The Enda lad on a bike.....

Grandeeod

So no thread on our ex Taoiseach riding around the country making a TV series about Greenways.:eek: First episode was interesting despite comments about the west of Ireland and its different economic situation. Second episode and we hear more about the West and all its suffering while seeing very little of its great greenway. It really leaves a lot to be desired. Will the Enda lad mention the WRC in all of this as a proposed greenway????? He was a very vocal advocate for reopening the WRC way back in 2006 in Castlebar. Now he's on the telly cycling his brains out claiming greenways are great, I think they are, but will the WRC proposal be even mentioned in this series? I guess the Mullingar -Athlone section will feature soon and then the north Kerry.:rolleyes:

bigroad

It's a pity he didn't put more effort into improving the road system to and around his home county while he was in Government.

L1011

There is no reasons for the WRC to be mentioned, so it won't be.

The second episode had a few clangers.

"narrow gauge railway" - not sure if that was a subtitling issue or in the Irish as well, I didn't go back to check

"Great Western & Southern Railway"; who apparently ran the Mulranny Park Hotel in the 1890s. Two sets of problems with that.

tabbey

bigroad wrote: »

It's a pity he didn't put more effort into improving the road system to and around his home county while he was in Government.

He did. Although the castlebar bypass probably didn't start until he retired, the decision and process was taken while he was in office. Other improvements to the N 5 likewise.
More importantly from the point of view of this forum, we could have had a bit more spending overall, but there is probably little scope for development in Mayo itself.

Charles Babbage

L1011 wrote: »

"narrow gauge railway" - not sure if that was a subtitling issue or in the Irish as well, I didn't go back to check

.

i was wondering about that.

The hotel was also a clanger. Poor show.

whisky_galore

Each participant getting a carbon copy Enda interrogation.

The greenway is great.
It is mighty yeah.
More tourists.
Ah more tourists alright, Enda, please God. And jobs, and the oul corner shop can stay open...

The first episode had archive film rail footage, not of Co Waterford what it was supposed to feature ...not even of Ireland! A shot of LNER A4s no less.

It is tourist board fluff, with wildly incorrect 'facts', thrown together like the school essay on a sun night that is to be handed up on monday morning.

friendlyfun

He's like a robot 🀖. At least Portillo has some charisma.

whisky_galore

Grandeeod wrote: »

Will the Enda lad mention the WRC in all of this as a proposed greenway????? He was a very vocal advocate for reopening the WRC way back in 2006 in Castlebar.

I would be really surprised, far too controversial for a 'chewing gum for the eyes' kind of series.

The takeaway here are railways are cute, but outdated, Victorian. Let's make greenways of all of them so we can have bike repair shops and coffee stands.

Del.Monte

whisky_galore wrote: »

I would be really surprised, far too controversial for a 'chewing gum for the eyes' kind of series.

The takeaway here are railways are cute, but outdated, Victorian. Let's make greenways of all of them so we can have bike repair shops and coffee stands.

Should be popular with a lot of posters on Boards so.

Just watched and apart from enjoying (?) the mistakes....little to recommend it. Edna is very wooden, I thought he was supposed to like meeting people when he was in politics but it all looks very forced - possibly he finds the filming off-putting?

Grandeeod

L1011 wrote: »

There is no reasons for the WRC to be mentioned, so it won't be.

It was a tongue in cheek comment based on his political backing of the WRC throughout the noughties. Now he's on TV championing Greenways and as we all know there is a campaign to convert the WRC to one. Really sums up the BS. For the record I'm not a WRC supporter, just a perpetually sickened observer of existing and retired politicians speaking out of both sides of their mouths in relation to rail transport.

friendlyfun

friendlyfun wrote: »

He's like a robot ��. At least Portillo has some charisma.

Cloths are loud on poor Portillo.

Otherwise, cool program about engineering and tech and still good entertainment to all ages

whisky_galore

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Cloths are loud on poor Portillo.

Otherwise, cool program about engineering and tech and still good entertainment to all ages

Portaloo comes to his show from a place of knowledge about railways, unlike Enda...parrotting a script handed to him by clueless researchers.

Has there been a good domestic Irish Railway series?
I remember Ironing the Land was a dry as old sticks.
There was a series about walking closed lines in 1993 which was mixed.
Any others?

Well Fratello, scraping the bottom of the barrel here there was an early Irish TV comedy series based on 2 fellas in a Signal Box, and funnily enough the scenes spent most of the time in the signal box. So, the answer to your question must be no then.

whisky_galore

Fratello wrote: »

Has there been a good domestic Irish Railway series?
I remember Ironing the Land was a dry as old sticks.
There was a series about walking closed lines in 1993 which was mixed.
Any others?

