Do you hate railways?

corktina · 15-09-2013 9:20am #1

I read somewhere in After Hours that "those guys over on Train and Rail Systems all hate railways" or words to that effect.

Is that how this forum comes over? I thought that most of us were actually passionate supporters of Railways, whilst maybe not liking the way they are being run.

gobnaitolunacy · 15-09-2013 10:18am

I don't hate them, however the scene had gotten very boring in recent years. Very little variety.

Sic transit gloria I suppose, they don't run them for the benefit of enthusiasts.

corktina · 15-09-2013 10:36am

well, from the trainspotting point of view, I'd have to agree. But I still can't help looking at a bridge or level crossing and hoping....

15-09-2013 11:48am

I certainly don't hate railways, what I do hate is the politics surrounding them.

Someone asked me on a night out last night what it is that I like about railways. I couldn't answer the question. I think I love the travelling as much as the trains themselves. But it's not just that - if I'm getting on a DART I want to be an 8100, and I want to get into the 81xx car so I can hear the traction motors.

davidlacey · 15-09-2013 1:12pm

Karsini wrote: »

I certainly don't hate railways, what I do hate is the politics surrounding them.

Someone asked me on a night out last night what it is that I like about railways. I couldn't answer the question. I think I love the travelling as much as the trains themselves. But it's not just that - if I'm getting on a DART I want to be an 8100, and I want to get into the 81xx car so I can hear the traction motors.

I would have to agree with karsini in how I would describe my interest in railways and cannot give an answer as to why I like them. But i would have to say i especially love it when an engine goes by, nothing beats the lovely sound of an 071 powering by kildare station. The scene has got very boring for us enthusiasts and sadly not run for enjoyment. I think the way the railway is and has been run is ridiculous and if it were a private company run that way it would be out of existance decades ago.

corktina · 15-09-2013 1:27pm

I know units are inevitable and it's a sad fact that freight is not what it was, but what saddens me is that we could have a world class railway if money had been invested in the right places over the years. When I go to the UK I am amazed at the increase in number of trains and destinations served, even if it is all units. We could have had something like that

dowlingm · 15-09-2013 1:30pm

If you don't yearn for IE to buy back the RPSI stock and return whatever 1x1s there are left to run them between Collooney and Athenry, YOU HATE TRAINS.

Ok, a small exaggeration,but there is an ongoing collision between people who want to post fantasy threads while having them discussed as things that might/should happen and people who want to discuss the network as it is and realistically could be. I've been known to break out the crayons myself but I try to avoid the characteristic "parity of esteem"/"there's money from Europe" stuff to justify it when I do.

corktina · 15-09-2013 1:44pm

Oh and I forgot to mention, I'd like to see a real preserved railway somewhere in the Republic (now that's fantasy!

BuffyBot · 15-09-2013 2:17pm

Most enthusiasts don't hate railways. They just hate the way everyone else runs them :P

corktina · 15-09-2013 2:29pm

In deed, but the question really is are there any posters on here who hate railways as suggested on AH. It's my belief there aren't

Copyerselveson · 15-09-2013 4:56pm

corktina wrote: »

In deed, but the question really is are there any posters on here who hate railways as suggested on AH. It's my belief there aren't

Would you keep or close the Mallow-Tralee line?

Copyerselveson · 15-09-2013 5:02pm

dowlingm wrote: »

If you don't yearn for IE to buy back the RPSI stock and return whatever 1x1s there are left to run them between Collooney and Athenry, YOU HATE TRAINS.

Ok, a small exaggeration,but there is an ongoing collision between people who want to post fantasy threads while having them discussed as things that might/should happen and people who want to discuss the network as it is and realistically could be. I've been known to break out the crayons myself but I try to avoid the characteristic "parity of esteem"/"there's money from Europe" stuff to justify it when I do.

Perhaps discussion of such proposals really belongs in the Infrastructure board, leaving discussion of actual existing rail services in here in C&T and/or Train and Rail Systems. In addition discussion of greenways to replace abandoned or closed railways really ought to be in the Infrastructure or even the cycling forum.

Copyerselveson · 15-09-2013 5:06pm

corktina wrote: »

I read somewhere in After Hours that "those guys over on Train and Rail Systems all hate railways" or words to that effect.

Is that how this forum comes over? I thought that most of us were actually passionate supporters of Railways, whilst maybe not liking the way they are being run.

Have you got a link?

15-09-2013 5:15pm

Copyerselveson wrote: »

Would you keep or close the Mallow-Tralee line?

I'd keep it because I use it.

Would that make me biased?

dowlingm · 15-09-2013 6:51pm

Copyerselveson wrote: »

Perhaps discussion of such proposals really belongs in the Infrastructure board, leaving discussion of actual existing rail services in here in C&T and/or Train and Rail Systems. In addition discussion of greenways to replace abandoned or closed railways really ought to be in the Infrastructure or even the cycling forum.

I think the problem with exiling some discussion to Infrastructure is that you may lose some participation by people who don't choose to follow both. It would be nice if the forums could evolve such that topics could cross-exist in multiple fora.

As for people hating railways, I think there might be a few people about who don't hate them but aren't happy about the carrying cost of the system and are of the opinion, sometimes a little over robustly expressed, that alternative modes could carry all but the heaviest loads, and if that meant the reduction of rail to Dublin suburban they wouldn't see that as a loss. Actual railway haters would be expressing masochism or trollery to linger here.

MGWR · 15-09-2013 7:55pm

gobnaitolunacy wrote: »

I don't hate them, however the scene had gotten very boring in recent years. Very little variety.

Sic transit gloria I suppose, they don't run them for the benefit of enthusiasts.

