Dublin Port Iron ore Railhead Unloading facility

John Denver · 13-03-2014 1:34pm #1

It has always puzzled me of the extact shunting procedures for the unloading of the Tara Mines iron ore wagons at the unloading facility in Dublin Port.
I know the unloading facility itself is a wagon rotation system but if you search on google maps there is no points or diamond crossover in the actually facility just on the tramway on Alexandra Road.
So how does the loco preform a run around and after the unloading of each wagon does the entire train shunt onto the tramway and back onto the second road in the facility to leave the empty wagon and repeat for the unloading of each wagon?

https://maps.google.ie/maps?hl=en-IE&gbv=2&q=alexandra+road+dublin+port&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x48670f049052bd5b:0x1800c7a937ea5790,Dublin+Port,+Dublin&gl=ie&ei=MKAhU-bVEYrdkgWDv4CYCw&ved=0CBwQ8gEoADAA

As Dublin Port does not allow people onto the tramway to video this maneuver, the videos on YouTube do not answer my question.

Can anyone answer these questions for me?

Captain Chaos · 13-03-2014 6:15pm

There is a traverser which is basically a section of the track the length of an 071 that can slide between the two tracks as needed. The loco is slid over and returns to the other end of the train and the wagons are pushed in one by one and the loco has to swap between pushing the wagons and hauling a single one out and adding it to the end of the train as it goes.

ClovenHoof · 14-03-2014 12:07am

Captain Chaos wrote: »

There is a traverser which is basically a section of the track the length of an 071 that can slide between the two tracks as needed. The loco is slid over and returns to the other end of the train and the wagons are pushed in one by one and the loco has to swap between pushing the wagons and hauling a single one out and adding it to the end of the train as it goes.

Ingenious! I wondered about that too. Thanks.

bikeman1 · 14-03-2014 10:18am

The process is a bit more complecated than that.

1. Loco and wagons arrive on tramway.

2. Loco runs around its train.

3. Loco propells into the right hand side of the facility.

3. The unloading machine takes one wagon at a time, lifts the wagon up, tips out the ore.

4. The wagon is then traversed over to the other rail and pushed out to the left side.

5. Loco shunts forward for the next wagon.

6. Aftet 6 wagons are done, the loco has to uncouple from the remaining 6, shunt onto the left road and draw forward the first 6 wagons unloaded as the machine cannot push any more out.

7. The loco returns to the remaining 6 to be unloaded. And shunts them in as before.

8. Once all are processed, the loco shunts light engine onto the other road to collect all 12 wagons, bearing in mind it has to couple up the two separate 6 wagons.

9. Loco draws the whole train back onto the tramway and back to Drogheda / Tara Mines.

So the leading wagon going in is the leading one going out.

When I say left or right siding, that is when you are looking in from the road.

Hope this helps!

Captain Chaos · 14-03-2014 11:11am

I have seen footage of a single wagon being shunted out and added to the rear of the train and then pushed in with the rest so I assumed it was done one by one. In groups of 6 sounds more reasonable as the one by one process would take an age and alot of shunting movements for the loco and point switching.

Dublin Port Iron ore Railhead Unloading facility

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