Sunday, 12 April 2020

[OFFTOPIC] Kells Transport Museum, Blossomgrove, Cork, Ireland

These Google Earth images are the notorious Kells Transport Museum in Blossomgrove, Cork, Ireland, a large collection of buses owned by one Michael Grimes. This fellow has apparently had a few run ins with the law as well as with lots of other people and his bus collection allegedly numbered over 400 at its peak (we estimate about 200 buses visible in the aerials, so whether other buses were stored at different sites seems possible). 

He also has a website called "Railway International" which still operates (unlike the KTM website whose domain registration expired last year), the RI site covers visits to the railway systems of many countries, NZ included. We were previously familiar with the site for its coverage of the Ecuadorian rail system. It is uncertain at this time if this website will continue operating as Mr Grimes has apparently been made bankrupt in Ireland, the domain registration expires at the end of next month. We assume both sites will be available from Web Archive but in any case the RI site seems to be missing many photos so it is only partly useful.

It is rumoured that the bus storage site in Blossomgrove was cleared late last year as a result of the bankruptcy proceedings but we have not been able to confirm this, however these may well be historical images. There is also an independent Flickr photo set resulting from someone's personal visit to the site if you want to see what it looked like close up on the ground. This Youtube video also appears to be shot at the same site and is more recent, showing significantly greater damage and decay to the bus collection in later years. As the aerials show, the bus collection was well hidden off the main road in a field with an access road 1.5 km in length.