Irish Railway Record Society
Journal 191 - Infrastructure
PERMANENT WAY DEPARTMENT (PWD)
Dublin-Howth
There have been
Saturday night PWD operations using hired contractors' plant assisted by spoil
trains to install drainage piping and catchpits in the Raheny-Harmonstown
section. This is to coincide with the sections of relaying that were done during
April 2016.
On the nights of Saturday July 2 and Sunday 3
July, the section of plain track on the Up Road between the crossovers on the
approach to Howth station was renewed. New track panels were brought out to the
site on a panel train along with fresh ballast in spoil wagons, some of which
were stockpiled by the lineside for later use, due to the difficulty in bringing
ballast into Howth by road. The combined spoil and panel train was worked by
locomotive 086 and ran out on the Down road to Howth. The locomotive then
stopped short of the crossovers, unhooked, crossed over and returned
light-engine to Howth Junction on the Up road, before crossing over to the Down
road and heading back towards Howth to hook up to the train again.
Drogheda
Panel relaying was carried out through Platform 2
in Drogheda on the weekends of 2/3 and 16/17 July. Spoil trains were used during
the excavations on the Saturday nights. Fresh ballast was stockpiled in advance
in the wide six-foot in Drogheda Station, discharged using the HOBS train. This
was due to the difficulty in bringing ballast into Drogheda by road.
Dublin-Cork
Spoil trains were working mid-week nights, 5-8
September, doing site preparation work for the ballast cleaning project on the
Cork Line. The work included excavating away parts of cutting slopes to create
space to allow temporary side-casting of ballast cleaning spoil. Ballast
cleaning re-commenced on the Down line between MPs (mileposts) 20 and 21½ on
Saturday 10 September
Dublin-Sligo
As part of a programme of inspection of
post-tensioned concrete bridges, intrusive investigations were carried out by a
specialist contractor to overbridge OBS467 (Lamagh Bridge) near Newtownforbes.
This was done on nights of 16-20 August using hired contractors' rail-mounted
plant for access.
SIGNALLING
Grand Canal Dock
From 05:00 on Monday 18 July 2016, Phase 3, Stage
9, of the City Centre Re-Signalling Project was commissioned at Grand Canal Dock
Station. The accompanying drawings cover the area from the north end of Tara
Street Station to the north end of Sandymount platforms and reproduced by
permission of Iarnród Éireann.
The Up main line through Platform 2 was
disconnected at the Lansdowne Road end of Grand Canal Dock Station. The Up main
from Lansdowne Road was slewed and permanently connected to the previously
dead-end track at Platform 1, in advance of Stop Signal DC44. The line through
Platform 1 was reclassified as the Up main line. A new buffer stop signal, No.
DC446, was permanently installed at the Lansdowne Road end of Platform 2. This
platform was re-designated as a terminus platform with a length, between the top
of the ramps, of 174 metres. It should be noted that the Up through siding is
not available to trains carrying passengers and all EMU stock is prohibited from
entering this siding.
STATIONS
The remainder of this article appears in IRRS Journal number 191, published October 2016 |