MOGUL

Strangely enough, a week after I said I had never seen a Transamerica spider tank in Ireland, 6 of them arrived in Ballina on the IWT liner! DANA tanks below, will try and source more but can't seem to PM these to Arran

Since he got into the train, off it again and only fell getting back on, so his third time through the doors, he only fell 1/3 of the time.. So surely IE should only be 33 percent liable!

Carefull now!! Those have the potential to upset a few on here

Ballina is a bit of a quirk in that all the right conditions conspired to make a viable rail service.. I would see these as 1) Volume of freight allowing a frequent service, reducing the inherent inflexibility of rail freight.. 2) Distance from nearest Port meaning rail is cost conpetitive 3) Nature of the cargo being carried (dangerous goods and heavy tank containers).. This also feeds into 2 as both of these add to cost of road haulage 4) The right freight companies being involved and their customers supporting their efforts! This is for me the biggy, there are lots of places that could have a rail service if the right freight forwarders were carrying the business.. Sligo, Ennis and Galway spring to mind 5) continuity of operation, meaning IE never got to "rationalise" the infrastructure needed for operation of freight trains without needing a large upfront investment.. This is probably the sole reason that Cork doesn't have a freight service

Nope, don't think that any of the companies using rail in Ireland are involved in Carbon credit trading.. On an international level their energy usage is miniscule compared to say a steel works or even the likes of Aughinish Alumina in Limerick.. Tara mines uses rail as it is a planning requirement for the operation of the mine, but the fact is that the rail operation is more efficient than using trucks, for example after the viaduct in Malahide collapsed they had to resort to using road haulage.. To replace just 1 train(they operate 3/4 a day) would require 25 trucks.. So 75-100 trucks per day Mon-Fri, 50 weeks a year, all of them heavy.. I don't think they roads of Meath, Louth and North Dublin would stand up to that for very long! The Ballina operation is a perfect example of what students of geography would call the agglomeration effect.. Ballina has managed to attract enough volume of cargo to make the operation of 3 different rail services viable, to a point where the three services benefit from the presence of each other.. For example, IWT operates a reachstacker on their site which substitutes in the rail head when the IE reachstacker is being maintained/ out of service etc. If it was only the DFDS service operating still, then they would be 100% reliant on the IE reachstacker.. Similarly the DFDS and Timber service operate on shared paths to and from Waterford, with the drivers swapping between the 2 trains halfway.. If there was only a DFDS train or a timber train travelling then the drivers would still have to travel to the halfway point which is a cost.. So by having both trains operating, the costs of drivers are shared between the services.. And as a final point, the economics of rail freight in Ireland aren't as marginal as enthusiasts/train spotters etc seem to think. I think that because of what happened between 2003-2008 with IE closing large parts of their own network, people think "IE couldn't make it work, therefore it doesn't work".. Yet we still have 4 seperate private companies, that are making rail freight work, day in day out. The fact that companies can point to rail freight as part of their green agenda is one reason that we have some of the services we do, but it is by no means the only reason..

I have to agree with Railer, I don't think the Transamerica spider tanks are that common in Ireland.. In fact the only spider tanks I can think of are the Agmark ones that you sometimes see in 1s and 2s on the IWT, Arran any chance of these?? Nice simple livery!

It's only a bit of shunting Dave, should be run of the mill stuff for the lads in NW!! But good to see IE surprising people, on the freight side they deserve more credit than they get and there are some very talented and hard working people involved in keeping the trains on time!

216 in Belmond blue in NW this evening.. Looks very smart

Was just down at NW and 216 in Belmond blue is coupled to the laden wagons for tomorrow mornings IWT liner.. It was too dark for Photos but perhaps might be of use to some thinking of heading line side tomorrow

Hi George, I wouldnt think IE had the best set up or concept of how to charge for freight back in the 2000s! But I can tell you that the rates on the trains to Ballina in the 2010s are definitely competitive or cheaper than by road, particularly for bulk units.. I bring containers into Dublin, Cork and Waterford on a regular basis.. Dublin has by far the best connections to some areas(Liverpool/NW UK, Spain and Med spring to mind) and much more regular frequency.. So often rather than wait a week for the next feeder to Cork or Waterford we would ship to Dublin and road to Cork or Waterford.. Similarly we sometimes have a need to move product from Cork to Dublin or Belfast to meet shortfalls there.. I know that some shipping lines are also moving containers between both Ports also, by sea and road.. Are you still involved in freight in Cork George?

