There is a Network of Small Industrial Railways in the Midlands!

FlameoftheWest

How come I never heard of this before! The system is really big too.

http://thewanderersirishrailphotos.fotopic.net/c1538717_49.html

Amazing.

Cookie_Monster

Bord na Mona?, its the largest private railway in Europe iirc

corktina

railwayS

Carawaystick

Some of the network is in the Whesht. social justice I tells ya!
you can see the bridge across the Shannon below the Suck confluence and the cloud at Garrymore
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=53.27435,-8.026199&spn=0.028896,0.100508&t=h&z=14

you could even go for a spin on the bog-train but alas no more
http://www.offalyexpress.ie/banagher-news/Blackwater-Bog-Rail-in-Shannonbridge.4704953.jp

FlameoftheWest

It even has some of them caravans on rails lads too!


*hello boss...hello boss...hello boss...hello boss...hello boss...hello boss...*




These are great. Now this is a rail network I am going to spot!

FlameoftheWest

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Bord na Mona?, its the largest private railway in Europe iirc

The biggest in Europe? That's amazing. Come to think of it I have see little train tracks below the Galway line around Portarlington? I had no idea they were part of this.

So the norrow gauge is alive and well in Ireland afterall!

medoc

FlameoftheWest wrote: »

How come I never heard of this before! The system is really big too.

http://thewanderersirishrailphotos.fotopic.net/c1538717_49.html

Amazing.

This is the rail yard at the Derrinlough Briquette Factory near Birr, The Rakes contain 16 waggons and contain upto 150 ton of peat depending on its density, although usually around 100 - 120 ton. The largest network is in the Boora/Blackwater group which supplies the Factory above and the 150MW West Offaly Power in Shannonbridge. Another large network supplies Edenderry Power in the Derrygreenagh/Mountdillon group (East Offaly/south Westmeath/ Longford). The main lines are permanent with tempory lines layed by "Rail gangs" as required. The road crossings are mostly level crossings but some of the larger roads have under passes.

FlameoftheWest

What a shame that all the other semi-states can't be as creative, adaptive, inovative and as flexible as Bord na Mona.

This is an Irish classic and an ingenious technical solution:

corktina

this was acouple of years ago on the system near Horse and jockey co tipp

medoc

corktina wrote: »

this was acouple of years ago on the system near Horse and jockey co tipp

This supplies the Littleton Briquette Factory the wagons are designed to suit the "Tippler" (Wagon Emptying Device) at the factory and are slightly different to those found in the Midlands. Locos are designed and constructed in house as are the rail laying equipment not sure where the rail comes from.

merengueca

This network is amazing!!!!

My Grandad actually spent his working life as one of the drivers out there so I may be a touch biased. If you take a spin out there it's worth having a look at 'Sculpture in the Parklands' Boora where an engine, several wagons and loads of rail and sleepers have been used to create some unique sculptures. Also a walk around the bog will uncover several S&C panels laid ready for the rail gangs to literally pick up and drop in when they need a new turnout.
I am actually a Rail Maintenance Engineer myself these days so I have to admit to pangs of jealousy about the way BnM can manage their track in such a 'practical' way.

medoc

merengueca wrote: »

This network is amazing!!!!

My Grandad actually spent his working life as one of the drivers out there so I may be a touch biased. If you take a spin out there it's worth having a look at 'Sculpture in the Parklands' Boora where an engine, several wagons and loads of rail and sleepers have been used to create some unique sculptures. Also a walk around the bog will uncover several S&C panels laid ready for the rail gangs to literally pick up and drop in when they need a new turnout.
I am actually a Rail Maintenance Engineer myself these days so I have to admit to pangs of jealousy about the way BnM can manage their track in such a 'practical' way.

Believe me the lines are no where near laid to the standards of any public railway. De-railments occur on a semi regular basis especially on the temporary side lines. Even the main lines are a bumpy ride. The rail gangs do not use any survey or alignment equipment when laying the rails although the beds are leveled and graded before hand.

FlameoftheWest

medoc wrote: »

Believe me the lines are no where near laid to the standards of any public railway. De-railments occur on a semi regular basis especially on the temporary side lines. Even the main lines are a bumpy ride. The rail gangs do not use any survey or alignment equipment when laying the rails although the beds are leveled and graded before hand.

But at the same time there is something very I dunno, nostalgic about the way they do this. They have the luxury to be able to be so innovative because they are only carrying turf.

I am really enjoying learning about this hidden transport gem in the heart of our country. More please.

merengueca

FlameoftheWest wrote: »

But at the same time there is something very I dunno, nostalgic about the way they do this. They have the luxury to be able to be so innovative because they are only carrying turf.

I am really enjoying learning about this hidden transport gem in the heart of our country. More please.

Precisely!! My actual thought was 'cute' due to the size of the components involved in comparison the hulking great switches and crossings I use for high speed main line turnouts. Its like a messy, baby railway - endearing!

If you have access to 'Railway Track Diagrams' ISBN 0-9549866-0-1, from memory I think you want Module 6 - Ireland, it contains a map of the BnM network, with a caveat that this is obviously subject to change!

shamwari

Those pics are excellent and fair play to all who took them. They are all very good indeed.

