Ernies Massive Irish 1930's to 2005 Photo Archive

[Irishswissernie]

Happy New Year to all our viewers! Ernie's Railway Archive Flickr passed 48 Million all time hits yesterday.

1961-06-07 IRRS Tour Claremorris 588 in trouble.

1961-06-07 Claremorris 588 being removed after failing

1961-06-07 Claremorris 603 replaced failed 588 for the leg to Sligo

 

Edited January 1, 2022 by Irishswissernie

[Irishswissernie]

GNRI 1953-08-15 Newry Edward St, 113 on Portadown train

z033 CIE 1959-05-18 Hollymount

z032 CIE 1959-05-18 Ballinrobe

 

[Irishswissernie]

Alex Ford images today courtesy of The Transport Library.

AF0015 SLNCR Sligo 'Sir Henry' 2July1950

AF0053 West Clare  Ennis 10c 4July1950

AF0040 CIE Dromod J18 584 30 June 1950

 

[Galteemore]

Nice portrait of a Large Tank. The cleanliness of the WC loco, the lighting, and sparse surroundings have a real retro feel of a turn of the century Lawrence or Welch photo! 

[Irishswissernie]

z173 CBSC 1961-01-13 Cork Albert Quay 201 off CCR

z171 CBSC 61-01-13 Ballinascarthy

z175 GNRI 1963-xx-xx Sixmilecross

 

[Broithe]

What is the "First Prize Length 1959" sign about at Ballinascarthy?

[Galteemore]

Back in the day when PW crews had allocated lengths of track to maintain, originally a mile or two, but probably higher in sparsely trafficked areas, an annual prize was awarded for the best maintained length of track in the area. 

[Westcorkrailway]

1 hour ago, Galteemore said:

Back in the day when PW crews had allocated lengths of track to maintain, originally a mile or two, but probably higher in sparsely trafficked areas, an annual prize was awarded for the best maintained length of track in the area. 

There’s photos by Brian baker are taken on that section of track on closing day of the west cork. Clearly well looked after

 

[Northroader]

She was only the platelayers daughter, but she knew the gangers length.

[Irishswissernie]

AF0153 Limerick D17 54 Conv oil burning. 5July 1950

AF0134 West Clare Ennis 5C 4July 1950

AF0113 CIE Inchicore Works 802 under repair 28June50

 

[Irishswissernie]

IRRS rail Tour 1960's today

z189 CIE 1963-03-18 Horseleap

z190 CIE 1963-03-18 Mullingar

z188 GNRI 1961-06-03 Kells 132

 

[Irishswissernie]

I am having to use Madame's ancient lap top as my computer is knackered! All the scans for uploading are on that so there won't be anything new on here until son Alan has fixed it.

Unfortunately Mother in Law who lives  with us has tested positive for Covid so I have retreated to the Loft. Its odds on that I am going to get it as well although I am negative at the moment. The bonus is that I can legitimately concentrate on the layout for the next few days!

I don't think therefore that Alan will wish to venture this way for a few days so normal service may take some time to restore

[Galteemore]

Thanks Ernie. Hope you all manage to get through ok 

[Broithe]

Take advantage of the 'rest' and treat it almost like a game of Hide & Seek.

I've done two fortnights in the shed here - actually quite enjoyed the challenge.

[Lambeg man]

On 16/12/2019 at 7:35 PM, Irishswissernie said:

GNR Leyland Railbus No 2 at Inchicore 23 October 1960.

Sorry to go back over old ground, but I recently bought the "GNR(I) Road Motor Services 1925-1958" book by Sam Simpson. To my surprise and delight the book covers Railbuses as well road vehicles. In the colour section at the rear of the book is a photograph from the Geoff Lumb collection of the Railbus which featured in the GT Robinson photo posted by our host in 2019. The Lumb picture was taken from the other side of the vehicle. It shows it in same overall state of 'distress', but that the other side had the 'new' aluminium skin plates only partially fitted over the original GNR(I) bodywork. The caption states that CIE were in the process of converting No. 2 to a PW Department vehicle. Why CIE was undertaking this exercise with such an elderly vehicle at the time is still of course a mystery. I would doubt the exercise was ever completed, unless of course anyone knows differently? The 'new' photo is not dated specifically, but the book caption agrees that the Railbus is ex-GNR No. 2.

