GSWR (Great South Wall Railway)

[LNERW1]

So, another cry for help because Google is oriented towards the majority of people and not railway enthusiasts (when will they learn). I seem to recall hearing a mention or seeing on a map somewhere that there was a railway or tramway running out along the South Wall in Dublin, out to Poolbeg lighthouse. I assumed it was a construction railway but the wall was constructed starting in the early 18th century and so this seems unlikely. Was it to service the lighthouse? To maintain the breakwater? Or have I just gaslit myself? Answers on a postcard. Or below. Frankly below would be a little more convenient but it’s a free country, im not your dad etc

Edited September 13 by LNERW1

[murrayec]

As you say, most likely rails were laid to move the stones for the second shunt of the wall out to the light ship- which the existing lighthouse replaced. The stones are quite large and the best way to get them out there was by man hands on railed carts........

Edit;-

I also remember reading that the stones came from Dalkey, these were most likely barged across to the works from Bullock Harbour, so there may not have been a need for rails for this purpose as they would have been craned off the barges into place. Still could have been used for fill underneath though!

Eoin

Edited September 14 by murrayec

[Galteemore]

Have checked out the handbook on Irish industrial locos and it certainly wasn’t a powered line. As Eoin says, perfect way to do such heavy lifting. I remember seeing such a line at the Acropolis in Athens c1984 being used for heavy stone transportation. image courtesy ‘Industrial Gwent’. Just across the Irish Sea was a fascinating line, detached from the BR system, which did similar work with ancient locos. Search ‘Holyhead Breakwater Railway’

Edited September 14 by Galteemore

[David Holman]

Modern Image (ish) too as BR class 01 diesel shutters worked the breakwater for many years.

 There were quite a few pier railways with idiosyncratic motive power. The Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway used Muir Hill tractors - one literally a road model with uneven sized rail wheels, the other looking more like a motorised garden shed. Then there was the Spurn Head Railway, which used sail powered trolleys and old motor cars with rail wheels.

 Great modelling possibilities methinks!

[Brack]

The piers/breakwaters at the mouth of the Tyne both have rails in them:

 

But we're never connected to anything else (well, the south one connected to the quarry just down the coast, blocks for the north pier were taken by rail to a jetty on the river and barged across, then by rail down the pier). So far as im aware, rail mounted cranes of a wider gauge and wagons to move stone/concrete blocks for building and repairing it was the only use for them.

I think Tanfield railway has one of the block wagons and the grab, the ruston survives in scotland.

the track on the pier was in use (or at least intact) into the 70s or 80s I think.

This is interesting reading:

https://southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk/index.php/buildings/structures/piers/

And then scroll down for photos of loco workings here:

https://southshieldslocalhistorygroup.co.uk/index.php/transport/railways/

Thry had a ruston 48ds and a peckett similar to the hornby model, there's an interesting prototype for a model!

Of course this isnt an Irish example, but a good account with photos of the building of two breakwaters a mile out into the sea, presumably methods were similar.