WHBM

Hello again all after what seems an extended interval.

Currently sat in a train in Ireland going from Cork to Dublin, repositioning between consecutive meetings. When did I last post ? Since then, back to Frankfurt again, and a previous Ireland trip, seems to be one a week at the moment. Dublin meeting this afternoon, back to London City this evening.

Have to say the inside of the train, standard class, is very pleasant and puts what you get nowadays in the UK to shame where the seats are so tightly pitched that you can't readily open a laptop, Ryanair style. Our locomotive built in London, Ontario. Now I've been to Cork airport a fair few times, and come here driving as well, but the last time I took the train on this line out of Cork was … 1966. Goodness me, so long ago. It was on that family holiday trip around Ireland (by car, but I did a day return train trip from Killarney to Cork on my own for something different) that we also passed by Shannon Airport, at my suggestion no doubt, and there, laying in the weeds by the approach road, was an old Lockheed L-749 Constellation. I did work out in more recent times which one it was.

There's a huge (for a railway) climb out of Cork station, immediately off the end of the platform by the waterfront into the longest railway tunnel in Ireland, and up through the outer suburbs onto the high plateau lands behind the city. We came up here yesterday by taxi to visit a civil engineering project, the driver said that while snow was very uncommon in Cork you certainly get it up here in winter. Today it's a cool, damp, grey, wet, December day, visibility maybe half a mile. Scrubby, waterlogged fields and leafless trees and bushes. The actual railway tracks are modern and high quality, but all the incidental railway buildings and sheds along the line look like they have never been touched since Victorian times.

Irish railway tracks are a different gauge to elsewhere, at 5ft 3in they are wider than the worldwide standard. Doesn't really matter as they aren't connected to anything else. Apparently at an early time a government official asked for suggestions about the standard, and everything from a narrow 3ft 6in to an extreme 7ft was suggested, all in use in different places at the time. The government just took the midpoint … I know this is meant to be an aviation history thread, but hope a bit of train history doesn't go amiss.

Arriving at Cork late on Sunday evening on an Aer Lingus A320 from London Heathrow was something of a challenge, right in the teeth of a major storm. The previous flight had been cancelled, and several inbound Ryanair 737s diverted to Dublin. Our flight was 100% full with those knocked back by the previous cancellation of course, plus an (unusual for Europe) concerned -looking line of standbys at the back of the gate, who finally it seems all got accommodated.. Anyway, off we went, and the turbulence on the descent was not too bad, despite which there were a string of classically Irish expressions coming from behind - "oooh bejaysus" and similar. In fact the buffeting against the tailplane when parked at right-angles to the wind at the gate was more noticeable. Cork used to have a very pleasant, homestyle, terminal, it even had a coal fire in the departure lounge, and always seemed quite adequate for the number of passengers, but was replaced about 15 years ago by a soulless, modernist larger structure with no character at all. Shame. There's a big Christmas decoration setup out in the main arrival area, although when it comes to class decorations I have to say what had been done back at Heathrow Terminal 2 in the departure lounge, all in white lights and crystal, was a real artwork spectacle, probably the best I've seen. I wish I'd got photographs. It must have cost a fortune.

I've gone on for so long there's no time to look at the quiz questions. Best regards from a still grey, still wet, Limerick Junction. Everyone getting in looks soaked, and out on the platform that lady's umbrella has just been blown inside-out. The notable thing about the passing Irish farmscape in winter is the otherwise ubiquitous cows have been taken inside. Apart from a few we just passed, still outside, huddled up against the windward side hedge trying to take shelter. If you can imagine fed-up looking cows, that was them.