TraleeToday.ie reports that the Tralee – Fenit Greenway (along the former railway between the two towns) opened last weekend.
I’m sure Irish Rail are delighted to have offloaded another liability and the awkward questions around how a railway that was not abandoned could have a supermarket carpark built on it.
Located on the Clonsilla to Navan line between Dunboyne and Drumree stations, the halt at Fairyhouse was used for race day traffic for the racecourse of the same name.
When checking online aerial photos of the area today (both Googlemaps and Geohive.ie), I figured that I had the location wrong, in that I had assumed that the M3 motorway occupied the site of the line here. This is wrong – for a short section of line north of Fairyhouse, the M3 does occupy the former trackbed, but not at Fairyhouse.
The road overbridge at the halt was removed during motorway construction – however, the trackbed remains adjacent to the M3, including the halt site, which is now occupied by a garden attached to a private residence.
I have updated the Gazetteer page for Fairyhouse Halt and will add the photo of the site (a garden) in the near future.
People wonder why I don’t like Irish Rail. Things like this are the reason.
I should be getting the 13:32 ex Kilcock to Maynooth to transfer to the 13:45 ex Maynooth to Confey, to undertake volunteer litter picking on the Royal Canal.
However, as is not uncommon for Irish Rail, the first train (from Sligo) is late and there is no guarantee of a connection at Maynooth. The second issue relates to the single track west of Maynooth. The real time departures section of the Irish Rail website is currently reporting an impossibility:
The first section is showing an arrival at Kilcock of a train to Sligo at 13:42. However, the second section is showing an arrival of the train I should be on at 13:45. Due to the single track section between Maynooth and Enfield, this is a physical impossibility and the IR website is publishing a lie.
As part of the Dublin Festival of History, the above titled talk, given by Susan Roundtree, is being hosted (online) by Dublin City Council (in conjunction with the IHAI) on 12th October 2022 between 18:30 and 19:30.
The event is free but registration is required.
RTE reports on the discovery of a section of the original sea wall constructed as part of the early development of a port at Dublin, which is believed to date back to the 1720s.
This is located under a former electricity substation at the port, which is undergoing conservation works currently.
They say you learn something new every day.
I was aware that historically in Ireland, copper was retrieved from bogs by burning it. I was unaware that iron ore can be similarly retrieved but the Irish Independent have an article about a blacksmith who uses Irish bog ore iron in his work.
One of the few items where Irish Rail and I see eye to eye is the belief that level crossings are dangerous.
As an example (albeit overseas), this video (trigger warning – not for the sensitive) on Independent.ie shows a police car being hit by a train in the USA.
Colorado’s finest police officers had parked their car on the crossing during a traffic stop, in the dark and had placed a suspect in the car before it was hit by a train.
Not for the first time, I link to a YouTube video by Tom Scott – in this case, he is demonstrating the use of a replica treadmill crane, which is believed to have been in use in Continental Europe in the early part of the 2nd millennium.
Youtube recommended this video to me, which is footage (both on the ground and by drone) of progress on the Connemara Railway Project at Maam Cross station, Co. Galway.
CorkBeo.ie reports on the adaptive re-use of an old pier in Whitegate, Co. Cork, as the foundations for a new purpose built cafe, the selling feature of same being that it will have sea views on three sides.
I’m not sure now is the time to be investing in cafes, with a major downturn in the economy on the way, however, I wish those behind this venture the best with their project.