What Railfreight is Still Running

dowlingm

A US shortline would send in a tractor lawn mower and run service at 10mph. :eek: Not fond of spending money they don't have to, them lads.

corktina

the price of scrap being what it is and there being several scrap merchants in the locality, I wonder how much is actually still there.

gozunda

LivelineDipso wrote: »

The more I think about this Foynes thing the less I believe it. Makes no sense when the waterford line is ready to go. As for load handling at port - there is none at Foynes either. A couple of sidings.

Be amazed if that ore traffic is going by Foynes. It seems to be looking for an excuse to reopen an old line for the sake of it. Be nice if it happened though and either way be great to see the mine use rail. My money is on it going to Waterford.

I believe that the huge estimated value of the ore load from the Caherconlish area means that The company are likely to provide significant monies towards their preferred transportation route.

They have a decent time frame for the selected route to be made ready - ore extraction ref planning, other infrastructure provision will take a number of years to put in place

The other factor is the choice of ports.
Foynes is a deep water harbour
Waterford is tidal.

Whichever route they select it will be dependant on a number of factors however atm The one I have heard being the preferred atm option is Limerick/Foynes

LXFlyer

corktina wrote: »

Hungerford said 6 extra, thats what I was going on...even three on my broadly correct timings would be pushing it, although it would get away from crossings and signalling I agree.

6 trains = 3 return workings

corktina

lxflyer wrote: »

6 trains = 3 return workings

not really the way to describe it is it? 6 extra trains gives the impression that it is 6 loaded trains.

LXFlyer

That's the way the industry standard terminology puts it.

corktina

really? it's spin as i suspected earlier then!

LXFlyer

Nothing to do with spin.

6 additional trains on a branch line means exactly that - 6 trains in total.

corktina

I would say if you told Joe Average that the Mine in Tipperary would be generating 6 trains a day, he would assume that meant 6 trainloads.

LXFlyer

Frankly you are nit picking in the extreme - the point is that the two posters above were referring to 3 return workings.

dowlingm

One factor that could push Foynes over the top would be if the Clare orebody in the Quin area (about 5km from the line between Ennis and Sixmilebridge) was developed around the same time as Pallasgreen - instead of 6 movements a day it could be more like double figures. That said, Lisheen and Galmoy got away without having a rail link at all...

murphaph

If there's really so much ore here, we shouldn't be sending it to Sweden to smelt, we should add the value in Ireland and export smelted zinc ourselves, not the ore, like some third world country. Sad state of affairs that, though not IE's fault this time lol.

corktina

whereas I agree, it will be up to the company with the mineral rights I guess.

dowlingm

Pretty tough to build new smelters with the enviro regs these days I'd say, and Aughinish will have soured enthusiasm in the mid West in particular.

Markcheese

You can bet if the company involved thought a smelter would pay here they'd build it .... Energy cost would be a huge factor and I kind of doubt that wind turbines would cut it ....

deRanged

there's a lovely new billboard advertising rail freight outside Kent Station now.


Irish railfreight by Brian Clayton, on Flickr

Judgement Day

Where do go to collect/load your freight in Cork then? Nice poster for enthusiasts but utterly pointless if you don't offer any services. :rolleyes:

JeffK88

Same Billboard at Newbridge Train Station. Rail link to Pfizer anybody or to transport some horses

roundymac

Judgement Day wrote: »

Where do go to collect/load your freight in Cork then? Nice poster for enthusiasts but utterly pointless if you don't offer any services. :rolleyes:

Why, down to North Esk boy, all they have to do is reconnect and away you go.:eek:

Hungerford

Judgement Day wrote: »

Where do go to collect/load your freight in Cork then? Nice poster for enthusiasts but utterly pointless if you don't offer any services. :rolleyes:

Still not quite in the same league as the billboard ad for the then new 22k trains IE placed in Donegal.

LivelineDipso

deRanged wrote: »

there's a lovely new billboard advertising rail freight outside Kent Station now.


