North Wall

[Rob]

There was more 071's than you could shake a stick at in North Wall yesterday.

074 & 080 arrived together.

A bit of shunting later, 076 & 080 left.

073 and another grey unidentified 071 were parked up.

@DJ Dangerous would have loved it

Edited March 20, 2021 by Rob

[DJ Dangerous]

So much awesomeness crammed into so little space... Five 071's in one photo!

Do you go there every Friday?

Edited March 13, 2021 by DJ Dangerous

[Rob]

I usually go a couple of times a week- it's within the 5k so that is handy!

Good lot of shunting action there last Monday too.

It has a great viewing spot for it all!

Great day out

[DJ Dangerous]

Maybe re-title this thread and post regular updates here so...

Definitely have one devoted fan here at least!

[the Bandon tank]

And one here to.

[DJ Dangerous]

I have to visit Ireland some day and skulk around there for a while!

[Rob]

You'd love it

071's always there on the Taras, and some of the Containers-  aswell as Spoil Trains, Weedsprayers parked up and general shunting.

Most would want to travel from here to your neck of the woods-  you could holiday in North Wall

[DJ Dangerous]

Well, for a couple of hours, maybe!

[Irishswissernie]

I always went early in the morning and departed before noon prior to some of the locals arising from their slumbers. I was asked once if I fancied a one way trip to the Wicklow Mountains!

There was always something going on (railway wise that is) 144 + 149 shunting June 2001 

[DJ Dangerous]

5 minutes ago, Irishswissernie said:

I always went early in the morning and departed before noon prior to some of the locals arising from their slumbers. I was asked once if I fancied a one way trip to the Wicklow Mountains!

There was always something going on (railway wise that is) 144 + 149 shunting June 2001 

Lovely photo, and a trip to the Wicklow Mountains would really crown my visit well.

[Rob]

074 action at North Wall today @ 1.30pm with a 12 wagon Tara Mines set.

Might be reduced action these days but still great to be able to see 071's and freight action.

[DJ Dangerous]

Awesome photos!

Where are the containers actually loaded onto the flats?

[Rob]

At one end in Ballina and at the other end, in Dublin Port.

IWP container and Tara Mines trains travel through North Wall and onto Alexandra Road before disappearing!

Never seen any photos of what happens once the trains leave Alexandra Road.    Understandably, given the nature of the loads carried in the Taras we never see the unloading of that but would have thought some records exist of the container unloading at Dublin Port.

Maybe some day....!!!

Photo below of 081 reappearing onto Alexandra Road from the port.

[DJ Dangerous]

I'd love to see videos of the loading and unloading of both. I'm sure that somebody here on the forum gave me the name of a company who have a DVD on sale, featuring the unloading of the Tara's, but by the time I got around to ordering, I had lost the link to order via!

[Rob]

I'd love to see that- never knew any record existed of either.

[DJ Dangerous]

17 minutes ago, Rob said:

I'd love to see that- never knew any record existed of either.

If I find the website again, I'll let you know!

[Rob]

See link to previous thread about the Tara Mines action @ the Dublin Port end with some details.

On 'Boards.ie', l found this photo from inside the tipler for unloading which is a rare sight.

[Irishswissernie]

This one.

https://www.videoscene.co.uk/irish-rail-archive-volume-8-tara-to-clara

[DJ Dangerous]

21 minutes ago, Irishswissernie said:

This one.

https://www.videoscene.co.uk/irish-rail-archive-volume-8-tara-to-clara

That's it, Ernie, thank you! I'm pretty sure you were the one who told me about it first time around!

[skinner75]

Also available from the horses mouth so to speak:

http://markle.co.uk/

[Galteemore]

I knew the Duchess was going to do voice overs etc for Netflix and Spotify but I must say I didn’t expect her to work in this market. 

[Rob]

216 (used to pulling the Belmond Grand Hibernian) was leading something less glamorous, but still exciting at North Wall today!

Reversed out of the East Wall yard before heading down Alexandra Road to Dublin Port with a lengthy container set.

Never saw such a gleamingly clean set of tanker containers- was like they were washed and polished!   

Great to be able to see this freight actionat such close quarters still.

 

[DJ Dangerous]

Wow, lovely photos.

Are they gonna let the last of the Mk3's rust away, and paint 216 into the "Tippex" livery that never was?

[Mayner]

On 17/3/2021 at 11:38 PM, Irishswissernie said:

This one.

https://www.videoscene.co.uk/irish-rail-archive-volume-8-tara-to-clara

An Irish Railfreight Video existed in the early 90s possibly published by Markle with Paul Shannon as narrator covered the main freight flows including both loading & unloading the Tara's.

