Turf Carriages.

[Broithe]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed before, but, having escaped from the clutches of the Train Man Senior ( nice to see him back in action ), I looked into Eason's and treated myself to a copy of Father Browne's Laois - on page 108 is a most interesting picture, a turf train at Portarlington during the Emergency. The picture in the book is from the footbridge and clearly shows the first five "wagons" of the train. They are, in fact, converted passenger carriages, With planks fitted inside the windows and loading doors roughly made from planks, too. The roofs have been removed and they are filled with turf right up to the roof-line.

 

I can't find the actual picture online, but this small image is probably of the same ( or similar ) train.

 

 

You can just make out the sods of turf where the roofs should be.

 

http://fatherbrowne.com/

[heirflick]

facinating pic Broithe - wonder how they emptied them?

[Garfield]

'Trains, Coal and Turf: Transport in Emergency Ireland' by Peter Rigney has a few photos of such trains... including an overhead shot.

 

The vehicle in the foreground of the above photo is one of the GSR's Drewry railcars.

[Broithe]

facinating pic Broithe - wonder how they emptied them?

They seem to have bodged up doorways in the sides, several of them. I do wonder about the weight situation, though, a carriage full of turf must be way over a carriage full of people and a few bits of luggage.

 

Nip into Easons and have look at the real picture - the book is on the stand in the middle of the floor at the far end.

 

The picture shows the first three carriages, and the fifth, to be of one type and the fourth is a similar, but different type.

 

The book also contains some other railway pictures, including one of a fatal mail train derailment - I showed the book to 'my agent' over there - and it turned out that his wife had lived across the road from the unfortunate victim of the crash - small world.

[heirflick]

Nip into Easons and have look at the real picture - the book is on the stand in the middle of the floor at the far end.

 

 

im off to have a peak....

[Broithe]

Sorry for the late reply...

We went to Emo yesterday and, chatting to the Information Officer, this photo was mentioned. She was unaware of it and I said I would source it for her. I found it in the book here, but it doesn't seem to exist publicly online anywhere.

In Father Browne's Laois - on page 105.

[Mol_PMB]

Interesting.

The photo above shows quite clearly that the conversion was more involved than just taking out the roof and seats. The sides were also reconfigured to provide double doors which were presumably used for emptying them. Note the repositioned doors still carry their old 3 class designations resulting in the appearance of 33 from the two passenger doors now re-hung side by side as a pair of double doors.

Has anyone here made a model of such a train?

 

[Galteemore]

19 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

Interesting.

The photo above shows quite clearly that the conversion was more involved than just taking out the roof and seats. The sides were also reconfigured to provide double doors which were presumably used for emptying them. Note the repositioned doors still carry their old 3 class designations resulting in the appearance of 33 from the two passenger doors now re-hung side by side as a pair of double doors.

Has anyone here made a model of such a train?

 

@David Holmanhas! 

[derek]

7 hours ago, Broithe said:

Sorry for the late reply...

 

In Father Browne's Laois - on page 105.

Late? Ah shur it's only ELEVEN YEARS !

[David Holman]

Based the wagons (?) on WL&W coaches. Made one side and end from plastic sheet and strip, using this to create masters for resin castings. Significantly quicker than scratchbuilding four sides/ends and a method well worth considering if learning CAD/3D printing is not your thing.

 The six wheel chassis is Alphagraphix, while the turf load is chopped up matchsticks and needless to say, only a few mm deep.

[Flying Snail]

19 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

Interesting.

The photo above shows quite clearly that the conversion was more involved than just taking out the roof and seats. The sides were also reconfigured to provide double doors which were presumably used for emptying them. Note the repositioned doors still carry their old 3 class designations resulting in the appearance of 33 from the two passenger doors now re-hung side by side as a pair of double doors.

Has anyone here made a model of such a train?

 

Removing the roof reduced structural integrity of the sides, so there was also bracing installed from the roof level of one side to the floor level of the other - as shown by this interior shot from the Robin N Clements collection on the IRRS Flickr: https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/3251-turf-carriages/#comment-270174 (IRRS membership required to view). 

There's a few more shots of the turf carriages in that collection if you're interested. And if you want to mix your turf trains up a little, there's also an interesting shot of a more conventional turf wagon (to my bogman's eyes anyhow): a GSR flat, complete with with creels, fully loaded in Inchicore: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53507832482/in/album-72157661623942928/

 

[Mol_PMB]

21 minutes ago, Flying Snail said:

Removing the roof reduced structural integrity of the sides, so there was also bracing installed from the roof level of one side to the floor level of the other - as shown by this interior shot from the Robin N Clements collection on the IRRS Flickr: https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/3251-turf-carriages/#comment-270174 (IRRS membership required to view). 

There's a few more shots of the turf carriages in that collection if you're interested. And if you want to mix your turf trains up a little, there's also an interesting shot of a more conventional turf wagon (to my bogman's eyes anyhow): a GSR flat, complete with with creels, fully loaded in Inchicore: https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishrailwayarchive/53507832482/in/album-72157661623942928/

 

Thanks!

In the GNR wagon diagrams there's also a drawing for a similar type of turf wagon, a fairly standard open with creels.

I'm sure that somewhere I've seen a photo of a turf train with a mix of those open wagons and the converted carriages.

[airfixfan]

The CDR converted some former coaches to carry Turf during the fuel shortages of the Emergency. Was a short term boost to goods traffic on the Glenties branch in particular.