Interesting not-so-early Irish Railway photos

[GSWR 90]

9 hours ago, Mayner said:

Probabably still goes on, I understand that about 30 years ago loco maintenance staff at Inchacore were severely pissed off when bogies from withdrawn 001 Class locos kept as spares were scrapped without consulting maintenance during a scrap drive. Often stopped/withdrawn locos/rolling stock are used as a source of spares, with usable parts removed 'as required" rather than removed and stored.

 

A tale as old as time. Withdrawn locos that are kept for spare parts are sometimes called “Christmas trees” but I’m not sure how common that expression is.

[GSWR 90]

NCC Jinty No. 18 being delivered to Northern Ireland

J15 No. 130 in use as a stationary boiler 

461, then No. 15, in DSER days

 

[airfixfan]

There is an Enterprise coach at York Road that has been slowly stripped for spare parts to keep the DD coaches running for months now!

[cheesy_peas]

9 hours ago, GSWR 90 said:

 

J15 No. 130 in use as a stationary boiler 

 

 

What was the deal with stationary boiler locos? What were they supplying steam to? I assume they were withdrawn locos used in that capacity until they needed major attention and then replaced with another off the scrap line and cut up?

[Galteemore]

51 minutes ago, cheesy_peas said:

What was the deal with stationary boiler locos? What were they supplying steam to? I assume they were withdrawn locos used in that capacity until they needed major attention and then replaced with another off the scrap line and cut up?

Variety of things - heating, washing, machinery supply. 130 was on railtour duty in June 64 so this is mid to late 60s. The GNR loco 131 was stabled in front of her on similar duties but more intact ! 

 

[Horsetan]

41 minutes ago, cheesy_peas said:

What was the deal with stationary boiler locos? What were they supplying steam to? I assume they were withdrawn locos used in that capacity until they needed major attention and then replaced with another off the scrap line and cut up?

Usually steam heat would have been supplied to buildings.

Sometimes stationary boilers weren't actually stationary; if engines were still capable of moving under their own power then they could supply steam for carriage-warming duties. Couplings would generally be removed so that they would be unable to haul stock.

[Galteemore]

Sometimes the alterations were dramatic. Here’s a Jinty ex works at Darlington in 1965 ready to serve out its last years as a heating boiler in Manchester 

 

[GSWR 90]

Cómhlucht Siúicre Eireann Thurles No. 1 (now preserved at Downpatrick) in use as a stationary boiler, April 1963.

 

CSE was quite a diverse operation, so it's hard to narrow down what the steam is being used for – in addition to refining beet, they made animal feed, lime for fertiliser, and agricultural machinery. In 1957, they bought Ireland's first stored-program computer for making calculations for refining sugar and paying beet farmers across the country

[GSWR 90]

CSE Carlow No. 3 (Cockerill 3096/1926) seen in 1954, It was withdrawn in 1956. I always wondered why CSE bought vertical boiler Belgian locos, but I recently read that Carlow sugar factory was built under the guidance of a Belgian company so perhaps it was due to their influence. Note that one of the buffers has a curved edge, and the other is flat – standard practice in much of continental Europe to prevent buffers from locking.

Edited Tuesday at 19:29 by GSWR 90

[Horsetan]

2 hours ago, GSWR 90 said:

CSE Carlow No. 3 (Cockerill 3096/1926) seen in 1954, It was withdrawn in 1956. I always wondered why CSE bought vertical boiler Belgian locos, but I recently read that Carlow sugar factory was built under the guidance of a Belgian company so perhaps it was due to their influence. Note that one of the buffers has a curved edge, and the other is flat – standard practice in much of continental Europe to prevent buffers from locking.

One of these, albeit standard gauge rather than Irish standard, was seen on a YouTube video recently, working on a UK preserved line (think it was the Lavender Line at Isfield). Remarkable little machine.

[Mol_PMB]

I saw this original slide for sale on eBay and I think I must have had a couple of pints of ale inside me when I paid rather more for it than I had intended. Oops. 

Still, it's a lovely photo and shows several items of rolling stock that I would like to model.

The photographer was Ken Cooper and the date was 9th June 1957. The location is obvious from the station nameboard.

655 appears to be arriving with a rake of elderly MGWR 6-wheelers - a lavatory first, lavatory second, and two seconds. Behind them is what looks like a bogie corridor second. The second coach is in plain green without waist line or class digits, whereas the others have the lining and class digits (second class, post-1956, rather than third). The shade of green looks identical though. My impression is that the 6-wheelers are all in light green, but the distant bogie coach may be a darker shade. It's a very sunny day though, which can make even the dark green look bright.

The track is a mixture of bullhead and flatbottom rail, with some points controlled from the box (just visible in the distance) and others with manual levers on the ground.

