Irish Sugar, Mallow

CaptainSkidmark

There 50(ish) flat's parked up in the siding across the road from the old sugar factory in mallow, But the access link seems to be taken up?

Whats the theory behind this? How will they get the flats out?

This is a very recent image. as all the flood works under the ten arch bridge are completed.

gobnaitolunacy

CaptainSkidmark wrote: »

There 50(ish) flat's parked up in the siding across the road from the old sugar factory in mallow, But the access link seems to be taken up?

Whats the theory behind this? How will they get the flats out?

This is a very recent image. as all the flood works under the ten arch bridge are completed.

Points used once in the blue moon are usually taken out to reduce maintainance.

By road truck is the only way they can be removed now. They're probably all seized up anyway from being idle.

corktina

sidings lookedempty ot me last time I passed...maybe being flats, I couldn't see them....will look again next time

davidlacey

The question is if allowed sugarbeet production to start up again in ireland, would the railway be carrying it?

CaptainSkidmark

corktina wrote: »

sidings lookedempty ot me last time I passed...maybe being flats, I couldn't see them....will look again next time

They are in a nice bit, dont think you can see them from the road.

CaptainSkidmark

So i had a snoop today with the drone, It appears they have moved the flats from the rear of the yard to the front of the yard, How? I have no idea? Also, half of them were completely covered in brambles as recent as last summer so they have removed all of the brambles also and removed the vegetation off the line going into the factory as far as the road so some reason.

But how did they move the flats when the access has been removed??

Flats were in this position until recent months but the rear section was totally covered in vegetation - GOOGLE MAPS


Access still removed


Flats have been moved




Sad sight, the large plant once stood here, now all that remains is the weigh bridge office and the church.


Heavy vegetation removed

h.gricer

davidlacey wrote: »

The question is if allowed sugarbeet production to start up again in ireland, would the railway be carrying it?

No probably not, it's not a question of ''IF'' production starts again, it's a question of ''WHEN'' sugarbeet will be back in business again in Ireland sooner or later, we have the ideal climate etc, but it definitely won't be on the railway and why would it be.
When production starts again in the future, starting from scratch, the new facility will probably be built close to the growers, in line with keeping costs down, the growers instead of queuing up at a railway station like Wellingtonbridge and taking the beet long distance to a factory in Mallow, they'll be queuing up at a local facility and eliminating long distance transport costs from their budget, makes more economic sense.

h.gricer

CaptainSkidmark wrote: »

There 50(ish) flat's parked up in How will they get the flats out?
.

They'll ether install a temporary connection or bring in a crane, but I don't think they are in any hurry as the wagons involved are only 40ft LPs, now if they were LXs 45s, well that would be a different story.
Regards
hg

CaptainSkidmark

But how did they move them is what id like to know?

All the posts before the photos are from 2013 FYI

Losty Dublin

CaptainSkidmark wrote: »

But how did they move them is what id like to know?

All the posts before the photos are from 2013 FYI

More than likely they were cut up on site. Lifting them onto trucks to scrap elsewhere would cost fortunes.

Del.Monte

What I would like to know is - who got my water tower and turntable - seriously? Anybody with definite information?

CaptainSkidmark

Losty Dublin wrote: »

More than likely they were cut up on site. Lifting them onto trucks to scrap elsewhere would cost fortunes.

No thats not what i mean, look at the photos. they were about 200m back the line but they have have moved toward the removed junction. How did they move?

Losty Dublin

CaptainSkidmark wrote: »

No thats not what i mean, look at the photos. they were about 200m back the line but they have have moved toward the removed junction. How did they move?

Sorry, I misread initially and now see what you mean. Maybe it's the work of the Mallow dorm ghost?

Captain Chaos

Just wondering were they some of the flats that were moved to run the extended 27 wagon IWT liner trail and the extra rake of flats that have been put aside in Northwall for the upcoming biomass services.

As far as I know IE still have around 250 flats that exist in a mix of LP and LX wagons. The remaining LK wagons at Dundalk were all cut up a few years ago without permission of Irish Rail.

