[Heritage] RDS branch line

ardmacha · 02-11-2011 10:21pm #1

While poking about on the OSI website (always interesting), I came across the RDS branch line on the present site of AIB BankCentre in Dublin 4. I have to say that I was ignorant that such a thing had ever existed.

Click on the map and select historic 25".

Losty Dublin · 02-11-2011 10:43pm

ardmacha wrote: »

While poking about on the OSI website (always interesting), I came across the RDS branch line on the present site of AIB BankCentre in Dublin 4. I have to say that I was ignorant that such a thing had ever existed.

Click on the map and select historic 25".

One of Dublin 4's best kept secrets. It was installed for the RDS to allow for livestock and horses to be delivered and collected for it's agricultural shows and markets. It diverged off at Lansdowne Road and ran as far as the Merrion Road, in line just about where the gate of the AIB complex is now located. It was lifted in the 70's when the RDS ceased agri shows and was thinking of moving it's campus elsewhere.

If you go look to the left of a citybound DART,, you should be able to see it's border wall.

ardmacha · 02-11-2011 10:59pm

The curve in the row of buildings at the end of Ballsbridge Park reflects the curve of the branch line. Just like Italian towns that still retain the forms of Roman arenas, this curve may be there for centuries.

The map shows "booking office". Did they ever run shuttles to Heuston through the Park or anything equally convenient?

Losty Dublin · 02-11-2011 11:04pm

ardmacha wrote: »

The map shows "booking office". Did they ever run shuttles to Heuston through the Park or anything equally convenient?

There was specials in and out of the RDS but it wasn't used as a conventional station per se. The booking office was for recording animals carried in and out, livestock being a big commodity for railway companies back in the day.

Judgement Day · 02-11-2011 11:09pm

Apparently the original RDS sidings were laid with rails recovered from the still born Bray & Enniskerry Railway.

Losty Dublin · 02-11-2011 11:20pm

Judgement Day wrote: »

Apparently the original RDS sidings were laid with rails recovered from the still born Bray & Enniskerry Railway.

I never heard that one, JD but I would be a tad dubious of same as the B+E never even got physically off the ground save for a bridge and some earthworks around Enniskerry. I have a book on said line, I'll dig it out and see if it mentions same.

Judgement Day · 02-11-2011 11:26pm

This from http://www.industrialheritageireland.info/coppermine/displayimage.php?album=651&pos=0 gives some dates and mentions B&Enniskerry connection.

Opened in 1893, the RDS sidings were located off the line between Lansdowne Road and Sandymount on the Up side. They were used for livestock traffic to/from the RDS. The sidings were closed on 18.09.1971. Interestingly, the rails initially used in laying the sidings came from the never opened Bray & Enniskerry Railway.

And this interesting link http://www.news4.ie/may08/frame3/letterbox.htm with a photograph of A14 apparently (?) in the RDS sidings although it doesn't look like it to me. I had an ancient photograph with a load of wagons, a six-wheel sleeping van with the Main RDS building in the background and it didn't look like the A14 location.

lord lucan · 02-11-2011 11:50pm

Judgement Day wrote: »

And this interesting link http://www.news4.ie/may08/frame3/letterbox.htm with a photograph of A14 apparently (?) in the RDS sidings although it doesn't look like it to me. I had an ancient photograph with a load of wagons, a six-wheel sleeping van with the Main RDS building in the background and it didn't look like the A14 location.

Looks more like somewhere on the Rosslare - Waterford line than the RDS sidings. Don't ever remember seeing a proper station as such at the RDS.

Judgement Day · 02-11-2011 11:55pm

Wexford South?

lord lucan · 03-11-2011 1:01am

Judgement Day wrote: »

Wexford South?

Could be. Pic could be taken standing on the small level crossing there looking north.

corktina · 03-11-2011 9:00am

Losty Dublin wrote: »

I never heard that one, JD but I would be a tad dubious of same as the B+E never even got physically off the ground save for a bridge and some earthworks around Enniskerry. I have a book on said line, I'll dig it out and see if it mentions same.

presumably the rails were destined for the B&E but never laid in that case.

Losty Dublin · 03-11-2011 10:05am

corktina wrote: »

presumably the rails were destined for the B&E but never laid in that case.

I'll check out my book when I get a few minutes but I don't think that much in the way of funds was even raised for the line, let alone rails delivered.

corktina · 03-11-2011 10:09am

getting laid is always more difficult than one would wish :-)

Eiretrains · 03-11-2011 6:39pm

Judgement Day wrote: »

http://www.news4.ie/may08/frame3/letterbox.htm[/B]

That's the RDS sidings alright, with its corrugated iron hut on the island platform. The view is looking towards the main line. For those interested, a good photo of the location appeared in the IRRS June journal (No.175).

As Losty said, you can still see where the RDS line branched off the main line just south of the Dodder bridge at Lansdowne, marked by a gap in the wall. I think all of the track was removed in the late 1970s.

Judgement Day · 03-11-2011 7:10pm

Glad to have the location confirmed as it was driving me potty. I haven't been an IRRS member since 1998 so haven't seen the journal. I would have been through Lansdowne Road a lot in the late 1970's and the track was long gone except for a length or two inside the gateway at the south end of the Up platform. There was the remains of a traditional railway gate there as well.

Losty Dublin · 03-11-2011 7:31pm

Judgement Day wrote: »

Glad to have the location confirmed as it was driving me potty. I haven't been an IRRS member since 1998 so haven't seen the journal. I would have been through Lansdowne Road a lot in the late 1970's and the track was long gone except for a length or two inside the gateway at the south end of the Up platform. There was the remains of a traditional railway gate there as well.

It's actually an excellent colour picture of the yard, well worth getting a copy of it if you can.

Back on topic and the B+E book refers to the RDS indeed buying surplus rail and sleepers from directors of the company in 1893. Some other lines and sleepers ended up in local houses. Interestingly, the B+E company was never liquidated and still apparently holds deed to some land in the area!

Partizan · 04-11-2011 2:26pm

ardmacha wrote: »

While poking about on the OSI website (always interesting), I came across the RDS branch line on the present site of AIB BankCentre in Dublin 4. I have to say that I was ignorant that such a thing had ever existed.

Click on the map and select historic 25".

Looking at that map makes me depressed. The public transport system a century ago was far superior to what we have today. Why on earth did they rip up the tram lines? One of the most short sighted decisions ever made.

Thank you FF.

tricky D · 04-11-2011 2:37pm

Warning, this one might just make you even worse:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Map_Rail_Ireland_Viceregal_Commission_1906.jpg

ardmacha · 04-11-2011 4:19pm

The public transport system a century ago was far superior to what we have today. Why on earth did they rip up the tram lines? One of the most short sighted decisions ever made.

The reality is that people find regular road transport more flexible for many things. Sure on this board this even an account of Irish Rail finding road preferable to rail for moving locomotives. And lifting tram lines then was not unusual, even places like (West) Berlin did it.

[Heritage] RDS branch line

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