Odds and Ends...

I'll be doing a few new posts next week. But here is something to keep everyone busy:

I was in Dublin, Ireland yesterday and I went to a "Model Railway Museum". I got kind of a kick out of it because in Europe, as in the gold old USA, some folks don't relate to our collections as playthings. The proprietors of this musuem actually look at these as miniature functional railroads. I was prevented from taking actual pictures of the operation layout (a massive HO one). But I did take some shots of the exhibit outside of the layout.

I did get a kick out of the guy running the main layout. He'd never heard of Lionel Standard Gauge. He asked me if it was kind of like S gauge. I told him it was except it was roughly three to four times larger and required a middle third rail. He shook his head and I could tell he couldn't care less.

PS The museum is a two minute walk from Malahide Castle in Howth, Ireland. Malahide is very, very nice and worth the 20 minute tour. The train museum cost me and my son 8 Euro's each to go into (about $10 each). $10 was a little high but I guess they need the cash.... I like all trains so even seeing this non-standard gauge European gear was interesting. By the way, I did see some Mallard's and the like for sale in some Euro toy stores. About 400 Euro for the sets (HO Hornby). It was good to see trains in toy stores.

Here's some pics -