For IWT and DFDS they need 3 sets of 18 wagons. Each set 12x LX and 4x LP or 14x LX and 2x LP. Thats 54 wagons and a few as spares for maintenance. There is about another 20 odd at Northwall awaiting use. So saw 80 odd flats in use for current requirements with 50 odd stored at Mallow. Still leaves around 100 odd flats missing or sotre somewhere around the network.

I think about 36 were converted to spoil wagons and the rest possibly on as CWR PWD trains. Not many left for future expansion of operations if those 50 odd are trapped at Mallow. Most of these were built in the 70s so I'd say alot of them are coming up and life expiration soon.

Isambard

presumably they dragged them with a road or road/rail vehicle , I assume in preparation for removing them

CaptainSkidmark

It must have been one hell of an effort to move all those. front and back pushing

h.gricer

CaptainSkidmark wrote: »

But how did they move them is what id like to know?

All the posts before the photos are from 2013 FYI

I do apologize, I misread your original post (well Sunday night, polishing off craft beer is my excuse)

A number of LPs were removed from the Mallow Beet Factory Sidings a while back, they were transported to Limerick wagon works for refurbishment for biomass traffic, when the work was complete they were transferred to Portlaoise, then after some months they were transferred to North Wall, I think they were removed from the Beet Factory Siding using a temporary connection, I don't know, I'm not sure.
Never scrap an LP, they'll find some use for them, refurbished LPs from somewhere else are now used on the ''yellow top wagons'' spoil or (muck) the LPs currently in the Beet Factory Sidings are ''stored'' and probably will be removed if this biomass traffic ever gets going, seems to be on hold at the moment.
Kind Regards
h.gricer

PS de craft beer was awful, absolute ****e, if ye want to be really really sick and have a head like a railway porters trolley, drink lots and lots of craft beer.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

h.gricer

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Mainline CTC at Connolly, before 2005 Banteer was a fringe box to the mainline CTC, there hasn't been a token between Mallow and Banteer for years, 1989 I think. The ground frame was released by the Mallow - Banteer token, from 1989 onwards it was released by Mainline CTC Connolly.
Regards
hg

Captain Chaos

Captain Chaos wrote: »

For IWT and DFDS they need 3 sets of 18 wagons. Each set 12x LX and 4x LP or 14x LX and 2x LP. Thats 54 wagons and a few as spares for maintenance. There is about another 20 odd at Northwall awaiting use. So saw 80 odd flats in use for current requirements with 50 odd stored at Mallow. Still leaves around 100 odd flats missing or sotre somewhere around the network.

There's still loads on the turntable road in Tralee.

tabbey

h.gricer wrote: »

the wagons involved are only 40ft LPs, now if they were LXs 45s,
hg

I can understand the lengths of containers, but LP and LX?

Captain Chaos

tabbey wrote: »

I can understand the lengths of containers, but LP and LX?

They are just the codes Irish Rail use for the flats. LP flats are 42ft long, LX are 47ft. LKs are 42ft set up for keg cages. I'm no sure the L designation for the 62ft flats, think they are LY if memory serves me.

Isambard

my memory is sketchy but wasn't there a set of sidings the other side of the road too, parallel to the road and running along towards the Industrial units where the Irish Sugar locos operated?

CaptainSkidmark

there was 2 lines crossing the road and one siding adjacent to the road on the factory side i think, deffo nothing parallel to the road on the factory side anyway.

GM228

Captain Chaos wrote: »

They are just the codes Irish Rail use for the flats. LP flats are 42ft long, LX are 47ft. LKs are 42ft set up for keg cages. I'm no sure the L designation for the 62ft flats, think they are LY if memory serves me.

There is no designation for the 62ft wagons.

Guinness pallets were carried on LP and LX wagons which retained their LP and LX designations, although on paper they were officially LPb and LXb, but that code wasn't actually used. Only the old 20ft Guinness wagons had a new code assigned to them.

There was no LK wagon, but there was the LYs - the first 98 42ft wagons (30001-30098), they later became known also as LPs like the rest of the 42ft wagons.

Isambard

CaptainSkidmark wrote: »

there was 2 lines crossing the road and one siding adjacent to the road on the factory side i think, deffo nothing parallel to the road on the factory side anyway.

yes latterly that was the case but I think I recall an earlier layout, I certainly recall seeing one of the diesels and that wouldn't have been the other side of the road surely.

