Dale R. Hamilton
05-17-2004, 02:17 PM
Well it happened that SWMBO and I were rowing ourselves down the Shannon River a couple years ago, and about midway- we were halted by bad weather- a "high stool day" as they say in these parts. We checked into a tiny bedroom over a Pub in Dromond Harbour- and then set out to explore the town. Eventually we came upon narrow gauge railroad tracks, which led us to a vintage railroad yard. Steam was escaping from one of the workshops, hmmmmm. This was too tantalizing to resist, and after poking around a bit, we introduced ourselved to Michael Kennedy- a retired guy about my age. It turns out, the yard is long closed, and these guys are spending their retirement years restoring vintage steam rolling stock. Michael showed us a half dozen steam mine locomotives awaiting work in the lower shop, and a big diesel switcher lying in a million pieces in the engine shop. Everything is so big- huge floor jacks, spanners 6 feet long, a chain hoist the size of a Volkswagen- all the stuff necessary to build a firebreathing, smokeating steel dinosaur. I marveled at the sheer scale of their hobby here in Dromond Harbour. Now I'm about the same age as these chaps, and I can build things and weld, - but I felt like something of a dabbler in the manly arts of mechanics. I ask Michael how a bunch of old fuds can do such a heavy day's work.... "Oh- its not a DAY'S work" he says, "The lads usually go to drinking in the afternoons". Hmmm, maybe were not so different back home after all.