Track-lifting in Dundalk

Sligo Quay

davidlacey wrote: »

neat and nothing of interest for enthuasists...

Well the railway is not run for the benefit of enthuasists, never realized the yard at the end of the branch was so extensive with plenty of sidings nice pictures eiretrains http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/Railway%20Stations%20B/Barrack%20Street/Irish%20Railway%20Stations.html the port at Greenore for shipping used Barrack st railhead a lot in the old days, enthuasists must have been busy, I passed there today but couldnd find where it was, the roads there now are confusing, hard to believe a railhead ever existed there.

ardmacha

Compare the 1995 aerial photo
with the 2005 aerial photo

dowlingm

Centenary Road, Dundalk
The disappearance of the old railway bridge at St. Alphonsus Road, long a thorn in the side of the people who lived there, has opened up the area to many possibilities, some of which are now taking shape. The cost of the scheme was 1.3 million with proposals now in hand to extend it along the line of the old railway, to Hill Street Bridge at a further estimated cost of 4 million, the statutory procedures having recently commenced.

http://www.louthcoco.ie/en/Publications/Annual-Reports/Dundalk-Town-Council1.pdf

Bit dated now so presumably the funds never materialised. Deletion of the Hill Street Bridge would probably be a good thing with longer sightlines and less overlooking of adjacent properties.

Judgement Day

davidlacey wrote: »

neat and nothing of interest for enthuasists...

neat and no traffic!

davidlacey

Sligo Quay wrote: »

Well the railway is not run for the benefit of enthuasists, never realized the yard at the end of the branch was so extensive with plenty of sidings nice pictures eiretrains http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/Railway%20Stations%20B/Barrack%20Street/Irish%20Railway%20Stations.html the port at Greenore for shipping used Barrack st railhead a lot in the old days, enthuasists must have been busy, I passed there today but couldnd find where it was, the roads there now are confusing, hard to believe a railhead ever existed there.

What was the death nail for barrack street? had that anything to do with bell liners or was it just following the trend of rail freight in general in ireland being more favoured on roads?

Judgement Day

davidlacey wrote: »

What was the death nail for barrack street? had that anything to do with bell liners or was it just following the trend of rail freight in general in ireland being more favoured on roads?

IE built a new depot in the 1990s in the old North Western yard, with an architectural award winning office building, and then gave up the freight business.

davidlacey

Judgement Day wrote: »

IE built a new depot in the old North Western yard with an architectural award winning office building and then gave up the freight business.

i never realised that yard near the point was so shortlived, that gantry crane was another waste of eu money

Losty Dublin

davidlacey wrote: »

What was the death nail for barrack street? had that anything to do with bell liners or was it just following the trend of rail freight in general in ireland being more favoured on roads?

Barrack Street dealt mainly with sundries and loose freight as well as traffic in and out of Dundalk Port. When it died and the port lost a lot of it's traffic to Warrenpoint and Greenore, the trade in and out pf the port died off. It also carried leather and linen from works beside it and a coal traffic. The breweries in the town gave a lot of trade to the railways; they were served from the main station itself while cigarette trains from Carrolls also gave considerable traffic. When the town council in Dundalk wanted to build a relief road in the 90's, a new freight yard was developed to free up the route for the road.

In relation to container traffic, what killed most of it off was NIR's refusal to handle traffic at Adelaide and Derry; this also applied to keg trains.

The True Puka

What kind of condition was the section of track in. It's a pity it was lifted as the stub seems to have plenty of space around it.
It would have made a fine base of operations for a preservation group. A site like this that is rail connected is badly needed here in Ireland as the only mainline connected preservation site is Carrick on Suir which looks like it will have it's loop cut off faily soon.
Without a mainline connection railtours using preserved stock will be severly curtailed in the future. Even something like a small museum for preserved stock would be welcome.

I was in the Utrech Railway Museum there in January and the way they have things set up is brilliant. The took an abandoned station that was still connected to the network and transformed it into something quite spectacular. A meca for rail enthusiasts.

