Bord na Móna- rolling stock

[Lev Pavliuk]

I have some photos, but unfortunately the most interesting ones have not yet been processed, but I still continue and will continue regular cycling trips to different systems. so perhaps I can also help with information

[jhb171achill]

Superb stuff!

[Lev Pavliuk]

1 hour ago, jhb171achill said:

Superb stuff!

Thank you! I will periodically upload fresh and not-so-recent photographs to this topic, there is very active traffic now, on both there are 10+ train day

Edited October 4, 2023 by Lev Pavliuk
.

[Rush and Lusk]

Fabulous photographs !

The images are an excellent capture of evolution and change. While we all embrace the migration to renewable energy sources, there is nonetheless a definite air of melancholy about the abandoned and decaying locomotives, rolling stock and rails, as nature reclaims and absorbs them. The night sky picture is superb (I'm assuming a time lapse sequence - how long was the shutter open ?).

Excellent work,

George 

 

[Lev Pavliuk]

1 hour ago, Rush and Lusk said:

Fabulous photographs !

The images are an excellent capture of evolution and change. While we all embrace the migration to renewable energy sources, there is nonetheless a definite air of melancholy about the abandoned and decaying locomotives, rolling stock and rails, as nature reclaims and absorbs them. The night sky picture is superb (I'm assuming a time lapse sequence - how long was the shutter open ?).

Excellent work,

George 

 

thanks for the nice review! a photograph of the night sky is 6 stitched frames taken at a shutter speed of 25 seconds, 18 mm, f3.5 and ISO 6500, the main goal of this trip was to photograph the Milky Way and locomotives and this was more than successful, I will definitely post photos here later, also the next morning I was able to photograph few trains on the Boora system, which may have already become a thing of history. in general, every trip is an adventure and exploration for me, I leave on my bike at 3 in the morning and when I arrive somewhere I start exploring the system, you never know what you will find and this spirit of exploration is simply amazing, as is the atmosphere of sitting near the tent and a fire looking into the starry sky and falling stars, you need to feel it, for me such trips have become a real outlet from everyday work, photographs are just like a small pleasant bonus

[skinner75]

Last shot looks like the standard of rail you'd see on a branch line in the States!

[David Holman]

All power to your pedals!

[Lev Pavliuk]

thank you very much for your support guys! this is good motivation, I'll try to post some photos on Saturday

[Colin R]

On 4/10/2023 at 6:11 PM, Lev Pavliuk said:

I have some photos, but unfortunately the most interesting ones have not yet been processed, but I still continue and will continue regular cycling trips to different systems. so perhaps I can also help with information

its a pity there isn't I love it button for the above photos

Edited October 6, 2023 by Colin R

[irishrailways52]

great photographs. thanks for the imformation.

 

[Lev Pavliuk]

a few more photos. I’ll publish the next from the edenderry system and coolnagun (small isolated system in Westmeath) probably in mid-November, since next week I’m leaving on a big trip. I also heard that all systems except edenderry will be closed at the end of October - beginning of November, so hurry up to visit!

[Mike 84C]

Thank you so much for posting those pictures. For me they tell such a story, a narrow gauge railway doing what it was built for and in the face of neglect and adversity.  Just shows how much neglect a railway will take and keep operating. Brilliant photos! 

My stepdaughter is a track engineer for NetWork Rail , had to lean on my chair laughing so much!

[irishrailways52]

thanks very much. just checking is the bridge in Landsborough over the Shannon still operational. I visited there a few weeks ago and nothing came by.

[Lev Pavliuk]

8 minutes ago, irishrailways52 said:

thanks very much. just checking is the bridge in Landsborough over the Shannon still operational. I visited there a few weeks ago and nothing came by.

these power stations have been out of operation for a few years now but right now you can see a lot of trains on the Mountdillon system, that's where most of the photos are from, you can even see the Lanesborough power station in one of the photos, all the trains come from the bogs in the northwest from the bridge and to the tipper at Mountdillon works, the first trains leave at 7-8, there are 2 trains one after another, there can be quite a lot of round trips per day. I’ll go to the bogs tomorrow to film the loading process, if you want, then I’ll give you the exact geolocation, because to be honest, I myself don’t yet know in which swamp the loading takes place, everything is by trial and error

Edited October 8, 2023 by Lev Pavliuk

[irishrailways52]

thanks for the verification. I just realised that my mistake could have been that I was there on a Sunday 

[Lev Pavliuk]

2 minutes ago, irishrailways52 said:

thanks for the verification. I just realised that my mistake could have been that I was there on a Sunday 

this explains everything, on Sunday there are no trains, on Saturday there are several, but on weekdays there are more

[Sean]

Looks like I laid some of that track......

