Western Rail Corridor (all disused sections)

Sam Russell

Are there still tracks on the line?

mayo.mick

Sam Russell wrote: »

Are there still tracks on the line?

In places

eastwest

Sam Russell wrote: »

Are there still tracks on the line?

Mostly, except for where a section was stolen and where tracks were covered in rubble or soil and grassed over.
However the tracks are unsuited to running trains. The sleepers are rotten in places and the ballast degenerated. As I understand it, CIE has told the greenway lobby that they can use the ballast as a base for the greenway, and this is acknowledged in the report.

bagels

With the price of steel nowadays there should be a handsome return on scrapping the rails.
Hopefully the usual stroke won't be pulled whereby a politically connected cowboy makes a big killing on the scrapping.

savagethegoat

bagels wrote: »

With the price of steel nowadays there should be a handsome return on scrapping the rails.
Hopefully the usual stroke won't be pulled whereby a politically connected cowboy makes a big killing on the scrapping.

scrap prices collapsed a while back, the scrap value is probably less than the cost of ripping it up

eastwest

savagethegoat wrote: »

scrap prices collapsed a while back, the scrap value is probably less than the cost of ripping it up

In New Zealand, when they were building the New Zealand Rail Trail, they let the local rugby clubs lift the rails and sell them for scrap as fundraisers. Now I'm sure that here there would be plenty of reasons why that couldn't possibly work!
Still, there was a lad in Kiltimagh who was prepared to lift them and take them away for nothing; he cleared a quarter of a mile in a few hours. Maybe he'd do it?

mayo.mick

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-OhHke1bs3GM/VpUdJY26U9I/AAAAAAAAACs/txnQ800sTqg/w346-h461/abandoned%2Brailway.jpg

I remember seeing a documentary about a disused railway in Burma a few years ago, what the locals were doing was lifting sections of track and blacksmiths were turning it into cutlery to sell in the markets.

Just think, you could be eating your dinner with a fork that used to be part of the infamous "bridge over the river Kwai" railway.

eastwest

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I remember seeing a documentary about a disused railway in Burma a few years ago, what the locals were doing was lifting sections of track and blacksmiths were turning it into cutlery to sell in the markets.

Just think, you could be eating your dinner with a fork that used to be part of the infamous "bridge over the river Kwai" railway.

We could use the WRC rails to make cake tins, for baking pie in the sky!

savagethegoat

Probably best to cut the rail into 6 inch sections to use as doorstops, that way we can leave the doors all open for railway use should it ever become viable.

monument

eastwest wrote: »

Mostly, except for where a section was stolen and where tracks were covered in rubble or soil and grassed over....

And where councils removed and/or paved over the tracks at road crossings.

eastwest

savagethegoat wrote: »

Probably best to cut the rail into 6 inch sections to use as doorstops, that way we can leave the doors all open for railway use should it ever become viable.

Or draw it into rods to be inserted into county councillors, to give them a bit of backbone.

savagethegoat

as for removing the track, I'm sure several lines would be in need of track and fittings and would be happy to oblige. I can't see it all being unusable even though it has been untouched for decades.

mayo.mick

savagethegoat wrote: »

as for removing the track, I'm sure several lines would be in need of track and fittings and would be happy to oblige. I can't see it all being unusable even though it has been untouched for decades.

43 or 44 years I think?

eastwest

savagethegoat wrote: »

as for removing the track, I'm sure several lines would be in need of track and fittings and would be happy to oblige. I can't see it all being unusable even though it has been untouched for decades.

I might be wrong, but I thought that the rails were unsuited to modern running?

Sam Russell

eastwest wrote: »

I might be wrong, but I thought that the rails were unsuited to modern running?

Maybe the old West Clair Railway down at Monaster Junction could do with some.

eastwest

Sam Russell wrote: »

Maybe the old West Clair Railway down at Monaster Junction could do with some.

They're making a greenway out of that route, last time I looked.

Sam Russell

When I was down there last they had just steamed up the steam engine. They only have about 1 or 2 km of track. They need to get enough to get to Killkee and Killrush to provide a tourist service of some kind.

eastwest

Sam Russell wrote: »

When I was down there last they had just steamed up the steam engine. They only have about 1 or 2 km of track. They need to get enough to get to Killkee and Killrush to provide a tourist service of some kind.

There are plans to run a greenway on the overall route, and also some talk of connecting it to the Dublin-Galway greenway with a parallel path alongside the Ennis Athenry line. That would connect Clare to Dublin, sounds like a smart idea. Clare is the country's leading tourism county in terms of throughput as far as I know.

elastico

eastwest wrote: »

There are plans to run a greenway on the overall route, and also some talk of connecting it to the Dublin-Galway greenway with a parallel path alongside the Ennis Athenry line. That would connect Clare to Dublin, sounds like a smart idea. Clare is the country's leading tourism county in terms of throughput as far as I know.

An awful lot of that route is built across with houses, farmyards etc,. so a greenway won't come easy.

As regards moyasta, any greenway would be run alongside the railway.

savagethegoat

eastwest wrote: »

I might be wrong, but I thought that the rails were unsuited to modern running?

I was referring to preserved lines, sorry I didn't make that clear.

savagethegoat

eastwest wrote: »

They're making a greenway out of that route, last time I looked.

Jackie Whelan won't be happy with that

eastwest

savagethegoat wrote: »

Jackie Whelan won't be happy with that

I recall some talk about the county council having a plan for a greenway on the route, but I assume it won't affect the choo-choo project. The Bristol-Bath cycleway happily coexists with the Thomas the tank experience.

savagethegoat

eastwest wrote: »

I recall some talk about the county council having a plan for a greenway on the route, but I assume it won't affect the choo-choo project. The Bristol-Bath cycleway happily coexists with the Thomas the tank experience.

The Thomas the Tank (engine) experience? You mean the Avon Valley Railway I imagine

eastwest

savagethegoat wrote: »

The Thomas the Tank (engine) experience? You mean the Avon Valley Railway I imagine

Not sure what it's officially called, it's a couple of miles of track that lies alongside the trail, half way between Bristol and bath. It has a couple of steam locomotives, including one that is set up as Thomas the Tank.

eastwest

Speaking of Thomas the Tank....

https://www.facebook.com/SligoGreenway/posts/645833282239364:0

savagethegoat

Not that it matters but,it isn't Thomas the Tank, it's Thomas the Tank Engine, There is a huge difference

I just told you what the Railway is called.

eastwest

savagethegoat wrote: »

Not that it matters but,it isn't Thomas the Tank, it's Thomas the Tank Engine, There is a huge difference

I just told you what the Railway is called.

I bow to your expertise in the field of children's stories!

My knowledge of the genre is based on how a councillor described it at a recent(ish) WDC meeting.

monument

eastwest wrote: »

I bow to your expertise in the field of children's stories!

My knowledge of the genre is based on how a councillor described it at a recent(ish) WDC meeting.

It's also not Thomas behind the wall!

serfboard

mayo.mick wrote: »

"The report, seen by the Irish Independent, was commissioned by the Rural Economic Development Zones project in Tubbercurry to examine how the disused railway line that runs through the town should be used."

Canney will probably argue that this report only refers to the line running through Tubercurry - i.e. north of Claremorris, and I think that even the most diehard WOT people know that that part of the line is gone, which is why they usually refer only to the section south of Claremorris.

The (poor) freight argument usually talks about running freight from Ballina, which wouldn't be going through Tobercurry anyway.