Boyne Road, Drogheda, Old Cement Factory

[dave182]

http://droghedamuseum.blogspot.com/2015/09/pic-of-day-23-september-2015.html?m=1

Here is a fascinating picture I came across by chance. It's an aerial image of the old rail connected cement factory, on the banks of the Boyne River in Drogheda. You can clearly see cement bubbles and rakes of 2-axle vans along the bottom of the image, and the oil unloading terminal up the hill beside the large storage tank. This would make a superb feature on any layout modelling the 60's and 70's era. When did this rail flow end, and move to the new plant at Platin?

Edited January 8, 2019 by dave182

[Mayner]

The Cement Factory Branch opened in the 1930s up to the mid 60s most of the traffic went out in wooden bodied GNR vans or CIE H Vans. In the 1950s the GNR acquired a small number (12?) of bulk cement wagons for traffic to the Athy asbestos factory, these wagons were similar in general appearance to the then standard British Railways plywood bodied van but with an all steel body  with the bottom section formed into a hopper. The GNR bulk cement wagons ran singally or in cuts of wagons  in ordinary goods trains rather than the block or unit train workings of more modern cement wagons

Platin came on line in the early 70s. The cement factory branch would make an interesting model in its own right, with a number of sidings serving separate industries including a factory and the oil terminal in addition to the cement factory. The oil terminal came on line in the mid 1960s to handle block oil trains from Foynes. The terminal could also receive oil sea and continued in use for oil traffic to Platin until the plant converted to oil burning in the late 1980s