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Red bubbles?

Very interesting thread. I would be inclined to go for one of the above theories other than a loco roundhouse, due to space at least. Since roundhouses were so rare in Ireland, I can’t help thinking that’s its highly unlikely that the existence of one would go unnoticed by some of our most eminent railway historians over the years.  If there ever was one, I would think it was in early Dublin & Drogheda days and didn’t last long....

Perhaps the term ‘engine house’ might refer to a stationary engine, rather than covered storage of locomotives? Just a thought...

I did a bit more searching around and found more on the Amiens Street 'Engine House';- I found a far better map dated 1880 similar to the map above, with 3 buildings to the East of the station- all text labelled! 'Engine Ho.' for the building we're discussing, East to that 'Luggage Store' with a narrow connection back to the first building, and then East again 'Work Shop' on the building just before Lower Sheriff Street turns towards the Liffey. While browsing Glenderg's photos again, I noticed a planning application notice on the wall of the second building in the last photo so I did a planning search on the DCC website and came up with two items;- First;- a planning application for a dreadful major development of the whole station yard, the surrounding streets, offices and apartments towering over everything, permission was granted but noting in the documents relating to this discussion. Second; a planning application in 2007 Ref; 5696/07 for demolition of a structure on top of the 'Engine Ho' and erection of a new driver facility- which is the building we possibly see in Glenderg's photos, possibly because this application was invalid! lucky though they left the documents on line for us see;- Attached to the application is a Conservation Report as Connolly Station is a listed structure, in the report they describe the building as follows;- 'Engine House located at basement level running parallel along Sheriff Street and consists of three no. brick barrel vaults running east west supported by random rubble stone walls with arched openings'....'To the south of the building is the electrical sub station'... 'The walls consist of large white washed random rubble stone walls supporting the large barrel vaults. Several random rubble piers are located throughout the building'.... 'Several arched openings connect various rooms throughout the Engine House. The arched openings vary in size and consist both of brick and stone construction. Several openings have been blocked up in later years with concrete blockwork'.... Near the end of the report they say;- They also mention that 'an extension of the public platform to the East extended over part of this building', so some of the Engine House is under the platform and not seen from Lower Sheriff Street. It seems to be a cavernous sub-divided structure internally- a bit strange for an Engine House! and how did they get engines in? and why did it have large stone arches openings in the curved wall onto street level? Actually the curved wall is made up of 6 to 8 straight walls in an arc...... Eoin

£50-60 for Railtrack autoballasters on ebay at the moment, though by the time the respray is done not much of a saving...though you are less likely to have spare generator vans if you do it that way 😊