Just to complete the story, here is a photo by Ron Herbert, taken on 22nd October 1961 at Inchicore. It shows the other ex-GNR Railbus that went to CIE, clearly withdrawn from service.

Edited January 11, 2022 by Lambeg man

[leslie10646]

1 hour ago, Lambeg man said:

Sorry to go back over old ground, but I recently bought the "GNR(I) Road Motor Services 1925-1958" book by Sam Simpson. To my surprise and delight the book covers Railbuses as well road vehicles.

Off topic, but this was one of the best books I have read about the GNR(I) - a lot about the how the railway operated, was managed etc. Highly recommended.

Ernie, I hope that you escape the dreaded Virus. Keep away from the "weemen" perhaps?

Leslie

[leslie10646]

Lovely set of photos since New Year, Ernie. The one of 113 at Newry is a Tears to your Eyes job!

Really Golden Years of the GNR!

 

[jhb171achill]

1 hour ago, Lambeg man said:

Sorry to go back over old ground, but I recently bought the "GNR(I) Road Motor Services 1925-1958" book by Sam Simpson. To my surprise and delight the book covers Railbuses as well road vehicles. In the colour section at the rear of the book is a photograph from the Geoff Lumb collection of the Railbus which featured in the GT Robinson photo posted by our host in 2019. The Lumb picture was taken from the other side of the vehicle. It shows it in same overall state of 'distress', but that the other side had the 'new' aluminium skin plates only partially fitted over the original GNR(I) bodywork. The caption states that CIE were in the process of converting No. 2 to a PW Department vehicle. Why CIE was undertaking this exercise with such an elderly vehicle at the time is still of course a mystery. I would doubt the exercise was ever completed, unless of course anyone knows differently? The 'new' photo is not dated specifically, but the book caption agrees that the Railbus is ex-GNR No. 2.

Just to complete the story, here is a photo by Ron Herbert, taken on 22nd October 1961 at Inchicore. It shows the other ex-GNR Railbus that went to CIE, clearly withdrawn from service.

In that photo of No. 2 / 8177, the cantrail has gone as have several uprights on the side. That vehicle is rotten and only fit for scrap, which is of course what happened! The GNR blue has long fadded away, so it's been out of traffic by the time that photo was taken, by a long time.

The reason they considered converting any railbus was that 8178, which the UTA had inherited, was successfully being used as a civil engineer's "runabout" on the ex-GNR lines in the north, and CIE thought that they might employ one likewise. Wasn't to be - and jhbSenior used (variously) either 8178 or a loco hauling ex-GNR saloon 50 (now in Whitehead) on engineering inspection trips between approx. 1959 and 1962/3. 8178 sat down one time at Goraghwood and was shoved in a siding there until the Warrenpoint line closed and then taken to Witham Street, where it fell to bits before being rebuilt (incorporating many historical inaccuracies, as it happens, but a good job technically) in the 1990s before going under its own power to Cultra from Poyntzpass or somewhere round there.

[Lambeg man]

1 hour ago, jhb171achill said:

8178 sat down one time at Goraghwood and was shoved in a siding there until the Warrenpoint line closed and then taken to Witham Street,

Hi JHB,

The reason 8178 sat at Goraghwood through most of 1963 was because it had burst a tyre. I read somewhere that the UTA managed to locate a spare in Dundalk and repaired it. It was photographed several times in 1964 lying in Grosvenor Road depot, though not apparently in use. - LM

[Galteemore]

And thanks to @Irishswissernie, here it is, at stage right, complete with crutch. This is pretty much how I remember it outside Witham St too - a dilapidation of blue and cream. I think this is probably the one my dad started up in Portadown roundhouse one day…..

Edited January 11, 2022 by Galteemore

[jhb171achill]

35 minutes ago, Lambeg man said:

Hi JHB,

The reason 8178 sat at Goraghwood through most of 1963 was because it had burst a tyre. I read somewhere that the UTA managed to locate a spare in Dundalk and repaired it. It was photographed several times in 1964 lying in Grosvenor Road depot, though not apparently in use. - LM

It also had brake problems - I think that's why Senior set it aside. A puncture would certainly not have helped its case either! he said that's why there was a "prop" against it, as far as I remember.

[Lambeg man]

1 hour ago, jhb171achill said:

he said that's why there was a "prop" against it, as far as I remember.

