Bantry (on the correct side of the Irish Sea)

[meathdane]

3 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Fertiliser maybe? Always liked those bogies….

I do have a rake of 8 Ferts that need use, part of a special occasionally

4 hours ago, Westcorkrailway said:

When it comes to Bantry, you could delve into alternate history. It never had a dedicated oil train as whiddy island was constructed after it was built. 
 

Cattle specials also spring to mind, and beet was loaded here too of course. 
 

there was a few mills in the area too, a lot of them powered by good oul waterwheel in the 1960s!

I was considering it, I have a few bulk Grains, hence the idea of a distillery, could have Hs and grains servicing it. Plus licence for some private owner wagons. Possibly even a Guinness distillery, to use my Guinness 40s in an alternative world where a Cork based brewery still used the rails! 

 

@Mike 84C you're a bad influence you know! 

[Westcorkrailway]

20 minutes ago, meathdane said:

I do have a rake of 8 Ferts that need use, part of a special occasionally

I was considering it, I have a few bulk Grains, hence the idea of a distillery, could have Hs and grains servicing it. Plus licence for some private owner wagons. Possibly even a Guinness distillery, to use my Guinness 40s in an alternative world where a Cork based brewery still used the rails! 

 

@Mike 84C you're a bad influence you know! 

A Guiness factory in west cork???? That has to be treason of the highest order!!!

 

north cork Murphy’s, south cork beamish!

[meathdane]

29 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

A Guiness factory in west cork???? That has to be treason of the highest order!!!

 

north cork Murphy’s, south cork beamish!

Thought we were going alternative history, you know, only the good stuff, or Shtuff as ye say

[jhb171achill]

1 hour ago, meathdane said:

I do have a rake of 8 Ferts that need use, part of a special occasionally

I was considering it, I have a few bulk Grains, hence the idea of a distillery, could have Hs and grains servicing it. Plus licence for some private owner wagons. Possibly even a Guinness distillery, to use my Guinness 40s in an alternative world where a Cork based brewery still used the rails! 

 

@Mike 84C you're a bad influence you know! 

I like this distillery idea. Can you send me samples?

[Mayner]

The Gulf Oil Whiddy Terminal was basically a tranship point for crude oil arriving by Supertanker from the Middle East and smaller tankers distributing the oil to British and European refineries. Even if the West Cork remained open (& a pipeline existed between the Youghal Branch & the Whitegate Refinery its likely that the refinery would have continued to receive crude oil by sea being more convenient and cost effective than rail.

Had Bantry remained open its likely that the Whiddy Terminal would have lead to an increase in general goods traffic in a similar manner to Tynagh mine boosting Loughrea branch traffic although it did not transport the output, with ships supplies (food, consumables & spare/replacement parts) arriving by rail in H Vans. 

Grain wagons were just as likely to transport animal feed as malting barley and could be transhipped to a lorry for delivery to a customer.  There is a photo in the National Library O'Dea collection of a grain wagon being unloaded at Fermoy using a small portable conveyor to transfer the load to a lorry, no need for a pit or a silo!

Bantry Station was the towns second station, the original was on the hillside on the Cork side of the town near the current Hospital former Workhouse and seems to have been abandoned after the extension was opened, possible site for goods station or stone built 19th Century flour/feed mills or even a distillery,  Middleton and Bandon had major distilleries why not Bantry? Alman's (Bandon) seemingly dependent on the US market closed because of Prohibition wiped out its major market, a lesson for us all today?

What if Bantry survived into the Railplan 80 era most likely traffics would have been trainload fertiliser running for a locoa Co Op as required, Bagged Cement  weekly tran possibly serving Bandon, Dunmanway? and Bantry (railhead for Skibereen)

Another potential would have been a weekly Bell Liner conveying frozen fish from Castletown Bere (or possibly move the fleet to Bantry), at one stage CIE operated a weekly Bell Liner from Sligo conveying fish traffic from Killybegs (possibly 20' Refrigerated containers)

On a practical note I'd recommend laying permanant track on cord or a dense foam underlay (I use camping ground sheets), the resilience of the foam allows for more reliable running and a lot quiter than laying track directly on the baseboard.

[Mike 84C]

I could easily see a Polloxfens from Ballysodare sort of mill in Bantry. Have a look on the Sligo Heritage website, I love  the flying cupboards! And I'm sure JHB will know of more photographs!

[meathdane]

10 hours ago, Mayner said:

The Gulf Oil Whiddy Terminal was basically a tranship point for crude oil arriving by Supertanker from the Middle East and smaller tankers distributing the oil to British and European refineries. Even if the West Cork remained open (& a pipeline existed between the Youghal Branch & the Whitegate Refinery its likely that the refinery would have continued to receive crude oil by sea being more convenient and cost effective than rail.

Had Bantry remained open its likely that the Whiddy Terminal would have lead to an increase in general goods traffic in a similar manner to Tynagh mine boosting Loughrea branch traffic although it did not transport the output, with ships supplies (food, consumables & spare/replacement parts) arriving by rail in H Vans. 

Grain wagons were just as likely to transport animal feed as malting barley and could be transhipped to a lorry for delivery to a customer.  There is a photo in the National Library O'Dea collection of a grain wagon being unloaded at Fermoy using a small portable conveyor to transfer the load to a lorry, no need for a pit or a silo!

Bantry Station was the towns second station, the original was on the hillside on the Cork side of the town near the current Hospital former Workhouse and seems to have been abandoned after the extension was opened, possible site for goods station or stone built 19th Century flour/feed mills or even a distillery,  Middleton and Bandon had major distilleries why not Bantry? Alman's (Bandon) seemingly dependent on the US market closed because of Prohibition wiped out its major market, a lesson for us all today?

What if Bantry survived into the Railplan 80 era most likely traffics would have been trainload fertiliser running for a locoa Co Op as required, Bagged Cement  weekly tran possibly serving Bandon, Dunmanway? and Bantry (railhead for Skibereen)

Another potential would have been a weekly Bell Liner conveying frozen fish from Castletown Bere (or possibly move the fleet to Bantry), at one stage CIE operated a weekly Bell Liner from Sligo conveying fish traffic from Killybegs (possibly 20' Refrigerated containers)

On a practical note I'd recommend laying permanant track on cord or a dense foam underlay (I use camping ground sheets), the resilience of the foam allows for more reliable running and a lot quiter than laying track directly on the baseboard.

Some great ideas, I have plenty of containers, including Cie 20s l, Lyons, Harps and a few others. I would certainly like to give them a run over Bantry. 

The track is being laid on 4mm cork, you can see it poking out on the track leading to Bantry, I'm in the process of laying and cutting track, then itll get the cork treatment. 

 

I think you've all convincede that a distillery is the way to go, I may have to use short radius points to get it in, but I think I can manage it, it may be simplified, using Bantry as a drop off point and a pilot loco to shunt it back up the line into the distillery, and shunt from the distillery into Bantry for formation into a train. More to think and consider. I do have about a foot more I can extend the baseboard to give me a little more room to build the distillery