European Railroad Discussion > Ireland - Counties Cork & Kerry

Back from a delightful eight days in the wilds of Counties Cork and Kerry, my first proper visit to SW Ireland for 31 years (as we shall see). As you may have guessed by my posts on the Schull & Skibbereen and the Tralee & Dingle actual operating railways are rather thin on the ground. But I did manage on a few days to encounter moving trains of Iarnrod Eireann, so here goes.

Weather over the 8 days was very Irish - rain, sun and gale force winds, often concurrently :-)

1: On Albert Quay in Cork City, facing the River Lee is this handsome Victorian stone building which was, until the last day of March 1961, the station of the former Cork, Bandon & South Coast Railway. The CB&SCR ran a 90 mile single track broad gauge network which connected Cork City with Bandon, Dunmanway, Drimoleague and Bantry, throwing off branches to Kinsale, Clonakilty and Skibbereen. Latterly this little self contained network was dieselised - AEC railcars for passengers, C class Metro Vick Bo-Bo diesel for freight. Unfortunately that failed to save it and the whole West Cork railway disappeared on the 31st March 1961 during CIE's relentless closure programme. Albert Quay survived as a freight depot until the mid 1970s, the connection with the main station at Glanmire Road (today Cork Kent) was via street running over the bridge across the Lee. Even today the post box in the front of the building is labelled Bandon Railway.

2: After a day in Cork City, Ireland's second city (pop 120,000, well worth visiting), we headed west along the Wild Atlantic Way. On leaving Cork you pass underneath the Chetwynd Viaduct, another remnant of the CB&SCR which crosses the N71 road.

3: A few days later, whilst making our way back towards Cork, via Cape Clear Island and Kinsale, we stopped momentarily in Drimoleague, an important junction on the CB&SC between the lines to Bantry and Skibbereen & Baltimore. The old station building is still standing and the platforms are still visible as part of a car park



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/16 08:27 by 86235.

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And now for some moving trains - 22000 Mitsui/Tokyu/Hyundai-Rotem railcars.

Note; in Ireland they are always railcars NEVER DMUs

4: The 13:05 Tralee to Mallow approaching Farranfore, the former junction for the Valentia Harbour branch, the most westerly railway in Europe.
5: Just east of Killarney the 11:05 Tralee to Mallow
6: Taken yesterday, another 22000 on the 15:20 Cork to Dublin approaching Blarney on the climb out of Cork

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And finally, two pictures from the overbridge at Blarney taken almost precisely 31 years apart.

7: Back in 1985 an EMD 141 class descending past the closed Blarney station on a Tralee to Cork service. It consists of five cars, an ex-British Rail full brake (BG) which CIE transformed into a heating/generator car, three Park Royal coaches - built by Park Royal in London but shipped in kit form to Dublin to be assembled at Inchicore works. The fifth car is of post war CIE origin, based on pre-war Great Southern Railways designs.

8: Yesterday's 13:00 Dublin to Cork (arr 15:35) behind 201 class 229 and consisting of a CAF built Mk 4 push pull set.

Since the earlier picture the old station house has received a new coat of paint (probably more than once, given the weather in Cork), the old platform has disappeared as have the telegraph poles and, miracle or miracles, much of the undergrowth. On the right, behind the palisade fencing, is a GSM-R mast (railway cellphone network), the track has been renewed but the old down platform shelter is still lurking in the bushes.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/16 08:29 by 86235.

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Great stuff!  Hope to see Ireland with my wife in the next couple of years.  Now I know where I might see some trains.

If you arrive in Cobh on a cruise ship, you can catch a train to Cork right next to the dock. These photos are from July 2012.

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Thanks for posting the interesting photos from Ireland.  Not many photos from this country are posted on TO.
Especially like the historic passenger train photo from 1985.
ALLEN 

krm152 Wrote:
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> Thanks for posting the interesting photos from
> Ireland.  Not many photos from this country are
> posted on TO.
> 
> ALLEN 

I posted some back in Jan / Feb 2015 including a link to my scans from 1975 to 2005

https://nick86235.smugmug.com/Trains/2015/Ireland-1975-2007/

 

krm152 Wrote:
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> Thanks for posting the interesting photos from
> Ireland.  Not many photos from this country are
> posted on TO.
> Especially like the historic passenger train photo
> from 1985.
> ALLEN 

I've posted several photos from my three trips over there:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?17,3804240,3804240#msg-3804240
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?17,3353431,3353431#msg-3353431
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?17,3348338,3348499#msg-3348499
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?17,1602944,1602944#msg-1602944

86235 - great job on covering the Irish rail scene. I've really enjoyed your posts over the last couple of weeks. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/16 19:44 by kevink.

kevink Wrote: 
> I've really enjoyed your posts over the
> last couple of weeks. 

Thanks, hope to go back soon.

Are there any operable steam locomotives in Ireland?

Buttons2013 Wrote:
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> Are there any operable steam locomotives in
> Ireland?

http://steamtrainsireland.com/

And then there's this contraption in Listowel, Co. Kerry:

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kevink Wrote:
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> Buttons2013 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Are there any operable steam locomotives in
> > Ireland?
>
> http://steamtrainsireland.com/
>
> And then there's this contraption in Listowel, Co.
> Kerry:

A Fell railway locomotive.

It's the replica Lartigue monorail.

Buttons2013 Wrote:
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> Are there any operable steam locomotives in
> Ireland?

Yes, the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland has a collection of mainline steam, of which two or three are serviceable at any one time.

Today the operating locos are
Great Northern Railway of Ireland (GNRI) 3 cylinder compound 4-4-0 no.85 Merlin
Dublin and South Eastern 2-6-0 no.461 in CIE livery
London Midland and Scottish Railway (Northern Counties Committee) 2-6-4T no.4.

Merlin is due to haul a Steam Enterprise from Belfast to Dublin and back on September 25th.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/16 07:35 by 86235.

86235 Wrote:
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> It's the replica Lartigue monorail.

More information on this replica at: http://lartiguemonorail.com/
Well worth a visit if you find yourself in the northwest corner of County Kerry. The line orginially ran from Listowel out to Ballybunion on the coast. My late father-in-law grew up about 10 miles from Listowel and he remembered seeing part of the abandoned line when the familty went into Listowel.