You can thank the government for that. They need to get out of what remains a very viable industry. In fact, they need to get out of transport infrastructure for the most part, never mind operation of "public" transport (which ought to be termed "mass transport" more correctly).

corktina · 15-09-2013 8:45pm

it's no ones fault, it's the efficient way to run a railway, mores the pity

lord lucan · 15-09-2013 8:47pm

gobnaitolunacy wrote: »

I don't hate them, however the scene had gotten very boring in recent years. Very little variety.

Sic transit gloria I suppose, they don't run them for the benefit of enthusiasts.

Pretty much sums up my view. Tin cans rattling up and down whats left of the network is boring to me and tbh i have little interest in the politics of the railways as the damage has been done and there's no going back.

Nostalgia is where it's at for me now. I bought Rails Around Dublin by Donal Murray a couple of weeks ago,a fantastic pictorial of when railways around Dublin were interesting. Progress is great,new shiny railcars and stations are great but we've lost an awful lot that can never be recovered.

Banjoxed · 15-09-2013 9:46pm

lord lucan wrote: »

Pretty much sums up my view. Tin cans rattling up and down whats left of the network is boring to me and tbh i have little interest in the politics of the railways as the damage has been done and there's no going back.

Nostalgia is where it's at for me now. I bought Rails Around Dublin by Donal Murray a couple of weeks ago,a fantastic pictorial of when railways around Dublin were interesting. Progress is great,new shiny railcars and stations are great but we've lost an awful lot that can never be recovered.

Gotta love the good aul' days: photo evidence on the link below. Not my own photo but travelled on these mobile skips plenty of times until the mid eighties.

http://www.geograph.ie/photo/2857948

gobnaitolunacy · 15-09-2013 9:56pm

As an aside, I wonder why it's there's so much 'love' out there for planes (the widely advertised airshow), cars (F1, Top Gear, rallying etc.) but god help you if you have so much as a passing interest in trains and you're pigeonholed into 'Trainspotter' even if you don't take numbers.

GBOA · 16-09-2013 10:14am

dowlingm wrote: »

...Ok, a small exaggeration,but there is an ongoing collision between people who want to post fantasy threads while having them discussed as things that might/should happen and people who want to discuss the network as it is and realistically could be...

This forum is quite tame compared to some of the heated 'debate' that arises around threads of complete delusion over on RailUK.

Back on topic though, I don't think enthusiasts hate railways, perhaps just the fact that modernisation is incompatible with the more specific whims of the enthusiast. The Unfortunate fact is that railways are primarily for rail customers and not rail enthusiasts (imagine what sort of aging stock would be running if they were!).

Even where railways are provided for enthusiasts by enthusiasts, this still doesn't seem to please a tiny minorty who are quick to criticise any aspect of such operations.

I don't hate railways. I've come to accept the change from loco hauled to multiple units and I still find all aspects of the railway fascinating.

GTE · 16-09-2013 12:22pm

Besides photo threads, the forum along with commuting and transport just looks like a continued brawl. A bit like AH but about more normal things.

That perception is valid where people wander in every once and a while.

corktina · 16-09-2013 12:25pm

that's what I was wondering at....I suppose it's the same on other forums where people are passionate about a subject? Football for instance.

gobnaitolunacy · 16-09-2013 12:36pm

corktina wrote: »

that's what I was wondering at....I suppose it's the same on other forums where people are passionate about a subject? Football for instance.

I would hazard a guess that some of the protagonists know each other from previous lives, that was the situ in IRN until some of the more colourful contributers were locked out.

GTE · 16-09-2013 12:38pm

corktina wrote: »

that's what I was wondering at....I suppose it's the same on other forums where people are passionate about a subject? Football for instance.

Sure, there can also be bad stretches of Motors were people either giving off about fog lights, high horse based driving threads.

For here, I wouldn't be surprised if a backlash from Flightfest rail transport spilt over into here. I also get the sense some threads are started on commuting and transport and here just to start a row.

corktina · 16-09-2013 12:57pm

can you give an example? (other than this one of course)

GTE · 16-09-2013 2:58pm

corktina wrote: »

can you give an example? (other than this one of course)

I don't mean this one :P I think there was one recently that attacked the validity of some bus route. It quickly transpired that there was no research put into it by the OP. Crap like that really, but we can see that anywhere I guess!

end of the road · 16-09-2013 5:57pm

like many here i prefered it years ago when we had proper carriges and locos running around the place, properly built and built to last and dispite some carriges being run into the ground (the mark 2s) they lasted, but i'l admit the 22000s are nice trains and comfortable and surprisingly quiet. of course the mark 3 destruction is something that theirs no excuse for, they could easily do cork and an enhanced bellfast service with units doing the rest, but it wasn't to be and now like the 2700s are awaiting the breakers, the motto IE should now learn is wait until the growth does happen before buying more trains and for god sake make sure you have work for them

A Dub in Glasgo · 16-09-2013 10:41pm

I certainly do not hate the railways, it has given me such a varied job (in Britain) for the last 20 years as well as commuting into work. I am proud that I work for the railways.

dublinman1990 · 19-09-2013 3:10pm

I would say IMO is that I have to come to respect the modernisation of the railways whenever it takes place.

For myself to say that I hate railways in general would be over exaggerated.

However; their operations are not as good in the past as IE's senior management have certainly made a very poor effort to run them as an effective service to the public.

Let's say if Barry Kenny left IE in the future & volunteered to become a communications manager on behalf of a preserved railway. Than for me it would really become an enthusiast's nightmare to behold. He would be out on his ear instantly if he chose to do nothing for absolutely nothing.

Do you hate railways?

Comments