Kingscourt to Platin Gypsum - Sept 1993

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

[enniscorthyman]

Wow fantastic footage.great find.

[Mayner]

Great one of my favorite lines though I never got to see the gypsum trains running.

[enniscorthyman]

Great one of my favorite lines though I never got to see the gypson trains running.

The same here John.I saw a kingscourt train near Navan just at a level

crossing north of the town when I worked in Dublin some 20 years ago.

This line had a number a crew operated LC gates which appeared in two

New Horizon videos.One of my favourite photos appeared in Rail Express

in the late 90s showing a double headed 121 near Nobber with gypson

train.The line did lack any big engineering such a viaducts and tunnells

hence my love of the Waterford -Ballinacourty branch,and quite out

of the way level crossings.

As regard modelling a gypson train,the Shapeway ballast wagons would

do the trick nicly.

[heirflick]

good find! fair play to colm o callahgan for producing that vid...i could watch it overand over! love the sound of the A class as she trundles away on the single line through the countryside-magic! the timeless scene at the level crossing where the lady of the gate gives the friendly wave to the driver......those were the days:)

[ttc0169]

good find! fair play to colm o callahgan for producing that vid...i could watch it overand over! love the sound of the A class as she trundles away on the single line through the countryside-magic! the timeless scene at the level crossing where the lady of the gate gives the friendly wave to the driver......those were the days:)

 

Colm always has top class work-both in pictures and videos,a gentleman,

He has an excellent early morning photo of 082 on an engineers train at Killiney in the August edition of Rail Express magazine.

[WRENNEIRE]

Used to ecsort explosives to Kingscourt back in the day,

Always remembered a red mist on the cars when we finished

Used to get grub at Cabra Castle Hotel, had to park the cars around the back because of the muck

Reckon this would have been mid 70's and as far as I remember the mining was done underground at the time, it later went to opencast.

[Robert Davies]

I've been browsing Eiretrains, and following the track on Google Earth from Navan, round the side of Nobber and up to Kingscourt. The Gypsum consolidation shed being clearly visible.

 

Anywho... The wagons in use on the trains look like ballast wagons, Is this correct? I'm guessing the wagons would discharge through the bottom as per normal?

 

Where was the gypsum taken? Was it just Platin?

 

Were there other gypsum freight flows elsewhere? Did they use the same type of wagon as at Kingscourt?

 

There is a point to these questions - 'think' layout planning - in the broadest terms, at the moment!

 

Thanks,

 

-Rob

[Weshty]

The outlaws live only 6 miles from here, if only I had got back into the hobby earlier, I'd have seen it for myself. Kingscourt line is fair wild now.

 

15 hoppers! And there's me thinking 12 would do the job...

[Weshty]

The same here John.I saw a kingscourt train near Navan just at a level

crossing north of the town when I worked in Dublin some 20 years ago.

This line had a number a crew operated LC gates which appeared in two

New Horizon videos.One of my favourite photos appeared in Rail Express

in the late 90s showing a double headed 121 near Nobber with gypson

train.The line did lack any big engineering such a viaducts and tunnells

hence my love of the Waterford -Ballinacourty branch,and quite out

of the way level crossings.

As regard modelling a gypson train,the Shapeway ballast wagons would

do the trick nicly.

 

I bought one of Redplant100's hoppers on ebay and was so impressed, I got another 11. They really do the job.

Dapol donor, brass handwheels and angle iron ends and two piece resin body, (hopper and base). Very, very tasty.

[Eiretrains]

The wagons in use on the trains look like ballast wagons, Is this correct? I'm guessing the wagons would discharge through the bottom as per normal?

Where was the gypsum taken? Was it just Platin?

Were there other gypsum freight flows elsewhere? Did they use the same type of wagon as at Kingscourt?

Yes they were largely the same as the ballast wagons, but had the words 'gypsum only' painted on the hopper sides so to prevent them getting mixed up with the ballast rakes.

 

The gypsum from Kingscourt operated to Platin most times, but sometimes (maybe once a week?) it would operate through to the Castlemungret cement works in Limerick, as it did on the last run in 2001. Until the mid 1970s a train would also serve the Boyne Rd factory in Drogheda.

 

Wagons on the gypsum trains tended to vary over the years, for example, old standard open wagons as well as bullied designed versions were used, going back even further they would have used hoppers of MGWR/(GNR?) origin.

[Robert Davies]

I bought one of Redplant100's hoppers on ebay and was so impressed, I got another 11. They really do the job.

Dapol donor, brass handwheels and angle iron ends and two piece resin body, (hopper and base). Very, very tasty.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4260[/ATTACH]

 

Aye, Martin Mackey makes a fine wagon, I bought a late livery bubble from him, 'just to see' - when I can ring fence a bit more wherewithal I'll see about getting some more from him, his wagon are an excellent balance of price and quality.

 

Thanks Eire Trains for filling in a little bit of extra detail 'colour' for me.

 

Regards all,

 

-Rob

[Mayner]

Yes they were largely the same as the ballast wagons, but had the words 'gypsum only' painted on the hopper sides so to prevent them getting mixed up with the ballast rakes.

 

The gypsum from Kingscourt operated to Platin most times, but sometimes (maybe once a week?) it would operate through to the Castlemungret cement works in Limerick, as it did on the last run in 2001. Until the mid 1970s a train would also serve the Boyne Rd factory in Drogheda.

 

Wagons on the gypsum trains tended to vary over the years, for example, old standard open wagons as well as bullied designed versions were used, going back even further they would have used hoppers of MGWR/(GNR?) origin.

 

Ordinary opens wooden and corrugated would mainly have been used with hoppers very much in the minority until the vac-braked hoppers were introduced in the mid 70s, the hoppers were basically the same design as used for the Dolomite and Ballast with the Gypsum introduced last.

 

The GNR & CIE each built a handfull of gypsum hoppers to the same basic design the GNR building 6 in 1944, CIE adding 4 in 1953.

 

The wagons were to the same design as the GNR ballast hoppers of the early 1900s I have a copy of the CIE GA but it seems to have been drawn in invisible ink, hardly enough wagons to make up a train enough for Boyne Roads needs.

 

The other interesting traffic dating back to MGWR days was bricks out of Kingscourt loaded on a bank on the main running line outside the station.

 

In CIE days the Kingscourt goods ran 3 days a week behind a large Midland or GSWR 0-6-0 made up mainly of opens with a few covered or cattle at the head end.

 

My first fan trip was an IRRS excursion to Kingscourt around 75 or 76, open wagons seem to have been soley in use. Kingscourt was literally chock full of wagons both on either side of the truck turntable and the old goods yard that disappeared when the storage shed and loading shovel was introduced.

 

Opens may have been in use because the unloading facility at Platin was incomplete, 22RB? crawler cranes with grabs seem to have been in use for unloading.

 

The Limerick Gypsum seems to have run 3 days a week, in its final years the hoppers were attached to the Platin-Cork bulk cement an impressive train which could theoretically make up to 34 2 axle wagons or its equivalent.

 

Presumably the hoppers would have been attached/detached at the Junction and tripped to Limerick a nice change from the original 1970s concept of the no-shunt railway

Edited December 2, 2012 by Mayner

[Robert Davies]

Thanks for that John!

 

RBs for unloading? I don't suppose there are any pics about of the facilities at Platin of any era? I've had a search but turned anything up on the net.

 

-Rob