[Mayner]

7 hours ago, Mike 84C said:

Thank you so much for posting those pictures. For me they tell such a story, a narrow gauge railway doing what it was built for and in the face of neglect and adversity.  Just shows how much neglect a railway will take and keep operating. Brilliant photos! 

My stepdaughter is a track engineer for NetWork Rail , had to lean on my chair laughing so much!

Its an industrial railway doing what its intended to do and no more transporting peat from the loading points to the power-stations, Briquette plants and road transfer plants.

Permanent way and rolling stock is radically different from heavy rail practice. Most of the track portable and permanent is sectional complete with Setrack Points, Portable Track is usually laid directly on graded peat on polythene on the surface of the bog, using BNM custom buolt graders/track laying machines, permanent track is usually laid on polythene under lay on ravel ballast, peat and grass help bind everything together. The wagons are unusual in that the wheels rotate independenty on the axle which both improves stability and reduces wear on track and wagons are completely un-braked.

Operation was intensive in its heyday operating 24hr daily 365 to feed the power stations transporting around 5million tonnes annually mpre than twice CIE/IEs tonnage. Trains operated on line of sight, drivers possibly on bonus, de-railed wagons were simply dumped at the line side and recovered at a later date the focus was on feeding the power stations. The commercially successful Clonmacnoise and West Offaly Tourist operation closed because it was disruptive to peat traffic to the then new West Offaly Powerstation.

The maintenance depots on some of the systems had an air of a scrapyard with old or obsolete locos and stock stored out of use since the 80s as Wagon Masters replaced the R&H locos of the 40s-60s, the Wagonmasters later replaced by more modern BNM designed locos from the late 80s onwards, toegther with a bewildering variety of peat harvesting machinery as sod gave way to milled peat production.

Wear and tear on locos, stock, track and bog machinery would have been phenonomal with the sheer volume and intensity of traffic

[Lev Pavliuk]

9 hours ago, Mayner said:

Its an industrial railway doing what its intended to do and no more transporting peat from the loading points to the power-stations, Briquette plants and road transfer plants.

Permanent way and rolling stock is radically different from heavy rail practice. Most of the track portable and permanent is sectional complete with Setrack Points, Portable Track is usually laid directly on graded peat on polythene on the surface of the bog, using BNM custom buolt graders/track laying machines, permanent track is usually laid on polythene under lay on ravel ballast, peat and grass help bind everything together. The wagons are unusual in that the wheels rotate independenty on the axle which both improves stability and reduces wear on track and wagons are completely un-braked.

Operation was intensive in its heyday operating 24hr daily 365 to feed the power stations transporting around 5million tonnes annually mpre than twice CIE/IEs tonnage. Trains operated on line of sight, drivers possibly on bonus, de-railed wagons were simply dumped at the line side and recovered at a later date the focus was on feeding the power stations. The commercially successful Clonmacnoise and West Offaly Tourist operation closed because it was disruptive to peat traffic to the then new West Offaly Powerstation.

The maintenance depots on some of the systems had an air of a scrapyard with old or obsolete locos and stock stored out of use since the 80s as Wagon Masters replaced the R&H locos of the 40s-60s, the Wagonmasters later replaced by more modern BNM designed locos from the late 80s onwards, toegther with a bewildering variety of peat harvesting machinery as sod gave way to milled peat production.

Wear and tear on locos, stock, track and bog machinery would have been phenonomal with the sheer volume and intensity of traffic

in fact, all systems work for the edenderry power station now and still continue to extract from the bogs for transfer to the power station 

[RobertRoche]

Does anyone know if these trains are operating or if the recent rain has affected them?

[irishrailways52]

it seems that only edenderry is operational now.

[RobertRoche]

Edenderry Tuesday 24th October 2023