Alexandria Tramway

ClovenHoof

Has to be the most interesting rail line in the country. I would love to know more about its history and who and what the mass of sidings off it once and still serve. The part this section of track has played in the history of Irish Railways must be immense. Yet it is non issue, even for enthusiasts.

Far more interesting than the WRC, yet virtually ignored. I have never seen photos of a train on it from before the 90's. Hardly any info on it from what I can see.

h.gricer

Its a great piece of infrastructure, I wouldn't agree with you that its a non issue for rail enthusiasts, it's a hiden gem that stayed below the radar.
It had a total of 16 private sidings off the tramway, only 2 remain in use Tara mines and the Central container depot, just off the top of my head, Gouldings fertiliser, CDL coal, Tara mines* Central container depot* R H Hall grain store, CIE fuel depot, Esso oil, Shell Tar, B+I (Irish Ferries) Asahi Chemicals, Coastal Containers.
It's gone thru different stages over the years according to needs, Coastal containers opened a siding as late as 1998, but closed in 2001 because Coastal moved to a bigger site south of the Liffey, the siding was made redundant.
Asahi Chemicals closed in November 1997, but the site is now occupied by Eucon (Irish ferries), the tramway (single line) runs thru it down to Alexandra road extension to the closed Coastal, it had a lease of life when the ICRs and MK4s where delivered a few years back, Dublin Port has always preserved the tramway, should such time it can be brought into use as a situation requires, such as the delivery of new rolling stock.
regards
h.gricer

ClovenHoof

Thank you sir. Would love to see photos of it before the 1980's if anyone has any.

h.gricer

ClovenHoof wrote: »

Thank you sir. Would love to see photos of it before the 1980's if anyone has any.

It requires a lot of work scanning old photos, but every class of locomotive has worked the tramway 121s 141s A and C clsses, the curves into the fuel and tar depots where very sharp, the Dublin Port tractor was used for them, loose shunting and loose coupling of tank wagons by the port tractor is now banned on health & safety grounds, fuel oil by rail finished in August 2006, them days are long gone.
Regards
hg

ClovenHoof

Was the tramway open during steam train times and did a passenger service ever work on it?

Eiretrains

This little thing also worked the Shell oil sidings until the early 1970s, now based at Whitehead.
http://www.steamtrainsireland.com/locomotives/loco23.htm

With sidings visible on the roadway in OS Map of c1900s one can assume that the line was steam-worked. Before the road was relayed in the mid-late 2000s, I remember there was a bunch of disconnected sidings in cobble at the tramway entrance, all of which have now been covered over.
Photo of the coal siding opposite the present Tara/IWT sidings.

At the Odlums building, part of the sidings there are covered over by the building itself, was this R&H Hall originally?

h.gricer

Eiretrains wrote: »

At the Odlums building, part of the sidings there are covered over by the building itself, was this R&H Hall originally?

Not sure, the Odlums siding is just beyond the new container siding now in use, the R H Hall siding is beyond Odlums, the R H Hall store was destroyed by a fire a few years ago, the new store is now built on the siding, but the siding is still intact.
Regards
hg

MGWR

h.gricer wrote: »

It requires a lot of work scanning old photos, but every class of locomotive has worked the tramway 121s 141s A and C clsses, the curves into the fuel and tar depots where very sharp, the Dublin Port tractor was used for them, loose shunting and loose coupling of tank wagons by the port tractor is now banned on health & safety grounds, fuel oil by rail finished in August 2006, them days are long gone.
Regards
hg

There'll be more people out of work on "health and safety grounds" than anything. How many people were injured and/or killed by operating the Dublin Port tractor?

And funny how they want to use more fuel per mile by transporting fuel oil by road. That's what you get when the state runs what private enterprise ought to run.

corktina

MGWR wrote: »

There'll be more people out of work on "health and safety grounds" than anything. How many people were injured and/or killed by operating the Dublin Port tractor?

And funny how they want to use more fuel per mile by transporting fuel oil by road. That's what you get when the state runs what private enterprise ought to run.

Fuel isn't the only cost involved and at least a road tanker takes the required quantity direct to where it is needed.

end of the road

so bump up taxes on the road hauliers and see what that does, taking as many trucks off the road should be a priority, requires both the will of IR and the government, neither of who have any vision

Banjoxed

end of the road wrote: »

so bump up taxes on the road hauliers and see what that does, taking as many trucks off the road should be a priority, requires both the will of IR and the government, neither of who have any vision

I can quite easily imagine the road hauliers lobbying like stink to prevent that, if they aren't doing that already

end of the road

Banjoxed wrote: »

I can quite easily imagine the road hauliers lobbying like stink to prevent that, if they aren't doing that already

even more reason to do it, the road hauliers will be able to do nothing about it with the right man in charge

metrovick001

Fuel tankers still supply the main depots (ya dont bring an artic to fill 300 gallons of home heating oil).
The Esso depots at Claremorris, Sligo & Athenry are all located adjadent to the railway.

I suspect the large amount of H&S surrounding oil transport is keeping the railway out of the market despite the poor safety record of road haulage (less lorries = less road traffic accidents involving lorries).

corktina wrote: »

Fuel isn't the only cost involved and at least a road tanker takes the required quantity direct to where it is needed.

corktina

metrovick001 wrote: »

Fuel tankers still supply the main depots (ya dont bring an artic to fill 300 gallons of home heating oil).
The Esso depots at Claremorris, Sligo & Athenry are all located adjadent to the railway.

I suspect the large amount of H&S surrounding oil transport is keeping the railway out of the market despite the poor safety record of road haulage (less lorries = less road traffic accidents involving lorries).

Poor safety record? Link please.
You wont have less lorries, you'll have more with rail transport, operating into and out of the railheads at either end, most of which are in built up areas

What is the throughput of these depots? How much storage do they have? They would need to be able to use and store a bulk trainload to make economic sense. My local oil depot has a very efficient road link from Whitegate, which brings in an artic load which is then transhipped into the smaller local distribution fleet. I don't think they have any storage

markpb

metrovick001 wrote: »

less lorries = less road traffic accidents involving lorries

corktina wrote: »

You wont have less lorries, you'll have more with rail transport, operating into and out of the railheads at either end, most of which are in built up areas

You've made that claim more than once corktina but I'm not sure its true. There may be more movements (or at least the same number of movements) but the total distance traveled by lorry would be a lot less. Since the tramway runs through the port, there should be very limited truck movement in Dublin and none or almost none in built-up areas since it should be contained (no pun intended) to the port.

corktina

yes but the bit you would cut out would be the safest ,least jam causing section and you'd increase the urban mileage.

CaptainSkidmark

What exactly is being served now down here? At a look on google maps and street view it looks like nothing is being served any more?

LXFlyer

Tara Mines terminal and the common user container terminal.

The latter is served by a spur adjacent to the Tara Mines terminal.

Our friend, the Wanderer, took some pictures down there when the deliveries of the second tranche of 22K sets were being delivered, starting here:
http://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/Officialevents/2012/IEs-new-22000-Class-DMUs-2011/i-x5FBM4C