whats happening at gorey good yard?

[Sean]

hey guys

anyone know whats happening to the goods shed and yard at gorey at the minute?

 

seems to be a few portakabins on site and the old goods shed is surrounded in scaffolding with the doors left open, had a much better view driving past the yard as if some of the trees have been removed also.

 

sean

[Sean]

Got this zoom photo at the end of P2. Anybody know?

 

Not sure if knocking or restoring.

[Sean]

although decrepid now, i imagine this shed was once a hub of activity

 

one of my aborted layouts, tried to mimic the track plan of gorey as much as possible down into a small space, i think i did quite well except for the lack of a platform 2.

 

there used to be a canopy coming out from the front of the shed that covered over the running loop.

 

 

 

[Sean]

Never noticed this before as I had just assumed they wouldn't have survived the platform being lengthened a few years back but the old original goods platforms that can be seen on the OSI map still exist today! The entrance to the old platforms still exist too however things are massively overgrown and inaccessible these days. 

 

The place would make a great little terminus for preservation along side the main running line to Dublin

there's even still a water tower.

Edited May 28, 2022 by Sean

[Past-Avenue]

Hi here are a couple i took a few years back.

[Mayner]

2 hours ago, Past-Avenue said:

Hi here are a couple i took a few years back.

It looks like they have demolished the lean to office building at the south gable of the shed.

The canopy/hayshed over the former goods loop was added in the late 1970s as a shelter for unloading Bagged Cement Trains until traffic ceased in the late 1990s, it looks like the goods loop was retained and all the remaining sidings were removed when Gorey 

The shed would have functioned in a similar manner to a modern logistics warehouse until the station was closed to freight traffic apart from bagged cement. High value traffic would have been stored in the goods shed for collection or delivery from the railway (sundries, cigarettes, tobacco, spirits, motor parts), less valuable goods would be loaded/unloaded by CIE staff or the customer on the loading bank.  Customers sometimes bought a wagon load of (covered) cement or fertiliser (open) and used "his wagon" as a temporary store, unloading as the need arose as demurrage costs if charged were very low. 

[Sean]

thats super interesting john. do you know what the additional platforms  would have been used for?

 

there is a large vehicle gate leading onto them so i had been thinking goods or cattle, but the cattle pens are located elsewhere on the map.

 

they are overgrown to the point of nearly being gone and i dont think that they were ever in use during my lifetime as i only remember discovering they existed in the past year or two. Must ask my father what he can remember about them.

 

Cheers

[Mayner]

3 hours ago, Sean said:

thats super interesting john. do you know what the additional platforms  would have been used for?

 

there is a large vehicle gate leading onto them so i had been thinking goods or cattle, but the cattle pens are located elsewhere on the map.

 

they are overgrown to the point of nearly being gone and i dont think that they were ever in use during my lifetime as i only remember discovering they existed in the past year or two. Must ask my father what he can remember about them.

 

Cheers

The arrangement of the goods shed loading bank and cattle dock at Gorey is not unlike Listowel, there are some interesting photos of the yard in its final years complete with stacks of pallets, cable drums and farm machinery on the loading bank in "Rails Through North Kerry, a good example of a typical CIE goods yard.

It looks like the two stub ended sidings at the station end terminated in an end loading dock, the diamond crossing arrangement appears to be set up for attaching non passenger coaching stock (horseboxes, carriage trucks) or vans carrying urgent traffic to mail or passenger trains.  This type of traffic would have largely died out by the late 1960s

Its possible that the oil depot beside the goods yard was once served by rail, a common arrangement between the 1930s and mid 1970s when the railways accepted individual wagon loads

In the 1960 WTT  overnight Wexford goods was scheduled to call at Gorey  11:39-12:00 Down 2:18-2:39 Up and the day Enniscorthy Goods 11:00-11:30 Down 10:39-11:05 (a very busy time)

Gorey appears to have closed to goods traffic except cement when the Wexford Goods went over to Liner train operation at some stage in 77/78?, in theory Gorey and Wicklow were to be served by road from Arklow in practice Sundries and Unit Load (container) traffic on the Wexford line was very light and the Liner was discontinued in the mid-late 1980s.