Ernies Massive Irish 1930's to 2005 Photo Archive

[StevieB]

Some lovely stuff there. So many similarities with what goes on in the UK but with significant differences, particularly the amount of propelling and reversing that goes on with service trains. Further on I came across one featuring emergency, single track working at Limerick Junction.

Stephen

[NIR]

Lots going on in Waterford, three different flows! I always intended to go back and do Waterford - Limerick but it never happened. Never look back, like my childhood memory of passing a sparkling blue Lough Owel in a buffet car...

Edited April 24, 2019 by NIR

[Irishswissernie]

22 minutes ago, NIR said:

Lots going on in Waterford, three different flows! I always intended to go back and do Waterford - Limerick but it never happened. Never look back, like my childhood memory of passing a sparkling blue Lough Owel in a buffet car...

I work nowadays on the principle "Never go back" My last trip to Ireland was in 2006 a quick day trip with my 2 sons at the tail end of the freight era. Video's and photos of Irishrail since then depress me, I am not a fan of railcars, concrete and glass, over-scale footbridges and weirdly shaped buildings. Similarly after 25 trips to Switzerland and 200+ hours video and 13,000 photos between 1988 and 2009, a short trip in 2016 has put me off going there. When we moved to Haltwhistle in 1993 you sometimes got 14+ freight trains in a day; now we have the nuclear flasks and one coal train per week.

Its probably an "age thing" but nowadays at least if there's nowt happening outside I have time to spend several hours each day on the internet and also wade through all the photographs, video's etc from the past. I had an email this morning that the Trust have just acquired another 500 odd Irish railway views so plenty to look forward to. Probably have to forego videoing that weekly coal train!

Here's another one recently acquired:  Near Timoleague C203 20Mar61; I am told it is an original but I'm not so sure.

Off to walk the dogs!

[BSGSV]

For the several minutes of pleasure it has given me, just gazing at that lovely picture, thank you.

[StevieB]

It is a lovely scene that the photographer has captured so well.

Stephen

[Irishswissernie]

Waterford Part 3 video now on flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/47640912682/in/dateposted-public/

I also have a date for the various views of 155 + 186 on the New Ross Tour - 12 May 1979

Ernie

 

[Irishswissernie]

Waterford October 2004 Video's Part 4 and Part 5 now uploaded:

Part 4 https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/32759152637/in/dateposted-public/

Part 5  (It has a black screen on the Icon!) https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/47702654721/in/dateposted-public/

These 2 complete the 2004 October coverage. I am now working on my October 2003 trip which looks like having 10 parts. This was when Cahir viaduct was being re-built so the beet and cement was travelling via Kildare.

ERnie

 

[Irishswissernie]

In my usual shambolic way having uploaded Waterford 2004 to Flickr I am now uploading Waterford October 2003! Part 1 is https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/47670762602/in/dateposted-public/

Parts 2-4 now uploaded; 5 to 11 will follow. This was during the period where the Cahir viaduct accident meant that all beet/freight was being worked via Kildare. I made a short trip to Thomastown in an attempt to catch a beet service but after a 2 hour sojourn conversing with a herd of cows only an empty log train materialised. Noticing that the running line contained chairs dated GS&WR 1909 and parts of rail head spalling up to 3 feet long didn't fill me with confidence . Returning to Waterford I climbed the hill to the north of the goods yard and recorded the rest of the days action. 148 having worked the Cravens from Rosslare, parked them in the bay and zoomed off north and eventually re-appeared with 10 bubbles. It wasn't away long enough to get them from North Wall and I wonder if it had 'pinched' half of the Mungret-Athy train.Later  NIR 8113 appeared on more cement. Various beet workings were video'd and some action was recorded at Newrath. On the 15th I set off back to Dublin with a break at Kildare where a fair number of freight workings were seen. The 11 parts total some 100 minutes of video.

