The National Library of Ireland is on Flickr, contributing public domain photos to the Commons. If anyone is looking for an image for the cover of their new book on trolley problems – and is too shy to ask to use mine – this might be the ticket.
by John Holbo on June 2, 2011
The National Library of Ireland is on Flickr, contributing public domain photos to the Commons. If anyone is looking for an image for the cover of their new book on trolley problems – and is too shy to ask to use mine – this might be the ticket.
{ 27 comments }
ajay 06.02.11 at 4:19 pm
I like the way that it has no visible wheels. Gives it the feel of a Terry Gilliam summerhouse that has decided to go off on its holidays.
William Timberman 06.02.11 at 9:00 pm
Pr0bably didn’t want dogs and children
tangledmangled in the drive mechanism. Except for the smokestack, it might almost be a tardis.JP Stormcrow 06.03.11 at 1:50 am
Gives it the feel of a Terry Gilliam summerhouse that has decided to go off on its holidays.
Yes, and I can picture it plunging into the water and continuing on as a boat.
Substance McGravitas 06.03.11 at 2:05 am
I think it would be absolutely charming to see it smush people.
Timothy Scriven 06.03.11 at 3:16 am
Now suppose an Irish steam trolley was cantering along at five miles an hour, about to come to an intersection in the tracks. Down one road four members of Sinn Fein are tired to the tracks. Down the other road is one Ulster nationalist. A brain in a vat has the power to change the direction of the trolley, but it is against its prudential interests to do so. Should all public servants be required to speak fluent Gaelic?
JP Stormcrow 06.03.11 at 4:06 am
Give your answer in crans per coicÃs.
John Holbo 06.03.11 at 5:19 am
“at five miles an hour”
Or even four miles per hour.
How about this one? Suppose you are standing on a bridge and can see, below, a cute little trolley about to bump into five Plain People of Ireland and, presumably, roll or bowl them along in humorous fashion. Next to you is a great, fat Son of Erin. If you pushed him in front of the trolley he wouldn’t stop it. Presumably he would roll along, possibly in even funnier fashion than the other five Plain Persons. Probably the sound of him hollering as he was rolled along at 5 mph – or 4 mph – would alert those up ahead, lying on the tracks for all the obvious reasons they would be, and they would muster the good sense to crawl out of the way in time. Should you push the fat man off the bridge?
This really needs to be a Myles na Gopaleen piece, in short.
maidhc 06.03.11 at 7:59 am
Cá bhfuil an chiaróg eile?
Niall McAuley 06.03.11 at 8:15 am
Also, too, Monorail!
ajay 06.03.11 at 8:37 am
7: “I have a plan,” said Chapman. “Using this rare and unusual piece of railway ironwork currently sitting in a hole on the side of the road, believed to be the only one of its kind and of tremendous importance to scholars, we can divert the tram on to another line, allowing it to pass by without harming anyone. I’ll just drag it up into position now.”
Keats nodded. “You are raising some interesting points,” he said.
ajay 06.03.11 at 8:40 am
Except for the smokestack, it might almost be a tardis.
Or, in Irish, “an teaordÃs”.
Belle Waring 06.03.11 at 9:51 am
I would throw a fat man under that trolley with no remorse! I mean, unless someone was hurt when he derailed it and everyone spilled out the side while that Benny Hill music was playing. But probably nothing like that would happen.
Oooh, what if in The Prisoner there had been that trolley (with no need for tracks) instead of the floating white bubble? Inexorable following him down the beach, slowly getting closer…
Eszter Hargittai 06.03.11 at 10:07 am
Awesome photos, thanks for sharing! I like this one, too: http://flic.kr/p/9PiRpm .
Barry 06.03.11 at 11:16 am
Belle: “Oooh, what if in The Prisoner there had been that trolley (with no need for tracks) instead of the floating white bubble? Inexorable following him down the beach, slowly getting closer…”
With an improbably looooong arm reaching out, and a disembodied voice saying ‘ticket, please’.
ajay 06.03.11 at 12:38 pm
That trolley would have fitted in perfectly in The Village, for sure.
EWI 06.03.11 at 12:40 pm
You may laugh, but some people take this stuff *very* seriously:
http://www.nationaltransportmuseum.org/
Barry Freed 06.03.11 at 1:29 pm
You can justify almost anything for a good larf.
Niall McAuley 06.03.11 at 2:24 pm
That tramway does not look entirely level, if you follow me. Not exactly devoid of lumpiness. The brother never rides a tram on a lumpy rail, on account of atomic theory.
D’you see, as your tram proceeds on it’s merry way towards An Lár along a lumpy tramway, the vertical motion associated with navigating the individual lumps and bumps is transmitted to the passengers through their seats. And the atomic theory states that both seats and passengers are composed of atoms, too tiny to see. As each jolt shoots up through the tram’s superstructure, atoms of passenger are exchanged with atoms of upholstery and seat cushion, until the half of each passenger ends up composed of molecules of leather and horse-hair.
The brother says this explains a lot about the average civil servant.
P O'Neill 06.03.11 at 2:31 pm
The good news on #5 is that since there is no such thing as an “Ulster nationalist”, the trolley’s direction can be changed with no moral consequences.
ajay 06.03.11 at 2:37 pm
19: unfortunately…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_nationalism
Ulster nationalism is the name given[1][2] to a school of thought in Northern Irish politics that seeks the independence of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom without becoming part of the Republic of Ireland, thereby becoming an independent sovereign state separate from England, Scotland and Wales.
P O'Neill 06.03.11 at 2:52 pm
I’ll stay away from that one to avoid accusations of a Myles-like, er, derailment, of the thread.
ajay 06.03.11 at 4:14 pm
21: it was a surprise to me too…
Myles 06.03.11 at 4:34 pm
I’ll stay away from that one to avoid accusations of a Myles-like, er, derailment, of the thread.
It takes far more than me to yank the rail switch one way or another (that’s assuming I actually push it one way or another, which I don’t). Really it does. Usually mass humourlessness does the trick.
EWI 06.03.11 at 10:03 pm
@ ajay
Ulster nationalism is the name given[1][2] to a school of thought in Northern Irish politics that seeks the independence of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom without becoming part of the Republic of Ireland, thereby becoming an independent sovereign state separate from England, Scotland and Wales.
Ahh yes, the old stand-by Unionist threat of UDI (Universal Declaration of Independence). No doubt it would have proceeded along the same lines as in the former Rhodesia (likely with some aid from Apartheid South Africa too), with Irish Catholics being assigned the role of black Africans under this scheme.
Davis X. Machina 06.04.11 at 1:26 am
Toby the Tram engine, from the nearby Isle of Sodor, would approve.
And Henrietta.
EWI 06.04.11 at 11:45 am
(Gah – Unilateral Declaration, of course. Mar a bhÃ)
ajay 06.05.11 at 5:26 pm
EWI: the unionists being a majority of the population (and ROI being unlikely to volunteer for the Zambia role of front-line state) might have helped things play out slightly differently from Rhodesia – but, yes, it probably would not have been pretty.
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