Quarry Tracks

[Tullygrainey]

Not a locomotive in sight but this does involve rails.

A sunny day today took me to the Mourne Mountains for a wander. This is Carr's Face. It's one of many sites in the Mournes where granite was once quarried. The diagonal slash up the slope is a railway used to transport stone down to the quarry track in the valley.

 

Some rails and sleepers are still in place...

 

... and one of the wagons.

 

It looks like a classic gravity system with the weight of the descending loaded wagons pulling the empty ones up, though there are pulleys and winches at top and bottom.

 

Three rails at the top, with the centre rail common to up and down movement.

 

Half way down, the centre rail spits into two, creating 4 rails and allowing wagons moving in opposite directions to pass one another. 

 

Seems to reduce to a single track near the bottom.

 

I first came here about 20 years ago. Nothing much has changed in the interim. A grand day out.

Alan

 

 

 

[Galteemore]

Wow. Having tramped up hill and dale here for years doing my Duke of Edinburgh’s award, amazed I missed this!!! 

Edited June 19 by Galteemore

[Tullygrainey]

1 hour ago, Galteemore said:

Wow. Having tramped up hill and dale here for years doing my Duke of Edinburgh’s award, amazed I missed this!!! 

It's easy to miss this stuff unless, like me, you're looking for it 

[Galteemore]

1 hour ago, Tullygrainey said:

It's easy to miss this stuff unless, like me, you're looking for it 

In fairness, given my fitness levels in those days, my priority was looking for oxygen when climbing those hills.

Edited June 19 by Galteemore

[jhb171achill]

4 hours ago, Galteemore said:

Wow. Having tramped up hill and dale here for years doing my Duke of Edinburgh’s award, amazed I missed this!!! 

Me too!

(Though I never did any Duke stuff!)

[LNERW1]

Stuff like this fascinates me. I have a whole book on early UK railways that goes into plenty of lines that ran up mountains just like this, but the Ireland section (covering north and south as there wasn't a distinction when the lines were built) is negligible. I can't say I know much about the Mournes bar a song by the famous music hall performer Percy French, but the incline reminds me of the slate quarries at Blaenau, Llanberis, Penrhyn, Abergynolwyn, etc. Any clue of the gauge of the incline? Given the apparent scale of it compared to its surroundings, it seems to be 3ft, which is a reasonable assumption- but given I'm sure it was an entirely isolated system with no outside connections, it was probably some esoteric gauge like 2ft 7-1/6in. It's fascinating to see such a complete example of this technology- everything seems to be as good as though the incline closed 20 years ago, although I'm sure it's closer to a century. I suppose there's little pollution, and there's hardly enough up there to bother taking it down, or anything being built over it, or anyone wanting to vandalise it or steal parts. It's fascinating and I'd love to visit, do you have directions to it or coordinates on Google Maps? Thanks.

[Tullygrainey]

Whilst granite quarrying in the Mournes was extensive and some of the quarries are sizeable, there's nothing on the scale of the Welsh slate quarries you mention but the challenge of getting stone down the hillside would have been much the same. It didn't occur to me to measure the gauge but 3ft probably wouldn't be far from the mark. As far as I know, extensive quarrying in the area mostly ceased in the 1950s though small quantities are still occasionally taken at various sites. 

Carr's Face is best approached from Bloody Bridge (where some of the mountains sweep down to the sea). About a 2 hour walk, at my pace anyway 

[irishrailways52]

On 19/6/2024 at 6:00 PM, Tullygrainey said:

Not a locomotive in sight but this does involve rails.

A sunny day today took me to the Mourne Mountains for a wander. This is Carr's Face. It's one of many sites in the Mournes where granite was once quarried. The diagonal slash up the slope is a railway used to transport stone down to the quarry track in the valley.

 

Some rails and sleepers are still in place...

 

... and one of the wagons.

 

It looks like a classic gravity system with the weight of the descending loaded wagons pulling the empty ones up, though there are pulleys and winches at top and bottom.

 

Three rails at the top, with the centre rail common to up and down movement.

 

Half way down, the centre rail spits into two, creating 4 rails and allowing wagons moving in opposite directions to pass one another. 

 

Seems to reduce to a single track near the bottom.

 

I first came here about 20 years ago. Nothing much has changed in the interim. A grand day out.

Alan

 

 

 

must give it a visit