Ernie

Edited April 29, 2019 by Irishswissernie
2-4 also uploaded

[Irishswissernie]

 

Parts 5 to 10 Waterford & Kildare video October 2003 are now uploaded.  Part 7 starts at Waterford but then moves to Kildare

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/47702344582/in/album-72157628651873327/ with 8-11 following on (11 will be uploaded tomorrow)

Ernie

 

 

[Irishswissernie]

I have started uploading video for my trip in May 2003, Limerick Junc-Portarlington- Tullamore - Claremorris - Limerick - Limerick Junc - Drogheda. Seven videos in all.

This is Part 1

https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/40843525793/in/dateposted-public/

Parts 2 to 4 are uploaded; 5 to 7 which are all at Drogheda to follow.

A fair number of slides are also uploaded from earlier times.

Ernie

 

[Irishswissernie]

All the parts 1-7 of my May 2003 Trip are now on flickr. I returned the following month (June 2003) as in May the lines west of Claremorris were closed for relaying work during the day. 

This was still the case in June but this time I had found a B&B in Claremorris  which meant I could video the action between trains etc. Parts of this video were originally uploaded in 3  minute segments (Tara at North Wall and shunting at Claremorris) but the flickr up-grade recently means that I can re-vamp the coverage into 9+minute segments and a lot more can be shown. The mid-day Westport from Dublin eventually managed to leave Claremorris once the P/Way trains had returned, however the Ballina connection was still a bus. The Station Manageress seeing my disappointment arranged for the Ballina set to run from Claremorris somewhat late with myself and a couple of other passengers (the rest had gone on the previously arranged coaches)

First part has been uploaded  https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/33977228968/in/dateposted-public/  There are 10 parts in all with a running time of some 90 minutes.

The numbers/letters in the video titles are so that eventually when all the video is done the combined album https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/albums/72157706536575014 should display all the videos in date order (provided I remember to edit it!)

Ernie

 

 

[Irishswissernie]

I've finally got permission to use this collection!

I don't have many images of Irish weed killing trains and this ones a bit different.

Ernie 

[WRENNEIRE]

Something different

 

[WRENNEIRE]

[WRENNEIRE]

PW?

 

 

 

Edited June 6, 2019 by WRENNEIRE

[jhb171achill]

First pic: in the far right distance, I wonder what is that contraption of a road (?) vehicle?

Second pic: there's one of those gunpowder vans in Cultra..... (incorrectly painted, of course!)

Excellent pics, most interesting. That long wheelbase "accommodation van" was still in use on lifting trains in the early 1960s.

[WRENNEIRE]

Just out of the paint shop?

 

[WRENNEIRE]

[Irishswissernie]

There are now some 85 video's in the Irish video album all from 2000-2006

I also have a fair number of scans to upload when I get the time (just finished identifying 4500 UK steam/early diesel era negs) I quite like this one:

Courtmacsherry, 90 + 100 10July 1955 img490

Ernie

Edited July 12, 2019 by Irishswissernie

[WRENNEIRE]

Answers on a postcard.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DiveController]

On 6/5/2019 at 7:09 PM, WRENNEIRE said:

Something different

 

I didn't see this until now. So it looks like that GS flat wagon is equipped with some sore of roller system to allow the trailer to be slid (sideways) over the platform before being drawn down the ramp? I'm just looking at the pulley behind the trailer and I'm not sure of that is compatible with end loading the flat?

 

MK3 International Set?

Edited July 27, 2019 by DiveController

[NIR]

5 hours ago, WRENNEIRE said:

Answers on a postcard.......

 

 

 

The buildings look a bit like Litchurch Lane, Derby - formerly British Rail Engineering then ABB then Adtranz and now Bombardier. I worked there a couple of times years ago, non-technical, and all sorts of strange things could be found in between the various shops.

Edited July 27, 2019 by NIR

[StevieB]

Coaches from the BR international set that IR bought to make up the numbers, so to speak.

Stephen 

[PorkyP]

8 hours ago, DiveController said:

I didn't see this until now. So it looks like that GS flat wagon is equipped with some sore of roller system to allow the trailer to be slid (sideways) over the platform before being drawn down the ramp? I'm just looking at the pulley behind the trailer and I'm not sure of that is compatible with end loading the flat?