It's a nice idea and it would be great to see some sort of rail freight in the Cork area.. But I have a few reservations: Where is the Bio Mass meant to be going to.. I can't think of any power plants that would be better served from Cork than from Dublin.. Ditto for Oil, where would be better served by Rail from Cork than by Road from the nearest port(Dublin, New Ross, Foynes and Galway all spring to mind) I think the most likely scenario will be North Esk being reconnected to handle container trains from Dublin.. I've lost count of the amount of times I have cursed the lack of a container train to and from Cork and then gone and paid a haulier a small ransom to do the job!

Battleship Gray 071 just passed Glasnevin with coach Donegal on transfer to Inchicore.. Does anyone know how many coaches have been delivered now?

I think the Tara's will still be the heaviest trains on a regular basis at 900 tonnes trailing weight(12 x 75 tonne wagons).. Even if the container trial ran with every single wagon loaded at 40 tonnes( 2 laden 20ft containers per wagon) it would only be 1080 tonnes so should be well within the capacity of an 071 or a 201... Likelihood is that the train will carry a mixture of laden 20ft bulk tanks( 30 tonnes each), 20ft imports ( 2 per wagon at 20 tonnes each), 40ft imports (24-26 Tonnes each) and empty containers ( 3-4 Tonnes each).. Did cement trains ever run at 1000 tonnes? I thought 900 would be the max made up of 12 Bogies or 24 Bubbles

Thanks Fran, Looking forward to your effort!

Hi Stephen, I think the thinking behind the extra siding was to accommodate some of the overflow from Ballina yard at busy times.. Up until about 6 months ago, the spare iWT set was stored in Claremorris from Thursday evening until the following Tuesday morning.. Funnily enough this stopped around the time the siding was installed! But it will still get some use, particularly if the biomass does go by rail or if Claremorris starts to handle freight again

Hello to all, Just thought I would share the details of this coming Monday's freight trial in case any camera toting members of the IRM community wanted to head out and catch it! The train will operate from Dublin to Ballina, not Waterford to Limerick as originally planned. The reason for the change was the low height of bridges on the south tipp line making the use of 9ft 6in containers impossible.. As the port of waterford only handles short sea services, the only cobtainers readily available were of the 9ft 6 variety.. The train will load in Dublin port on Monday afternoon to form the 20:40 departure ex North wall. The train will run as 27 wagons as far as Claremorris, where 9 wagons will be detached for the run onwards to Ballina.. Hope that this is of help to some and happy snapping! Mogul

Hi Ray, they're 1:76/ OO gauge.. Probably should have mentioned that in the original post!

Those cement wagons look the biz, any chance of a step by step on how to make the TDR?

Eucon containers are sold.. Any interest in the Stobart digger at €20 each or 2 for €35?

To add to what Ttco said, WED IWT departures are 08:15(as required) and 11:40( every week).. Also there is a Saturday service both ways depart ballina at 08:15 and arrival at 1600ish.. If you are still down there Monday week(27th June), there is a 27 wagon trial train going down to Ballina

Hi Rialto, Was looking to hold onto the one I painted (into the company colours, just need to make transfers) and just ship the 1 unpainted Eucon.. I don't have any pics of these as they are in a box at the moment so I will have to dig them out first! What are you planning in creating with the containers??

Think my thread has ended up a bit like the 46a bus, wait ages for a post and then two come along at once! Rialto PM sent Richrua, looks like Rialto might have pipped you to the post.. But I do have a 3rd EUCON container (from the same set of two but I painted the other one up as something else!).. Pm me if your interested..

Hello to all, Am selling these to makes some space and cash for new projects First I have an Atlas editions Eddie Stobart Digger, looking for €25 for this.. Comes in the original box with all the packaging.. I have 2 of these if there is enough interest! Second I have a set of Bachmann Oo gauge Eucon containers, also in the original box and in as new condition.. Will take €12 for these Am based in Dublin so can meet up around the city for a sale, or can look into postage if needed

I don't have any of my own I'm afraid, it's usually stored near the wagon shed in North Wall so getting a photo would be difficult. I have found a video on youtube where you can see this wagon being shunted around the yard, the title of the video is: IE class 201 (215) Shunting Pocket & IWT wagons at North Wall, Dublin

Interesting to know! Good to see it getting some use, even if it won't be moving very far