Ballybrophy.

[Broithe]

My first trip beyond 5km (to give them time to put the outside world back in place) involved passing the two bridges to the southwest of the station.

The first seemed well able to resist being struck by my vehicle.

 

The apparent 'limewash' finish on the stonework, whilst it might garner criticism if replicated on a layout, is real.

Possibly Aspicilia calcarea.

 

The track, looking back northeast towards the station, looked rather neat.

 

 

The other bridge is in remarkable condition for its age, showing no real signs of ever being struck 'properly'.

Edited June 8, 2020 by Broithe

[Robert Shrives]

Now  you have said that I guess in short order somebody will try!  Lovely  photos thanks for showing

Robert  

[Broithe]

A return of some better weather has enabled a further reconnaissance of two bridges further to the southwest.

My memory says that this was a level crossing in the 1970s, but there is little evidence on the ground to support that and I wondered if I might be mistaken - but, it being a 'good grass day', there was chap in the adjacent field who turned out to be the last keeper's grandson.

If the Foot and Mouth returns, a gallon of disinfectant in the fairly permanent wheel-wash would be useful...

 

Defining the height to the millimetre seems a bit ambitious.

 

The house was to the right here, east of the intersection of road and track.

I was grateful to have my memory confirmed, as the whole layout is very different to what 'was' there before, in my recollection.

 

 

The next bridge to the southwest is an original structure.

 

There is an access road there, and I decided to record that - becoming momentarily excited at the prospect of being the first to record a DART on this line - then I realised that the overhead line warning referred to a mains distribution cable that takes a shortcut over the track and access road between two poles.

[Noel]

8 minutes ago, Broithe said:

 

If the Foot and Mouth returns, a gallon of disinfectant in the fairly permanent wheel-wash would be useful...

The house was to the right here, east of the intersection of road and track.

Some years ago a friend of mine had a motorway put through his farm so they built an under pass like the above so he could move his cattle under the road. He warned them about the water table level and localised flooding but the road engineers didn't listen saying they'd done their numbers, and research. The under pass had 5ft of water in it the week after it was completed, so they put expensive automatic drain pumps in it with all of the cost that entailed including piping to nearby drainage, then some H&S bod came out and had life rings installed at both ends of the underpass lest anybody drown when the pumps failed! Old proverb, ignore local knowledge at your pearl.

[Old Blarney]

Ah sure, don't they do a better job up in the North when it comes to an underpass? Is this the new road to Scotland? No it's a wee experiment by Flood Bros!  Its a possible submarine route! 

Edited July 11, 2020 by Old Blarney

[Broithe]

28 minutes ago, Noel said:

Some years ago a friend of mine had a motorway put through his farm so they built an under pass like the above so he could move his cattle under the road. He warned them about the water table level and localised flooding but the road engineers didn't listen saying they'd done their numbers, and research. The under pass had 5ft of water in it the week after it was completed, so they put expensive automatic drain pumps in it with all of the cost that entailed including piping to nearby drainage, then some H&S bod came out and had life rings installed at both ends of the underpass lest anybody drown when the pumps failed! Old proverb, ignore local knowledge at your pearl.

I've been through that one about five times now, and, although I've never seen it dry, I've also never seen much more than is there now - it was no real problem on a bike - though, you wouldn't want to walk through it in your best shoes.

And, I've just noticed that that is the last crossing keeper's grandson on top of the bales in the distance there.

5 minutes ago, Old Blarney said:

Ah sure, don't they do a better job up in the North when it comes to an underpass?

The Norwegians would find a use for that - https://snohetta.com/projects/334-stad-ship-tunnel

Edited July 11, 2020 by Broithe
Spelling...

[DiveController]

3 hours ago, Broithe said:

The Norwegians would find a use for that - https://snohetta.com/projects/334-stad-ship-tunnel

Pretty impressive

[Broithe]

Having ascertained that the far end of the platform is 4,900 metres from my house arrest location, I ventured out to see what has been going on.

Very little, really, the car parking issue has eased a bit for the present, of course, and there might be a bit of activity to increase the provision..?

 

A special detail for those modelling in the very recent 'modern image'.

 

The branch rails are looking rather unused.

But the loop rails seem to get the odd run over still.

 

New LED lighting has appeared.

 

Some weathering detail on the Rawie.

 

Just checking that the Outside World is still there, beyond the 5km radius...

[jhb171achill]

"To infinity and beyond"...................

Reminds me of Senior's imitation of the station platform staff there back in the day...

"CHANGE at Ballybrophy for Roscreaburrinena"!!!!

[Broithe]

12 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

"To infinity and beyond"...................

Reminds me of Senior's imitation of the station platform staff there back in the day...

"CHANGE at Ballybrophy for Roscreaburrinena"!!!!

I spent ten minutes of a journey down from Heuston, about twenty years ago, coaching the ticket man on the pronunciations of the stations on the 'back line'.

Being of African origin, he had really struggled with most of them - Cloughjordan presenting the most difficulty, you could hear the relief when his announcements got as far as Birdhill...

[jhb171achill]

The worst pronunciations are the computer-generated voices on the satnav - almost all are wrong, often so much so that they are totally unrecognisable.........

[Broithe]

43 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

The worst pronunciations are the computer-generated voices on the satnav - almost all are wrong, often so much so that they are totally unrecognisable.........

The people across the road told my father that were going away, so that he would be looking after their house.

He asked them where they were going and was told they were flying to Venice.

He suggested that he thought that was a bit extravagant and it would be a lot cheaper to go on the train, and it wouldn't take much longer.

Anyway, they left the discussion at that...

 

A few days later, we found out that he thought they were going to Ennis.

[Broithe]

Examination of the map led me to believe that I could investigate two further bridges on the Lisduff side of the station - 189 and 190, I think.

They are on a side road of the type that you wouldn't use unless you were going there and, I presume, were originally accommodation crossings, possibly within living memory, although I can't remember and I definitely haven't been along there for over forty years.

189.

 

The road between the two seems to have dual carriageway status - well, it has a central reservation...

 

190.

Edited March 25, 2021 by Broithe

[Broithe]

A brief survey of the station, during the warm bit of the afternoon, revealed that the phone cabinet has been updated.

 

Some details of the roof slates.

 

I'm not sure I would advertise a lift as being 'non-stop'.

[Broithe]

I ventured out beyond the 5km today - up the bog road to survey Bridge 194.

 

This would imply that there are three other structures between here and bridge 190 above.

 

One of them, 193, presumably, is this nuclear-bomb-proof culvert next-door.

 

I can see what looks like one other, non-public, structure via google maps, about half-way between 190 and 194.

 

The 'girder' of 194 is an interesting structure - a corrugated plate, formed from z-pieces, rivetted to joining plates.

[Broithe]

An ambitious bike ride today had a zigzag return path over the bridges to the northeast of the station.

 

This first one is 173, on the R434 Durrow to Borris in Ossory road.

From here, you can see 174, barely a hundred yards away.

It seems odd to have built two bridges so close together, when a small road realignment would have meant you could get away with one - maybe there were "important land owners" in the area at the time?

This is 173, seen from 174 - it's a 'standard' stone arch structure.

 

This is 174's rivetted girder structure, with 173 visible in the distance.

The bridge crosses the track at quite a shallow angle, perhaps felt to be too much for an arched structure.

The end piers are in the same style, though.

The southwestern side has a parallel farm-access 'footbridge'.

 

The northeastern side is more open.

This bridge would be known locally as The Skew Bridge at one time.

It can also be seen from Bridge 176, to the southeast.

 

Bridge 176 seems to have had a 'new' parapet some time in the past, the remains of  an original one can be seen at the ends.

Two bridges can be seen to the southwest - the nearer one is a farm access and the further one is the M7 - surveying that one on a bike might attract unwanted attention.

There are track access gates here, both pedestrian and vehicular.

 

The next available road bridge is 179, just to the northeast of the station, a 'skew' bridge, but not as shallow as 174, so it is an arched structure.

Again, a 'new' parapet is apparent.

 

And, lastly, a reasonable view of Bridge 182, at the station itself, that I may not have included before.

 

And, I was warned by the sound of an approaching train, so managed to capture it.

 

I had been surprised by the silent approach of a grey 071 and an empty flat train at Bridge 176 - it approached with remarkably little sound and I had no time to get the camera back out of my pocket...

[Billycan]

Apologies if this is in the wrong thread, but was Lisduff, Co. Laois a station or a halt?

[Garfield]

5 minutes ago, Billycan said:

Apologies if this is in the wrong thread, but was Lisduff, Co. Laois a station or a halt?

It was a station, although I don't know a lot about it. There are some images in the NLI's O'Dea collection:

http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000305774

http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000305773

It's interesting to see that passengers had to use a barrow crossing to get from one platform to the other as there was no footbridge...

[airfixfan]

6 minutes ago, Garfield said:

It was a station, although I don't know a lot about it. There are some images in the NLI's O'Dea collection:

http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000305774

http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000305773

It's interesting to see that passengers had to use a barrow crossing to get from one platform to the other as there was no footbridge...

One of the many stations closed in 1963

[Billycan]

Thanks Guys.  Appreciated.

[Broithe]

The other day, I ventured along the Nenagh branch, to record the accessible crossings.

Bridge No 1.

 

Looking north, to Bridge No 2 and the M7 motorway.

 

And the structure itself - this would be Grange Beg Bridge, locally.

 

Then onto Bridge No 2, which I expected to be a 'modern' replacement for a crossing, but the abutments appear to be original in style, although the span seems to have been replaced, but some time ago. This is over a farm access road, just south of the motorway.

Looking back to Bridge No 1.

 

And north to the M7.

 

And some general views.

 

This block was attached to the northern parapet and, from the lichen around it, seemed to have been there for some time.

 

And onto Bridge No 3 - the motorway presumably being No 2A.

Again a beam structure, rather than an arch, and with quite a recent replacement, by the look of things.

This could be the previous structure's remains?

 

Looking south.

 

And north, to the crossing just north of the bridge.

At this point, I became overwhelmed by the excitement of swooping down off the bridge and failed to investigate the crossing more closely.

 

Then onto Bridge No 4 or (probably?) 5 (I thought I had included the sign in one of the pictures), at the western end of Borris in Ossory.

 

And looking west, towards the bridge on the new motorway link road.

 

And the link road bridge itself - a really substantial structure, similar to the actual motorway bridges. Bridge 5A, I think.

 

And looking west.

And east.

 

From there, to the Quakers' Bridge Level Crossing - a name I've never really though as odd until typing it now...

 

 

Also, on another trip out later, I spotted this gate-post, just south of the main line, a few miles away.

 

 

[Broithe]

A few weeks ago, in a pub in Errill, I was convinced* to put some blinds up in a house in Lisduff. The house turned out to be next to the quarry, backing onto the line, about 200m away.

The first two windows were facing the road and they were done about a week ago.

I finished the job last night, as the remaining three blinds had been procured. These windows allowed a view of the track and I was treated to a few trains during my struggles with the blinds.

The current warmth, plus my heated exchanges with the blinds, meant that I also had to have the windows open, to avoid expiring.

It was very noticeable just how smooth and solid everything sounded as it drifted past.

 

* It is possible that the location had weakened my defences.

[jhb171achill]

On 2/4/2021 at 4:11 PM, Broithe said:

A brief survey of the station, during the warm bit of the afternoon, revealed that the phone cabinet has been updated.

 

Some details of the roof slates.

 

I'm not sure I would advertise a lift as being 'non-stop'.

The non-stop one goes to infinity and beyond......

[Broithe]

A brief survey today revealed that the work on improving and expanding the car parking arrangements has commenced.

This should be a great improvement, things were getting rather squeezed, although the "recent events" may have eased the pressure for a bit.

 

Some new ballast has appeared on the through lines - possibly salvaged from the pile that was located on the site of the car park extension?

There was some, probably unrelated, activity going on under the road bridge, but I couldn't make out what it might be.

 

4004 was pushed in by 225 whilst I was there.

 

All looking good - for a station that has seemed to be under almost constant threat for the whole of living memory.

[Broithe]

A little trip round the area today allowed me to call in and survey the progress.

Pretty much all that is going on is the car park project, which is progressing nicely. The pent-up demand can be seen scattered along the road.

Some of the eventual car park area is currently usable, to help cope with the current demand.

 

A track machine was conveniently parked, to be recorded for those who like yellow things.

 

The only thing worthy of note in the station itself was the removal of the elder tree near the beehive in the roof.

The bees seemed fairly OK about this and were going about their business as usual.

There is currently a programme to install official beehives at many stations on the network, after this successful impromptu pilot scheme.

[jhb171achill]

2 hours ago, Broithe said:

 

There is currently a programme to install official beehives at many stations on the network, after this successful impromptu pilot scheme.

Cue a track-suit claiming against IE for being stung!

Edited April 26, 2022 by jhb171achill

[Broithe]

56 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

Cue a track-suit claiming against IE for being stung!

It's hard to prove whose bee it was...

Someone I know is not an idiot, but...   

She is about to start keeping bees and I asked her if she intended selling on the honey - Yes - Ah, well the hardest part of all this is the first few days, where you have to catch them all and fit the tiny ear-tags to allow for full traceability...

It took her rather longer than I expected to realise that it might not be true - yet.

[Broithe]

A longer than intended, and windier than expected, bike ride today turned up some interesting items, though I didn't visit the station itself on this circuit.

This mast has appeared at the Skew Bridge, about four miles northeast of the station, just before the R434 bridge.

Things like this - isolated technology in the countryside, always remind me of scenes from The Avengers, so I hung around, in the forlorn hope that Mrs Peel might turn up.

My disappointment at her failure to appear was ameliorated greatly by the arrival of EM50, trundling gently past.

 

From there, I went past the Quaker's Bridge crossing on the Nenagh line again.

I had my lunch there, and that gave me the time to have a good look at things.

I noticed that, although the track is now continuous-welded, as far as the eye can see, the rails in the crossing itself have not been renewed. The still have the tell-tale evidence of decades of road traffic passing over them, and tarmac is unscathed. Careful scrutiny revealed that the new rails are joined onto them about 5 metres beyond the gates on each side - very neatly, too.

Also, the remains of some mechanical apparatus is also still on site, on both sides of the crossing.

Some additions and repairs to fencing and walls has occurred - in the debris left from that activity, my time eating my lunch allowed me to spot a real Lucozade bottle - I think I still have one of the black screw-in stoppers with the red seal somewhere...

 

From there, I headed generally southwards and, cresting a rise, I realised that I could see the majestic cliffs of Lisduff in the distance.

Closer to, you can't really see them at all, but there are other things to distract you, like the County Bounds bridge.

Presumably, this is a replacement span on the original abutments.

The inner faces have been clad in a more sympathetic finish.

The barriers seem quite 'new', and the detail may be of interest to some.

 

A set of autoballasters was hanging around and 232 pulled a train though.

 

[Broithe]

In furtherance of my 'cycle every road in the vicinity' quest, I had to do a nest of roads beyond Lisduff today.

This meant, of course, that I would stray over the county and provincial boundary and, not having any red cloth or beads to placate the natives, I couldn't afford hang about.

 

The first railway contact was at bridge 199.

From there, you can see No 200, which is a farm access bridge.

199 itself is also a concrete beam bridge and its parapets are not in the usual style.

It's hard to get a clear picture without trespassing, but it does look possible that this is a replacement structure, using the original abutments of an arched bridge of the usual type.

Whatever the truth, it's clearly been in this current form for some time.

 

No 201 was more original, although with a nicely done repair to some parapet damage.

The green slogans sprayed on the parapets there are, hopefully, not legible by those of a delicate nature.

 

There were some impressive masts there, too.

 

Other structures of note were this shed, with its rather risqué slogan.

 

And this rustic access control facility.

 

Whilst I was there, a 22000 came past, not slowing for a stop at Lisduff these days, of course.

[Broithe]

Further into the wilderness, I noticed today, that this signal, between bridges 14 and 15 in Roscrea, is just visible from Lidl car park, off the Birr Road.

[Broithe]

With nothing I was trying to do today 'going for me', I decided to give up and have a look at the station. Sundays are the easiest days, anyway, if, as I correctly suspected, the enhanced car parking is not fully accessible yet.

Things have progressed nicely, and the end is in sight.

 

The approach road has been resurfaced now, too.

There is still no sign of a ticket machine, but there is potential ducting in a plausible location for one - we shall see.

 

The station itself has had some attention. The white platform edges, yellow lines and platform warnings have all been newly reapplied.

They are (currently) so clean and bright that they might draw criticism on a model layout.

The previous markings have been removed first, so the upside-down letters and alien script of the past are gone now.

The removal seem to have been done by something along the lines of a rotary wire brush. There are occasional circular gouge marks and some paint remains on the chamfered edges of some paviors.

 

Also, during my tour of inspection, I finally noticed this expansion joint, about a third of the way along the loop past Platform 4.

I've never noticed it before.

[Broithe]

These day-glo spray marks have appeared on the ballast by Bridge 188, they run as far as a cabinet about a hundred yards away - presumably they signify the location of some buried ductwork.

[Broithe]

Stone from Campion's Quarry being tipped at the end of the siding by the bridge at Lisduff.

Camion's have the south-eastern side of the hill.

[Broithe]

A survey yesterday revealed that the car park is pretty much finished, with just a bit of wall still to rebuild, but it's operational in full.

With additional spaces on the resurfaced access road.

In total there are around a hundred spaces now.

Plus these covered cycle spaces.

 

There is no sign of a ticket machine (yet), it may be the intention to have the whole system 'online'. The notices suggest various methods of doing this.

There wasn't really anything of an actual 'railway nature' to report on at all, this time.

 

A rather circuitous route home allowed me to include Bridge 202, just this side of Templemore. This, again, looks like a replaced beam structure on original abutments, but it was hard to get much of a picture of the 'outside' of the bridge. Apart from the obvious 'rustic' panels, a lot of the original stonework to either side was replaced by 'modern' concrete blocks, although the ivy was hiding a lot of that.

 

From there, I headed back towards safety via Lisduff, where there was no activity going on.

I did record these access pads ...

 

... and some sort of monitoring device.

[Broithe]

Eek!