Interesting not-so-early Irish Railway photos

[Mol_PMB]

Looking at the Early Irish Railway Photos thread and the NLI collection, I have fallen down a bit of a rabbit hole. In fact I was looking for photos of mills in the NLI collection in the hope of finding some more photos of Quartertown, when I stumbled across this super aerial view of the flour mills in Cork. With Glanmire Road station, goods yard and shed in the background. I wouldn't have found this when searching for a railway-related image, but there's so much of interest in this photo I thought I'd share it here. The date is April 1955:

https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000733522

 

You know how much I like wagons and there's plenty of them to love here, including three different types of 6-wheel goods brake van. There's a lot of containerised freight in CIE (pre-ISO) containers - they're easy to spot as the snail is in the middle of the side, rather than at one end on the goods vans.

There's also a nice view of 'Pat' working on the elevated coal gantry, showing how this served the quays and the sheds. 

On the turntable is one of the 'Queens', contrasting with an AEC railcar set in the station.

But to me the most interesting loco in this shot is a 1000 class shunter, apparently busy at work in the yard. I knew that a D class had once hauled a trial train to Cork, but I didn't realise that one was based here prior to the arrival of the E class.

This is a cruel zoom in to a tiny portion of the whole photo:

 

 

 

 

[Westcorkrailway]

I didn’t know the D class ever got to cork either….interesting! 

[Mol_PMB]

15 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

I didn’t know the D class ever got to cork either….interesting! 

There was a trial on 7 March 1948, when 1000 hauled a goods train of 25 wagons, non-stop from Kingsbridge to Cork. It took nearly 9 hours so I hope the crew took some refreshments! Must have been tedious at that speed.

But this photo is the first mention or evidence I've seen of a D class working in Cork, and being dated 1955 it's well after the trials period for these locos.

[Flying Snail]

This thread is starting off as more of a slow burner than the 'Early Irish Railway Photos', but that's definitely an interesting find to kick things off @Mol_PMB

In my mind, not-so-early Irish Railway photos might be more the place for stuff after the formation of the GSR, so here's a photo from GSR days of a mixed train in Mountmellick about to depart back down the branch around 1939.  The interesting thing is the carriages have two loose coupled wagons between them and the loco.

Mountmellick was the only stop on a short, very lightly trafficked (and flat) 7-mile branch that trains from Portlaoise (Maryborough) entered through the rather awkwardly configured Conniberry Junction (requiring the loco to run around its train) - which is most likely the reason why.

* I can't recall where this picture came from: I think it could be 'Lost Railways of Co. Dublin and the South East' by Stephen Johnson

Edited 8 hours ago by Flying Snail

[Mol_PMB]

Good idea. GSR period and early CIE (say pre-1955 ish) would fit well here. 
Photos become much more common from the mid-50s and the railway changed dramatically with the influx of diesels and the closure of branch lines and smaller stations in the late 50s and early 60s. 
 

[jhb171achill]

A couple of not-so-old ones from the late 1960s in Waterford, copyright Barry Carse…

[Mol_PMB]

Thanks JHB! I do like the stealth black livery and if IRM were to produce either of those locos I would have to buy them!

 

[jhb171achill]

3 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

Thanks JHB! I do like the stealth black livery and if IRM were to produce either of those locos I would have to buy them!

 

There was a model A in the less common variant of this livery, with a large number on the side where the snail is, but no small cabside numbers. Both A & C classes had both variants. Not sure about the 101s.

Edited 7 hours ago by jhb171achill

[Westcorkrailway]

1 hour ago, Mol_PMB said:

Good idea. GSR period and early CIE (say pre-1955 ish) would fit well here. 
Photos become much more common from the mid-50s and the railway changed dramatically with the influx of diesels and the closure of branch lines and smaller stations in the late 50s and early 60s. 
 

Photos post ww2 become much easier to come by. But the introduction of colour during that time is brilliant. Particularly of the earliest years of CIE. 
 

https://ifiarchiveplayer.ie/monsignor-reid-collection-castlerea-train-station/
 

1947 Colour footage of an oil burning loco with GSR liveried Coaches