Have lately been reading a "twosome" of books by something of a hero of mine: J.I.C. Boyd (1921 -- 2009), scholarly writer on much of the British Isles' narrow gauge. (Birthday-present situation: this pair -- one about his experiences of Ireland, the other about same "east thereof" -- comprised such a present to me. The Ireland book, I had bought and loved years previously; but, maddeningly, lost; the other, I had never read before now.)
These two books (Saga By Rail: Ireland; and ditto, Great Britain and the Isle of Man) are not of the -- to me, in honesty, dauntingly -- learnedly historical kind, for which this author is duly revered. They were written and published in his old age, a very few years before his death. Basically discursive, light-hearted, non-technical recountings of certain in his view, especially interesting rail experiences of his between childhood and middle age: spanning the times during which, in the view of hopeless dinosaurs / sentimentalists such as myself, the railway going was still relatively good. JB, as I will call him for short: was "highly stricken in years" at the time of writing; but per the books' content, he seems to have on the whole been still very much "all there" mentally: the odd possible error / misremembering, but so few as to be insignificant. Various "gaps in the narrative"; but the books are basically "vignettes", not claiming to be otherwise. Copiously illustrated with photographs (black-and-white), the majority by the author; those which are not, are appropriately credited. Works quirky in certain ways; but in the main, for me, fascinating -- and painfully nostalgic in the "for things which one never knew first-hand" sense.
The Ireland book was published before its counterpart: I will therefore write of it first. (I have previously posted material concerning this book, on these Forums; in a thread in "Railway History and Nostalgia", titled "Bags" and "Misses"" on the Irish narrow gauge: OP by myself, 17 / 4 / 2019.)
With its being established that JB was pre-eminently a "narrow gauge man" -- though interested in wider-gauge rail doings too -- the Ireland book is very heavily weighted toward the 3ft. gauge. One has to feel that for someone born in 1921, JB did amazingly well as regards the range of Irish narrow gauge which he experienced at first hand: this embracing more than half of the n/g lines / systems which ever operated on that island (some of those which he did "get in the bag", admittedly he did so varying between partially, and vestigially). Broad-gauge journeys do feature, but mainly in a context of travelling between 3ft. gauge delights. The only 5ft. 3in. gauge venue which he covers in depth in the book, is the West Cork -- formerly Cork, Bandon & South Coast -- system. One might be pardoned for speculating that -- Boyd being Boyd -- thanks to this undertaking's being largely self-contained and functioning in a "local", while long-distance, context, traversing scenically beautiful, marginal regions: he tacitly awarded it honorary narrow-gauge status. One divines from the chapter on the West Cork, that he explored the system extensively on various visits to the area in the course of essentially the 1950s, and took delight in it; even spending some time following, and travelling on, demolition trains (still steam-worked) on the more easterly part of the system in 1962. (He was not in time to know the 3ft. gauge Schull & Skibbereen in action; but saw it in 1953, with locos still dumped at Skibbereen, and with track in situ throughout -- he walked the track / adjoining road, all the way to Schull.)
JB's most splendid Irish "coup" as per the book, I feel has to be his odyssey in summer 1939, while staying with a school friend in Portadown. He did a couple of days' "out-and-back": Great Northern Railway (Ireland) broad gauge Portadown -- Omagh -- Strabane; Co. Donegal Joint Committee, Strabane -- Letterkenny (this run by railcar); then, the Londonderry & Lough Swilly Railway's evening mixed train Letterkenny -- Burtonport. This particular bit of tour, wondrous to do but not altogether pleasant: the train's coaching stock was badly run-down and somewhat disagreeable to travel in. Late running -- late arrival (well after dark) at Burtonport. Night at Burtonport in informal "B & B" accommodation; off again on the L&LS's morning departure, on which he travelled all the way to Londonderry via Letterkenny and Tooban Junction (conditions overall considerably better on this run, than the previous evening). Back to Portadown by GNR(I) broad gauge, essentially as per previous day. He was in the very nick of time for the Letterkenny & Burtonport Extension: less than a year later, its westernmost section would close for good. The rest of the Extension got a few years' lease of life owing to World War II conditions; but -- again, thanks to that particular "international spot of bother" -- JB was to have no chance for hoped-for return to Ireland, until most of ten years had gone by.
When he had the chance once again to visit Ireland, fortune favoured him here (as one feels in the nicest possible way, that it did unfairly often in his life !): his job entailed fairly frequent trips in the course of business, to Northern Ireland -- which trips usually gave him the chance to build in a bit of gricing. Concerning the L&LSR: he was able to get plenty of action on its "core" sections -- Londonderry to Letterkenny, and Buncrana -- which survived until 1953 (in the main freight-only, except that all freight trains included a brake-third coach: in which passengers could travel on payment of fare, so long as they realised what they were letting themselves in for). Other interesting N.I. material which did not long survive WWII, is mentioned. JB touches tantalisingly briefly, on a look taken in spring 1948, at the then (5ft. 3in.) Belfast & County Down Railway at its Queens Quay station in Belfast. That system has always fascinated me -- not least because of the to me, heartbreakingly early abandonment of nearly all of it (first months of 1950) by the new Ulster Transport Authority. The text would seem to suggest that JB -- narrow-gauge buff to the core -- didn't travel on the B&CD; but briefly looked around, took some pictures, and then headed off to the narrow gauge at Ballymena / Ballycastle. Well -- I was "in utero" then, and not in a position to offer him wise advice.
I find it a bit interesting that JB in the Ireland book, makes no mention -- for good or ill -- of the 3ft. gauge Giants' Causeway Tramway: which ran until the end of the 1949 summer season -- seemingly, a good chance of his visiting it had he so wished. This line was, of course, electric. It is clear from the Great Britain / Man book, that JB did not automatically abominate electric traction; one feels that if he had visited the "Causeway Tram", his not including it in the book, is inconceivable. Likely -- in the light of higher priorities, he just couldn't get there in time ...
Thoughts on the Great Britain / Man one, to follow -- trying to give readers a bit of a break ! There would seem to be some likelihood, though, of the Forums' "thread sequence mechanism" merging the yet-to-be-written GB / Man post, with the above Ireland one ...