Guinness keg cages loading/unloading

[heirflick]

Hi all - with the expected arrival of the Guinness liners from IRM, I was wondering if anyone has pics of the wagons, either bogied or 4 wheeled, being loaded or unlaoded at any location? I assume the cages were never transferred to trucks - that is to say I never saw any pics of that happening.   thanks as always! HF.

Edited April 2, 2020 by heirflick

[Glenderg]

Nothing if not persistant, shem ! Ok, so here's my "understanding" and am open to correction. The earlier twin stack cages had forklift eyes and could be taken off the 4w wagons if no crane lift were available. There are plenty photos of full and empty half cages scattered around freight yards, as you'll see with 429 in the background.  In the second shot, you can see a secondary jig on the lifting boom yoke that clipped on to the cages. In the third shot, you can see it still present up until relatively recently. As for the more modern triple stack cages, I've yet to find a shot of a cage, loaded or empty, idle in a freight yard on the ground. Not my photos, apologies in advance. 

Awful thursht now...  R.

[RedRich]

Here are some snaps I took in Sallypark Seamus. They were being removed from trucks with a forklift on the day. Ironically the kegs came from the brewery accross Rice Bridge a less than 5 minute journey.

Not sure and I agree with Richie that it was common elsewhere. Looking at the wagon it shows how amazing the IRM model is. Nice to see you back here again Seamus don't stay away so long next time.

Rich,

 

[heirflick]

Thanks lads...appreciate it.  Trying to incorporate a guinness siding in the plan for my layout !

[DiveController]

It's possible that the triple stack cages did go on 'lurries' to Carlow.....

[Mayner]

The 3 tier keg cages/pallets were intended to eliminate/reduce the pilfering of kegs from trains and yards which had been a major problem with the earlier designs of keg containers.

A special forklift attachment was used for placing and removing laden kegs in the 3 tier cages, the cages had fixed sides unlike the earlier designs of keg pallet/flats.

The 3 tier cages were transported by road between the breweries, rail heads and distribution depots.

The Waterford Liner in its final years transported Cider from Clonmel in addition to beer, the cider traffic was transhipped by road between Kilkenny and Clonmel.ts possible that keg cages were increasingly moved by road when IE severely cut back its Keg Liner operations shortly before loosing the traffic in 2006-7?

Destinations such as Galway, Sligo and possibly Waterford were served by a combination of rail and road from railheads at Claremorris, Longford and possibly Kilkenny in a hub and spokes operation

CIE used heavy duty forklifts rather than container gantries for loading and unloading keg pallets following the introduction on keg pallets in the late 1970s.

I don't know if anyone produces a suitable OO Scale foirklift but the Kibri Kalmar heavy duty forklift appears similar to the forklifts used by CIE & IE for handling keg, bagged cement and fertiliser traffic at many railheads

https://www.modellbahn-seyfried.de/kibri_h0_kalmar_gabelstapler%2Cpid%2C91043%2Crid%2C539%2Cproduktdetailks.html

Larger 25t Capacity forklifts with lifting bales were used for handling ISO Containers at depots like Athlone, Ballinasloe, Tralee that handled reasonably heavy container traffic but did not have a gantry or to provide additional capacity and speed up container handling at larger depots that had gantries.

Edited April 3, 2020 by Mayner

[Vlak]

Perhaps these photos may also help. Kegs were either loaded / unloaded into the cages on trains or else in yards.

Vlak.

 

Edited April 3, 2020 by Vlak

[Irishswissernie]

Here is a 5 minute video taken at Waterford October 2003 (also includes  a short train of bubbles hauled by 148) Video shows fork lift picking up casks using a special attachment and placing them in cages. The 'attachment whatsit' could be removed and the forklift then used to load lorries or wagons as shown. Thinking back I think the railway wagons would be unloaded and then the cages put into the compound where they could then be sorted before loading onto lorries doing the pub rounds. Empties would again make there way back to the compound where cages could be filled before loading back onto wagons to go back to Dublin.

The video is aspect 4:3 so double click on the picture for it to play /display correctly otherwise you won't see the bottom bit of the video.

 

Edited April 3, 2020 by Irishswissernie

[Noel]

Thanks for posting. Interesting. Once I got vid working in full screen mode there was much more visible. Interesting grab device for the barrels. 

[WRENNEIRE]

Fantastic variety of freight and passenger stock Ernie, thanks for sharing 

[TimO]

That’s a fabulous video. Both types of keg cages are in evidence. The three high on the 42’ wagon and two high being loaded onto the artic trailer. Plenty of both are on the ground.

[heirflick]

Thanks all for the replies lads - food for thought there big time.  Always wondered how the 3 tiered cage was unloaded and a great collection of images.  I am in your dept, fruits of this thread will be reflected in the future!!!

[gm171 kk]

On 4/3/2020 at 2:27 AM, DiveController said:

It's possible that the triple stack cages did go on 'lurries' to Carlow.....

Marble City transport used to (and still do) a bit of haulage for Diageo. Back then they used to move the kegs between Kilkenny Station and the Brewery. The photo above is of a Volvo F7 and a flat bed. I think they used the smaller Volvo FLs and keg trailers also. 

They used the forklift identical to the one in RedRich's photo to load/unload cages and kegs. 

The below photo was taken in the Brewery after the liner had ceased. But this type of loading/unloading happened in the train station also. 

Edited April 4, 2020 by gm171 kk

[DiveController]

The seemingly ubiquitous Hyster. That jig/attachment attaches over the forks and it attached to the hydraulics of the forklift lifting 5x6 kegs at a time for a total of 90 in the triple height container. It fits neatly inside the cage for the bottom row. I presume it has 1, 2, or 3 fixed sides with the remaining paddles clamping the kegs hydraulically?