David Parks has posted pics on the net of a yard being demolished by GSRPS....I always assumed it was the yard of my memories. (I can't find them with a search so far)

h.gricer

Captain Chaos wrote: »

They are just the codes Irish Rail use for the flats. LP flats are 42ft long, LX are 47ft. LKs are 42ft set up for keg cages. I'm no sure the L designation for the 62ft flats, think they are LY if memory serves me.

LP holds a 40ft container which a very few nowadays, but they are good enough for tank traffic, LK holds 5 cages of kegs, LX holds 6 cages of kegs, modified LX holds 45ft container, now I hanker for the old days of the LY wagon, an LY was fitted with spark proof brake blocks and wheel guards, very special wagon for carrying ACRYLONITRILE for Asahi Ltd, Kilalla, Co Mayo.
An MX, PH, PY etc etc are all four wheelers, long gone, it's all bogies now, if I got a euro for everytime I took a photo of these trains, I'd be one millionaire gricer, the PY the 4wheel Asahi wagon, probably the nicest of the 4wheel wagons, this year is the 20th anniversary of the closure of Asahi.
Regards
h.gricer

GM228

h.gricer wrote: »

LP holds a 40ft container which a very few nowadays, but they are good enough for tank traffic, LK holds 5 cages of kegs, LX holds 6 cages of kegs, modified LX holds 45ft container, now I hanker for the old days of the LY wagon, an LY was fitted with spark proof brake blocks and wheel guards, very special wagon for carrying ACRYLONITRILE for Asahi Ltd, Kilalla, Co Mayo.
An MX, PH, MY etc etc are all four wheelers, long gone, it's all bogies now, if I got a euro for everytime I took a photo of these trains, I'd be one millionaire gricer, the MY the 4wheel Asahi wagon, probably the nicest of the 4wheel wagons, this year is the 20th anniversary of the closure of Asahi.
Regards
h.gricer

The LY code was not specifically for the Acrylonitrile traffic, but rather the designation given to the first 98 42ft wagons to distinguish those delivered with the ESC Ride Control bogies because they had a lower payload of 41t compared to 48t of the later LP wagons.

But yes the LY fleet was fitted with spark proof blocks etc when they replaced the silver 4 wheelers.

Del.Monte

Isambard wrote: »

yes latterly that was the case but I think I recall an earlier layout, I certainly recall seeing one of the diesels and that wouldn't have been the other side of the road surely.

David Parks has posted pics on the net of a yard being demolished by GSRPS....I always assumed it was the yard of my memories. (I can't find them with a search so far)

Is the picture that you're looking for?



The steam crane is working in the exchange sidings which are still there - parallel to the Mallow/Tralee line.

Isambard

thanks, I'm wrong so.

It was only a fleeting memory, one of those I meant to go back and revisit but never did. I thought there was sidings the other side of the road too, which area later were bulldozed for a lorry park.

h.gricer

GM228 wrote: »

The LY code was not specifically for the Acrylonitrile traffic, but rather the designation given to the first 98 42ft wagons to distinguish those delivered with the ESC Ride Control bogies because they had a lower payload of 41t compared to 48t of the later LP wagons.

Many thanks for that clarification GM228.
4 wheelers PY = spark-proof, PT = 20ft capable of carrying 2*10fts, PH = a 20ft capable of carrying 1* 20ft, timber PH was the 20ft pulpwood wagon, MX 20ft keg wagon, the 20.35 North Wall to North Esk liner always had a great selection of 4 wheel wagons, you'd hear it before you'd see it on the jointed track at Cabra, ''clickety clack, clickety clack'' lol
Regards
hg

ClovenHoof

Del.Monte wrote: »

Is the picture that you're looking for?



The steam crane is working in the exchange sidings which are still there - parallel to the Mallow/Tralee line.

Is that a small blue locomotive in the distance?

Del.Monte

No, it's a plastic water barrel for the steam crane on the side of a Ruston.

ClovenHoof

Thanks, what is a Ruston? Also what year is the photo please?

Del.Monte

ClovenHoof wrote: »

Thanks, what is a Ruston? Also what year is the photo please?

