Irish rails new crane

[226 Abhann na Suire]

Spotted it this morning in Waterford Sallypark Yard behind an 071 and with a 40ft Liner Flat either side. Not sure if this was general testing or related to the new second track they’re laying through Ferrybank (on the Rosslare side of the current station) for the new station

[Barl]

The Kirow crane was being stabled in the sidings at Clonmel today. It was an interesting sight as 088 pulled it from the Limerick direction, then ran around the loop at Clonmel to push it into the sidings. 088 had to wait close to an hour for the inspection car to pass, which was returning to Limerick Junction via the loop at Clonmel. 

[josh_]

Its now in castlerea sidings 

[josh_]

Taken on the 28 th July this year 

[spudfan]

I presume this has a diesel engine judging by the photos. I was looking for the hand crank aperature. 

I remember on the building sites in the late seventies trying to hand crank a Winget dumper on cold Winter mornings. Get the crank in, turn it until the engine spluttered in to life in a cloud of smoke then deftly removing the crank. Before removing the crank there was a little lever you flicked with your other hand at the appropriate time. Sometimes I would ask the JCB driver for a push to kick start the dumper to save hand cranking which could be tiring to say the least. It all depended on the mood he was in whether he would oblige or not! Would not fancy trying to hand crank that big yellow yoke!

Edited September 15 by spudfan

[GSR 800]

Just spotted her stabled at Mullingar with loco this morning.

[Mayner]

On 15/9/2025 at 11:40 PM, spudfan said:

I presume this has a diesel engine judging by the photos. I was looking for the hand crank aperature. 

I remember on the building sites in the late seventies trying to hand crank a Winget dumper on cold Winter mornings. Get the crank in, turn it until the engine spluttered in to life in a cloud of smoke then deftly removing the crank. Before removing the crank there was a little lever you flicked with your other hand at the appropriate time. Sometimes I would ask the JCB driver for a push to kick start the dumper to save hand cranking which could be tiring to say the least. It all depended on the mood he was in whether he would oblige or not! Would not fancy trying to hand crank that big yellow yoke!

The new IE crane is likely to be diesel-hydraulic with computerised control of the machines functions LCD display in the cab with joystick controls a far cry from the plant the 70s.

The knack to hand starting diesel engines in mixers and small dumpers was to crank the handle fast enough to allow the flywheel to build up enough momentum to fire the engine without kickback, easy enough for those of stocky muscular build, but a challenge for a young tall bloke that had not put on the middle aged spread 

I had fun and games starting recalcitrant diesel engines on my last job in Ireland 40 years ago before I moved to London and the owner of the business re-located to Atlanta, Georgia. Construction was in the doldurms and the owner had sold off most of the plant in preparation for the move before winning a contract to develop a site for housing in Donabate and was in desperate need of a Bulldozer or Traxcavator and large tow along roller to construct an access road across a swamp to the site.

The boss managed to pick up an ancient Caterpillar 951Traxcavator (crawler loader)with manualshift (from a landfill) to the disgust of our regular dozer operator Harry 'whoes" dozer had been just been exported to the States. The Trax. was sound but in need of an overhaul, and kept our fitter (bosses younger brother) busy repairing faults as we did not have time to take the machine into the shops for a much needed overhaul.

The fitter and Harry developed a 'work around" to keep the job going when the Trax. starter motor failed and no replacement could be found, luckily Harry had the bucket raised when the starter gave up the ghost. We fitted a ply blankingplate to the starter motor housing (to maintain oil pressure) and two started the Trax. using the bosses almost new Nissan Patrol 4X4, the Patrol literally lifted off the gound with all 4 wheels spinning when Harry slipped in the clutch with the trax in 3rd (top) gear, but the engine of the trax fired. For the next week or so we gravity started the trax in the mornings by running it down an earthen ramp constructed by Harry, keeping the bucket raised when the machine was parked at night.

We had one hickup when the trax failed to fire by gravity on morning and our clients JCB and Rough Terrain Forklift were unabe to start the trax by towing, but no problem to the bosses Nissan Patrol, which was also required to tow the Trax. whenever our fitter carried out work on the machines engine or hydraulics. We fitted a refusbished starter motor to the Trax after a week or so the end of trying to two/gravity start a 20 or so year old Cat.

Our other big source of drama was with the engine of a hired in 30 ton vibrating roller towed by the Cat to form the access road, engine (3 cylinder Deutz) that powered the vibrator was originally supplied with an electric starter but no dynamo or alternator to charge the battery. The engine apparrently 'siezed" shortly after the hire company replaced the electric with a wind-up starter https://www.springstarter.com/.  It turned out the engine had 'siezed" as a result of a nut becoming jammed between the starter ring gear and bell housing. The engine appeared to have been recenty overhauled and the nut may have been dropped/left inside the engine during overhaul or when the electric starting motor was replaced by the wind up starter, the particular hire company had a good range of heavy plant but a poor reputation for service and reliability.

I tended to move away from the 'sharp end' of construction after I moved to England, but one urgent job I was running was delayed for a week when the 'Donkey Engine" on a piling rig owned and operated by a major British Piling Civil Engineering company blew up on the 1st day on a critical stage of a project.