I have a kit in the stash for this class of loco, with round-top firebox as seen here, and 655 is my preferred prototype. The weathering pattern is quite typical of these locos in later years - the tender almost entirely brown with brake dust while the loco is an oily near-black (I think this was one of the locos actually painted black).

I've also got a couple of MGWR 6-wheelers on order from Alphagraphix, which together with my GSWR 6-wheelers could build up a similar-looking train. 

Just visible on the right is an AEC railcar, what a contrast to the 6-wheelers! I'm still hoping that IRM will produce one of these eventually.

[jhb171achill]

5 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

I saw this original slide for sale on eBay and I think I must have had a couple of pints of ale inside me when I paid rather more for it than I had intended. Oops. 

Still, it's a lovely photo and shows several items of rolling stock that I would like to model.

The photographer was Ken Cooper and the date was 9th June 1957. The location is obvious from the station nameboard.

655 appears to be arriving with a rake of elderly MGWR 6-wheelers - a lavatory first, lavatory second, and two seconds. Behind them is what looks like a bogie corridor second. The second coach is in plain green without waist line or class digits, whereas the others have the lining and class digits (second class, post-1956, rather than third). The shade of green looks identical though. My impression is that the 6-wheelers are all in light green, but the distant bogie coach may be a darker shade. It's a very sunny day though, which can make even the dark green look bright.

The track is a mixture of bullhead and flatbottom rail, with some points controlled from the box (just visible in the distance) and others with manual levers on the ground.

I have a kit in the stash for this class of loco, with round-top firebox as seen here, and 655 is my preferred prototype. The weathering pattern is quite typical of these locos in later years - the tender almost entirely brown with brake dust while the loco is an oily near-black (I think this was one of the locos actually painted black).

I've also got a couple of MGWR 6-wheelers on order from Alphagraphix, which together with my GSWR 6-wheelers could build up a similar-looking train. 

Just visible on the right is an AEC railcar, what a contrast to the 6-wheelers! I'm still hoping that IRM will produce one of these eventually.

Outstanding picture, yes. I think they are all light green. Very few dark green ones were in use by 1957 anyway (except Cork area!). Yes, 655 is one that was painted black, though that does not necessarily mean the tender is, under that dirt! Most day-to-day trains there at that time were AEC railcar sets, as seen on extreme right, so this will certainly be an excursion of some sort, or else empty stock for one. While only a slight ppossibility, it's possible they are being brought up to lend to the SLNCR for one of their pilgrimage trains. Probably more likely, it's extra stock for a GAA or Knock special/

Edited yesterday at 00:05 by jhb171achill

[Galteemore]

That’s a fabulous pic. Wonder if he got any SLNC that day ….

[Mayner]

5 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

I saw this original slide for sale on eBay and I think I must have had a couple of pints of ale inside me when I paid rather more for it than I had intended. Oops. 

Still, it's a lovely photo and shows several items of rolling stock that I would like to model.

The photographer was Ken Cooper and the date was 9th June 1957. The location is obvious from the station nameboard.

655 appears to be arriving with a rake of elderly MGWR 6-wheelers - a lavatory first, lavatory second, and two seconds. Behind them is what looks like a bogie corridor second. The second coach is in plain green without waist line or class digits, whereas the others have the lining and class digits (second class, post-1956, rather than third). The shade of green looks identical though. My impression is that the 6-wheelers are all in light green, but the distant bogie coach may be a darker shade. It's a very sunny day though, which can make even the dark green look bright.

The track is a mixture of bullhead and flatbottom rail, with some points controlled from the box (just visible in the distance) and others with manual levers on the ground.

Snap!

Picked this up at a UK exhibition 25-30 years ago. No info on photographer or publisher, photo stamped10157 at rear with hand written Sligo 2-9-52 which appears to have been a Tuesday so GAA or Seaside excursion less-likely, possiby religious or education. In his late 70s/80s IRRS papers on the Ballaghadereen Branch JP O'Dea wrote about 650 Class locos working excursion trains of 6w coaches to & from Sligo on weekends until replaced by AEC railcars.`

666 "Himself"? looks reasonably clean though the tender sides appear to be covered in dirt/muck, there is a 1956 F W Shuttleworth photo of 659 shunting the Night Mail at Sligo similarly loco appears clean while the tender side and frames appears to be covered in brake dust/road dirt.  The latter Atock tenders with the combination of sprong cut-outs and tender sides/flush with the frames were almost designed to throw up road dirt & brake dust & company image/external cleanliness of locos and stock was low priority on CIE.

The 650 Class are supplosed to have regularly worked the Sligo-Mullingar portion of the Night Mail until replaced by diesel during the mid-late 1950s, relatively 'high speed" duty likely to throw up road dirt/brake dust compared to similar locos working branch line mixed train and passenger duties.