Railfreight

IE 222

I presume most of this is ex Waterford traffic. Has the extended train lengths been dropped. This would of provided the extra 30% increase without having to run additional services.

Interesting to see a retail company using the service. Does anyone know if this one of the big supermarkets?

Wonder how much traffic is been forwarded onto Letterkenny or if there is anything for Sligo as well.

BlackandGreen

Theres still freight traffic several times a week on the Waterford line.
With brexit the Irish port/shipping industry is thriving so I presume that has a lot to do with it.

road_high

BlackandGreen wrote: »

Theres still freight traffic several times a week on the Waterford line.
With brexit the Irish port/shipping industry is thriving so I presume that has a lot to do with it.

There's certainly timber freight but is there container stuff? Who's running it?

andrewfaulk

road_high wrote: »

There's certainly timber freight but is there container stuff? Who's running it?

No container trains between Ballina and Waterford anymore, Dublin-Ballina only at the moment

Captain Chaos

Looks like alot or work going on at Sligo freight yard and the branch spur from the station down to the yard. The yard is being cleared and new track panel are being laid.

Timbre flow returning perhaps?

Del.Monte

Prelude to track lifting for a greenway?

Captain Chaos

Del.Monte wrote: »

Prelude to track lifting for a greenway?

They seem to be renewing the track along the spur to the yard. At first it looked like lifting.

andrewfaulk

Captain Chaos wrote: »

They seem to be renewing the track along the spur to the yard. At first it looked like lifting.

Any pictures?

andrewfaulk

Captain Chaos wrote: »

They seem to be renewing the track along the spur to the yard. At first it looked like lifting.

Any pictures?

Del.Monte

andrewfaulk wrote: »

Any pictures?

Some recent pics here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2016302075275558/

on the Ireland's Abandoned & Dismantled Railways page.

h.gricer

From what I've heard from a good source, the Sligo freight yard is only being used as a ''works site'' for storing newly arrived panels, to relay from the station down to a buffer stop just before the Finisklin Road over bridge, this siding is still in daily use for storing ICR railcars. The bridge that spans Finisklin Road has a locomotive ban in place since 2009 and railcars after that, looking at photos on FB some light equipment ''Atlas diggers'' crossed the bridge carrying in the new panels for the relaying, this was one of the reasons why timber traffic was suspended in 2008, recently a figure of €5m price tag was put on reopening the line and renewing the bridge span over Finisklin Road, with that sort of money it probably won't happen, the land will possible be sold off for development. Longford is now being considered for timber traffic, but probably won't happen till next year at the earliest.
The bridge over Finisklin Road is a nice structure with cut stone tunnel arches on ether side for pedestrians with a center metal span, it's not unique as such, as we have similar structures in Dublin between Pearse Station and Lansdowne Road, but I wonder did it have a stone arch back in the day and later replaced with a metal span, not a wise replacement, I remember taking a beautiful photo of RPSI steam locomotive 461 sitting on the Finisklin Bridge on an early Sunday morning back in 1997, Finisklin Road, a quite place on a Sunday morning in Sligo.
Regards
h.gricer

Isambard

copyright Me :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FHqQIQzPpA

Jamie2k9

h.gricer wrote: »

From what I've heard from a good source, the Sligo freight yard is only being used as a ''works site'' for storing newly arrived panels, to relay from the station down to a buffer stop just before the Finisklin Road over bridge, this siding is still in daily use for storing ICR railcars. The bridge that spans Finisklin Road has a locomotive ban in place since 2009 and railcars after that, looking at photos on FB some light equipment ''Atlas diggers'' crossed the bridge carrying in the new panels for the relaying, this was one of the reasons why timber traffic was suspended in 2008, recently a figure of €5m price tag was put on reopening the line and renewing the bridge span over Finisklin Road, with that sort of money it probably won't happen, the land will possible be sold off for development. Longford is now being considered for timber traffic, but probably won't happen till next year at the earliest.
The bridge over Finisklin Road is a nice structure with cut stone tunnel arches on ether side for pedestrians with a center metal span, it's not unique as such, as we have similar structures in Dublin between Pearse Station and Lansdowne Road, but I wonder did it have a stone arch back in the day and later replaced with a metal span, not a wise replacement, I remember taking a beautiful photo of RPSI steam locomotive 461 sitting on the Finisklin Bridge on an early Sunday morning back in 1997, Finisklin Road, a quite place on a Sunday morning in Sligo.
Regards
h.gricer

5m sounds extremely high, been conservative the bridge is probably 1.7-2m.