Irish railfreight by Brian Clayton, on Flickr

Are they taking the piss? Bit like the Taliban putting up a poster surrporting religious tolerance after they killed all the non moslems.

Just when you think they can't sink any lower...

Grandeeod

LivelineDipso wrote: »

Are they taking the piss? Bit like the Taliban putting up a poster surrporting religious tolerance after they killed all the non moslems.

Just when you think they can't sink any lower...

You just have to laugh!:D

dowlingm

The thing with advertising is - who are you advertising TO? The general punter isn't going to be putting containers on rail and IE are supposedly in a model of having freight forwarders bring the business to them, so trade mags would likely be a cheaper and better venue.

Is it possible IE have deals with ad companies for free space in exchange for boards located on IE property, and thus any questions about it will be dismissed as "shure it didn't cost anything so what harm"

LivelineDipso

the ad is crap too - it says nothing.

If they were serious a shot taken from of a train with containers at speed passing over a congested M50.

but nah...

popebenny16

dowlingm wrote: »

The thing with advertising is - who are you advertising TO? The general punter isn't going to be putting containers on rail and IE are supposedly in a model of having freight forwarders bring the business to them, so trade mags would likely be a cheaper and better venue.

Is it possible IE have deals with ad companies for free space in exchange for boards located on IE property, and thus any questions about it will be dismissed as "shure it didn't cost anything so what harm"

reminds me of when i was having a discussion on the radio with an irish rail rep, i asked him who he was tlaking to, because the people on the trains listening knew it was rubbish, and those not on trains werent listening anyway.

:rolleyes:

LoonyLovegood

I'm on the 12.30 Heuston-Westport train, and I've just passed a freight train. Mixture of what looks like containers for ships and liquid containers?

This would have been a little outside Portarlington.

dowlingm

CTYIgirl wrote: »

I'm on the 12.30 Heuston-Westport train, and I've just passed a freight train. Mixture of what looks like containers for ships and liquid containers?

Ballina container train en route to North Wall, Dublin.

Jamie2k9

IRN reports Waterford-Ballina DFDS liner resumes from 4 March, 2 services each way weekly.

Run_to_da_hills

JeffK88 wrote: »

Same Billboard at Newbridge Train Station. Rail link to Pfizer anybody or to transport some horses

transport some horses :eek:

Dead or alive.

JeffK88

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

transport some horses :eek:

Dead or alive.

Both at this stage

corktina

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

transport some horses :eek:

Dead or alive.

well, Tesco are consdering rail as a transport, not too difficult to source refridgerted containers....

Stonewolf

dowlingm wrote: »

The thing with advertising is - who are you advertising TO? The general punter isn't going to be putting containers on rail and IE are supposedly in a model of having freight forwarders bring the business to them, so trade mags would likely be a cheaper and better venue.

Is it possible IE have deals with ad companies for free space in exchange for boards located on IE property, and thus any questions about it will be dismissed as "shure it didn't cost anything so what harm"

"We're doing stuff to promote rail freight, we advertised an everything ... just, nobody's interested"

davidlacey

I would imagine many are interested but are put off by the fact that irish rail will do nothing to accommodate these companies in their persuit of a different alternative to transporting goods.

Stonewolf

davidlacey wrote: »

I would imagine many are interested but are put off by the fact that irish rail will do nothing to accommodate these companies in their persuit of a different alternative to transporting goods.

My point was in relation to someone asking about the curious placement of the ads. My suggestion is that they're something the company can point at to excuse it for failing to generate flows.

davidlacey

its clear thats what they are trying to do but, advertising and actively doing something about it and not finding anyone are totally different things.Yes they think they can throw up a few ads and think oh well we tried our best, but they need to be proactive about it. But sadly this is IE we are talking about and it sickens me that they are pathetic at what they do. I only read today in 2002 they paid 750K to do up mark 3's only to have them redundant 7 years later to add to the long list of poor choices they have made