ERNIE's Irish Railway Archive, photos , Working Timetables etc from ca 1900 to the 2000's

[Irishswissernie]

County Donegal Railways  today.

yj052 CDRJC 1957-CA Stranorlar KB yj052.

CDRJC 1957 Stranorlar 11arriving on goods.  PFF357.

CDRJC 1957 Stranorlar R'car 10. PFF292.

CDRJC 1957 Stranorlar Erne shunting. PFF302.

CDRJC 1957 Stranorlar 15 for Strabane. PFF326.

 

 

[Irishswissernie]

CIE 1955-04-26 Greystones RC83656 scanref26J010.

CIE 1967 ca Wexford Quay 25j+080.

CIE 1967 CA Wexford South 25j+087.

 

[Irishswissernie]

Prior to more 'holidays courtesy of the NHS; on Wednesday took a chance on the weather for a trip along the Settle & Carlisle to Ribblehead and then trekked up to Blea Moor. Unfortunately the video sound was spoilt by a somewhat strong easterly wind so I will have to view it with the sound down but here are a few stills.

Stone traffic from Arcow, Horton and Ribblehead quarries all has to be worked north over Ribblehead viaduct to Blea Moor sidings as there are no crossover points to the south bound Double track line. This is good news for railway enthusiasts as it gives us more activity to watch and it also includes heavy freights crossing over the now single tracked Ribblehead viaduct.

2026-04-22 Blea Moor, 66694 Arriving on Horton - Brindle Heath stones.. top of viaduct behind the train.

2026-04-22 Blea Moor, Having run round its train 66694 heads south on the Horton - Brindle Heath stones.

2026-04-22 Blea Moor, 70817 inches along the loop on Carlisle- Chirk Kronospan Logs as 158753 comes off the single line and heads for Carlisle.

2026-04-22 Blea Moor, 70817 takes a breather on the logs whilst waiting for a Leeds bound 158 to overtake it. This is probably the only log train now running in the UK  working on most week days and loading to 22 wagons.

2026-04-22 Blea Moor, 66705 Carlisle to Clitheroe Castle Cement MTS.

 

Edited April 24 by Irishswissernie

[Irishswissernie]

To compensate for the content of the last post here are 5 HC Casserley negattives from 1934.

GSR 1934-07-07 Mallow 311 on 1.50 to Cork + 129 left HCC11006 Cas25141.

GSR 1934-07-07 Mallow 182 HCC11002 Cas25139.

GSR 1934-07-07 Mallow  129 HCC11003. Cas25140.

GSR 1934-07-09 Cork Coach 501 D17'1879 HCC11065 Cas25148.

GSR 1934-07-07 Waterford lkg west. HCC10997 Cas25136.

 

 

[Mol_PMB]

Super - many thanks Ernie!
 

In the first photo, note the GSWR arc-roof gangwayed open coach on the left, in the 2-colour livery. Just visible behind it is what looks like one of the 1930s GSR steel-panelled coaches, but given the 1934 photo date I'm not 100% certain.

The portrait of luggage composite 501 is nice; note that this is one of the 6-wheelers converted to 4 wheels. I'm gradually gathering more data on these.

The last photo shows a wonderful variety of goods vans - all shapes, sizes and styles. 

[Colonel]

Lovely stuff Ernie and so much detail to peruse too. Is there another loco behind 182, or does it really have two whistles, I wonder?

Edited April 27 by Colonel

[Patrick Davey]

Enjoyed the Settle-Carlisle photos too Ernie!!  Magnificent stretch of railway.

[Irishswissernie]

 Spent the week in a caravan at Cleethorpes with 18th month old twin grandchildren and their parents + Madame. Lots of wailing and whingeing and the grandchildren were not much better but had a good day alone at Barnetby for 10 hours &  26 freights  video'd. 

CB&SCR today.

CBSC 1958 - + Cork Albert Quay. fish boxes on cart. PFF213.

CBSC 1959-06-01 Bantry  260x 3pm to Cork PFF054.

CBSC 1958 - + Ballinascarthy 552. PFF198.

CBSC 1958 - + Ballinascarthy 552. PFF197.

 

 

[Galteemore]

Fab Ernie. The detail shot of 552 is most useful! 

[Mike 84C]

I love shots with loco crew, so often neglected the  crews that ran the machine.

