1959

I think the photographer is on the footbridge shown on the OS 25" map here. If you flip to the modern streetmap, there is no sign of the railway now. Google map location: at this green arrow.

The loco in the shot appears to be 171 (Slieve Gullion), which is currently stored by the RPSI at Whitehead awaiting overhaul. www.steamtrainsireland.com/171/

The station would close 6 days later on 21st March 1959 - you can see more about it here www.flickr.com/photos/2cme/5416013948/ as well as a contemporary view of the remaining buildings. The Irish Railway Records Society had a much more cosmopolitan following and was not tarnished (in those days anyway) with the current perception of "train spotters" and I would suggest the ladies were part of the IRRS group (or partners/relatives of those there)

Now that is an interesting shot, there are just the two passenger cars and the remainder of the train is made up of goods wagons, that must be unusual for an outing. I was going on the dart to Lansdown Road a couple of weeks ago and as I was passing through Pearse Station there were larger crowds than usual. Further down the line a steam engine with carriages was getting ready for the IRRS group to go on an outing but as it was between stations I did not manage to see it in time to get any shots.

Are you sure the location isn't Buggleskelly?

The plane flew between Las Vegas and Blythe, Calif., with occasional side trips to Los Angeles and Phoenix, Ariz.

"Each morning and evening they swooped low over the Blythe airport to refuel from a pickup truck driving 90 miles an hour. They lowered a hook to hoist the refueling hose and a basket containing hot meals and mail.

"At each refueling, inspectors checked paint on the plane's tires to verify that no secret landings had been made." (Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Feb. 8, 1959)

At first I read the dates the British way (dd-mm-yy) making a 15 month flight :-) then I realised it was 4DEC58 to7FEB59, still within 2 hours of an epic 65 days!

Thank you for this image, I've added it to the Wikipedia article about endurance flights.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_endurance_record

It's cool to see this abstract piece of metal. To be honest, I really can't tell what it is. Still, it's cool to see how this metal was fabricated and shaped into this thing. Nice shot, overall! mmbco.com/shop-fabrication/