© Geoff’s Rail Diaries 2011 This is the tour described in full in "Trips n Tours - The Sligo Avoider" - so I'll keep the narrative brief. Basically, it was a Pathfinder / Irish Traction Group trip, which was a re-run of an earlier attempt to run down the main line to Cork. A bomb scare had meant that the only available route on that occasion was the Sligo line. This one would run via the Nenagh line to Limerick, then up to Ennis and back, before heading down to the Junction and on to Cork. It didn't - a derailment at Limerick Junction meant that it could either go straight back to Dublin, or go on from Ennis to Athenry, and back to Dublin via Athlone. It would do the latter - but first... In the company of my 11-year-old son, I'd detrained at Limerick for a leg stretch. On returning to the station, we were requested to join a bus for what turned out to be a rather hair-raising ride to Ennis. And when we got there, despite the hurry, we stood a good 15 minutes before we could depart - many of the passengers had wandered off to explore the delights of western Ireland - so we had time for a couple of snaps of the former West Clare Railway 0-6-2T no.5 "Slieve Callan"- built in Glasgow by Dübs just 100 years previously. Slieve Callan has since "crossed the water" for restoration to working order by Alan Keef, and no doubt will soon be seen in action at the reborn West Clare centre at Moyasta Junction. And so the "Sligo Avoider" achieved the objective expressed by its headboard - but failed, once again, to reach Cork. I believe a re-run of the re-run took place the following April - I've no idea whether it was "third time lucky"... Links: • Trips 'n Tours "Sligo Avoider" • West Clare Railway