West Clare Railway

My good lady is attempting to arrange a group visit to the West Clare Railway next month, but so far all emails since June have not been answered and the phone numbers given on their web site (http://www.westclarerailway.ie/contact/) both give messages to say that they are not working.

Is there anybody on here who has any contact with the West Clare Railway? If so, please send me a PM.

Thanks!

 

Well, they posted an update to their website just today - so presumably someone is still there!

 

If all else fails, but it's listed as a day that they're open, just turn up. They're a friendly lot although few in number. (I visited last year.)

At the risk of asking a silly question, you have put the correct country code on the phone number I presume? (+353 and drop the leading 0, I think).

 

there are several standard guage (ie 5'3") locos there now so should be worth the long trip. I seem to recall a pub enroute with a micro brewery selling rocket fuel disguised as their own stout.Look out for it!

The Tralee and Dingle railway is stirring too so might eb worth looking in there if you have time although my local spy tells me they seem to have cut up two of their 4 coaches!

 

Thank you! Their phone is now going to an answering machine, so messages have been left.

With the number of people involved, just turning up is not an option unfortunately.

Tralee & Dingle was going to be on the group's itinerary but all indications at the time of organising the tour suggested that it had closed.

 

T&D not expected to reopen before next year. A couple of coaches up the side of the shed were in a pretty derelict 'gutted shell' state last year so cutting them up wouldn't seem so unlikely, although perhaps a bit short-sighted if true.

The standard gauge locos (all diesels) at West Clare are (or were, last year, anyway) mostly under tarpaulins. They have plans for a big exhibition shed but I'm unsure how far this has got. There was also some talk about rebuilding part of the line as dual gauge. Bit bonkers in my view, but good luck to them anyway.

 

There are plans for the Irish Traction Group to build a museum in moyasta, do people here not think that is mad in the current environment?

I have another proposal Tralee shed MPD can accommodate 8 mainline locomotives, it is now out of use, it includes a run round loop and turntable, if located here it would be the only original mainline MPD in Ireland working.

 

Very friendly lot at Moyasta, visited on a very wet day last June:



Doesn't go far, or fast, as you can see, but interesting anyway.

Bizarrely, I'm wearing my West Clare tee-shirt today!

 

Not sure about the Moyasta proposal - I thought the planners had turned it down anyway? Can you explain why exactly you think it's mad?

Ummm Whitehead?


Keith

 

mad because it's deep in narrow guage territory a long way from the main line or even civilisation... it was something that had to be done though as IE had effectively evicted the ITG from Inchicore and they had nowhere to go and were offered a home. The locos are sheeted over so there isn't much to be seen and the offered accomodation and running line haven't materialsed (on the "long finger" as they say and not in the ITGs control.

I very much doubt IE would allow ITG to use Tralee MPD and I have the idea they would like to see them out of Carrick on Suir too. IE seem to be unfriendly to ITG but seem to bend over backwards for RPSI and IRRS

(Next Saturday 11th, RPSI steam special on the Waterford Limerick line leaving Waterford at 2.40 and a great opportunity to visit the ITG depot at Carrick whilst viewing it....n

Although I am a member, I'm not a spokesman for ITG, so this info may not be 100%, some of it is my opinion.



PS Whitehead is in Northern Ireland not Ireland of course)

 

Well I think you've hit the nail on the head there - IR don't seem to like having the ITG hanging around their property for whatever reason and have moved them on from Inchicore and as you say Carrick-on-Suir doesn't look too long term either. That's why I'm curious as to why Moyasta is such a bad idea - yes it's in NG territory, but there aren't too many sites available that are able to store several large mainline locos, never mind offer the opportunity of putting up a building around them, so surely it's a compromise worth making? Of course if there is another site (preferably mainline connected) that is available then that would be the obvious choice, but storage somewhere is better than no storage at all!

Keith

PS: Depends if you're looking at it geographically or politically!!

 

That was the problem I think, Moyasta was the most promising site available. I don't think it's a bad idea, just that it is so remote to most places that the chances of getting any meaningful work done are slim. UK bods wont appreciate how remote it is if they haven't been!
Volunteering in any case is not the tradition in Ireland like it is in the UK,even if these locos were stored in Dublin, there would be few enough people available. Also bear in mind a fairly sizable chunk of ITGs membership are in the UK.