does not need to be the case.

There are probably quite a few songs with railway connotations - here's one that it's taken me a while to capture, but I finally got it tonight. Not quite HD...

You never know, they might be using the privatised 'Royal' Mail's new Back To The Future service. I'm still waiting for this* to be delivered the day before it was posted. Maybe they're using DeLorean vans? * Not a railway-related item.

My card turned up today. Cheers, lads!