I found this video on YouTube which explains the track layout at Connolly Station in Dublin very well whilst covering the issue of why the station is a bottleneck.
Categories
Categories
Fermanagh Millstones
The BBC has an interesting article about the quarrying of millstones in Fermanagh (and across the border in Cavan).
Categories
Midleton – Youghal Greenway
Having gotten the greenway bug, I cycled another one of Ireland’s greenways today (and yesterday), being the recently fully opened greenway from Midleton to Youghal in Co. Cork. Sections of this have been opened already, with the final section opened just before Christmas.
I headed down to Cork yesterday on the train and spent the day taking fresh photographs of the stations on the Cobh branch. This day finished with me cycling from Midleton to Youghal non stop and overnighting in Youghal.
Today saw me cycle back from Youghal to Midleton, taking photos en route. I was disappointed to see that at one former level crossing, the greenway deviates away from the railway route due to possession of the trackbed by a third party.
Given that the line has not been abandoned and technically, Irish Rail could run a train through this property, I am at a loss to understand why the greenway had to be deviated. After all, if Cork County Council could buy land to the north of the railway for an alternative route, they could have relocated this business to this alternative field.
I hope to have the photos taken on both days online by New Years Day.
Categories
RM Transit – Dublin video
There are a few significant Youtube content creators in the railway sphere, providing material/commentary on railways locally/globally. One of these is Reece Martin in Canada, whose channel RM Transit is well worth a visit.
RM Transit has just dropped a video about the railway/tramway network of Dublin (see below). I have watched and left a comment on the video with clarifications/background info.
Whilst I don’t think my comment will be deleted, I repeat the comment here to provide additional context to what was published:
A few comments on this. Generally OK, but I would dispute that LUAS is the backbone of the transit system – that would be the heavy rail (both DART and diesel services).
The LUAS spur to Connolly Station was the original terminus of the line, which ran initially from Connolly to Tallaght. There was a subsequent extension of the line to The Point, which left Connolly on a spur.
The LUAS Green line was originally planned to be in a cut and cover tunnel through the city centre but business interests objected and the Irish Government caved into their objections. Co-incidentally, the politician who did this (Mary O’Rourke) passed away recently.
Originally, the heavy rail Harcourt Street line did connect to the coastal line to Bray, however, south of Cherrywood, the local authority has permitted housing to be built on the original alignment, cutting off the possibility of a return.
The genesis of DART goes back to the combination of north/south commuter services post 1958 when trains started to run from Howth to Bray. This became the original electrified section.
The reason for the northside DART stations being in a cutting with ramp access is twofold. The Dublin & Drogheda Railway (original company) built their line without level crossings (hence the cutting) and they had a pathological also hatred of footbridges. Most stations on their line used an adjacent road bridge to connect the platforms rather than provide an internal footbridge.
The conversion of the Green Line LUAS south of Charlemont to Metro is required due to capacity constraints, however, when the LUAS was being planned, the designers stupidly removed the 1850s grade separated embankment south of Ranelagh, which introduced a level crossing at the modern day Beechwood station. Recent proposals to close off this crossing were dropped due to voter objections.
I am interested in your source for the planned 4th through track at Connolly Station, not being sure where the space for this is (a look at Googlemaps would confirm this). The main problem with the line from Connolly Station to Pearse Station is that it was built on the wrong side of Connolly Station – 19th Century laissez faire British politics. That Pearse Station faces south and not north is another problem.
Categories
Dublin & Kingstown Railway anniversary
Happy 190th birthday to the Dublin & Kingstown Railway, opened on 17th December 1834, between Westland Row (now Pearse) Station and Dunleary (a temporary station adjacent to the West Pier of Dun Laoghaire Harbour).
Categories
Factory Girls Artwork
The issue of some sort of commemorative artwork for the (female) shirt factory workers in Derry has been rumbling away in the background for years – I do recall commenting on this subject on previous iterations of this blog.
It looks like it is now almost across the finish line with the BBC reporting that the sculpture is undergoing erection in Harbour Square in Derry, with a public unveiling to take place in the New Year.
Long before greenways were a thing, the former Belfast & County Down Railway trackbed from Belfast to Comber was one. Despite being one of the oldest such greenways, it is only today that I managed to travel it.
I took myself and my bike up to Belfast on the train yesterday, overnighted in Belfast and this morning, cycled from Belfast to Comber and back on the greenway. This is located primarily on the route of the former railway, with some deviations where housing has been built on the line.
I was surprised by the presence of mini hills on the route as generally, railways rose and fell at minimal gradients, however, my legs got a workout this morning due to this (I don’t have an electric bike).
All photos taken at the station sites are now online, however, there is not a lot to show as most stations have disappeared, with little trace remaining.
Categories
Sunbeam Knitwear Company, Cork
I came on this excellent article by Kieran McCarthy about the Sunbeam Knitwear Company in Cork.
Categories
Enfield – the wrong layout
I am often asked by friends and acquaintances why I dislike Irish Rail despite being a railway enthusiast. The answer is that when faced with the possibility of doing things correctly, they will screw it up and deliver a sub-standard outcome.
If Irish Rail was a privately financed entity operating in a competitive environment, that would be on its owners. However, Irish Rail is a loss making State owned monopoly. As such, its failures effect society as a whole.
Take Enfield, Co. Meath as an example. Historically Enfield had two platforms – in fact, it still has, but only one is in use. As a practice, this actually makes sense, especially in the era of disability access, having only one platform makes it easier to provide services and eliminates the need for lifts with their associated maintenance.
The problem at Enfield arises in that when the line was resignalled for mini CTC, the opportunity to change the layout to relocate the passing loop to east or west of the station was not taken. As a result, the passing loop here is effectively useless (Enfield is not the only such station – Irish Rail have specialised in replicating this situation nationwide).
Whilst this is not evident most of the time due to the paucity of trains on the Sligo Line, there is a morning service from Dublin to Sligo that cannot serve Enfield due to the present track layout. This train uses the loop on the Up side, running alongside the disused platform (in grey), whilst the Dublin bound train it is passing uses the mainline and serves the platform in use (in purple).
A better layout would have been to place the passing loop on the Dublin side of the station.
Such a layout would allow a train heading to Dublin to serve the platform whilst the train to Sligo sat in the loop (in brown). After the former had passed the Enfield end of the loop fully, the Sligo bound train could emerge from the loop and serve the station before continuing west.
The other thing I don’t like about Irish Rail is no forward planning nor obvious co-operation with local authority planners to co-ordinate housing developments alongside their railway (unless CIE owns the land, in which case CIE’s status as a property development company with the inconvenience of a public transport network attached comes into play). This would also require some future proofing when it came to railway layouts. In this regard, Enfield would have a future as a two platform station, but with the currently disused Up platform re-purposed as a turnback siding.
In this example, in addition to the passing loop on the Dublin side of the station, a turnback siding would continue on on the site of the existing loop but terminating on the Dublin side of the road overbridge at the Sligo end of the station. This would allow trains to run from Dublin to Enfield and return and also not block the running line for Sligo trains.
Categories
Actions have consequences
Just saying.