Why can't something like this be done here in Ireland. Surely the ITG, IRRS and IRPS could band together to give enough clout to see something like this take off. But with the amount of politicking and infighting that goes on in rail circles I wouldn't expect it to happen any times soon.

The stub was fenced off for several years too.

Sligo Quay

Hmmm the yard at Sligo Quay could be next on the hit list, if thats the case, tidying up the network.

gobnaitolunacy

The True Puka wrote: »

Why can't something like this be done here in Ireland. Surely the ITG, IRRS and IRPS could band together to give enough clout to see something like this take off. But with the amount of politicking and infighting that goes on in rail circles I wouldn't expect it to happen any times soon.

Why there will never be a standard gauge preserved line in the Rep.

It's about 50 years too late. All nice gear and lines best suited (and sited) to a successful operation are long gone. (just think, Harcourt st would have been a dinger of a base)

Dearth of population outside of main centres, to volunteer and to support with bums on seats.

A history of pres. groups which can be best described as 'colourful'.

By and large, a culture that is not pre-disposed to interests other than GAA, the craic and dhrink.

Preservation is not the remit of the IRRS, though back in the dim past I think the IRRS lobbied for a couple of retired CIE steam locos to be plinthed and these subsequently passed to the infant RPSI.

Losty Dublin

Sligo Quay wrote: »

Hmmm the yard at Sligo Quay could be next on the hit list, if thats the case, tidying up the network.

The yard was disconnected the other year, wasn't it? The branch remains as a siding though with it's dirty slope it's bugger all use for holding stock.

dm09

Victor wrote: »

Doing things costs money. Presumably disconnecting North Esk was cheaper than installing the required new signalling.

Presumably keeping the Barrack Street connection was cheaper than removing it, until now, although having points in place on an operational does cost a modest amount of money in maintenance and supervision.

This pic from about 2005 shown some wagons being stored there: http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,704191,806232,7,0

What you can see from above in that image are not wagons but old sections of track stacked on top of each other which we're dumped there after a major track upgrade in the mid-late 90's.. visible here:



Diageo killed off rail freight in Dundalk when they decided to abandon a 100yr old tradition of moving the beer by rail in favour of road transit (because its cheaper)

The True Puka

With nay-sayer attitudes like that it's little wonder that there isn't a 5'3" preserved line. Look at the Tuam experience, that was up and running before it closed down and there is not a shortage of serviceable lines with the facilities.
For example, the South Wexford line is CWR for a lot of it's length and is well endowed with sidings and loop at wellington bridge. A decent train shed could be put up for 20K.
It would pay off in the long term to have the locos on a secure site with the ability to start and run them occasionally instead of being laid up in Moyasta.
Significant costs savings in the long term by avoiding the need for expensive cranes to shift them around.

davidlacey

The True Puka wrote: »

With nay-sayer attitudes like that it's little wonder that there isn't a 5'3" preserved line. Look at the Tuam experience, that was up and running before it closed down and there is not a shortage of serviceable lines with the facilities.
For example, the South Wexford line is CWR for a lot of it's length and is well endowed with sidings and loop at wellington bridge. A decent train shed could be put up for 20K.
It would pay off in the long term to have the locos on a secure site with the ability to start and run them occasionally instead of being laid up in Moyasta.
Significant costs savings in the long term by avoiding the need for expensive cranes to shift them around.

nah say attitudes are rampent in irish transport sure if irish rail really wanted a proper freight division it would be alive and well

The True Puka

davidlacey wrote: »

nah say attitudes are rampent in irish transport sure if irish rail really wanted a proper freight division it would be alive and well

And it also seems that they are rampant in the enthusiast and preservation community too. And then they are the first ones to start cribbing and moaning about a lack of this or that. I've made several suggestions over the years only to have them dismissed out of hand. In a lot of cases it's down to turf politics and golden circle hancho's wanting to keep things handy and local rather than send it to a better location somewhere more distant.