Burma Road = World's Biggest Roller Coaster?

[Nigel Fitzgricer]

You can really see how impossible it would be to run modern rail services on this line without Dublin-Metro-type collossal investment and rebuilding from the foundations up in this photo.

http://groups.msn.com/irishrailwayne...hotoID=125 38

There are dozens of sections of the Burma Road like this between Tuam and Coolooney. And this isn't even counting the 100 or so level crossings.

http://groups.msn.com/irishrailwayne...hotoID=125 40

I think I finally get it why Cullen ordered the cleaning of this section is being fast-tracked. It really brings home to people who know nothing about railways, how impossible a project the entire Sligo-Limerick WRC concept always was.

Even to the most casual observer, anyone who thinks that the WRC is a main transport artery really need to take a good look at these photos and think twice.

Mind you, some of us tried to tell some people this years ago...some people just can't deal with the truth. Hopefully now, these people will finally get it.

[Thomas J Stamp]

So are you for this or against it?

[Donal Quinn]

it looks pathetic!
i hadn't realised what a "tramway" meant
NFG, you do like to stir thing up alot but "rollercoaster is definently my new world for the WRC!!

[PaulM]

There is a place called Curry in the west? Is that anything like I imagine it to be???

[Thomas J Stamp]

Originally Posted by Paul Mulcahy

There is a place called Curry in the west?

Yep, and Tubbercurry (Or Tubber I think the locals call it) is just down the road. So's Charlestown (home of the Oasis family) and nearby Knock Airport. I had the pleasure of demaning possession of a pub there years ago. Great fun.

[Colm Donoghue]

pub and contents or an empty building?

I can only see one being fun whereas t'ther would be "fun"

[Thomas J Stamp]

Originally Posted by colmd

pub and contents or an empty building?

I can only see one being fun whereas t'ther would be "fun"

Pub and contents. Lessees werent too happy about it though.

[PaulM]

Originally Posted by Thomas J Stamp

Yep, and Tubbercurry (Or Tubber I think the locals call it) is just down the road. So's Charlestown (home of the Oasis family) and nearby Knock Airport. I had the pleasure of demaning possession of a pub there years ago. Great fun.

So is the entire place made of Indian food or not? If so I'm moving.

[Thomas J Stamp]

Originally Posted by Paul Mulcahy

So is the entire place made of Indian food or not? If so I'm moving.

It is. It is Korma that the WRC is opening and Navan isnt.

[Nigel Fitzgricer]

Originally Posted by Thomas J Stamp

So are you for this or against it?

Only for it as a cycling and walking trail. Would be a collosal and pointless waste as a rail "corridor" considering the pay-off for all the money spent would be so little in terms of developing public transport usership in the West.

Save the money for a commuter rail service from Sligo to Boyle and turn the Burma Road from Tuam to Coolooney into one of Europe's premier walking and cultural trails.

This kind of thing.

http://www.railtrails.org/index.html

Would be very nice wouldn't it. Imagine the numbers of tourists it would bring in. Would revolutionise tourism in Connacht and couter-act the decline in walking tourists this country has experienced following some negative international PR damage done by some farmers chasing walkers off their land. The Burma Road could be the answer to all this.

[Nigel Fitzgricer]

Originally Posted by Donalq

it looks pathetic!
i hadn't realised what a "tramway" meant
NFG, you do like to stir thing up alot but "rollercoaster is definently my new world for the WRC!!

If you think this is stirring it up, I am not dare going to post the photo of me sitting in a cow trough, which a famer laid across the Burma Road, rubbing a loofah under my arm.

Even I know were to draw the line.

[Nigel Fitzgricer]

Originally Posted by Thomas J Stamp

It is. It is Korma that the WRC is opening and Navan isnt.

Stop trying to curry favour with MeathonTrack.

[Derek Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Nigel Fitzgricer

If you think this is stirring it up, I am not dare going to post the photo of me sitting in a cow trough, which a famer laid across the Burma Road, rubbing a loofah under my arm.

Even I know were to draw the line.

Ah go on. Think I might've took that one, when we were doing the Burma Road 04 calander. Do you remember the full frontal photo we did on the driveway near Colooney (where tracks used to be)? The long grass came in really handy to make it look arty. We didn't need the Hornby models in the end.

[colmoc]

cant see the photos they wont load
any suggestions or can somebody post them up here

[PaulM]

Originally Posted by colmoc

cant see the photos they wont load
any suggestions or can somebody post them up here

They look to be gone. Probably because we were mocking them.

[Jister]

So when will work start on fencing Foynes, New Ross et al, or is the west of Ireland getting preferential treatment over the rest of the country?

Should we scream blue murder over the way other unused lines (in much better condition too) are being neglected for the WRC to get priority?

[PaulM]

The P11 ethos is about developing infrastructure where it is needed. The WRC is by no means needed and got preferential treatment as there were votes to be had. Someone else will give details but all reports recommended against opening it, meanwhile Navan has been talked about for about 15 years and makes perfect sense to reopen yet it and all related infrastructure (Interconnector) are bottom of the list.

[Thomas J Stamp]

Originally Posted by Jister

is the west of Ireland getting preferential treatment over the rest of the country?

totally deserved preferential tratment IMHO, the west has had to suffer and as has been pointed out many times, continues to suffer thankis the the negative effect of the Dublin sprawl. The west need goods, counterbalancing and intutitive infrastructural initiatives such as this and I for one think its really really nice.

After all, its not WOT's fault about Navan not getting a railline, is it? Perhaps they should ask WOT for a hand?

[Jister]

Oh, and there is an operational line in Navan at the moment. It could probably be opened to passenger services for less than scratching along the WRC with a track machine.

[Thomas J Stamp]

Originally Posted by Jister

Oh, and there is an operational line in Navan at the moment. It could probably be opened to passenger services for less than scratching along the WRC with a track machine.

Well, there you go, its self evident, isnt it? I mean, lets face it, WoT have done a superlative job there when these so-called projects that Paul was listing above have gotten nowhere. I'm not saying that those who push for them arent ardent and passionate about their hobbies, I'm saying that the Westmen are obvously just that much better at it and perhaps, just perhaps, we're missing the point there. Maybe, all things being equal, the WRC is a more deserving cause, makes better economic and envioromental sense and will deliver a more lasting and tangible benifit than those other ideas.