Eiretrains

Back in 1970 the Transport Research Associates published a collection of track diagrams covering the Mallow-Rosslare Harbour line, along with the Fermoy-Mitchelstown, Ballinacourty, Grace Dieu Jct-Waterford South and Rosslare Strand-Wexford branches. Also included were a list of all the level crossings on the lines concerned, diagrams of gradients and curves and facsimiles of the relevant GS&WR Working Timetable pages dated 1 October 1906. All this information was available for the princely sum of 16 shillings (€1.02)!

Heard of this but never seen it, very envious of anyone who were lucky enough to get it at the time!

Lismore is a wonderful station, the old locomotive shed is similarly of a fancy design (unlike the cabin as you say). It's a fascinating place, and once boasted an overall roof up to GSR days. There was also a separate short-lived 'station' at the eastern end consisting of a single platform serving Waterford, Dungarvan & Lismore Railway services, the traces of which (grass grown platform served by a head-shunt from main station) survived right up until closure of the line in 1967.

Might be this one, everyone should have a good look at Roger's material, definitely a link for the favourites bookmark.

Thanks! When you say the timber returned to Irish Rail do you mean it had stopped at some point? The February 1999 IRRS JOURNAL states that 'on average, two trains per day are being operated to Waterford to service the Louisiana Pacific factory;' I wish there were that many nowadays! Why did the Galway, Ennis and Sligo timber traffic cease? And of course all of the other timber flows?

Yes between November 2001 to 2003 there were no timber trains at all. There was sort of a rethink when it came back and it might have been deemed uneconomical to operate so many trains on so many different routes, particularly when taking into the levels of crew manning and maintenance (CTC plans were rationalising as many sidings and track.), for instance the Derry trains was an incredibly long roundabout trip requiring NIR staff, it was a time when freight was been scaled back year by year with more emphasis on long-distance point-to-point freight services.

I think it was between 2006 and 2007, I recall in 2007 during the IRRS tour to Rosslare, the canopies and name boards in Connolly were painted grey.

The original timber flows which began in 1994 used a lot more locations for the source of timber than in later years, such as Ennis. Other locations included Killarney and Galway, as well as obscurer places such as Millstreet, Gorey and a once-off operation from Kingscourt. It was an interesting time and the routes were flexible, with a flow serving Clonmel (a very regular destination then) been recorded operating from Ballina via Tuam. There was also a brief period when Donegal timber destined for Waterford saw trains starting in Derry but this was subsequently transferred to the Sligo route. The original contract for conveying timber by rail from all these places ceased in October 2001, with the last trains finishing in November or so.

In 2003, a renewed contract saw the timber trains return to Irish Rail but featuring trains from Sligo, Ballina/Westport to Waterford only. Unfortunately none of the other previous locations/routes featured and the smaller four-wheel timber wagons were scrapped, leaving just the bogey types left, and even some places like Killarney would no longer be able to handle such traffic. Every so often a rumour surfaces about a Derry timber but seems unlikely since the Sligo flow has also since ceased. You will find some info of the early flows in the 1990s Irish Railway News and the older IRRS Journals.

Thanks, not seen that link before, likewise I wish I could have been around for that (all before my time unfortunately!). But whilst I know we don't have a time machine;), there's enjoyment and good memories still to be had on some contemporary railtours and those who travelled on the recent IRRS diesel railtour will confirm this. True the motive power isn't an A Class and we didn't go via South Wexford and see any beet (the sprayer/DFDS being the only interest outside the tour's!), but it was still a privilege to enter Waterford on-board the wonderful Craven stock behind a growling 071 locomotive (three being used throughout the trip), before heading leisurely (with photo-stops) cross country to Limerick following by an evening jaunt up the Nenagh/Ballybrophy branch.

This one at the beginning never fully fired up.

[video=youtube;SO1lntAiL-c]

Thanks, I've a video of her on a pushpull leaving Millstreet and the music is even more evident, must upload it sometime

Hi all,

I've updated Eiretrains with photos taken between the beginning of this year to the end of last month, I won't list out everything but suffice to say they feature the usual freight/PWD workings as well as a few railtours and odd events.

http://eiretrains.com/latestphotos/Spring%202014/latestphotos.html

Here's a video too for good measure

I haven't heard of the grey variations, but AFAIK B135 was recorded as been the only 121 locomotive to be repainted in the original grey/yellow livery, the rest, including eventually herself, received the black/tan colours once through Inchicore. Two interestingly had red buffer beams, B127 and B123 I believe, another thing to be aware of!

Interestingly photos of ex CBP 2-4-2T 10L and T&D 2-6-0T 6T look suspiciously like both locos were painted black following overhaul in the 1950s 6T ran with her number scrawled in white o the buffer beam rather than the usual shaded transfer.

That's correct re: 10L, it being recorded in 1951 by the IRRS as having been painted black and retaining its numberplate which was painted red. D2 Class 4-4-0 323 is recorded as been painted black also at this time.

