Type of wagon used on the Foynes Ballybrophy line

[Wexford70]

 

 

Hi guys,

What type of wagon was used for the zinc ore on the Ballybrophy line in the 1980s?

 

PHOTO 1985 EMPTY ORE TRAIN APPROACHING SILVERMINES CIE 001 CLASS LOCOMOTIVE NO. 033 APPROACHES THE LOADING POINT AT SILVERMINES WITH AN EMPTY ORE TRAIN FROM FOYNES. THE 1.25 MILE BRANCH FROM THE BALLYBROPHY LIMERICK LINE OPENED IN 1966 FOR THE TRANSPORT OF BARYTES AND ZINC ORE TO THE DEEP-WATER PORT AT FOYNES. CLOSED IN 1993 IT DID NOT APPEAR ON MAPS ACCORDINGLY THIS LOCATION IS APPROXIMATE. INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY PHOTOGRAPHER  

https://www.ebay.ie/itm/192880403113?hash=item2ce89162a9:g:RpMAAOSwCJxaAFMo

[Broithe]

Presumably, this was the junction.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ballygown+South,+Silvermines,+Co.+Tipperary,+Ireland/@52.7998272,-8.285717,287m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x485c97a50135353b:0xa00c7a997318b20!8m2!3d52.794361!4d-8.2366272

 

[Mayner]

There were Zinc (Mogul) and Barytes mining operations at Silvermines that used different types of wagon. The train in the photo appears to be made up of Barytes wagons which were basically dropside wagons, Zinc was transported in open tippler wagons which were discharged through a rotary tippler at Foynes.

There are photos of the both types of wagons at Foynes in the O'Dea collection

http://catalogue.nli.ie/Collection/vtls000148612

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by Mayner

[josefstadt]

3 hours ago, Broithe said:

Presumably, this was the junction.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ballygown+South,+Silvermines,+Co.+Tipperary,+Ireland/@52.7998272,-8.285717,287m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x485c97a50135353b:0xa00c7a997318b20!8m2!3d52.794361!4d-8.2366272

 

Spot on Broithe! 

[DiveController]

These are Barytes Wagons with side doors that drop flat to become access ramps for a bulldozer to empty them out the other side

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/51030510502/in/photolist-2k4krku-ronnKi-2kKoGTY-2iG6h8s-2iG7LHc-2iG6gWA-dWibNq-qHtymH-24ejU7L-2kwbLLk-pEtTHF-pWE8Vg-2kwbLF5-2kwfseA/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/40188564632/in/photolist-2k4krku-ronnKi-2kKoGTY-2iG6h8s-2iG7LHc-2iG6gWA-dWibNq-qHtymH-24ejU7L-2kwbLLk-pEtTHF-pWE8Vg-2kwbLF5-2kwfseA/

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by DiveController

[murphaph]

These wagons doubled as spoils wagons and could be seen elsewhere on the network on weekends. They could come up to Dublin on a Saturday morning do some track works and then head back to Limerick on Sunday evening to be ready for the mine's operations on Monday morning. There's a  picture of them arriving into the gullet in the Traction book.

I have another question that's slightly related....

John mentioned a rotary tippler at Foynes. I was unaware of any zinc mining in that area. Did they use the shale wagons for the zinc? Could the Foynes rotary tippler handle the Tara Mines wagons? Indeed, didn't Tara initially export through Foynes in the very beginning?

[Mayner]

The Zinc ore wagons were 20T w wheel wagons, there is a photo in the NLI collection showing one of these wagons with a tarpaulin. http://catalogue.nli.ie/Collection/vtls000148612

The rotary tippler may have been re-located to the Limerick Cement factory for unloading the much larger Shale Wagons, the wagon release arrangement were similar.

 

[DiveController]

22 hours ago, murphaph said:

These wagons doubled as spoils wagons and could be seen elsewhere on the network on weekends. They could come up to Dublin on a Saturday morning do some track works and then head back to Limerick on Sunday evening to be ready for the mine's operations on Monday morning. There's a  picture of them arriving into the gullet in the Traction book.

Absolutely. The barytes wagons may also have been used for shale prior to the introduction of the later open top bogie shale wagons

https://www.flickr.com/photos/152343870@N07/50905134803/in/photolist-2kyj84Z-dWcz2K

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by DiveController

[murphaph]

Interesting use of what appears to be a barrier wagon. I wonder what that is there for.

[MOGUL]

13 hours ago, murphaph said:

Interesting use of what appears to be a barrier wagon. I wonder what that is there for.

Looks like an Asahi oil tank being worked Foynes to Limerick for maintenance..

[seagoebox]

A couple of drawings of the Barytes wagons from the CIE wagon book

barytes wagon A.pdf Barytes wagonn B.pdf

[Wexford70]

Just found this Video of the wagons being emptied as described by @DiveController

 

 

[the Bandon tank]

Tom Brady of Irish Freight Models use to do a model of the Barytes wagon. always intended to buy a rake, but never got around to it.

[DiveController]

AT 2:40 on that video you can also see the zinc wagons introduced c. 1967 for the Silvermines-Foynes zinc ore traffic