 

Interesting upsidedown looking tow ball type coupling on that trailer too....the wheels look kind of familiar from somewhere...

The A frame part looks like it's been fabricated later on and added..( having bodged a few similar things meself..! )

Edited July 27, 2019 by PorkyP

[Mayner]

 

 

 

8 hours ago, DiveController said:

I didn't see this until now. So it looks like that GS flat wagon is equipped with some sore of roller system to allow the trailer to be slid (sideways) over the platform before being drawn down the ramp? I'm just looking at the pulley behind the trailer and I'm not sure of that is compatible with end loading the flat?

 

MK3 International Set?

 

Inchacore Works 1994-5? BREL International Coaches on temporary B4 bogies awaiting conversion into the Cu na Mara set for the Galway Line. A section of the carriage shops(Lifting Shop?) was destroyed in a fire in the early 1990s and re-built into a Crystal Palace style structure. MK3 Push pull driving car mock up between coaches and freight bogies.

The photo of the flat wagon with the trailer is interesting. The trailer looks odd to modern eyes with what appear to be solid tyres and the axle under the center line of the body.

GSR road vehicles appear to have been reasonably up to date with pneumatic tyres and high ground clearance for Irish roads by the 1930s.

The railways experimented with road-rail vehicles & roll on roll off swap bodies in the 1930s. 

The NCC experimented in the 1930s with a roll-on-roll-off system for transferring containers between road and rail rather than a crane, the County Donegal introduced a small number of "Tranship Wagons" with swap bodies in the early 1900s where a narrow gauge wagon body could be transferred onto a broad gauge underframe using a system of rollers. The Tranship wagons appear to have been mainly used for bulk traffic such as stone and coal, containers were later used for through traffic under customs bond through Northern Ireland between Donegal and other the rest of the Republic.

There is a photo of a passenger train in early CIE/Late GSR days arriving or departing from Limerick Junction with a road-rail tanker (similar to those used in the UK https://www.igg.org.uk/rail/11-kitba/rrtank.htm) on a Carriage Truck coupled between the loco & the 1st of the coaches.

Carriage Trucks were basically low sided flat cars designed to carry road vehicles that could run at passenger train speed, most stations had a dock for loading/unloading road vehicles off flat wagons and carriage trucks, new cars, tractors and agricultural machinery were delivered by rail to local stations up to the mid 1970s.

 

 

[Mayner]

Just now, Mayner said:

 

 

 

 

Inchacore Works 1994-5? BREL International Coaches on temporary B4 bogies awaiting conversion into the Cu na Mara set for the Galway Line. A section of the carriage shops(Lifting Shop?) was destroyed in a fire in the early 1990s and re-built into a Crystal Palace style structure. MK3 Push pull driving car mock up between coaches and freight bogies.

The photo of the flat wagon with the trailer is interesting. The trailer looks odd to modern eyes with what appear to be solid tyres and the axle under the center line of the body.

GSR road vehicles appear to have been reasonably up to date with pneumatic tyres and high ground clearance for Irish roads by the 1930s.

The railways experimented with road-rail vehicles & roll on roll off swap bodies in the 1930s. 

The NCC experimented in the 1930s with a roll-on-roll-off system for transferring containers between road and rail rather than a crane, the County Donegal introduced a small number of "Tranship Wagons" with swap bodies in the early 1900s where a narrow gauge wagon body could be transferred onto a broad gauge underframe using a system of rollers. The Tranship wagons appear to have been mainly used for bulk traffic such as stone and coal, containers were later used for through traffic under customs bond through Northern Ireland between Donegal and other the rest of the Republic.

There is a photo of a passenger train in early CIE/Late GSR days arriving or departing from Limerick Junction with a road-rail tanker (similar to those used in the UK https://www.igg.org.uk/rail/11-kitba/rrtank.htm) on a Carriage Truck coupled between the loco & the 1st of the coaches.

