Some Early Lines – Inchicore Railway Works

Some Early Lines

Inchicore Railway Works

Last year the Museum had a visitor from Dublin, a relative of a friend in the Cannock area.  Unfortunately, it was not a running day but I showed him round and we took a walk along the canal beneath the dam.  I told him that we were going to set up a reference library sometime in the future (any specialised railway books would be welcome) and when he got home he donated a copy of this book on the Inchicore Railway Works to the Museum.  Thank you Andrew.

irnirishrailwaynews.yuku.com

Located five kilometres due west of the city centre, Inchicore lies south of the River Liffey, west of Kilmainham, north of Drimnagh and east of Ballyfermot. The majority of Inchicore is in the Dublin 8 postal district. Portions of Inchicore extend into the Dublin 10 and Dublin 12 postal districts.

The townlands of Inchicore North and Inchicore South are located in the civil parish of St. James, Dublin, in the Barony of Uppercross.

Inchicore Railway Works is the headquarters for mechanical engineering and rolling stock maintenance for Iarnród Éireann. Established in 1844 by the Great Southern & Western Railway, it is the largest engineering complex of its kind in Ireland with a site area of 295,000 m² (73 acres). CIÉ also builds bus coaches for its fleets at the Spa Road coach works.

The Inchicore Railway Works were established in 1846 by the Great Southern and Western Railway (GS&WR) as its main engineering works, the first payroll is dated the 24th of April 1846 and amounted to £83. 12s. 9d. At that time there were 39 men employed, but at its peak there were over 2000.

461 at an Inchicore open day in 1968. CIÉ staff have painted her up as DSER 15, in black with red lining. In DSER days she did not have the distinctive Inchicore style smokebox – and the white-wall tyres are a very un-Irish feature apparently added in a fit of creative passion. In the background is GNR(I) No.131. (CP Friel)  steamtrainsireland.com

 The original running shed was built throughout of limestone and was designed by Sancton Wood who also designed Heuston Station. With its castellated walls and tower and gothic appearance it was architecturally a very picturesque building.

The “Works” are located 3km west of Heuston Station and covers a site of approximately 73 acres. It’s still the main engineering works for Iarnrod Eireann, maintaining the large fleet of diesel locomotives and rolling stock.

This video from youtube shows the Inchicore Open Day of 1958.  Health and Safety were rather different in those days!!