THE ORANGE & BLACK YEARS

NOSTALGIA has an uncanny knack of distorting one’s recollections of days gone by. I, for one, seem to wear perpetual blinkers when I look back on British Rail’s ‘Blue & Grey’ era, ignoring the faults (and there were many) and recalling those years with affection and a rose-tinted ‘those were the days’ attitude. Curiously, I have a similar outlook where Iarnród Éireann-Irish Rail (IÉ) is concerned.

My first face-to-face encounter with the Republic of Ireland’s railway network came at Dublin’s Heuston station in 2003. I had arrived early for my trip out to Sallins & Naas, so spent the intervening time watching trains arrive and depart.

Everything seemed