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The Guinness Railway, Dublin


rogerfarnworth
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The St. James's Gate Brewery belonging to Guinness had what was apparently the longest private railway system in Ireland. In total there were 10 miles of track of which 8 miles were narrow gauge. There were some interesting innovations in lured within the system - a spiral in narrow gauge allowing trains to pass under St. James's Street, an ingenious conversion wagon which allowed narrow gauge locomotive to work on the broad gauge sidings, a unique design of narrow gauge locomotive specifically suited to the needs of the site.

 

This is another post prompted by reading 1951 editions of The Railway Magazine!

 

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/04/26/the-guinness-brewery-railways-dublin

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There is an interesting booklet available about the railway

"Shifting the Stout" by Paul Webb ISBN 978-0-9576789-1-0

see www.mrt.org.uk as published by Moseley Rly Trust

 

The 5'3" railway had a pair of Hudswell Clarke 0-4-0ST (one is preserved at Whitehead) and a diesel from the same Leeds builder.  HC D700 works photo available on my Leeds Engine site below.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The Ulster Transport Museum also has both a steam and diesel loco from the system. I think there's another steam engine in the Narrow Gauge Museum at Tywyn. It's a fascinating and ingenious system, although I find that researching it is thirsty work (hic).

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Interesting little railway, and there is a lot of information about it and it’s rolling stock available if you dig deeply into contemporary publications.

 

But, this oft-repeated thing about it being the longest/largest industrial railway in Ireland really doesn’t hold-up, given the massive extent of Bord Ma Mona networks. Perhaps the claim to fame hinges on the words ‘privately owned’, in that BnM has always been under some sort of public ownership.

 

Kevin

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Pity there isn't a book specifically on the Guinness system. Would have thought there would be interest in such a book, especially if it had drawings of the locos and wagons. Found an interesting article with a couple of drawings in a copy of NGIR(no 60), and only acouple of references to other publications.

 

Found this bok, but it is mainly photos.

Ireland's Largest Industrial Railway - The Guinness System

Edited by rue_d_etropal
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On 06/12/2019 at 11:00, Nearholmer said:

Interesting little railway, and there is a lot of information about it and it’s rolling stock available if you dig deeply into contemporary publications.

 

But, this oft-repeated thing about it being the longest/largest industrial railway in Ireland really doesn’t hold-up, given the massive extent of Bord Ma Mona networks. Perhaps the claim to fame hinges on the words ‘privately owned’, in that BnM has always been under some sort of public ownership.

 

Kevin

 

I concur. At its height, the BnM system had a combined route mileage in excess of CIÉ/Irish Rail's!

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1 hour ago, Patrick said:

 

I concur. At its height, the BnM system had a combined route mileage in excess of CIÉ/Irish Rail's!

It still has a substantial mileage, but it is in its Indian Summer now, like late 1950s commercial narrow gauge. With the run-down of BnM operations, it will very soon be no more.

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this railway has always fascinated me, but finding scale drwings is difficult. I got PPaul Webb's book(Moseley Trust) for Christmas and was pleasantly surprised to find it had drawings. After comparing with photos I noticed some small differences, but they were good enough as a starting point. Concentrated on the later locos and stock, and just completed my designs(12 different scales!) for the steam and diesel Hudswell Clarke locos and the narrow gauge locos and some rolling stock. I might have a look at te others at some time, but there sems to be even less info about them, apart from a handful of photos.

http://www.rue-d-etropal.com/3D-printing/3d_printed_Irish-5ft-3in-gauge-trains1.htm

http://www.rue-d-etropal.com/3D-printing/3d_printed-irish-narrow-gauge.htm

Now I may have to actually build a model. If I was having bothbroad and narrow gauges, I would probably go for 1/35 scale, using 45mm and 16.5mm gauges. The 16.5mm is a bit wide, but not too much. Alternatively 1/50th scale using 32mm and 12mm or 10.5mm gauges.

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2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

There are examples of both the Geoghan  steamers and the Hibberd diesels preserved, if you wanted to measure the real things.

hopefully the drawngs were based on those ones preserved, given that it was a Moseley Trust publication. I only spotted one difference with the diesel, and the steamer looked OK, and also had the drawings inanother magazine.

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A short note about a couple of publications which focus on the Guinness Brewery Railways. .....

 

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/07/22/the-guinness-brewery-railways-dublin-again

 

This very short article results from some recent reading about the railways on the Guinness Brewery site in Dublin. 

 

  • An article in 'Narrow Gauge & Industrial Railway Modelling Review' Issue 60 Volume 8, October 2004, p134-142; and
  • Paul Webb, 'Shifting the Stout', The Moseley Trust, Apedale, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire.
Edited by rogerfarnworth
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On 17/01/2020 at 19:34, rue_d_etropal said:

this railway has always fascinated me, but finding scale drwings is difficult. I got PPaul Webb's book(Moseley Trust) for Christmas and was pleasantly surprised to find it had drawings. After comparing with photos I noticed some small differences, but they were good enough as a starting point. Concentrated on the later locos and stock, and just completed my designs(12 different scales!) for the steam and diesel Hudswell Clarke locos and the narrow gauge locos and some rolling stock. I might have a look at te others at some time, but there sems to be even less info about them, apart from a handful of photos.

http://www.rue-d-etropal.com/3D-printing/3d_printed_Irish-5ft-3in-gauge-trains1.htm

http://www.rue-d-etropal.com/3D-printing/3d_printed-irish-narrow-gauge.htm

Now I may have to actually build a model. If I was having bothbroad and narrow gauges, I would probably go for 1/35 scale, using 45mm and 16.5mm gauges. The 16.5mm is a bit wide, but not too much. Alternatively 1/50th scale using 32mm and 12mm or 10.5mm gauges.

 

I'm wondering if the IRRS has drawings of those locos.

 

I know I've seen detailed drawings of them in the past - but dang me if I know where!

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