Passing of Ian Walsh

[IrishTrainScenes]

Very sad news, received just now that Ian Walsh, who ran the Blue Thunder railtour, sadly passed away last night.

May he rest in peace and my thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time.

[Mol_PMB]

Sad to hear, thanks for sharing the news. I travelled on a couple of his railtours and thoroughly enjoyed them.

Edit: I think the 'Chunkrail Challenger' was the most memorable, I think I still have my ticket somewhere. Waterford to Sligo, out via Kildare and back via Rosslare. Various combinations of baby GMs through the (long) day.

Edited August 4 by Mol_PMB

[Niles]

Ian had an amazing knowledge and seemed to be known throughout the IÉ system. I travelled on his tour as a passenger back in 2006, one of the best I've ever been on. I got to know him in more recent years, he offered his assistance towards our fledgling Táilte operations, knowing the niceties of railtours perhaps better than anyone, he would ensure that our 2600 set was on the platform well in advance so we weren't stressed with loading etc and tried to give us 'surprise' movements, such as routing our recent Eyre Lee Bird tour through the new platform 6 in Cork, wanting it to be the first railtour to pass through it.

He'd give me calls while cycling home from the bus, often late at night, telling stories from his travels across the system. For a relatively young man, he had got to plenty of interesting places now vanished from the IÉ map such as New Ross, Kingscourt and Foynes via the weedspray train. He had also extensively travelled the Bus Éireann system.

Sleep well Ian, you will be sorely missed, and thank you for all your help.

Edited August 5 by Niles

[LNERW1]

The poor man. As many late figures in our community, I only learnt who he was too late, but he seems like a wonderful person. May he rest in peace.

[jhb171achill]

Rest in peace, Ian, another stalwart of the tour and enthusiast community lost. I only had the privilege of meeting him once, but a gentleman and great enthusiast.

[skinner75]

Ian at the helm of the Blue Thunderer tour - about to depart Connolly

[Mol_PMB]

Varied traction on Ian’s ‘Rosslare Rambler’, and my ticket for the ‘Chunkrail Challenger’. Not so many photo-opportunities on that one as I recall - it was a long trip!

Ian was great at making unlikely things happen!