Category Archives: Operations

Transport books

Posted on Monday 13 March 2017 | Leave a comment

Here is a site with links to many old books, mostly late nineteenth and early twentieth century, on several forms of transport[ation]. Not all the links are to free online copies, but it’s a useful list nonetheless.

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Posted in Ashore, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Operations, Rail, Roads, Sea, Sources, Steamers, waterways

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A train on the canal

Posted on Monday 13 March 2017 | Leave a comment

Thanks to Ted McAvoy (via Andrew Waldron) for this photo.

LM 238 crossing the Grand Canal (Ted McAvoy)

It shows a Bord na Mona ballast train crossing the Grand Canal just here. It’s on the BnM’s Derrygreenagh System and, if you follow the line northwards on the map, you’ll get to Derrygreenagh on the R400. I am told that the train was going to Ballybeg Bridge Quarry but I haven’t managed to locate that.

 

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Modern matters, Operations, Rail

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Maps

Posted on Sunday 12 March 2017 | Leave a comment

Many thanks to the learned Eoin C Bairéad for the information that the good people at logainm.ie have scanned many old maps, and other documents, and made them available here, free of charge. They include maps of counties bordering the Shannon, Murdoch Mackenzie’s 1775 chart of the Shannon Estuary (with some soundings) and Mackenzie’s Views of the West Coast of Ireland.

Note: some of the files are very large.

 

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Posted in Ashore, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Ireland, Operations, People, Safety, Sea, Shannon, shannon estuary, Waterways management

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Building Ardnacrusha

Posted on Sunday 19 February 2017 | 1 comment

I had a page with photos of the construction of Ardnacrusha in 1930; I have expanded that page to include

  • photos taken in the 1920s by Eyre Chatterton and kindly supplied by Tony and Blair Chatterton
  • links to the ESB Archive’s reports made by Siemens during construction; h/t Carthach O’Maonaigh for drawing them to my attention.

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Modern matters, Non-waterway, Operations, Shannon, Sources, waterways, Waterways management

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The Earl of Granard

Posted on Saturday 11 February 2017 | 1 comment

The Earl of Granard has, within the last ten days, placed a neat little steam-boat for pleasure on the Shannon. She is upwards of fifty tons burden, and is, we believe, the first steam-boat for pleasure ever placed on the Upper Shannon.

Longford Journal 8 October 1859 from the
British Newspaper Archive

From the BNA

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Posted in Extant waterways, Historical matters, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, People, Shannon, Sources, Steamers, Water sports activities, waterways

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First steamer across the Atlantic: new evidence

Posted on Saturday 11 February 2017 | 5 comments

According to the Irish Times of 11 February 2017

Margaret Gaffney was born on Christmas Day 1813, in Tully, Co Leitrim. Five years later, faced with extreme poverty and religious persecution, her parents and the three youngest of their six children, including Margaret, boarded a steamer bound for Boston.

Eoin Butler, the author of the article, provides no details of the vessel, but I hope he will: up to now folk have believed that an American vessel called the Savannah was the first to use steam on any part of the Atlantic crossing, and that was in 1819, the year after Margaret Gaffney’s crossing.

 

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Posted in Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Foreign parts, Historical matters, Ireland, Operations, Passenger traffic, Sea, Steamers

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The navigation of Lough Mask

Posted on Friday 10 February 2017 | Leave a comment

TO BE SOLD, the large well grown Woods standing on the following Lands, viz Tourmacady, Cappaghduff, Drimcoggy, Gortmuncullen, Deryviny, and Cullentragh, consisting principally of well grown Oak fit for any Use, and partly of Sally, Ash, Birch, and Alder, on the Banks of the Lake called Lough Mask, which is navigable to Cong, within a mile of Lough Corrib, a navigable River to Galway; said Woods are very convenient to and near several Iron Works in the County of Mayo, and as they are distant from each other they will be Sold separately, if required. Proposals for said Woods to be received by Sir Henry Lynch, Bart, at Castlecarra, or by Robert Lynch Blosse Esq in Tuam.

Pue’s Occurrences 10 July 1756 from the
British Newspaper Archive

From the BNA

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Posted in Ashore, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, Sources, waterways

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Bang

Posted on Wednesday 8 February 2017 | 3 comments

The inhabitants of this city [Dublin] were greatly alarmed yesterday evening, between the hours of four and five, by a most violent concussion of the air, which broke several panes of glass, cracked others, and shook houses to the foundation in an unusual manner, accompanied by a very loud explosion. In the country parts adjacent to the city, the fears of the people led them to imagine that there had been a shock of an earthquake — but the cause proves to have been the explosion of two boats, that were coming down the Grand Canal, freighted with gunpowder from Counsellor Caldbeck’s powder-mills at Clondalklin.

Many lives it was reported were lost; but we can assure the public, from the best authority, that no more than two men were killed, and five or six slightly wounded. The loss from the gunpowder is not estimated to be very great.

It is not as yet ascertained through what manner the fire was suffered to communicate to the powder. It was said that it was from one of the hands having dropped some blazing tobacco from a pipe which he was smoking, but for that there appears no foundation.

Dublin Evening Post 24 April 1787

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Posted in Canals, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Safety, Sources, waterways

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Another waterways mystery

Posted on Tuesday 31 January 2017 | 1 comment

According to Ruth Delany [Ruth Delany and Ian Bath Ireland’s Royal Canal 1789–2009 The Lilliput Press, Dublin 2010], the Royal Canal’s fast passenger-carrying fly-boats had neither toilets nor cooking facilities; the slower night-boats were better equipped.

So how did the fly-boat passengers relieve themselves?

Given that the boats travelled at six Irish miles per hour (about 12 km/h), any passenger who disembarked for the purpose would have found it difficult to catch up again. Yet standing on the notoriously unstable boats might have been difficult for the gentlemen, while the problems facing the ladies are not to be contemplated.

I don’t think that the india-rubber urinal had been invented by then. So what did they do?

 

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Posted in Built heritage, Canals, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Operations, Passenger traffic, Water sports activities, waterways, Waterways management

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Limerick 1850

Posted on Tuesday 31 January 2017 | Leave a comment

For extent and population it is now the fourth town in Ireland. The shipping at the quays was not numerous. There are but two small steamers which ply from the port, and both are employed only in the summer, one being laid up during winter, as the other is found sufficient for the trade. These steamers ply down the river to Kilrush, calling off the ports on each side on their way. […]

Dung, in any quantity, may be got in Limerick, for 1s per load of 20 to 30 cwt.

James Caird, Farmer, Baldoon The Plantation Scheme; or, the West of Ireland as a field for investment William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London 1850

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Posted in Charles Wye Williams, Economic activities, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Irish inland waterways vessels, Non-waterway, Operations, Passenger traffic, Shannon, shannon estuary, Steamers, Tourism

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