Book - Rails Through Connemara

[Noel]

Nice surprise when the post man brought this book today. Our own @jhb171achill's latest book. Glued to it. Excellent read with wonderful archive maps and photos. The map on page 30 is particularly interesting considering Galway city today. This lost line was an MGWR gem. Gotto go back to the book.

PS: Congrats on another excellent production. Hmmm Clifton station looks an interesting subject . . . no, no, no, stick to the mission and complete Gort, there's still much more to be done. Thanks for another great book. Love MGWR history.

[DiveController]

Rails Through Connemara - The Galway-Clifden Railway (LP 250) £15.95

Softback, 192 pages, black & white photographs, drawings and more

ISBN: 9780853617594

Didn't know about this. Must see how to get a copy shipped at reasonable cost to the US. Lovely MGW loco on the cover

Edited August 17, 2021 by DiveController

[jhb171achill]

I posted two to the USA last week. The PO charged me €7 for one and €15 or something like that for the other, as a particularly inflexible lady there told me it was a few grams over a specific limit!

[iarnrod]

Where can copies be purchased from? Preferably in Ireland.

 

[jhb171achill]

2 hours ago, iarnrod said:

Where can copies be purchased from? Preferably in Ireland.

 

The publisher, Stenlake Press in Glasgow, can provide details - he has just circulated bookshop wholesalers.

I can supply one when I get them - probably in a week or so.

[David Holman]

So, that's what you've been up to. On the strength of Rails to Achill, it goes straight to the top of my wish list. Amazon had three a minute ago. Now down to two...

[airfixfan]

Have ordered a copy from the publisher direct as I detest buying from Amazon!

[DartStation]

Received my copy from the publisher a few weeks ago, perusing through it slowly - great work JHB. 

 

Paul R.

[jhb171achill]

2 hours ago, DartStation said:

Received my copy from the publisher a few weeks ago, perusing through it slowly - great work JHB. 

 

Paul R.

 

18 hours ago, David Holman said:

So, that's what you've been up to. On the strength of Rails to Achill, it goes straight to the top of my wish list. Amazon had three a minute ago. Now down to two...

Very much appreciated, folks!

[ttc0169]

Looking forward to the book launch in Maam cross and the personally signed copy from you Jonathan.

Hotel booked for this important event

[David Holman]

Mine arrived yesterday and very good it looks too, with plenty of inspiration for layout builders.

[jhb171achill]

2 hours ago, David Holman said:

Mine arrived yesterday and very good it looks too, with plenty of inspiration for layout builders.

I had one eye on modellers when picking illustrations and drawings!

[jhb171achill]

Folks - I forgot to mention that in order to comply with covid regulations regarding numbers attending, can I ask anyone planning to go if they can just fire off a RSVP to info@railtoursireland.ie.

Many thanks, and see you there.

[airfixfan]

When I arrived home this evening after a research trip with photos of stations closed in 1935 that there have never been photos published before. This new book was waiting for me so I fully appreciate the hard work of the Author tracking his rare photos etc down etc

 Well Done JHB 171

[jhb171achill]

Many thanks, airfixfan!

[airfixfan]

Interesting speculation about how the Swilly and the County Donegal could have fared under GSR/CIE control on page 55!

[jhb171achill]

46 minutes ago, airfixfan said:

Interesting speculation about how the Swilly and the County Donegal could have fared under GSR/CIE control on page 55!

(Had to look that up myself!)

Judging by retrospect and bits and pieces of what Senior had had to say in the past, that itself informed by Inchicore and York Road thinking a generation earlier, it seems likely that had no border ever existed, the overall Derry - Killybegs spine might have developed as more of a "through" route. 

With Henry Forbes simply being a small cog in a big Dublin-centric organisation, the early dieselisation simply would not have happened, but it's reasonable to assume that the mid-1950s modernisation, as on the West Clare, would have done.

