Irish Railway Record Society

Journal 176  - Infrastructure

JOURNEY TIMES

In August, IÉ announced that it was seeking €175m in order to reduce journey times, which have increased over recent years and are now significantly uncompetitive with road. IÉ requested €35m per annum to improve speeds on the Dublin-Cork and Dublin-Galway routes between 2012 and 2016. A second phase would improve speeds on the Dublin-Limerick and Dublin-Waterford lines. Phase one would lead to journey time improvements as follows:

The projected Dublin-Cork and Dublin-Limerick journey times are the same as was achieved in the late 1980s before the arrival of 100-mph trains and before any significant motorways. The projected Dublin-Galway time is still less than is now achievable by road. Dublin-Waterford is already 1 hour 50 minutes by road.

In September, the junior Minister with responsibility for public transport announced an initiative to improve journey times between Portarlington and Dublin costing €1m.

TRACK  

Dublin-Cork Formation excavation and other maintenance work continues at nights using on-track machines. Possessions are normally handed out after the passage of the 20:30 Cork-Dublin and there have been occasions where every section has been under possession at night.

Dublin-Belfast Point blades were temporarily installed in the new Down loop at Clongriffin station between 5 miles 880 yards and 5 miles 1,320 yards to facilitate testing of the new overhead line equipment. They were subsequently removed.

Navan-Kingscourt Castletown Bridge which has a clearance underneath of 4.54m (15’ 2”) was struck and badly damaged by a lorry transporting an excavator on Friday 29 July. The bridge beams collapsed onto the lorry and were subsequently completely removed. The bridge had been damaged on several occasions in the past and had not been repaired since its last significant incident as the line is disconnected from the railway network at Navan.

Ballyllinan Branch At the request of the NTA IÉ has cleared the former siding to the Tegral roofing factory in Athy of undergrowth and sprayed it for weeds.

Ballast Wagons One set of 4-wheel ballast hoppers remains in service. Significantly, the oldest active vehicle in use on IÉ, former GS&WR ballast plough van 8456, was still in service in June. On 22 June it was part of a ballast train hauled by 073 from Clonnydonnin to Ballyhaunis ballast loading siding.

Ballast Cleaner New Plasser & Theurer ballast cleaner 781 departed the Infrastructure Depot in Kildare on Tuesday 19 July for Boyle to commence trial operations. Commissioning trials took place on the out-of-use South Wexford line between Rosslare Strand and Wellingtonbridge in September. It then returned to Kildare Depot.

Spoil Train New 20’ low height open-top demountable containers have started to appear on existing 40’ bogie container flat wagons (LPs) in Limerick. They are scheduled to replace the 1960’s built 4-wheel barytes wagons currently in use. On Tuesday 27 September, the first batch was transferred Limerick-Portlaoise at 14:20. The train was 080 + 1 LP + 5 LPs with new spoil containers + 10 empty steel (new rails) wagons.

BRIDGES AND TUNNELS

Major planned repair work is ongoing on Laytown Viaduct (bridge over River Nanny) UB72 Dublin-Belfast. The 25-mph speed restriction was raised to 50-mph on 25 September following strengthening works to the three central spans. This work will continue until the end of the year.

A programme of cleaning, repairing masonry and upgrading works on the Boyne Viaduct at Drogheda has commenced and will be completed in 2012. Work has been completed on Arch No. 6 on Marsh Road and work was due to start in October on Arch No. 13 in the North Strand area, to be completed by the end of November. IÉ said 'Scaffolding over the three steel spans will be erected in September, but work won't start until October. It will remain in place for most of this year and into 2012.” The work will involve masonry and general maintenance work on the stonework of the arch. IÉ are working with Drogheda Borough Council on lighting the Viaduct after maintenance work is complete.

Waterproofing of UB130 Belfast Line (Bridge over River Fane) was completed on the weekend of 25 September.

Repairs to the bridge over Jones Road at Croke Park, Dublin, UB20 North Wall GS&WR Branch will be completed over the October bank holiday weekend. The work here involves repairing 2 shunt plates and jacking the bridge.

Strengthening and painting works to UB170 over Lough Atalia at Galway will commence on 3 October and will be completed in 2012.

Major repairs were carried out to the station footbridges at Carrigaloe, Wicklow, Gorey, Castlerea, and Muine Bheag while repairs are also programmed for the station footbridges at Roscommon and Ballyhaunis before year end.

Locomotives are currently banned from traversing UB594 at Ballisodare due to its condition. This is not the main viaduct at Ballisodare (UB599) but a smaller bridge. Remedial work on the bridge is scheduled to commence before year-end and, when completed, the locomotive ban will be lifted.

LEVEL CROSSINGS

Closures Kilnockin No. 2 unattended level crossing (XC227) located immediately north of Mallow station and within station signals was permanently closed on 16 September.

IÉ has applied for planning permission to construct a new overbridge to facilitate closure of XM250 at Knockaphunta 151 miles 1,148 yards between Castlebar and Westport.

A new access road from 13 miles 881 yards to 14 miles 223 yards and a new overbridge at 13 miles 733 yards are being constructed to close level crossings XT039, XT041 Garanne, XT042 Ballymore and XT043 in the Banteer-Millstreet section.

Reilly’s In July, An Bord Pleanála granted permission with no significant conditions attached to Dublin City Council for construction of an overbridge to replace the existing Reilly’s Bridge near Broombridge / Liffey Junction on the Dublin-Sligo line. An Oral Hearing had been held on 28 April.

The bridge would replace the existing manually operated level crossing and Reilly’s Bridge, which crosses the Royal Canal 70m west of proposed bridge. The stone bridge, built in 1792, is one of the original canal bridges and is a Protected Structure. The proposed bridge would be a single span structure about 70m long. It is designed as a through truss to minimise the level of the road while ensuring that the required vertical clearance of between 4.9m and 5.3m is provided to the railway. The new bridge would involve the realignment of the Ratoath Rd involving 500m of roadway. There would be a new access path from the bridge to the canal towpath at the northern side of the canal.

A 2007 traffic survey at Reilly’s level crossing showed 13,062 vehicles and 266 pedestrians in 24 hours. Up to 36 minutes in an hour can be given to road closures. In addition, the road has poor alignment, especially at Reilly’s Bridge.

V Boards Trials of Vegetation Marker Boards, known as V Boards, commenced on 12 September. These are boards placed at the sighting distance set out in IÉ standards that allow safe traversing of a level crossing. They allow a quicker appraisal of the available views at the crossing, which can then assist in focussing on vegetation management at the crossing. There are four 'V' Boards per crossing located on poles in the cess 2m from the running edge and facing the level crossing. 'V' Boards are for Permanent Way staff only in relation to sighting distances and have no relevance to train drivers. These ‘V’ boards are currently being trialled at the following level crossings on the Athlone-Westport line: XM096 Stanley's No.2 at 103 miles 400 yards, XM103 at 105 miles 790 yards and XM113 Towey's at 108 miles 520 yards with a view to further installation if they are found to be successful. XM096 was the scene of a fatal accident in September 2010 involving a farmer on a tractor and the 09:30 Ballina-Dublin IWT liner, 225 + 18 wagons.

Copyright © 2011 by Irish Railway Record Society Ltd.
Revised: January 20, 2012 .