Small yards & locations on the irish railway system

[Celtic_transport]

Hi all,

im currently building a micro layout based in the 90s/00s, but its come to a standstill as im struggling to find inspiration. Im wondering if anyone has any knowledge on small yards or industrial facilities that were served by rail on the network. Pictures would be amazing or even just some information to get me inspired again. Merry Christmas and happy new year to you all.

[Mol_PMB]

By the 1990s a lot of the smaller yards and depots had been closed, with freight handled at fewer, larger facilities. 
Remaining smaller facilities tended to be dedicated to one traffic. 
However, there was still a good variety of freight on the network and stations like Ennis would handle several different traffics. 
Foynes was still active I think. 
 

Are there any specific traffics you want to include? I.e. what wagons have you got?

 

Another option would be to model a repair workshop like part of Limerick or Inchicore.

Or a PW yard? 

[Celtic_transport]

Thinking a pw yard is the best option, im from the northeast so pw traffic/tara/gypsum/cement is what i grew up with, just struggling to justify my idea for the layout as plausible 

[jhb171achill]

Compared with the Neighbouring Isle of funny-coloured trains, we never had anything remotely like the number or variety of yards big and small as they did. What few we DID have mostly vanished by the 1970s - some barely even made it ionto the 20th century.  So 1990s is narrowing the gene pool considerably.

I would therefore suggest a fictitious one rather than, perhaps attempting to replicate an actual one; or if the latter is preferred, simply use artistic licence to pretend it had lasted longer.

Some of these places, where they did exist, were simply sidings off to the side of some station - for example, at one time Enniscorthy had no fewer than seven private sidings within the station itself and its immediate environs. Polloxfens Mills at Ballysodare in Co Sligo lasted into the 1970s and had a number of very short parallel sidings, connected through a short rock cutting to the station. Scenic as well as operationally interesting; indeed, possibly the best such example.

You could imagine the Westport Quay line lasted longer than the late 1970s, and that the siding from the station there to two mill buildings on the actual quayside still saw atimidly crawling 141 and a couple of wagons into the 1990s.

But there lies another issue. In the 1990s, loose-coupled single vans going in an out of small sidings was a thing of the past by some fifteen years. It was by then all about block workings. If you go down that road, possibly your best bet is some sort of place that handles fertiliser wagons or even just loads beet - Belleville siding near Tuam as an example? This avoids the need to have to model a whole modern industrial plant like a cement factory or a container yard gantry. Even Albert Quay in Cork in its last days handled fert trains with sometimes only 3, 4 or 5 fert bogies. If you go for something like that, you can have a fiddle yard line appearing from under a bridge or something, and just split it up into 2 or 3 parallel sidings, each of which might be so short that it would only hold 3 fert wagons - that could be made to look realistic. Locos, as in so many of these type of places, would not haul trains in (thus needing a good bit of extra space for a run round loop and headshunt), but propel them in and haul them out. I think that is probably your answer.

[Mayner]

While my initial thoughts were that most of the smaller yards and private sidings had closed as CIE shifted from individual wagon load to fixed formation Liner Train operation for general freight/container traffic and Block trains for single commodities like Cement (bagged & Bulk), Fertiliser, Ores to fulfil the Railplan 80 objective of establishing a 'no shunt railway"  Irish Rail began to adapt a more pragmatic approach with the hope of increasing traffic/profitability with a number of new freight flows using (underutilised/redundant stock) that emerged during the late 80s/90s mainly in connection with traffic in Animal Feed (mollasses and grain to the Midlands.

Mollassess was loaded at a small bulk terminal an extension of a redundant zinc ore spur at Foynes and conveyed in block trains of previously redundant oil tank wagons (Mid 60-early 70s era) to Limerick then distriubuted by scheduled Liner Train to their final destinations Mullingar & Longford typically cuts of 6 wagons. Initially grain was carried in 20' purpose built containers on 22'wb flats at Foynes and later Waterford and railed to the Portlaoise Avonmore plant at the end of the stub of the Portlaosie-Kilkenny line. At Waterford grain was loaded on a private siding that served an IAWS elevator, in its final years grain was loaded at Dublin Port with road transfer to the North Wall yard and railed on bogie flats to the Avonmore Plant.  Although unloaded on a spur outside the Avonmore plant, work had commenced on installing a run-round loop beffore the traffic ceased in the early 2000s.

Its just about possible similar traffic flows might have extended to the North East if the Irish Government had been supportive for railfreight during the early 2000s.

Earlier Bulk Grain and Tar Traffic (individual wagon load) increased during the mid-late 50s, but largely gone by Mid-1970s. Bulk grain tended to be handled in concrete/corrugated iron/asbestos additions to existing stone mills, tar simple siding with steam heating plant (in shed) to transfer to road tanker. Modern private sidings tended to be set up to handle 1-15 wagon trains of bogie wagons co-op siding Farranfore.

Personally I think it would be easier simpler to build a mico layout set in an earlier period, industrues, railway rolling stock all operating on a smaller scale and buildings and structures architecturally more attractive and rail traffic conveyed in individual wagon load rather than the gtrain load.

 

[seagoebox]

Here we have an undated list of sidings on the CIE network. The only clue to possible date is on page 2 where a siding for Goulding at Sligo is "being installed"

[jhb171achill]

38 minutes ago, seagoebox said:

Here we have an undated list of sidings on the CIE network. The only clue to possible date is on page 2 where a siding for Goulding at Sligo is "being installed"

It’s pre-1959 anyway, as destinations on the C & L are mentioned.

While the list mentions “Location of Siding”, just a thought: is there the slightest chance that in any of these cases a rail connection might have recently been superseded by lorries? If so, the date could be very slightly later…. I doubt it, but it did occur to me.

Overall, Mayner’s observation is spot on; a period somewhat earlier than 1990-2000 gives way, way more opportunities.

[Galteemore]

Interesting to see a private siding at Drumshanbo which wasn’t coal related.Lairds were a big deal in Drumshanbo - also the manufacturers of Bo Peep jam which the elders among us may recall.

 

I agree with the sages above re chronology. If you go 1975ish you have a lot more scope. Can just imagine an IDA-backed new factory just off the Burma Road, needing tanks of fuel in and H vans of product out….you can get away with locos in ‘Supertrain’ colours as well as the older liveries

Edited 3 hours ago by Galteemore

[Mol_PMB]

If you want to stick with the 1990s era, then I think the more interesting options would be:

• PW yard. Not just ballast hoppers but rails/track panels on bogie flats, spoil wagons, maybe an excavator on a lowmac. 
• Wagon repair facility. I considered a layout based on a small part of the Limerick wagon works. Any type of wagon can turn up.
• Cement-based industry. In a small scale, probably something that receives cement and produces cement-based products (breeze blocks, lintels, roofing sheets, concrete sleepers?) which can also go out by train.
• Food-based industry as mentioned above. Molasses tanks and containers. Even a chocolate factory (e.g. Rathmore).

See if you can get hold of the February 2019 IRRS journal, which has a detailed illustrated article on Private Sidings on Irish Railways. That's where I found my inspiration for my Quartertown Mill mini-layout.