Category: General

‘We like the information you provide, just not your site.’

If you don’t like it here, don’t come here.

One of the activities I started a few months ago was a monthly volunteer litter picking event on the Royal Canal at Clonsilla.

I was supposed to be doing that today, but Gobshite Rail decided to not bolster capacity on the Sligo line for whatever bogball match is on in Croke Park, meaning that when the relevant train that should have brought me to Maynooth arrived at Kilcock, it was already full and no boarding possible. Needless to say, the PA at Kilcock remained silent about this.

As a State body, Gobshite Rail is required to favour all equally or not at all. I would like Gobshite Rail to explain why those travelling to bogball matches should be prioritised over every other recreational activity.

A traditional trope in Ireland when someone criticises something (especially the State) is to hit back with a suggestion that the person making the criticism should go and work there if they think they could do better.

For the record, I recently applied for a role in the company and received a generic email yesterday advising me that they would not be calling me for interview. I did offer to put my money where my mouth is, but a company like this would only be intimidated by someone who is as knowledgeable about their company (and its dead bodies) as I am.

Many accuse me of being tactless (I prefer the term “honest”). However, compared to these guys, I am a diplomat.

Many years ago, when the Kildare Route Project was being proposed as Irish Rail’s Celtic Tiger vanity project, I (unsuccessfully) lodged an objection to same, suggesting that an alternative (and cheaper) method of improving capacity between Inchicore and Hazelhatch and Celbridge would be to 4 track the stations and have commuter trains pull into the loops at such stations to allow mainline trains to overtake.

I was out and about in Dublin yesterday, which included taking me to Clongriffin Station. The DART I was on pulled into the loop on the Down side of the station and waited. The reason for this – to allow a Belfast bound train to overtake.

Amazing what can be done when you don’t have access to taxpayers’ money to spaff up against a wall.

I spent yesterday riding the rails in Dublin – my first time on a train in over 2 years.

One of the things I noticed was this appalling act of virtue signalling (apologies for the poor quality – daylight was fading when I took this shot):

For the benefit of the slow of learning, there are over 30 studies on the effectiveness of facemasks which show that they make no difference – even where properly applied in a medical setting, never mind when improperly applied and re-used as is the case amongst the sheep.

Industrialheritageireland.info has moved.

No longer living in beautiful Ballyfermot, I am now residing in Kilcock.

I was out and about today taking photographs for the Gazetteer (small number of short lived stations sites on the line between Howth and Drogheda via Howth Junction).

I finished up in Drogheda, taking a photograph of the approach to the original D&DR station in Drogheda, which was to the east of the present station and the site of which is now occupied by the Drogheda Traincare Depot.

View Larger Map

Looking at the photos I took and at the track layout on openstreetmap.org, there is effectively only one access point to the depot (technically there are two but they are side by side). This is not best engineering practice as if a train were to fail along the section of track covering the two access points, the depot (and potentially all trains therein) are stranded in the depot.

This is not an unrealistic prospect as this did happen in the Traincare Depot in Portlaoise.

Looking out my back window, I see a rainbow ending roughly where Inchicore railway works is.

The only pot of gold there is the site value when CIE Property get to demolish it and sell the site off for housing.

For the last 15 months or so of this new abnormal, I have been wondering whether or not to bother continuing with this site, but have recently decided to do so.

As part of the process for relaunching the site, I am checking various sections of the site outside of WordPress prior to reloading the entire site to my webhost. This includes checking links to external sites and one of these was to the Dundalk Museum.

For the uninitiated, this is located in a former tobacco warehouse and its primary focus is industrial heritage. Upon following the link to the site, the following message is displayed:

The Dundalk Museum website has been taken down.

If you have any queries, please contact Brian Walsh – Brian.Walsh@louthcoco.ie

In an era where government is throwing money (that it doesn’t have) at anything that moves and one where overseas travel is actively discouraged, the removal of a website dedicated to a tourist attraction in the Republic of Ireland is inappropriate and a false economy.

industrialheritageireland.info calls on Louth County Council to reinstate this website immediately. I wont even blink if they claim that doing so would be to “build back better”.

I will declare a conflict of interest here – I don’t believe that COVID19 is anything more than a bad flu season and mask wearing is virtue signalling.

The question does arise though, in the case of those reported to Irish Rail for doing lines of cocaine off train tables, were they wearing masks?