Author: ewan.duffy

Categories
General Greenways

Westport train collision

I don’t normally comment on trains, not even railway accidents (although technically they do constitute railway history). However, this news item got me thinking about Westport and suggestions for a change.

TLDR, there is actually freight handled at Westport station, specifically timber trains. These are loaded in the old goods area. Not a large area to start with, it was inevitable that something like this would happen eventually.

Map Copyright OpenStreetMap – https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright

Looking at the map above, the greyed out section of track is that in use for train stabling/timber loading. If this activity were to move to a dedicated loading site east of the station within Westport station limits (track circuits/axle counters could protect trains), this would free up the area west of the passenger station, allowing for the connection of the Westport to Achill greenway to that running to Westport Quay, improving the tourist amenity of Westport and segregating passenger and freight trains. I have added a line in blue to the map above, showing how the 2 greenways could be connected.

Categories
Events

Mine Lands: Glendalough and Glendasan

Mine Lands: Glendalough and Glendasan is the title of an art exhibition taking place in the Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray, Co. Wicklow, which will open on 24th February 2025 and run until 10th May 2025.

From the Irish Independent, the exhibition constitutes:

“the focus of new work by Dublin-based painter Judy Carroll Deeley, who explores the former lead and silver mining sites at the Glendalough and also at the Glendasan valleys in Co Wicklow”

There is a reception with opening address on Saturday 22nd February at 14:00 and all are welcome.

Categories
History

Atmospheric Railway

The first commercial use of the Samuda and Clegg patent for the propulsion of trains by atmospheric means was on the railway line between Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) and Dalkey, opening in 1844 and closing 10 years later.

The great Isambard Kingdom Brunel also tried to use the system on the South Devon Railway in England, where it was a complete failure. This is alleged to be due to the use of insufficiently powered engines in the lineside engine houses used to create the necessary vacuum in the centre pipe, which in turn moved a piston along said pipe to propel the train.

Little remains of the Atmospheric Railway in Dublin today – the station site (still used by Irish Rail as a Permanent Way dumping ground) and the final road overbridge at Dalkey, which has been abandoned for railway purposes are the only significant traces, the cutting in which the line ran having been rebuilt for conventional railway purposes.

At the Didcot Railway Museum in England, they have a section of the pipe used on the South Devon Railway (along with replica broad gauge track).

I availed of the February Bank Holiday to travel to Didcot and took the photograph below of said pipe.

Atmospheric Railway pipe Didcot Railway Museum
Atmospheric Railway pipe, Didcot Railway Museum. Copyright Ewan Duffy 2025
Categories
General

Midleton, Co. Cork

I have finally gotten around to starting the processing of the images I took of the Youghal Greenway just after Christmas (this took a while as multiple culverts/accommodation bridges etc had to be added to my Access database as a location and geo-referenced).

Looking at the aerial views of Midleton station online, CIE have kept a large amount of land east of Midleton station, which requires the greenway to Youghal to be diverted around this site before joining the original trackbed near to Broomfield Bridge.

Is this the site of the future CART depot (Cork Area Rapid Transit)?

Categories
IH News 2025

Elphin Windmill damaged

Storm Éowyn has taken a toll on the Elphin Windmill in Co. Roscommon.

The Roscommon Herald reports that the storm has ripped the wooden sails off the windmill.

Categories
IH News 2025

Guinness alone again?

No, not an evening in a rural Irish pub (I am teetotal).

RTE (and others) are reporting that Diageo, owners of the Guinness brand since 1997, are exploring a spin off of the iconic Irish brand as a stand alone entity.

Categories
General

Belfast Grand Central Station

Another weekend, another trip to Northern Ireland. Due to the realpolitik of driving a Republic of Ireland registered car, I have tended to prioritise taking photographs of historic station locations in the Republic of Ireland over Northern Ireland.

This weekend, through combination of bike and train, I successfully visited many former station sites on the railway between Belfast and Larne Harbour.

However, this post is about Grand Central Station. I had the need to use the facilities in the station and, notwithstanding that the station is only open for 4 months, one of the 5 stalls in the gents was out of order, the lock on the door of another stall was missing and the stall I used, the hi tech “button” to flush the toilet did nothing (i.e. failed to flush).

Therein lies the problem with State investment. Governments will provide a lot of money for one off investment in capital projects, but not a red cent towards ongoing maintenance costs. Having said that, I’d have expected the facilities in Grand Central to still be operational 4 months after opening.

Categories
IH News 2025

Harland & Wolff in administration

After a false start in October 2024, when the parent company of H&W was placed into administration (but not the Belfast shipyard nor its 3 sister companies), the BBC reports that H&W has now been placed into administration as part of the process of the companies being taken over.

Categories
General

Shankill DART Station

I traveled southside for the first time in a long while today to photograph the stations from Glenageary to Bray.

At Shankill, I noted that Irish Rail has taken de-staffing to the extreme by walling up the ticket office, leaving a building with no ability to staff it (reminder to IR – the present byelaws don’t reference TVMs – if no staffed ticket office, technically, there is no need for a ticket).

Anyway, the thought struck me, as there is separate access to both platforms not going through what was the ticket office, why maintain this building?

Notwithstanding that it was built in the 1970s as a ticket office, it would surely be within the capability of CIE, the property development company, to repurpose this as a 1 bed house and sell it. Bijou residence, adjacent to DART station, council owned carpark adjacent where a resident’s permit could be arranged. They could even throw in a villa ticket* to smooth the sale.

* Villa tickets were a 19th century idea of the (private sector) railway companies. They were typically granted by the railway company to anyone building a new house in designated areas near to the companies’ stations for a period of up to 10 years, the idea being that this would encourage such development and increase the usage of the railway line in the process.

Categories
IH News 2025

Portlaw Mural

The Waterford News website reports on the creation of a mural in Portlaw, Co. Waterford, which celebrates the industrial heritage past of the town, which was a mill town associated with the cotton mill of the Malcomson family.