Nice clip of the railway in the guinness brewery

[heirflick]

never knew that there was 6 miles of track inside the brewery!

 

[Broithe]

I worked in a factory that still had an internal railway into the '90s, though it was disconnected from the mainline in the '70s, I think.

 

This loco, now at Foxfield Railway was one of the last pair that ran in there, along with a battery electric.

 

 

It was an important skill to be able to avoid twisting your ankle in the slots where the track was embedded - not something that I always managed to achieve, especially on the outdoor sections in the winter...

[Noel]

That's a great bit of history. I knew they had a railway but never realised how extensive it was.

 

I am familiar with the so called 'Guinness' GCC barges known as M-Boats that shipped guinness to Limerick and the west of Ireland via the grand canal to the Shannon. Many of these GCC (Grand canal company) barges were restored as pleasure vessels on the Shannon lakes and Grand canal. The picture below of 68M is a broad beam barge that used to be operated as part of CIE's canal fleet until about 1960. Ironically it was the onset of railways that killed commercial traffic on the Grand and Royal canals. Luckily they weren't filled in and converted to motorways during the 60s after CIE ceased canal operations.

 

More info here: http://www.heritageboatassociation.ie

 

68M in Limerick - Used to deliver Guinness from Dublin to ports on the Shannon navigation via the Grand Canal.

[murrayec]

Hi

 

Stradbally Museum has one of the William Spence 0-4-0 1ft 10 gauge Tank engine No 15 preserved, these are one of my favourite narrow gauge steam locos and are just an amazing sight in the flesh.

 

If you get a chance to go there- do! they have a great collection of narrow gauge stuff, working and not.

 

http://stradballyrailway.webs.com/locomotives.htm

 

Eoin

[jhb171achill]

I've an idea that the Guinness track mileage was at its highest extent nearer ten miles than six!

[Broithe]

Nice article here - http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/22/Guinness.htm - though, I see no mention of the total mileage..

 

 

A layout one day..?

[Broithe]

I see no mention of the total mileage..

 

Well, I would have done, if I'd looked properly.

 

Talking about the broad gauge section - "It connected the brewery with Kingsbridge goods yard, and at its greatest extent possessed about two miles of track, out of the brewery’s one-time overall mileage of ten. "

[heirflick]

great info there Jim - thanks!

[jhb171achill]

Thought that.....

 

Yes, it would make an amazing layout!

[Broithe]

Thought that.....

 

Yes, it would make an amazing layout!

 

And, actual justification for having a spiral.....?

[BosKonay]

From the OSI maps

 

[BosKonay]

Click here to explore more

 

http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,714003,734049,7,9

 

Top left you can see the tracks that linked up to Kingsbridge

[RobertRoche]

Here is a picture of one of the locos on display in the Guinness Storehouse.

 

[Dave]

My mate has a Geoeghan engine from Guinness. His Dad got it in the 60's. He's getting it restored.

[minister_for_hardship]

Some info on the floating stock (as opposed to rolling stock) of Guinness's.

 

http://lugnad.ie/guinnessfleets/

[josefstadt]

Great info there Minister! Thanks for posting.

[burnthebox]

Great bit of history there Minister, thanks for posting