Then again its what happens when you neglect infrastructure even during the good times. Its a poor reflection on IE that this was part of 2008 suspension of services. Hard to see any valid reason for them not renewing it in 2007/2008 if it was in poor condition.

andrewfaulk

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

5m sounds extremely high, been conservative the bridge is probably 1.7-2m.

Then again its what happens when you neglect infrastructure even during the good times. Its a poor reflection on IE that this was part of 2008 suspension of services. Hard to see any valid reason for them not renewing it in 2007/2008 if it was in poor condition.

The figure I heard was 500k to make it usable for timber trains.. But I didn’t hear about the bridge part.. €5m doesn’t seem right, bridge or no

IE 222

Has the 30% increase in Ballina freight reported awhile back commenced yet?

Jamie2k9

IE 222 wrote: »

Has the 30% increase in Ballina freight reported awhile back commenced yet?

No, supposed to be another test run tomorrow.

Thrashssacre

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

No, supposed to be another test run tomorrow.

A test with 27 car trains like they did a couple of years back?

Jamie2k9

Thrashssacre wrote: »

A test with 27 car trains like they did a couple of years back?

Not sure its 27 anymore, I think during other tests they reduced it by a couple. Not sure how long now but might be 24.

andrewfaulk

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

Not sure its 27 anymore, I think during other tests they reduced it by a couple. Not sure how long now but might be 24.

The next test is 21 wagons on Sunday 24th, the one for the 10th was cancelled due to driver shortage as the drivers were needed for Mayo GAA specials on the Saturday and it’s holiday time of the year..

The 30% thing was the service increasing to 9 trains a week each way.. The schedule is in place but it hasn’t been necessary to run that number of trains recently due to a number of changes to shipping arrangements

Jamie2k9

andrewfaulk wrote: »

The next test is 21 wagons on Sunday 24th, the one for the 10th was cancelled due to driver shortage as the drivers were needed for Mayo GAA specials on the Saturday and it’s holiday time of the year..

The 30% thing was the service increasing to 9 trains a week each way.. The schedule is in place but it hasn’t been necessary to run that number of trains recently due to a number of changes to shipping arrangements

Is the reduction from 27 to 24 to 21 for comparison of performance or necessary operationally. If they drop any more the whole exercise will be pointless.

The timber trail from 12 to 18?, no tests since. Not happening anymore?

andrewfaulk

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

Is the reduction from 27 to 24 to 21 for comparison of performance or necessary operationally. If they drop any more the whole exercise will be pointless.

The timber trail from 12 to 18?, no tests since. Not happening anymore?

21 is likely what will be operated on the service, the terminal will only fit 21 wagons..

Not sure about the timber

Markcheese

When you think about it,until recently Waterford, cork and dublin container ports were all linked by rail, and we had a really crap road system,
How did we not end up with a really good container freight rail system... I mean the crane in Cork could have unloaded directly onto a Dublin bound train, which could have headed directly to Dublin freight Yard to unload onto a truck.
But that ship has long sailed...

goingnowhere

Markcheese wrote: »

When you think about it,until recently Waterford, cork and dublin container ports were all linked by rail, and we had a really crap road system,
How did we not end up with a really good container freight rail system... I mean the crane in Cork could have unloaded directly onto a Dublin bound train, which could have headed directly to Dublin freight Yard to unload onto a truck.
But that ship has long sailed...

We did it was called Bell Lines who shipped containers island wise mainly by rail. The only port with direct lift on/off was Waterford. The direct curve at Kilkenny was reopened specifically to support the freight traffic.

Bell Lines collapsed in 1997 and the single customer required for the scale to make it work was no more.

Lots of finger pointing but most freight ceased because the company involved ceased trading, not because it went to road.

Del.Monte

The avoiding curve at Lavistown was a new build as there was nothing there previously.