Siding north of Phoenix Park Tunnel

dowlingm

Hi folks, was doing a bit of looking at the approach to the Phoenix Park tunnel and I noticed that there appears to be a siding between the Fassaugh Road and Cabra Road overbridges. Anyone have an idea what goes on/used to go on there?

bikeman1

dowlingm wrote: »

Hi folks, was doing a bit of looking at the approach to the Phoenix Park tunnel and I noticed that there appears to be a siding between the Fassaugh Road and Cabra Road overbridges. Anyone have an idea what goes on/used to go on there?

That is the old Irish Cement site at Cabra. Both bulk and bagged cement used to be unloaded there from Platin.

Sligo Quay

Reading in this link http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/Railway%20Stations%20C/Cabra/IrishRailwayStations.html it used to be a cattle station for the Great Southern & Western Railway and a cement depot in CIE days.

jippo nolan

bikeman1 wrote: »

That is the old Irish Cement site at Cabra. Both bulk and bagged cement used to be unloaded there from Platin.

Back in the nineteen fifties & sixties it was used for unloading cattle from trains for the cattle market in Prussia street.

Eiretrains

If you check the OS Ireland c1900s maps you will see the sidings marked as Cattle Sidings. The track and turnout to the sidings were removed last year and the yard is now disconnected.:(

Sligo Quay

Eiretrains wrote: »

If you check the OS Ireland c1900s maps you will see the sidings marked as Cattle Sidings.

It seem to be very close to Liffey Junction on the Sligo line, did the Midland Great Western and the Great Southern & Western companies compete for the cattle business, they are not even a mile apart as the crow flys.

Grandeeod

More recently earmarked for an apartment complex before the collapse.

gobnaitolunacy

Sligo Quay wrote: »

It seem to be very close to Liffey Junction on the Sligo line, did the Midland Great Western and the Great Southern & Western companies compete for the cattle business, they are not even a mile apart as the crow flys.

Don't think they were in direct competition for cattle, cattle being sourced at seasonal fairs in different parts of the country being transported to Dublin markets or to the boats?
According to Cabra entry in Wikipedia, Cabra had a 'lairage', presumably to allow animals to be gathered, to be fed/watered and recuperate after a rail journey prior to sale.

Losty Dublin

gobnaitolunacy wrote: »

Don't think they were in direct competition for cattle, cattle being sourced at seasonal fairs in different parts of the country being transported to Dublin markets or to the boats?
According to Cabra entry in Wikipedia, Cabra had a 'lairage', presumably to allow animals to be gathered, to be fed/watered and recuperate after a rail journey prior to sale.

There was actually massive competition between the GSWR and the MGWR for livestock traffic. The main shareholders of the lines were absent landlord types and they knew that the quicker they could move animals to Dublin the more they'd made and the more appeased their tenants would be from sales as well.

To get an edge on the export market, the MGWR build the line down the Royal Canal and established a freight yard what is now Docklands Station and Spencer Dock. The GSWR had to do something to compete so they laid the line via Cabra and were granted running powers to the docks on the MGWR line, eventually getting to the Point in the early 1870's. The sidings in Cabra allowed them access to the markets triangle between Prussia Street, Aughrim Street and the NCR; this allowed for cattle to be sold to dealers before exporting and to the local markets as well as direct access to the port itself.

Towards the turn of the century the MGWR had racked up the rental on the running so much that the GSWR saw fit to built it's own line into the port via Glasnevin junction and Drumcondra.

Sligo Quay

Grandeeod wrote: »

More recently earmarked for an apartment complex before the collapse.

According to local ''gossip'' CIE property company where paid big money for the land at Cabra, by a developer who is now in NAMA, well whats new, figures of 15 to 20million euro and the rest are being banded about, hard to know what to believe, crazy money was paid for land at the height of the boom. Nice money was made beside Killarney station on former railway land, which is now a shopping centre.

Grandeeod

Sligo Quay wrote: »

According to local ''gossip'' CIE property company where paid big money for the land at Cabra, by a developer who is now in NAMA, well whats new, figures of 15 to 20million euro and the rest are being banded about, hard to know what to believe, crazy money was paid for land at the height of the boom. Nice money was made beside Killarney station on former railway land, which is now a shopping centre.

I wouldn't be surprised and what you say makes sense. Just a pity that CIE came to the plate a little late. They could have made a fortune and funded lots of stuff, with a bit of selective land disposal. I fear Spencer Dock preoccupied them in the hunt for seriously big bucks, but where did it go????