A Ruston diesel locomotive - all four CSE factories had a couple to replace their steam locomotives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruston_(engine_builder)

If memory serves the beet siding photo dates from 1988.

Del.Monte

Here's the two Mallow ones at the entrance to the factory in 1988.



Here's one of the Mallow ones lying at Fenit a couple of years after the Mallow photo.



and here's the same Ruston 'cunningly' disguised as a steam loco at Clonakilty Model Railway Village.

oppenheimer1

h.gricer wrote: »

No probably not, it's not a question of ''IF'' production starts again, it's a question of ''WHEN'' sugarbeet will be back in business again in Ireland sooner or later, we have the ideal climate etc, but it definitely won't be on the railway and why would it be.
When production starts again in the future, starting from scratch, the new facility will probably be built close to the growers, in line with keeping costs down, the growers instead of queuing up at a railway station like Wellingtonbridge and taking the beet long distance to a factory in Mallow, they'll be queuing up at a local facility and eliminating long distance transport costs from their budget, makes more economic sense.

Sugar beet is gone and won't be coming back save for a major war or other catastrophe. Sugar production in Ireland was subsidised to the tune of 50% of the value of the crop. It would have been cheaper to just give the farmers the money and not bother with the beets at all.

Losty Dublin

Del.Monte wrote: »

A Ruston diesel locomotive - all four CSE factories had a couple to replace their steam locomotives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruston_(engine_builder)

If memory serves the beet siding photo dates from 1988.

Was the second Mallow Ruston the one that ended up in Belturbet for their failed preservation project?

Del.Monte

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Was the second Mallow Ruston the one that ended up in Belturbet for their failed preservation project?

No, the second Mallow one ended up with the Halfway House Vintage Club dump/depot at the Ramble Inn, Ballinahassig. Although I could be wrong and it could be the good one from Thurles.



As far as I can remember, the one at Belturbet is the good Ruston loco from Thurles CSE, but I haven't been to view it in its current location. I didn't hear about Belturbet failing??

Isambard

Belturbet hasn't failed but it isn't exactly thriving either. It's a very local affair. At least the loco is under cover.

The loco at Halfway works (or at least it did a couple of years ago) and has a short length of line.

Del.Monte

Here's a pic from Ciaran Cooney's Eiretrains site http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/Railway%20Stations%20B/Belturbet/IrishRailwayStations.html which confirms that the Belturbet loco is the second of the Mallow CSE locos and therefore the Ramble Inn one is the ex.Thurles loco.

Isambard

it's not the Ramble Inn...it's the Halfway Inn....different Inns with a railway theme

Del.Monte

Isambard wrote: »

it's not the Ramble Inn...it's the Halfway Inn....different Inns with a railway theme

I'll bow to your superior local knowledge, but whatever it's currently called this is the location: http://ie.geoview.info/the_ramble_inn,839552942n

Isambard

sorry I had the wrong end of the stick there

whisky_galore

Isambard wrote: »

it's not the Ramble Inn...it's the Halfway Inn....different Inns with a railway theme

The one that also contains a CIE double decker.... slowly rotting away.

Isambard

that's the one, there is I believe another pub in that general area that has a Railway display (relics and photos) but I have not ever bothered to visit and now can't remember where it is....Waterfall/Ballinhassig area I thought

roundymac

Isambard wrote: »

it's not the Ramble Inn...it's the Halfway Inn....different Inns with a railway theme

It's the Ramble Inn,,, at the Halfway village. Check it in Google maps if you don't believe me.

Isambard

Read the thread....

Board Walker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/102529641#Comment_102529641

Water tower was scrapped but the turn table is still there. Behind a big pile of stone just after you go in the gate.

have you any more photos of the yard?

Board Walker

Well, after seeing a post last night on FB i had a look over inside the BFS this morning. The yard is gone! Not only the wagons but the rails too. Looks like someone went through in a few D10 dozers. they only left the sleepers. Absolutely nothing left.

Board Walker

Drone Hawk has updated the previous video showing the before and after.

Turntable remains but shrouded in trees.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBvO6XoSo7o&ab_channel=DroneHawk