Carriage Trucks were basically low sided flat cars designed to carry road vehicles that could run at passenger train speed, most stations had a dock for loading/unloading road vehicles off flat wagons and carriage trucks, new cars, tractors and agricultural machinery were delivered by rail to local stations up to the mid 1970s. The end loading dock was usually level with the wagon/carriage truck deck, the dock was usually fitted with a set of flaps to assist in loading/unloading.

 

 

 

 

 

[DiveController]

very informative John. Do you have a link to that CIE/GSR road rail tanker please?

 

[minister_for_hardship]

3 hours ago, PorkyP said:

Interesting upsidedown looking tow ball type coupling on that trailer too....the wheels look kind of familiar from somewhere...

The A frame part looks like it's been fabricated later on and added..( having bodged a few similar things meself..! )

Looks like something that was paired with or adapted from a steam wagon or WW1 era truck.

Edited July 27, 2019 by minister_for_hardship

[PorkyP]

53 minutes ago, minister_for_hardship said:

Looks like something that was paired with or adapted from a steam wagon or WW1 era truck.

Dunno if it's me but it looks like you can just see sprockets on those big discs behind the wheels, so likely chain drive axle set off one of those trucks like you say..

[Irishswissernie]

I've been working my way through the Casserley negatives I acquired at the Auction in September. The condition varies from poor to very good, unfortunately the 2 Irish lots appear to have suffered more from scratches, development faults etc than the Scottish Lots.

I have cleaned up them up as much as possible. Here are a couple at Enniskillen in April 1953 and a shot of an Irish Sleeping Car! at Mallow. This must have been a crew car; hopefully that's not the bedding being aired on the roof

Henry appeared quite fond of taking the same shot multiple times. There are 10+ views of 199 and the same number of Lurganboy at Manorhamilton. I will gradually upload images to Flickr, there are some of Bundoran Junction 

uploaded yesterday.

 

Ernie

[Irishswissernie]

 I have been adding further Casserley images to Flickr; the easiest way to see new additions is to check out the photostream:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/?  All images are in the relevant albums.

3 of Clonakilty uploaded today. 36 at the terminus 12 April 1955. Coach number 39m

 

Ernie

Edited October 20, 2019 by Irishswissernie

[Mayner]

1 hour ago, Irishswissernie said:

 I have been adding further Casserley images to Flickr; the easiest way to see new additions is to check out the photostream:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/?  All images are in the relevant albums.

3 of Clonakilty uploaded today. 36 at the terminus 12 April 1955.

 

Ernie

Great find the coach appears to be one of the bogie Tri-composite coaches introduced by the MGWR in 1900 still in its original condition with center luggage compartment! These coaches were re-classified as 1-3rd composites when the Midland abolished 2nd class accommodation and appear to have been originally used as "through coaches" from main line to branch line services. An ideal coach for a one coach branch line train

[jhb171achill]

A Midland beauty, and in the "secondary" all-dark-green livery, sans lining or snail, as practiced, for example on the West Clare... it's surprising how many old midland coaches managed to end up in West Cork. Briefly, in 1959, an ex-GNR vehicle still in GNR brown, and clerestorey-roofed, managed to make its way onto a Cork - Bantry train.

Love the elderly GSWR goods brake too. For those who manufacture transfers of flying snails, this stencilled version (white) would be a great addition, as "full" snails just don't look quite right on wagons 1955-70!

[minister_for_hardship]

Probably depended on the painter, if they were bothered filling in the gaps left by the stencil, or not as the case may have been.

[jhb171achill]

40 minutes ago, minister_for_hardship said:

Probably depended on the painter, if they were bothered filling in the gaps left by the stencil, or not as the case may have been.

Initially, all "snails" were very carefully hand-painted, even on the humblest of wagons. The stencil appears to have been introduced sometime about 1955, as any newly painted wagons from then on had the stencil only. Obviously, they would have replaced it with the CIE "roundel" in 1963, but I recall seeing "snailed" grey wagons well into the 1970s, to the end of loose-coupled goods, in fact.

From 1945 to 1950, "eau-de-nil" light green was used for numerals (and probably snails) painted on wagons, but white replaced this in the early 1950s. In addition, the shade of grey used lightened considerably in the late 1950s.