The history of the BnM railways is linked (obviously) to the expansion of the ESB's network which was predominantly peat fired during the 1940/50s. The first large peat fired stations were comissioned at Portarlington and Allenwood, and these were fed initally with hand-won sod turf from the bogs at Clonsast and Lullymore respectively. It soon became apparent that using hand-won turf was not an ideal solution for a vaiety of reasons, and with that, these two bogs and those used for peat production for the newer stations at Rhode, Ferbane, Shannonbridge and Lanesboro were mechanised. Large mechanical harvesters, which were similar in appearence to combine harvesters, could be seen traversing the bogs and scraping the peat up from the ground. This scraped, or milled peat as it was referred to, was collected from the harvesters and shipped in the narrow guage hoppers directly from the bog to the power plants.

I've had a quick look at the BnM website and found this.

http://www.bnm.ie/corporate/index.jsp?&1nID=93&2nID=97&pID=97&nID=357

Danno

At the 1916 monument, beside the N8 south of Portlaoise, these small rail lines go under the main road...

http://ims0.osiemaps.ie/website/publicviewer/main.aspx#V1,645490,692266,5

EDIT: Look at this square!!! A BnM Rail line, a CIE Rail line, a Motorway, A national route, a regional route, local route.

http://ims0.osiemaps.ie/website/publicviewer/main.aspx#V1,643463,696593,5

Is it the most developed km-sq in Ireland for infrastructure!!!

101sean

The networks are very extensive alright and shown on OSI mapping. I have the whole country on my laptop but you can now look at them on line via the OSI website as Danno shows.

There is a DVD of the systems as well that can be had cheap, I have have it as part of a 9 dvd box set of Irish railways

I took my son on the system near Clonmacnoise when you could take a rail trip around a few years ago, he got to ride in the loco! They had a collection of the weird and wonderful BnM built harvesting machinery as well.

Judgement Day

Many years ago I was peripherally involved in the production of a video by Midland Publishing "The Peat Railways of Ireland" which gives a detailed picture of the Bord na Mona rail system circa 1995. It has since been updated and made available as a DVD - published by Ian Allan Publishing - and which I can highly recommend. http://www.ianallanpublishing.com/product.php?productid=58386 usually available on eBay.


A very useful and accurate (!) wiki page on Bord na Mona here: http://bordnamona.wikispaces.com/BordnaMona

Judgement Day

And here is the companion guide to the video, "The Locomotives & Railcars of Bord na Mona" by Stephen Johnson (the cameraman for the video), and this useful guide can also be highly recommended. Usually available on www.abebooks.com

DWCommuter

Carawaystick wrote: »

you could even go for a spin on the bog-train but alas no more
http://www.offalyexpress.ie/banagher-news/Blackwater-Bog-Rail-in-Shannonbridge.4704953.jp

This is the bollox I don't get with this country.

The bog tour was set up in the very early 90s at a time when the country was on its knees economically. We go through a period of massive growth and wealth, then massive decline. What happens? Recession based businesses start to close, like this one.

We are cutting back on **** with absolutely no regard for what was there in the bad times. Talk about scorched earth thinking. Pretty soon this post wealth, poverty thinking will leave us with **** all anywhere.

Run_to_da_hills

DWCommuter wrote: »

This is the bollox I don't get with this country.

The bog tour was set up in the very early 90s at a time when the country was on its knees economically. We go through a period of massive growth and wealth, then massive decline. What happens? Recession based businesses start to close, like this one.

We are cutting back on **** with absolutely no regard for what was there in the bad times. Talk about scorched earth thinking. Pretty soon this post wealth, poverty thinking will leave us with **** all anywhere.

Its probably all down to insurance / health & safety, which seems to be the primary kill joy at the moment in specialty railways and excursions.

Technically when you enter BIM property you are on a "site", one would now be expected to wear the appropriate PPE and have some kind of an introductory course. :rolleyes:

medoc

Health and Safety was one of the considerations when closing the Bog Train. Also the increase in traffic to West Offaly Power was affecting the running of the line. There are plans to set up a seperate system in the Lough Boora Parklands near by, hopefully these work out.

BrianD3

Re: health and safety, when I was a kid, 25 or so years ago it was pretty common for members of the public and kids to go walking/exploring on the bog railways. Can't remember what happened if a train came along, it may be the case that people jumped on board. Also, members of the public used to operate the points on the tracks and hopefully leave them back the way they found them.

Carawaystick

A point that stuck with me when I went on it a few years ago was BnaM designed and built all their machines from scratch in the 50's - they bought in diesel engines and made the rest
Now burning the bog isn't seen as too environmentally sound but the country was feiced and irish people exploited what they could.

now we just let the Norweigans take our fuel...

TedMcAvoy

Hi

If anyone wants a guide to all the BnM railway sites-map refs and what you can find there - I've put together a Word Doc. It's only about 60kB and I can email it to anyone who wants one.
I'm the feller who took the photo at the top of this thread - at Derrinlough Briquette Factory.
I've put quite a lot of BnM railway photos on Flickr under my name.

In rough figures, about 115 locos are in daily use out of a fleet of about 200.
They lay 200 miles (!) of track every year to reach the piles on the bogs, use it and then rip it up again.

Ted Mac
Ed1.jpg

Judgement Day

Nice pic! Almost makes me wish I was still a railway enthusiast.

PS Welcome to the Boards!