[Colonel]

Indeed! Lovely details in all these pictures.

[Mol_PMB]

Thanks so much Ernie, these fit two of my current areas of research perfectly!

The detail shots inside the cab of the J26 on each side are particularly helpful, as is the image showing open second 1368 (or it might be 1358) in late 1950s light green livery. 

[Irishswissernie]

Mixed bag today, the first is my favourite.

CIE 1955-09-07 Enniscorthy 167 26J025. 

CIE 1955-09-05 Dun Laoghaire 346 ref26J026.

GNRI 1961-09-09 Derry Foyle Road. scanref 26J017.

CIE 1978-08-09 Waterford from box. scanref 26J019.

 

 

[Westcorkrailway]

I noticed these posted on Flickr too? 

[Irishswissernie]

Oops ! Yes I forgot to put them in my Post - not quite up to speed yet following last weekends NHS holiday. There's plenty more to come!

[Irishswissernie]

This one arrived today, Strabane with ex CDRJC stock on transporters for Belfast Museum. The interesting bit for me is the glimpse of the ex GNRI Goods yard with the cattle dock and in the distance on the left the large goods shed. Photographers  in the past seemed to head for the narrow gauge and transfer areas and photos of the ex GNR goods yard are rare.

CDRJC 1960-11-20 Strabane GNR goods yard, ng stock on transporters for Belfast Museum. scanref. 26J033.

 

 

[Colonel]

Fabulous, with so much to take in. Enniscorthy very much a scene worth modelling and what about the two section roof on the coach at Foyle Road?

 Lovely stuff!

[Horsetan]

23 hours ago, Irishswissernie said:

.....CIE 1978-08-09 Waterford from box. scanref 26J019.  

 

The view over Waterford is interesting for me, as that gives a distant view of the road traffic signal arrangement at the junction with the bridge. This being the late 1970s, the signal equipment would have been relatively new, and Siemens got the gig here as it did all over Ireland in this period, notably in Cork and especially so in Dublin, where brand new signals regulated the complex O'Connell Street / O'Connell Bridge intersections for the first time ever, finally displacing Gardaí officers from hand-signalled traffic control.

Unfortunately, signal maintenance in the decades following wasn't a strong point and in 1988 I regularly observed Siemens signals with missing hoods, lenses or simply non-operational.

I've had a go at trying to identify a few of the cars waiting at the lights: the yellow one is a Fiat 128, whilst the aquamarine blue at the back of the queue is a Fiat 127. The big brown hatchback is a mystery: I thought it might be a Rover SD1 but the tail lights are the wrong shape. The only other big cars that adopted the hatchback/fastback shape at this time were the Lancia Gamma and the Citroën CX. It's definitely not a CX as the tail light and concave rear windscreen would be easily spotted even at this distance.

Edited 2 hours ago by Horsetan

[Mol_PMB]

33 minutes ago, Horsetan said:

The view over Waterford is interesting for me, as that gives a distant view of the road traffic signal arrangement at the junction with the bridge. This being the late 1970s, the signal equipment would have been relatively new, and Siemens got the gig here as it did all over Ireland in this period, notably in Cork and especially so in Dublin, where brand new signals regulated the complex O'Connell Street / O'Connell Bridge intersections for the first time ever, finally displacing Gardaí officers from hand-signalled traffic control.

Unfortunately, signal maintenance in the decades following wasn't a strong point and in 1988 I regularly observed Siemens signals with missing hoods, lenses or simply non-operational.

I've had a go at trying to identify a few of the cars waiting at the lights: the yellow one is a Fiat 128, whilst the aquamarine blue at the back of the queue is a Fiat 127. The big brown hatchback is a mystery: I thought it might be a Rover SD1 but the tail lights are the wrong shape. The only other big cars that adopted the hatchback/fastback shape at this time were the Lancia Gamma and the Citroën CX. It's definitely not a CX as the tail light and concave rear windscreen would be easily spotted even at this distance.

Meanwhile I had been trying to identify the carriages by their roof details... Also note the rail-mounted mess 'caravan' next to the baby GM, successor to the 6-wheel sleeping car.

I'm not into cars but I think I see a Randy Lover and a Renault 4. The buses aren't any CIE livery that I recognise, but I'm not into buses either!

The nearer ship has an unusual colour scheme too - buff on funnel and masts was common but a buff hull wasn't.