At the time Ireland was seen as more progressive than BR by UK enthusiasts continuing to operate a fairly comprehensive railfreight service in a country with a small population and little heavy industry at a time BR was busy shutting down it Speedlink Network and cutting Freightliner services during the sectorisation era.

East Wall Yard (The Dardanells) has gone through an interesting transformation since the re-modelling in the early 2000s.  Apart from traffic to and from the Alexandra Road Tramway (mainly Tara, Asahi & Oil) the yard was mainly used from the late 70s as a wagon repair depot and storing crippled and redundant rolling stock.

The sidings on the right were mainly used for long term storage once housing the last DSER & MGWR bogie coaches in Departmental service and more recently a collection of redundant CIEV & private owner loose coupled tank wagons until the yard was cleared out and re-modelled in 2002-3.

The yard was very busy during the 60s and 70s as the Dublin Terminal for goods traffic to Northern Ireland after the closure of Amiens Street Goods and became the first Dublin Yard to handle ISO container traffic during the late 60s, the yard and the Point Depot closing to revenue traffic during the late 70s.

The incoming IWT liner is arriving on what was once the down running line to the Point Depot that once curved round to cross Sherriff Street on the level.

The base of the Granaries Signal cabin where I had my first introduction to really strong language as a shunter called out to the signal man "change those f........points"  is visible on the left, the cabin was closed and the points in this area converted to hand operation when signalling in the North Wall yards was rationalised in the late 1980s.

The double slip on the crossover from the Alexandra Road Tramway to the up and down running lines to Island Bridge Junction seems to be an unchanging feature of the yard appearing in photos from the late steam era.

Chairs used by shunters seem to have disappeared!

 

M

May 2005 181 shunting a Guinness Liner in East Wall Yard, release crossover and buffer stops at East Wall Road in the distance, the double track running road originally curved round past the concrete building in the middle distance to cross Sherriff St, siding on right were mainly used for wagon storage some times long term before the re-modelling. 

The area between the running roads and East Wall Road was laid out as pairs of mileage sidings where freight was loaded direct from trucks to trains(long lines of H Vans when I first explored the area in the mid 70s) and laterly used for loading ballast trains & long term storage .

 

Wagon Repair Depot does not seem to have changed in 20 years, remains of 1993 Gantry from the Holyhead Yard stored in distance, 1960s 15T gantry possibly still in use for wagon repairs. 

 

[ttc0169]

Seen here crossing the Moy bridge on the Ballina branch a few days ago 

 

[Rob]

Great photo- looks great.    Containers are going very 'navy blue' these days!

[Mayner]

The Moy bridge is a cracking spot, reminds me of the one and only time I travelled on the branch from Ballina to Claremorris possibly in a Park Royal coach behind a small BoBo the sense of remoteness and view across the lake reminds me of the Kyle of Lochalsh line in Scotland

[Rob]

216 in action again this Monday evening, similar to Friday- shunting action at the East Wall yard first, then the trip down Alexandra Road to Dublin Port.

Very 'navy' blue feel to everything again with both 216 itself and it's complete set of navy containers with just one white exception!

[Rob]

223's turn this evening.    A lengthy 18 wagon set consisting largely of 20ft Tanktainers- two per flat.

[DJ Dangerous]

I haven't seen Dana's in ages!

Don't see them in any of the recent YT videos.

If there were two tanktainers (are they called spider tankers?) per flat, they were empty, so?

[Rob]

Yes-  always like seeing the DANA's myself too!   They always look like they've been through the wars compared to the rest.     Presumably all empty given the two per flat.

About once per week or so they seem to appear generally?    

Edited March 23, 2021 by Rob

[DJ Dangerous]

I assume that some sort of disposable plastic inner liner is used each time those tanks are filled?

[Rob]

I understand it is probably something like that video- watch from about 2:20.

Given the load being carried is foodstuffs or related to it, there must be pretty high standards of cleaning and hygiene

Wasn't it @Arran said he witnessed the emptying of a GCA one time and there was a delicious smell of treacle!!

[DJ Dangerous]

Yeah, wouldn't want my Coco Pops tasting like sardines.

[TimO]

Once the container train is on the Alexandra Quay sidings there is a loco release cross over so the loco can change ends and draw the loaded wagons back to North Wall Yard. 
 

On the Tara’s I believe the loco is released using the traverser in the unloading shed. The loco then uses the empty wagon line to access Alexandra Road. The length of the sidings limits the maximum numbers of wagons in the Tara train.

Edited March 26, 2021 by TimO