The puncture would have been in one of the rear wheels as the front ones were solid. As JHB has remarked, in the absence of an effective brake, the "prop" would have been placed to prevent it rolling down the prevailing gradient on that siding. 

Edited January 11, 2022 by Lambeg man

[Lambeg man]

14 hours ago, Galteemore said:

I think this is probably the one my dad started up in Portadown roundhouse one day…..

GNR No. 8178 inside Portadown shed. Anyone know who the individual might be? Photo by the Rev. John Parker undated.

 

 

[Galteemore]

lol - that’s my dad ! Showed him photo. It’s c1962 - and apparently he got the shed foreman to start it….

Edited January 12, 2022 by Galteemore

[Irishswissernie]

Just got a new laptop and am setting it up, normal service will be resumed in the next few days hopefully.

[WRENNEIRE]

Limerick Oct 96
26595 20 Ton, 12' wheelbase

 

 

 

25855

 

12/2004
Demountable Beet

 

Any ideas?

[jhb171achill]

The demountable beet was a one-off experiment, albeit one that entered traffic. I saw it in use, in the midst of a train of "ordinary" double-deck beet wagons, at Wellington Bridge in either 2004 or 2005.

The newly painted 150 was at the 1996 Inchicore Open Day, where it briefly displayed a New York piece of "bar memorabilia".......(!)

The brown single deck beet wain with bits sellotaped onto the ends to make it longer....new one to me! Excellent, and rare photo.

[Mayner]

1 hour ago, WRENNEIRE said:

 

 

25855

 

 

The wagons appear to be prototype Beet Wagons using body panels salvaged from the corrugated opens on 20' flat wagons built in the Mid-1960.

I have a CIE drawing of a Beet Double of similar to the wagon in the background titled "Modified Open Goods Wagon Bodies on 20Ton Flat Wagon Underframe for Beet Traffic Mark 3"

The main difference from the wagons in the photos is that the corners are shown slightly rounded on the drawing.

It looks like someone realised that it would be a lot cheaper and quicker to mount the existing wagon bodies with minimal modification on the 20T chassis.

[StevieB]

Correct me if I’m wrong but 26595 is a former magnesite wagon. There is a picture on this forum of one converted into a hopper wagon. I think it was at Ballinacourty, so presumably it was used for the transport of dolomite.

Stephen

[WRENNEIRE]

It says 26595 on the photo Steve that's as much as I know

[Mayner]

14 hours ago, StevieB said:

Correct me if I’m wrong but 26595 is a former magnesite wagon. There is a picture on this forum of one converted into a hopper wagon. I think it was at Ballinacourty, so presumably it was used for the transport of dolomite.

Stephen

The covered hopper is a Magnesite Wagon out of use since the Ballinacourty traffic ceased in the early 1980s the second is a Zinc Ore wagons out of service for a similar length of time.

Most of the  Magnesite Wagons were stored at Enniscorthy, the Dolomite Hoppers were basically to the same design as the Ballast & Gypsum Hoppers and may have been used for either traffic after Ballinacourty closed.

[Irishswissernie]

My main PC is now fixed but unfortunately everything on it has been lost, not a complete disaster but it means I do not know what has been uploaded to flickr  and there were over a 1000 scans ready to go on which can only be identified by individually checking whether they have been uploaded or not. I am also providing employment for several days in the coming weeks for the NHS and have been sent a Collection of some 8000 English and Scottish negatives for identifying etc.

Now in this Collection there are 6 Irish prints, however I don't think these were taken by the photographer . The locations are known, but does anyone recognise the view and photographer?

First 2 are Headford Junction with a Killarney service and the Kenmare branch local

Second pair are at Drimoleague.

Third. Cork and Bantry.

 

[Irishswissernie]

Along the Ballaghaderreen branch today on the 19th May 1959.

Top Island Road

middle, Edmondstown

bottom, Ballaghaderreen

More Hospital visits this week so only a 'limited service' at present.

 

 

[Galteemore]

Thanks Ernie. Hope all goes well. Excellent close up of flat bottom track too.

Edited February 8, 2022 by Galteemore

[Irishswissernie]

Loughrea Branch today 1958 or 1959

Top Attymon Junction

Middle. Dunsandle

Bottom. Loughrea