Category Archives: Rail

Before there was Effin

Posted on Saturday 8 August 2020 | 2 comments

The name Effin Bridge has been given, in jest, to the lifting railway-bridge that crosses the Royal Canal just below Newcomen Bridge in Dublin. Here is an article about the bridges that preceded Effin Bridge at that site.

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Posted in Ashore, boats, Built heritage, Canals, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Modern matters, Operations, Rail, Restoration and rebuilding, Roads, Safety, waterways, Waterways management

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Broadstone addition

Posted on Sunday 12 July 2020 | Leave a comment

Thanks to Pat Conneely for this photo of the Broadstone station and the Royal Canal. I’ve added it to my page on the Broadstone Line of the Royal Canal.

The Broadstone station before the canal harbour was filled in (photo courtesy Pat Conneely)

The photo must have been taken before 1877, when the harbour was filled in.

 

 

 

 

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Posted in Built heritage, Canals, Engineering and construction, Forgotten navigations, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, Rail

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New header pic February 2020

Posted on Tuesday 4 February 2020 | Leave a comment

The Liffey in 1846, cropped from a panorama published in the Illustrated London News on 6 June 1846.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, Rail, Roads, Sea, Sources

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Limerick Navigation

Posted on Monday 20 January 2020 | Leave a comment

Last week’s talk at the Killaloe Ballina Local History Society, on the subject of the Limerick Navigation, was recorded by Scariff Bay Community Radio; a podcast (1 hr 13 min 11 sec) is available here.

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Posted in Built heritage, Canals, Charles Wye Williams, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Forgotten navigations, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, Passenger traffic, People, Politics, Rail, Roads, Scenery, Shannon, Sources, Steamers, The grain trade, The turf trade, Tourism, waterways, Waterways management, Weather

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The Dalkey atmospheric railway

Posted on Monday 19 August 2019 | 2 comments

Tuesday 13 May 1845

[…] afterwards we met P McHenry and we went to the Atmospheric at Dalkey we travelled at about 30 Miles Pr Hour it is the most Zig Zag narrow disgraceful thing I ever beheld

David Brooke ed The diary of William Mackenzie, the first international railway contractor Thomas Telford Publishing, London 2000

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Posted in Ashore, Engineering and construction, Rail, Shannon

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A sign of the times

Posted on Monday 11 March 2019 | 2 comments

Driving through the village of Castleconnell [Co Limerick] recently, I found that it had acquired one — nay, two — of those stupid signs.

Road closed display 1

They’re stupid because, with the information spread over several displays, you can’t take it all in quickly. Unless, of course, you’re prepared to focus entirely on reading the sign, ignoring everything else on and around the road. Which in this case is passing a primary school.

I suppose you could stop and photograph it ….

Road closed display 2

The information on the first two displays could have been compressed and put on one:

8AM 13th – 6PM 14th

That still leaves two displays, but on the last one, the important one, compression has been taken too far:

Road closed display 3

 

 

Road closed at X, eh? Well, there’s a useful piece of information … or it might be, if we had Long John Silver’s map, with X marking the spot.

X is, of course, the unknown quantity, so this sign is telling us that the road will be closed at a specified time but at an unspecified place.

What dictionary are road-users to consult to find the meaning of X?

And why can’t the powers-that-be communicate clearly in English?

 

 

 

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Posted in Ashore, Engineering and construction, Modern matters, Rail, Roads

Newry: canal, steam railways, ships …

Posted on Thursday 31 January 2019 | 3 comments

Thanks to Andrew Waldron for the link to this film, The Clanrye Connection, about Newry and its transport systems: the inland canal, the ship canal and the railways. The film was made by the BBC in 1996 and is about 50 minutes long.

There is even an electric tram.

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Foreign parts, Forgotten navigations, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, Passenger traffic, Rail

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The Four Pots tramway

Posted on Thursday 10 January 2019 | Leave a comment

Ewan Duffy has an interesting post here about a tramway from a quarry to the bank of the Grand Canal beside the Four Pots.

 

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Canals, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Historical matters, Industrial heritage, Rail, waterways

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The Church of the Sacred Heart, Roscommon

Posted on Friday 30 November 2018 | 2 comments

So there you are, en route from Kingsbridge railway station in Dublin to Westport in Co Mayo. Or, as it might be, from Westport to Dublin. Either way, the journey takes at least three hours.

What you would like, of course, is to lengthen the journey by making a little stop along the way. In particular, you would like to stop in Roscommon to see the Church of the Sacred Heart. You could get off your train, visit the church and then catch the next train. You might even be able to do the same in Castlerea.

That is according to Senator Terry Leyden of Fianna Fáil. Now that the Shannon stopover, which hijacked transatlantic passengers en route to Dublin, is no more, the good Senator proposes an equivalent for the railways.

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Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Ireland, Modern matters, Passenger traffic, People, Rail

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In C-ab

Posted on Tuesday 30 October 2018 | Leave a comment

What to watch while listening to In C.

Very flat, Norway. Not.

Here’s today’s performance. Minimalism with buck-leppin.

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Posted in Foreign parts, Rail

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