https://www.mining.com/boliden-to-restart-europes-largest-zinc-mine/
Have they restarted production yet? The above suggests not until Q4.
They were laid up North Wall for a good while, but been moved to Limerick about a month ago.
They were transporting it by road for a long time? Fleming mine transport? Or was that a different mine?
never heard of them before, and a quick google only throws up an old examiner article from one of their drivers passing in an accident while hauling a load from Lisheen to Cork, so most likely they did the exports from Lisheen
You're right. it was Lisheen. They had some amount of MAN trucks on the road hauling it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisheen_Mine
Some good news here with a further expansion of the freight operation at Ballina.
Few pictures of it:
Is there ever any that cement will come back to rail…? It’s very damaging and energy consuming to transport it by road so theoretically it would make sense. The loss of infrastructure is probably too great though to invest in new wagons, now silos, new loading facilities etc…
its probably unlikely unfortunately, i certainly can't see it happening all be it i agree with you.
the infrastructure side of things could actually be more doable then we would think, sending it in bags might require even less infrastructure again.
I have a few questions.
The press release says it's a 12-wagon train, that takes 24 trucks off the road, yet the photo shows one 40ft container per wagon?
IE owns the loco and wagons, yet IWT provides the service.
So is this a chartered train? By that I mean IWT pay IE a fixed prices, and IWT take the revenue risk?
12 laden and 12 empty return
Yes
Video of the refurbed pocket wagons on linkedin.
In Germany they're dropping truck trailers into these.
Could be an option for Rosslare, seeing as CIE owns the port.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kasia-steyn-9a704a63_for-the-rail-freight-lovers-and-not-only-ugcPost-7242782703912198144-uG5I?utm_source=combined_share_message&utm_medium=android_app
Is there enough clearance in the tunnels at Bray head?
no as far as i know.
So not one train taking 24 trucks off the road then, but two trains.
Acedotely the 71 series is well capable of hauling significantly more than 12 wagons.
Containers, are probably the lightest. Ore, Grain and Liquids are a lot heavier. Here's a video of a Balkan equivalent hauling 15 oil cars.
I'd guess it's well capable of 24+ container wagons, it's just the Infra isn't there to support it.
Out of curiosity, what is the maximum number of wagons that can be hauled in Ireland? I've seen videos on YouTube of trains with dozens of wagons in US and Australia. They look awesome.
The maximum train size permitted on the network is 42 TEU's between Dublin and Cork and 36 TEU's on all other routes. (According to the irishrail website) So 42 / 2 for 40 foot container is 21, so 21 wagons I'm guessing.
The point is not what that loco can pull. It was that the trucks were assumed to be going back empty, but that assumption was not applied to the train.
Given that there is no freight between Dublin and Cork at present, 18 wagons carrying 36 TEUs is the de facto maximum. I would imagine that this constraint is set by the length of passing loops on single lines (Ballina - Portarlington and Kildare-Waterford).
The so-called pocket wagons are much longer so train length is a max of 12 wagons. Somewhat similarly for timber wagons , which are about 60 feet long and limited to 12 per train.
Interesting thought experiment.
The amount of freight is going to increase, but is it better to upgrade the infra to run longer trains using the locos we have or is it better to buy more locos and continue doing what we're doing.
All that being said we're going to need more wagons regardless.
In an ideal world they'd come back loaded (even if it is with empty containers). There aren't many HGV's that come back empty (I don't think anyway)
I do wonder how much thought was given to a semi-new-build routing for the Foynes line (from Mungret to Askeaton). This would have rehabilitated the spur in that direction rather than through Patrickswell and Adare, and lowered the barrier to restarting cement flows from Irish Cement Mungret.
I don’t want to derail discussion on freight generally (there is a Foynes line thread after all) but at the very least the trackage between Limerick Yard and the junction just south of the ring road will have been reinstated leaving just the spur past the Crescent Shopping Centre to be done. However, the level junctions near the ring road junction with the N69 are likely substantially busier than the old days and there may be resistance to reinstating them as was.
You could spin them down at night I'd imagine.
Gouldings told to use rail freight if they want to move to Marino Point, in the absence of funding for a major road upgrade
https://www.pleanala.ie/anbordpleanala/media/abp/cases/orders/312/d312981.pdf?r=066476875090
it is considered that the proposed development at Marino Point provides an opportunity to make-use of the rail resource at Marino Point for rail based freight distribution of product therefore reducing the reliance on road-based transport in favour of more sustainable transport infrastructure
Are there enough enough rail yards / depots around the country to efficiently distribute fertiliser to ?
Fertilizer is kind of seasonal , most of its going to be distributed in big bags or pallets - so no need for actual loose bulk handling at the remote yards ..
Been canned as there is an issue with the quayside development in Cork city centre being all stopped indefintely due to planning. One site was dependent on the other or something like that.
The development of Kennedy quay can't go ahead till Gouldings fertilizer moves from Kennedy quay to Marino point ,
But that planning permission has been denied
Port of Cork was relying on the potential to use rail to get them permission, but the Bord want actual rail transport,
Quick site visit to check the progress on the new IWT terminal in North Wall.
where exactly is this located? I couldn’t see anything in Google which described it in more detail.
From the photo, it's within the Irish Rail yard between Sheriff Street and East Wall Road
