Recap: The On the Laois tour—a steam tour with a difference

"The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.”, so said Henry Longfellow.

He obviously was not running a rail tour; unfortunately I was and on what was one of the wettest days of the year too. And so it was, with a sodden passenger list and headboard that I headed into Connolly Station to meet with the 35 equally brave souls who had booked on our "On The Laois" tour.

Alex was already onboard the bus and, upon auditing my headcount (habit of work, so he said) and spit polishing the headboard (habit of his Mum, so he said), we departed at 10am for our first stop, the Straffan Steam Museum, taking care to pass Victoria Quay and Emmet Road, both significant locations for the museum.

A steam tour with a difference

The grounds of the Steam Musuem in Straffan, which is housed in a former church.

The road quickly opened up for us and before long we had arrived at a very soft Straffan in time to see the engines being warmed up and primed for a days service. We also picked up our third steward, Wesley, who travelled ahead on his new e-scooter. Normally the museum only has steam-ups on a Sunday but we were extremely grateful for the efforts of Eric and Richard to fire the up for the occasion; this allowed us to see them at the very best. Pride of place was the Belfast Sludger; Linda really enjoyed this one!

Our Setra bus for the day carrying the Táilte Tours headboard.

Visitors admire on of the stationary steam engines. Photo: Adrian Dawe.

Visitors marvel at the Steam Museum's collection. Photo: Adrian Dawe.

The Straffan museum also boasts a fine collection of static engineer engines and carriages along with numerous prints and artefacts associated with the history of transport, much of which is part of the Robert Halpin Collection. Our passengers also saw segments of the Valentia to Newfoundland telegraph cable; again this is part of the Halpin Collection.

We took an early lunch here as well, which was lovingly prepared by Robert at the Barista Bike Cafe.

Táilte Tours CLG directors Wesley Molloy, Alex Richardson and David Walsh (in green) with Steam Musuem founder, Robert C. Guinness.

As we were about to depart, we were delighted to be met by Robert C. Guinness, the museums co founder. It was through his efforts in 1988 that the current structure that houses the museum, the former Church of Ireland parish church of St Jude on Emmet Road, was dismantled and taken to Straffan were it was rebuilt on his estate to house the collection.

Wet but wonderful, a visit to Ireland's oldest heritage railway

Our tour passengers board the train at the Stradbally Woodland Railway. Photo: Adrian Dawe.

Off we went next location on our steam tour, an equally wet Stradbally, and the Woodland Railway in County Laois. One of the most curious of the preservation lines in Ireland, it is tucked away on the Stradbally estate and is home to an impressive collection of narrow gauge engines, mainly of which were utilised on bog railways. Our host drivers, Thomas, Alan, Seán and Kieran had most of their fleet steamed or revved up, including Róisín, Rusty, Warrior and 90 year old Nippy.

Rusty becomes the first former ESB locomotive to haul a Táilte Tours charter. This little diesel spent her working life at the ESB's Portarlington plant from 1952 to 1988. Photo: Sean Cáin.

Our passengers were treated to some diesel haulage behind Rusty, before Róisín then took over and ended up being the star for the rest of the day while Warrior performed several complex shunting manoeuvres. After the trains had finished, the carriages were put away but Róisín was not done yet, with her crew treating our passengers cab rides up and down the track.

Róisín becomes the fourth steam locomotive to participate in one of tours. Photo: Adrian Dawe.

Nippy is the oldest diesel locomotive in Ireland. Photo: Adrian Dawe

Tommy Fogarty gives tour passengers a demonstration on how to start up Nicky. Photo: Adrian Dawe

Seán Cain demonstrates Wagonmaster LM335. Photo: Adrian Dawe

Seán and Tommy gave demonstrations of how to start up the diesels were given to our passengers; this ranged from cranking up the 1930s vintage Nippy to simply turning a key on the 1980s Bord na Mona Wagonmaster, LM335. An added bonus and link to the first stop was a look at their Guinness shunting engine; it’s arguably one of the most important and unique engines to have been spared! Mud was also provided at no additional cost

Alas the afternoon flew by, and just as the sun was finally making an appearance and Wesley’s scooter had enough battery to make it home, it was time for us to depart. We hit the road for home, taking a moment to admire the Rock of Dunamase in the now dazzling daylight. A quiet M7 made for good time keeping, with our bus arriving home a tad early at 6:50PM.

Our tours are never a solo act, and we offer our gracious thanks to the following;

Catherine, Eric, Richard and Robert at the Straffan Steam Museum.

Robert and all at the Barista Bike Cafe in Straffan.

Seán, Kieran, Thomas, Alfie, Kim and all the Irish Steam Preservation Society crew at the Stradbally Woodand Railway.

Aled at Bus Éireann for supplying a tri axle (a first for us.) Setra coach for us via McCaffrey Coaches.

Thanks are also due to Adrian Dawe for providing us with some of the lovely photos above.

To all our passengers; without you we are nothing!

Thank you,

Your crew: Alex, David & Wesley.

Incidentally, this was the 10th operation by our little group since we started running three years ago, thank you to everyone who has been part of the journey so far, we've a lot more to come.