Branches and anything north of Buncrana or west of Letterkenny (or Stranorlar) would have had no better chance of survival, but on the proviso that either the Derry Road or the INW line had survived, we might still have a line from Pennyburn to Letterkenny, and from Victoria Road to at least Donegal town, operated by diesels. At the least, an influx of Walker railcars and "F" class diesels would have kept it going until the 1975 closures, at which time these - plus the track - would have been in need of replacement. Goods would have been gone by the early 70s.

But of course, nothing but speculation.

Donegal 2.6.4T in plain grey, anyone? The cherry red would never have existed at all in the above scenario!

Edited August 25, 2021 by jhb171achill

[jhb171achill]

Hot off the press - preview of what kept Barry and myself busy last winter….

This is the publisher’s preview for BC and myself to approve before it goes to the printers.

 

 

 

....and yes, we're working on another. Keyboard in action tonight.

 

Edited October 9, 2021 by jhb171achill

[StevieB]

I look forward to your forthcoming book on the Mallow to Waterford/Rosslare line. I do hope that it is on your radar. In the meantime, I look forward to reading Rails through Tipperary.

Stephen

[jhb171achill]

6 minutes ago, StevieB said:

I look forward to your forthcoming book on the Mallow to Waterford/Rosslare line. I do hope that it is on your radar. In the meantime, I look forward to reading Rails through Tipperary.

Stephen

I had actually seriously considered doing Mallow - Waterford, and Barry and I considered including it in the above.

However, lack of suitable or available colour material would have made it unsuitable for this book, and it's been covered in other "serious" histories. It is indeed a line that I would like to turn my attention to at some stage, though, but perhaps more suitable for a 2 or 3 part article in the IRRS Journal.

Waterford to Rosslare will feature, though, in something else I'm working on.

I'm hoping that "R T Tipperary" will be on sale for the Christmas market. It covers the triangle of Limerick to Waterford, Clonmel - Thurles,  Thurles Sugar factory and Thurles - Limerick Junction, as well as the highly scenic Nenagh Branch. Killaloe and Cashel get in there too. Barry and I are working on a 4th album at the moment, the details of which I will post once there's anything coherent TO post!

[DB JOE]

Looking forward to this too !! As I have the other titles in this series of books!!

 

All excellent!!

[jhb171achill]

Many thanks, Joe. If I cannot achieve the high modelling standards of many here, at least I can attempt to put on paper some material which might be of use to modellers present and future!

[DJ Dangerous]

1 hour ago, jhb171achill said:

...modellers present and future!

When is your book on the revolutionary 22000's and the breathtakingly beautiful and diverse 29000's due out?

[jhb171achill]

4 minutes ago, DJ Dangerous said:

When is your book on the revolutionary 22000's and the breathtakingly beautiful and diverse 29000's due out?

If I ever see a "breathtakingly beautiful" 29, I will certainly write about it! None of the ones I saw today passing my house were endowed with particularly inspiring aesthetics..... As for the ICRs, I will do an article about them if I can find a photo of a fireman shovelling coal into one.......

[DJ Dangerous]

7 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

If I ever see a "breathtakingly beautiful" 29, I will certainly write about it! None of the ones I saw today passing my house were endowed with particularly inspiring aesthetics..... As for the ICRs, I will do an article about them if I can find a photo of a fireman shovelling coal into one.......

Into one or onto one?

They'll be breathtakingly beautiful for those future modellers!

[bufferstop]

JB, do you realise that an ICR set made it into the Thurles BFS before they were lifted!

A topic to be discussed over pints in MX at some stage..............

[jhb171achill]

1 hour ago, bufferstop said:

JB, do you realise that an ICR set made it into the Thurles BFS before they were lifted!

A topic to be discussed over pints in MX at some stage..............

Indeed I didn't! Any photos? 

[bufferstop]

No, not sure what I can divulge about this, pints in MX will reveal all............

Edited October 10, 2021 by bufferstop

[enniscorthyman]

Brilliant, two books I will be ordering  for Christmas  reading. 

[jhb171achill]

Teasers:

And look out for a blue cover, not orange; the Tipp colours contain blue!

 

Teasers:

And look out for a blue cover, not orange; the Tipp colours contain blue!