J.G Dewing recorded a lovely scene of 184 in green working a transfer goods at Islandbridge in May 1960 (Irish Railways in Colour V2), she also did pilot duties in Kingsbridge and North Wall.

Barry also confirmed the above this evening, my original thoughts were that it might have been something MRSI although they did not come into existence until the late 1980s, at least sometime after that trip to Portrush, so it had to have been some other organisation, it being the clip largely out of sequence in the lot.

Story with the loco change to a 201?

There's no run around facilities in Midleton (and Cobh), so two locomotives are required for the job, one hauls the sprayer into Midleton, the other follows it LE, the LE then couples up to the sprayer in Midleton and returns it to Cork. This was done for the Sperry and the IRRS tour also.

Ciaran, pity about the height, you would have made a great Detective

Ah I sort of knew a little of that one before hand.

I remember looking at this one plenty of times in the NLI as it always fascinating me; B134 running bonnet-first on a Galway service, one of a few recorded 121s seen working mainline in this fashion before it was largely discontinued early in their career.

http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000305313

I haven't visited Ballingrane yet, despite been in the area twice, it seems an out of the way place.

You're in luck with the recent uploads of the O'Dea Collection, three pictures dated Sept 1959.

Ballingrane - O'Dea Collection

There are some on Flickr also.

https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=ballingrane&sort=relevance

That train was a special run on 20th June 1961 with green liveried A Class locomotives A27+A38. The Irish Railfans News covered this in their July 1961 issue.

Cardinal’s Special

His Eminence Cardinal Agagianian, Papal Legate to the Dublin Patrician Congress, travelled by train

from Dublin to Cork and back on June 20. In the down direction a special portion was attached to the

08:45 “Sláinte” express and this train was double-headed by two A class locos: A27 and A38. The

Cardinal’s train was scheduled to return as a special in advance of the 15:30 Cork - Dublin “Mail” -

deferred 5 minutes - and to be attached to the 13:40 Tralee - Dublin at Mallow. In fact, however, the

Cardinal was delayed and his train ran as a special throughout, leaving Cork at 15:40 and, with a ten

minute stop at Thurles, reaching Kingsbridge at 18:55. The Tralee train ran ahead of the special and the

“Mail” left on time and was overtaken at Mallow.

Leaving Cork, the special comprised locos A27 and A38, bogie van 2558, Saloon 351, the new buffet

car 2402 (described elsewhere in this issue), tabled bogie second 1361 and LV 2731. It will be noted

that the locos were turned in Cork to enable A27 to carry a green shield inscribed “Carbad Phádraig”

(Patrick’s Chariot) surmounted by the Papal, Irish and Patrician flags.

Was intrigued by a caption along the lines of 'New Dutch locomotives, Inchicore'....only to find a shot of G classes.

Yes there's the occasional error or two in some captions and geography, it might have read original as 'New Deutz' locomotives which was translated to Dutch.

O'Dea was great at recording the track diagrams in signal cabins, in fact nearly every cabin he visited he duly recorded with great discipline. I've a soft spot for Clonakilty Junction, I'd love to see someone model this someday.

http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000304732

The National Library of Ireland recently announced that a huge amount of digitised photos have recently been made available online. Amongst them includes those from the late prolific Irish railway photographer James P.O'Dea. Up to now only a fraction of his pictures were online, but now over 4800 of the 5342 pictures of his are now available. They feature nearly every corner of the rail network from the 1930s to 1970s.

Link to his Collection here.

Plenty of hours to enjoy looking over!

Jonathan M Allen has a good shot of it on his geograph profile site, taken in 1971. CTC did away with the semaphores in 1976, although the Down starter were colour-lights since the 1960s. The cabin was demolished in 1984/5.

Portarlington signal cabin

© Copyright TheTurfBurner and

licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

It's the disused sidings in the Castlemungret complex, visible from the N69 road.

There are several examples of the brick-based GNR cabins in existence, both on the contemporary and abandoned lines, but none seemingly of the entire wooden frame versions except the now saved Bundoran Jct cabin, but maybe another will turn up in an obscure place

It's wonderful to see this cabin has survived, I think it could be the only type of this GNR(I) wooden cabin left in existence.

That video btw was originally captured by Colm O'Callaghan, and not Eiretrains, whom had just turned four at the time and too young to realise what freight we had, but at least it's there now for us to enjoy:tumbsup:.

Hi all,

Please find the latest photos uploaded to Eiretrains; just a few sorties to capture some freight/pwd workings and the recent RPSI specials.

http://eiretrains.com/latestphotos/Winter%202013/latestphotos.html

Some forgotten stations from Dundalk, Newry Greenore Railway at Bush, Carlingford and Dundalk. And surprisingly the remnants of the Bessbrook & Newry Tramway, still in-situ 50+ years after closure.

Also a video of the RPSI Santa specials:

[video=youtube;SO1lntAiL-c]

Thanks for looking.

That's the station masters house at Howth Junction, not the signal cabin, the cabin was knocked during the DART installation in 1984.