Rectangular tank wagon 574B, later 574A

[Mol_PMB]

Wagon 574B, later renumbered 574A, had an ancient-looking wooden frame with two rectangular tanks mounted on it. There was also some pipework and what may have been a manual pump with a small-diameter hose attached.

I would be interested to know what this wagon was used for. Surprisingly it appears in quite a lot of photos.

We'll start with this image from Ernie at Courtmacsherry in 1954 - 574B is visible on the right:

The B suffix indicates a former CBSCR wagon, which would be appropriate for the location. The stocklist in Ernie Shepherd's book on the CBSCR lists 574 as a 12-ton open wagon built in 1904 at their own Rocksavage works, and the design of the underframe appears very similar to other wagons built at Rocksavage around that time. So it's likely that the tank wagon was modified from that 1904-built open wagon.

One end of the wagon had an upright framework which appears to support a pump feeding a small-diameter hose (about an inch diameter). With no apparent source of power I assume it's a manual pump. The tank at the other end of the wagon has a breather pipe on the side. The two tanks appear to be connected together by slightly larger diameter pipes at floor level. In the UK, rectangular tanks were often used for tar traffic, usually with some form of steam heating coils in the tank so that the tar could be liquified for discharge. But I don't think 574B was a tar tank - a manual pump and small-diameter hose would have been completely unsuitable for dispensing tar!

574B is also pictured in the CBSCR book, in exactly the same place as in Ernie's photo above, with a comment that it didn't seem to have moved for some time. The photo in the book is dated 1961, seven years after Ernie's picture.

Other photos showing the same wagon, in the same place, in the 1954-61 period, are here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54253242648

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54252096157

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511289621

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570935860

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511479421

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/54253158039

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/52018071852

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/52351830186

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/7544336262

There's one twist though, in these photos the wagon isn't always the same way round. So it must have moved occasionally!

The wagon may be associated with servicing steam locomotives. Was it a water tank? If so, pumping a useful amount of water through that little hose would have taken some time and effort, and the capacity of the wagon would only have refilled the loco a couple of times before the wagon itself needed refilling.

Lubricants would be another possibility but the tank would have held well over a year's supply!

 

[Mol_PMB]

Now, the story of this veteran doesn't end with the closure of the West Cork lines in 1961.

 

Here's 574B with a fresh coat of paint at Glanmire Road in the early 1960s:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53511772934

It's now lettered: MAINTENANCE DEPT CORK  TO WORK BETWEEN TRALEE AND FENIT. There appear to have been some modifications to the pump arrangement but it's not clear in the photo.

 

By 1969 it was photographed at Glanmire Road again, and had been modified and re-lettered. The tanks have been moved closer together but the connecting pipes may have been removed. It now appears to be labelled as a water tank but with two different types of water.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53510435012

I can't quite read all the lettering on the side but I think it includes:

TO RUN BETWEEN WATER DEPT CORK AND LIMERICK ONLY

MAINTENANCE DEPT CORK

BALLAST WATER

DE?????ATED WATER

 

The wagon was seen again at Glanmire Road in 1977, by now marked for withdrawal:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53570779639

That's all I've got so far.

[Mol_PMB]

It's worth noting that there were other similar wagons, though all different in detail, and they appear on some lifting trains:

 

This photo of Fenit in 1955 appears to show a similar tank wagon (though not 574B):

https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000733673

So there must have been a need for these wagons at Fenit which would explain why 574B was allocated to Tralee-Fenit after the West Cork lines closed.

What was it for?

 

[Westcorkrailway]

1 hour ago, Mol_PMB said:

It's worth noting that there were other similar wagons, though all different in detail, and they appear on some lifting trains:

 

This photo of Fenit in 1955 appears to show a similar tank wagon (though not 574B):

https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000733673

So there must have been a need for these wagons at Fenit which would explain why 574B was allocated to Tralee-Fenit after the West Cork lines closed.

What was it for?

 

Well the wagon itself was a sort of portabable water tank. Courtmacsherry didn’t have a water tower, hence it was down there for so many years. they probobly had it on the lifting train from bantry purley for capacity reasons.

 

im sure fenit had a water tower though, and not too much steam got down there post 1961 (?) So it does seem a bit odd that it ended up other 

[Mol_PMB]

4 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

Well the wagon itself was a sort of portabable water tank. Courtmacsherry didn’t have a water tower, hence it was down there for so many years. they probobly had it on the lifting train from bantry purley for capacity reasons.

 

im sure fenit had a water tower though, and not too much steam got down there post 1961 (?) So it does seem a bit odd that it ended up other 

Thanks - that's useful to confirm it was a water tank. Presumably then it was for loco feedwater rather than drinking water.

I know that some railways had drinking water tank wagons for supplying remote stations and signalboxes.

Steam traction at Fenit finally ended in 1962/3 when the G class arrived to finally replace 560. But as you say, there was a water tower at the station, seen here in use in 1961:

I wondered whether it might have been used to supply the steam cranes on the pier (which lasted into the early 1970s), but given the number of buildings out there I think there must have been a freshwater supply on the pier.

 

 

[Flying Snail]

Definitely makes sense that a lifting train would need to have its own water supply once rail access to local water towers had been cut off. 

Also, another reason why you might be seeing so many tanks turning up in pictures is that water hardness is a big issue in many parts of Ireland - so another use for water tanks would have been to bring in water from other areas with soft water. I think, for example, the GSWR/GSR used old tenders to supply Limerick Junction. 

More info on the use of old tenders in this role is here: