Ernies Massive Irish 1930's to 2005 Photo Archive

[Irishswissernie]

The next part from 9 May 2000 now uploaded to flickr. This depicts the shuttle arriving at the Junction and 164 running round. 160 on the 'bubbles' then appears from Waterford and continues across the main line and on to Limerick City. Finally the weed spray gang take advantage of the dearth of trains in the bay etc to spray the tracks either by hand or using a tractor. 2-6-0 461 dead in the down sidings had failed on its way to Cork (I think)

AS USUAL sods law has given this video a black thumbnail so please just double click and then click the icon

 

Edited May 9, 2020 by Irishswissernie

[Irishswissernie]

More of Limerick Junction 9 May 2000, 20 years ago - it only seems like 5 years but apparently this is a symptom of old age! 164 arrives and departs  again on the shuttle and 226 on the Cork - Platin Bulk cement mts drops off a wagon into the up sidings for servicing at Limerick works. This was  a regular routine and I videoed it a few times over the years.  A 141 would trip the bulks to and from the works. 

Again double click and then click to get the whole 4:3 images.

 

[Irishswissernie]

Todays offering from 9th & 10th May 2000 includes bagged cement at Limerick Junction, then off to Drogheda for 077 on Tara's 134/176 come off the Gypsum from Kingscourt and go on shed and 149 arrives from Platin with 1 bubble and some bagged cements .

After adding the latter to the gypsum wagons 149 retrieves the bubble and in the next video (tomorrows probably) goes on "shed".  There are also some scans taken by the late Ken Groundwater of spoil trains etc at Carrickfergus.

Click (s) on the image as usual!

 

[Irishswissernie]

2 more videos from May 2000 now uploaded.

Drogheda with 149 and a bubble , GNRI  171 passes south then back to Limerick via Thurles with some freight shunting and ECS work in the late evening sunshine.

Lastly if you are a fan of Class 37's , especially the Cornish China Clay variety then you might like this video. Displayed as a link to avoid  up-setting General Motors enthusiasts!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/49887062746/in/dateposted-public/

 

[JasonB]

Pure Gold. A friend of mine is living in Drogheda, so whenever I'm down that neck of the woods I'd drop into MacBride station. If you're very luck you might catch a Tara Mines coming in on the Navan Branch, or an 071 stabled there. Nearly unrecognisable now when you look at that footage.  

[Irishswissernie]

Latest 2 videos on Flickr are: I've added them as a link rather then embedding them

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/49897040887/in/dateposted-public/    Limerick Junction - Limerick City May 2000  This also shows the crossover at the platform barrier end being used to run round (It had gone a few months later)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/49899693088/in/dateposted-public/    Limerick, Limerick Junction, Mallow & Cork

Too make up the loss of tantalising part images of the videos this 'eye candy' has also been added

402 Cork October 1960 GT Robinson

131 arriving at Connolly 1959 JG Dewing

Other Irish images have also been added, there are a fair number still to put on flickr.

Ernie

[Lambeg man]

Ernie,

With that last picture by J. Dewing, you have made an old man very happy. It is not an 'Enterprise' but one of the Belfast-Dublin stoppers which No. 131 would have taken over at Dundalk. Assuming from the shadows this train is arriving late morning, then it must be the 08.15 Belfast-Dublin service. The carriage behind the engine is a 'C 2' All-First, then the 'B 1' Dining car No. 402 (GNR number), then a 'K 15' open second (probably tabled as a support vehicle for the diner) and then five older wooden bodied carriages. Perhaps someone else will comment as to whether 8 carriages on this working was the weekday norm in 1959 or whether this is a Saturday working?

I note from previously published photographs credited to John Dewing that he was in Amiens Street station on Saturday 16th May 1959.

    

Edited May 17, 2020 by Lambeg man

[Irishswissernie]

Another video instalment uploaded from May 2000

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/49908303827/in/dateposted-public/

I have also uploaded a number of photos of WT 55 being re-railed at Portadown ca 1963/64 taken by Mike Shannon, now  DR Dunn Collection. 

  Link to this one https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/49908234461/in/dateposted-public/

This one displayed below and 2 more links underneath it

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/49908234546/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/49908234591/in/dateposted-public/

 

[Irishswissernie]

Link to latest video uploaded  Limerick Junction to Waterford behind 163 June 2001

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/49918027733/in/dateposted-public/

More photos have been added including some Cavan & Leitrim negs and also these 2 views of Mullingar in 1956 G2's 659 & 667

 

[Noel]

Really enjoyed that video clip. Thanks for posting. Relatively our railways carry hardly any goods anymore and the once impressive Waterford complex nowadays seems reduced to an almost wayside halt for boring trams. Progress I suppose.

Edited May 21, 2020 by Noel

[Irishswissernie]

I have been picking up the odd negs and slides recently. Can anyone identify this view? I think its of an Irish station but it may well not be!  Slide dated May1986

 

EDIT Identified as Ballymote.

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by Irishswissernie

[Edo]

my money is Ballymote on the sligo line.

the Shelter on the Left Platform is quite distinctive - it and the Water tower are all that is left today from that picture - CIE have long got rid of that unique Signal box and goods shed at the end of the main platform - the loop is lifted and the track has been re-aligned.

Check out Google maps at street view on the bridge on the other side of the Station................I thought it was Cloughjordan on the Ballybrophy - Limerick branch at first - same gentle sweep into the platform - but nothing else tied in.

Ed

 

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by Edo

[Irishswissernie]

Thanks Ballymote it is I've just checked out a Jonathan Allen shot of the Box and Goods shed. That didn't take long!

[Irishswissernie]

I am cracking on with converting my 2000-2005 video tapes to MP4. The plan is to upload them in 9 minute segments to Flickr in date order so as to provide a record of Irishrail activities in that 6 year period before the demise of most of the freight traffic and the advent of mass railcar introduction / withdrawal of most of the locomotives. To date I have uploaded 12 videos for May 2000, 4 for October 2000  and 3 out of 29 for June 2001. A further 11 for August 2002 are done and I have just completed the first Digital 8 conversion for November 2002. I have uploaded this one out of sequence to see how it looks on flickr, mainly North Wall on the 12 November

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/49938059096/in/dateposted-public/

I shall probably upload them at 1 per day and gradually remove earlier shorter or edited versions as and when the new ones reach them. I reckon there will be getting on for 20 hours of reasonable material in total.

 

[Irishswissernie]

Half a dozen negs arrived out of the blue today which I have identified as split between Sligo Quay and Ballina early 1950's. This one is I think Sligo Quay and I think that the L shaped handrails were an ex M&GWR feature.

Can anyone confirm? The other 2 Sligo Quay negs are of ex SLNC vehicles. 2 of the Ballina negs also added. Note the number of vehicles behing the J19 on the stub of the Killala branch

Edited May 27, 2020 by Irishswissernie

[Angus]

The Window shape and door handles would suggest an ex-MGWR, and ex 6W 5 compartment 3rd as this drawing kindly post by Mayner:-

I'm not sure about the apparent panelling above the windows and doors though.

[jhb171achill]

The horsebox on the left is a GSWR one, and the carriage is, very definitely an MGWR standard 3rd. The "L"-shaped door handles were indeed a Midland feature - as "Midland" as the "flyaway" cab! Unusually, the door vents have been covered up / removed' otherwise the panelling is almost all original. It is in the "secondary stock" unlined plain green.

[Irishswissernie]

Todays video upload to Flickr is from June 2001,  On train behind 169 from Ballybrophy to Limerick via Nenagh. Rather 'bouncy' in places (no stabilisers on camera then) but the sound of 169 is quite nostalgic:

As usual click on the image to play to show the correct 4:3 images.

Another of the negatives received yesterday . I think its 607, at Ballina with a quite interesting branch train. I hadn't realised the location of the old loco sheds in the right background.

Edited May 28, 2020 by Irishswissernie

[jhb171achill]

Very interesting train make-up indeed! 

Old wagon, albeit presumably fitted (why?), GSWR brake, Bredin GSR coach - and look what's on the end - looks GNR!  Presumably 1959-62?

Edited May 28, 2020 by jhb171achill

[BSGSV]

The modern carriage is CIE built with Commonwealth bogies, a compo by the looks of it.

[Irishswissernie]

I have been continuing to upload videos from 2001. 2 added today from 13 June 2001 at Rosslare, the first is mainly the ferries plus the Seacat whilst the second features the departure of the Dublin train and the local trains to and from the Waterford line.

I spent a few hours sun bathing between the trains and ferry activity up on the hillside, undisturbed except by a Japanese suit clad business man with luggage who enquired if I knew where he could get a bus to Belfast as the taxi fare quoted to him appeared exorbitant! Somewhere on his travels he had confused Rosslare and Larne when booking his ferry.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/49972207708/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/49972221178/in/dateposted-public/

As usual click away on the icons

[Irishswissernie]

Missing your holidays! Sick of lockdown? 14 days quarantine if/when or whether you will be able you go overseas. This week 16 years ago I flew from Newcastle to Zurich and spent the next fortnight with a First Class Swiss Pass touring the Swiss railway system taking some 15 hours of video over the 14 days. I am currently converting 206 hours of Swiss video taken between 1998 and 2009 to MP4 and coincidentally the June 2004 Trip is the current project. One trip was from my base the Hotel Terminus Brugg. The owner has a Gauge 0 and Gauge 1 layout over the the entire top floor  about 60 feet x 80 feet which was started by his Grandfather about 100 years ago but is now fine scale.

Where was I? oh yes the 8 June 2004 trip was to Chur and then over the narrow gauge Rhatische Bahn and Bernina Bahn as far as Campocologno and back. The system in route mileage would be about the size of the 2 narrow gauge Donegal lines but as well as being even more mountainous the Swiss metre gauge lines are today all electrified, carry over a million tons of freight per year and have a heavy passenger traffic (last couple of months excepted). I have added a couple of videos to flickr of the part from Poschiavo back to the over 6000 feet summit at Ospizio Bernina (all reached by adhesion - no rack)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/49983675176/in/dateposted-public/

 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/49983165358/in/dateposted-public/

There is more Irish video uploaded as well, Carrick on Suir to Limerick Junction 2001 being the latest (a bit of a contrast)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/49983406221/in/dateposted-public/

 

Edited June 8, 2020 by Irishswissernie

[Irishswissernie]

Acquired this JG Dewing negative of the signal protecting Nos 8, 9 & 10 Crossings between Belcoo and Glenfarne recently. There is a fault on the right hand side of the negative which is usually truncated on published images.

Lough Melvin , Enniskillen to Sligo afternoon goods 16th May 1956.

 

[Irishswissernie]

Here are 3 J G Dewing negs I have acquired but I need the locations. IDEAS anyone?

All I think GNRI main line. Best I can come up with for this W Class 91 is between Portadown and Goraghwood but I could be way off target!

No idea with this view of 174 

The Railcars below look like either Belfast or Dublin , The bridge has a name cast into the girders but it could be the manufacturer (illegible) and there are coats of arms on the pillars.

EDIT Found this one 2 minutes after I uploaded it! Howth Road Dublin, that little hut is still there but the bridge has been rebuilt.

 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Irishswissernie

[Lambeg man]

Hi Ernie,

The top one was taken from the Black's Road overbridge between Finaghy and Dunmurry. The train is passing the site of where the M1 overbridge is today. The same image is reproduced (in colour) in the book "The Ulster Transport Authority in Colour". Full caption details are provided.

Can not help with the second one, other than to add that No. 174 has the 'CIE' stencil on the buffer beam and the second carriage in blue/cream is the 'B 4' Dining Car No. 403 in GNR 'Railcar' livery, dating the picture to 1958/59. It is a Belfast-Dublin service which No. 174 has POSSIBLY taken over at Dundalk, putting the location as being south thereof. I say all that based on the fact John photographed this particular train set at Drogheda on Tuesday 29th September 1958 when it was a through working hauled by a 'V' class No. 86. The use of an 'S' suggests this photo was later. The terrain would jive with Kellystown.

Regards

LM 

Edited June 17, 2020 by Lambeg man

[jhb171achill]

The bottom one is of interest to me, as jhb171Senior did the rebuilding of that bridge, along with the expansion of the one at Stockman's Lane, in the early 1960s. I had been unaware there was a little kiosk below it. 

So that photo is some time in the 50s, probably, in between the introduction of those railcars and the UTA green / bridge rebuilding era.

I have a set of pics he took of the demolition of this bridge and rebuilding of the new one somewhere. I may have posted one out of it on my "lockdown catacombs" series last month. Most of them are of more interest to a civil engineer than a railway enthusiast - how many pics of concrete beams do we want to see!

[Irishswissernie]

Many thanks for the replies.

I am working through a few more negs, they are not up to the standard of the J G Dewing ones but nevertheless quite interesting. The one below is ca 1950-51 and depicts GNRI SG 179 on a long freight. It would appear to be a single line crossing station as the fireman or driver is hanging out of the cab with the staff in his hand to exchange it. There are possibly a long rake of hoppers at the rear of the train. I have a gut feeling its on the Oldcastle line . Ideas anyone?

[Galteemore]

My dad thinks it may be a working over the Meath Road during the Tolka Bridge episode when the GNR main line was temporarily disrupted. 

[Irishswissernie]

Could be I will do some more digging! I've narrowed the date down a bit on editing further images in the set. One shows the Belfast-Dublin-Cork Enterprise passing Limerick Junction so thats between Oct 1950 and 1953 and there are also some Greenore shots which finished in Dec 1952 so they are somewhere between 1951-52. There are another 4 to go at:

This followed some Mallow shots so possibly on Killarney line loco shedded Dublin probably

Loco 585 shedded Broadstone 

257 shedded Inchicore

 

 

 

 

and finally No 3 shedded at Waterford

 

 

[Midland Man]

Love the last photo. That is the kind of scenes I love. I cart wait until I get into kit building!!

MM

[Irishswissernie]

Checked out the Tolka Bridge flood collapse and  re-building. This was 8th December 1954 and from 13th December until 1st January , 7 goods train each way were diverted via Navan and ex M&GWR line to Clonsilla Junction. So unfortunately out of the time period I think (Info from Pattersons Great Northern Railway Ireland)

It could be Beauparc, I am trying to find photos before the loop was lifted. The hopper wagons at the rear of the train could be gypsum from Kingscourt going to the Drogheda cement factory or Platin if that had been built then.

Edited June 23, 2020 by Irishswissernie

[Irishswissernie]

Just acquired today another 470 Irish negatives and slides, some pre-war but the majority from the 1950's. Unfortunately possibly arrived too late for one of our fratermity. Cest la vie as they say in Haltwhistle or more likely "hard to bear" in true geordie parlance!

[Lambeg man]

Hi Ernie,

The top photo is indeed SLNCR No. 3. It was purchased from the GNR(I) in June 1929 and was originally classified an 'R 5' by the previous owners. In the photo it is a 1st/3rd compo with a double door luggage compartment in the centre. Any more carriage gems like this ?

Equally interesting is the GNR(B) loco coal wagon, obviously loaded and sitting in a siding in the SLNCR yard.

Regards 

LM  

[Irishswissernie]

There are a few coach photos, I have just scanned 18 Lough Swilly larger size negs , this one is quite interesting a motorised PW trolley with a coach in the background on one of the daily goods trains, Bridgend 27June 1952 Anyone know who the passengers are?

 

 

Just scanned this JG Dewing negative L&BER 14 at Crolly 16 April 1940

 

 

Edited July 3, 2020 by Irishswissernie

[airfixfan]

The Swilly always had a brake coach on each goods train. They were very helpful to enthusiasts in the last years. Seen photos from English visitors in 1952 so maybe same party?