Tractor on the Great Southern Railway

Bigfellalixnaw

Hi folks,
I remember my father telling me about a man who drove a specially modified tractor (to fit the wheels to gauge of the of the rail tracks) from Tralee to Limerick while the rail line was at that time recently shutdown. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but I was wondering would anyone here have heard of a similar story or give more details about this event. I can't seem to find anything about it on the internet.

Losty Dublin

It sounds highly unlikely that a farmer would have to the trouble of adapting his tractor wheels for rails as a tractor would have easy moved up and down the lies with it's own tyres. Besides the novelty factor, it wouldn't have done a lot of good all told.

Perhaps he or somebody saw one that was used on permanent way trains or on the trains that lifted the track up and the story grew a little. There were tractors used in Dublin Port and Sligo to shunt small wagons. They only stood down a decade ago.

There are knowledgeable others posting on here who may know better than me

roundymac

Tractors were quite common delivering freight around Cork city up to the about 1980s. How CIE made money out of these I don't know, small bits of freight delivered at a snails pace. I never saw them on rails though.

Bigfellalixnaw

I think my father said it was a Grey Harry tractor that was used on the railway. I think your man did it to raise money for charity. And I'm pretty sure if was done after the line became disused.
Does this ring any bells with anyone here?

k mac

Permanent way in at athenry used to use a small tractor with rail gear for maintenance up till about 25 years ago

Magpie1951

https://youtu.be/zfFm5tAfOn4

See video of the Athenry Per Way tractor at 2:11 mins onwards in the above video kindly provided by Southern Yard's youtube channel.

whisky_galore

Recall seeing a pic on this book of a MF35 fitted with flanged wheels (presumably bolted over the road wheels) and small 'train' of per way bogies. Don't remember what the location was.

http://andalus.ie/books/tales-of-the-permanent-way/

Also remember reading somewhere that the Cork Summerhill (ex C&YR) stub was traversed by a railway-owned Fordson tractor to reaffirm right of way for a time after it was disconnected (obvs. on tyres).

gctest50

Bord na Mona escapee maybe ?

gctest50

or the more sensible straightforward approach :

whisky_galore

Saw a pic floating around of a Fordson(?) beefed up front and rear with dumb buffers for shunting Alexandra docks. Don't recall if it had flanged wheels or not.

Bigfellalixnaw

whisky_galore wrote: »

Recall seeing a pic on this book of a MF35 fitted with flanged wheels (presumably bolted over the road wheels) and small 'train' of per way bogies. Don't remember what the location was.

I don't suppose you have that photo by any chance?

whisky_galore

Bigfellalixnaw wrote: »

I don't suppose you have that photo by any chance?

I'll have a look, but won't be able to post it here, copyright and all that.

Bigfellalixnaw

whisky_galore wrote: »

I'll have a look, but won't be able to post it here, copyright and all that.

Yeah, sure no problem.

Greenman

Magpie1951 wrote: »

https://youtu.be/zfFm5tAfOn4

See video of the Athenry Per Way tractor at 2:11 mins onwards in the above video kindly provided by Southern Yard's youtube channel.

Well spotted.