There was a similar Gaelgoiri effort about closed railways maybe a decade ago, cant recall the name...something in Irish, recycling the same snippets of archive footage throughout.

Edit. Found it.
https://youtu.be/yC9RSaq-nt8

crossman47

Can anyone tell me where the line to Achill ran after leaving Westport station? I mean through the town of Westport. I know it ran to Westport Quay but I doubt if that was the link to the Achill line.

thomas385

crossman47 wrote: »

Can anyone tell me where the line to Achill ran after leaving Westport station? I mean through the town of Westport. I know it ran to Westport Quay but I doubt if that was the link to the Achill line.

There's a bridge crossing Altamount Street just at the goods yard in Westport station, the line crossed this bridge and across the Westport viaduct, over what is now the Rice College pitch, under the old Castlebar Road, and down the Allergan Road where it joins up with the Greenway which follows the old line more or less exactly to Achill

crossman47

thomas385 wrote: »

There's a bridge crossing Altamount Street just at the goods yard in Westport station, the line crossed this bridge and across the Westport viaduct, over what is now the Rice College pitch, under the old Castlebar Road, and down the Allergan Road where it joins up with the Greenway which follows the old line more or less exactly to Achill

Thanks

Look up OSI Geohive on d'internet. Not on a phone, screen too small us tablet or laptop.

Once you navigate to Westport you can turn on old map layers on the top left. There are slider bars you can use to vary the transparancy of the maps. It's great fun!

Grandeeod

Fratello wrote: »

Has there been a good domestic Irish Railway series?
I remember Ironing the Land was a dry as old sticks.
There was a series about walking closed lines in 1993 which was mixed.
Any others?

A guy called Paul Howard started making a TV show in the mid noughties. He finished it off in the last decade and it was like a promo for IE. You could tell it was shot over years as the liveries changed from shot to shot in some sequences. From memory, it was crap.

As for Enda's latest episode on the west Clare, I thought he was pushing the agenda of converting parts of it to a Greenway. Far too big a project despite a nice idea. Still waiting to see if he explores parts of the WRC and it's Greenway potential. I don't care, but some relevant balance would be nice.

Disappointed that he missed Kilkee and its starring role in a movie.:D

TumblingDice1

Hi,
Regarding Geohive. Go here http://map.geohive.ie/mapviewer.html

In the top left, click on "Base information and Mapping". Scroll down to
"Historic Map 25 inch (1888-1913)".

Zoom into whatever area you want to see. There is a transparency slider at the bottom which bring you from the old original map up to the present day.
About halfway gives on overlay of both.

Have fun. Warning! If you are interested in looking at old railway alignments, you could spend a few hours at this!

Charles Babbage

Another shocking falsehood this week that the Greenore railway was narrow gauge. What sort of lazy editor allows such easily checked things remain in a programme? The programme even has pictures of obviously Irish gauge track.
Fair play though for getting a crew member for the last train 70 years ago, he must be 90+ and looking well.

L1011

Second time making that claim inaccurately about a line then. I didn't check if it was wrong in Irish as well as English last time, I'll try this time

whisky_galore

Charles Babbage wrote: »

Another shocking falsehood this week that the Greenore railway was narrow gauge. What sort of lazy editor allows such easily checked things remain in a programme? The programme even has pictures of obviously Irish gauge track.
Fair play though for getting a crew member for the last train 70 years ago, he must be 90+ and looking well.

It's an old timey choo choo trainway, they were all narrow gauge back in the day.

It's one of those terms that train spotters throw about to look informed about such things so we will use that in the script. Must keep pushing the agenda that all of the obsolete Victorian infrastructure is only suitable for bicyclery.

tabbey

whisky_galore wrote: »

It's an old timey choo choo trainway, they were all narrow gauge back in the day.

It's one of those terms that train spotters throw about to look informed about such things so we will use that in the script. Must keep pushing the agenda that all of the obsolete Victorian infrastructure is only suitable for bicyclery.

Rail enthusiasts, or spotters, as you like to call them, would never describe as narrow gauge, a railway which was Irish standard gauge, 1,600 mm, which is technically broad gauge, being wider than 1,435 mm.

The Dundalk, Newry & Greenore railway was never narrow gauge. That a television production company would describe it thus, demonstrates pure laziness, ignorance and contempt for the truth, indeed also contempt for the viewers, who wish to be informed.

whisky_galore

tabbey wrote: »

Rail enthusiasts, or spotters, as you like to call them, would never describe as narrow gauge, a railway which was Irish standard gauge, 1,600 mm, which is technically broad gauge, being wider than 1,435 mm.

Unfamiliar with satire, I see.