Things down here are not what they seem - if they ever were! Bristol RELL6G 2531 still carries her AXI 2531 plates everywhere she goes and will never carry southern plates. However, all vehicles coming south for insurance purposes have a southern equivalent which in her case is 84 C 3716 even though she will never carry it. It is purely a paperwork exercise.

This applies to all our Northern and UK vehicles and in fact any vehicles we have which currently have southern plates will revert to their UK or NI plates and will wear them at all times even on the roads in the south.

I know it sounds crazy but surely it is better than having that horrible 84 C plate in her!

Even more to the point NI vehicles which have been reregistered in the north will also revert to their original northern plates.

So it is possible for a northern vehicle to come down south and meet an older vehicle on the road with the exact identical plates. What a photograph that would be!

Finally it may be of interest that when Citybus Tiger 2624 was in Knockraha last Saturday she was photographed alongside her Bus Eireann counterpart but she had her Northern Plates NXI 4624 on her for all the photos. I think it is unique that she is the first Citybus Gardner Tiger ever down here and secondly wonderful that she could be here. When she goes to Parnell Place Bus Station and Cork Airport who ever dreamt that 2624 would be photographed at Cork bus station? And it is all due to the Translink team who have helped their preservation in a way nobody would believe.

I only wish we could reciprocate and send a few KR's to fellow preservationists but down here everything wants everything destroyed as we just have a bunch of Philistines loose. It is both scandalous and a tragedy.

One of the unique things about our museum is that visitors can drive the buses - assuming they can drive in the first place, of course - and photographs taken on our roads could, very easily pass for UK or NI. If I live long enough I would hope to have as many of our vehicles as possible painted back in their old original liveries e.g. a GM Atlantean, a Crosville National etc.and of course with their original plates which should make some photographs, which while they can never be 100% genuine can act as a reasonable substitute. You cannot have everything in life!

MAJOR EVENT - WE ADD 500 SQ. FT. OFFICE IN ONE DAY.

April 17, 2008. In what was one of the largest haulage moves in Cork we got our new office installed at the depot. Measuring 40 feet x 12 feet it was a major headache to get it into the depot with the first problem the turn in and then the fact that it was just 13 feet 1" wide wide made it difficult for a 13'4" lane or vice versa depending upon which way you look at it!