{"id":1671,"date":"2025-02-14T20:43:20","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T20:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/?p=1671"},"modified":"2025-02-14T20:56:42","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T20:56:42","slug":"westport-train-collision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/index.php\/2025\/02\/14\/westport-train-collision\/","title":{"rendered":"Westport train collision"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I don&#8217;t normally comment on trains, not even railway accidents (although technically they do constitute railway history). However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thejournal.ie\/investigation-train-collision-westport-6622772-Feb2025\/\">this news item<\/a> got me thinking about Westport and suggestions for a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thejournal.ie\/investigation-train-collision-westport-6622772-Feb2025\/\">this<\/a> would happen eventually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"501\" src=\"http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Westport-1024x501.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1673\" srcset=\"http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Westport-1024x501.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Westport-300x147.jpg 300w, http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Westport-768x376.jpg 768w, http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Westport-1536x751.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Westport-2048x1002.jpg 2048w, http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Westport-1200x587.jpg 1200w, http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Westport-1980x968.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Map Copyright OpenStreetMap &#8211; https:\/\/www.openstreetmap.org\/copyright<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don&#8217;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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1671"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1678,"href":"http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions\/1678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/industrialheritageireland.info\/Blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}