At a lower level more than 8000 casks could be moved in a day, serving a broad gauge link, the quay and washing plant. On the middle level trains ran between the malt store and the maltings.
At the upper and middle levels, trains removed used hops and spent grain to the disposal points, while on the upper level malt and hops were taken to the brewhouse. At one time narrow gauge trains also served the jetty, connecting it with the cask cleansing and racking plant.
The railway transported raw materials like malt and barley and the finished product in barrels around the expanded brewery site.
It was an eight-mile-long, narrow-gauge network. Initially steam-powered, steam locomotives were gradually replaced by diesel engines in the 1950s.
The railway was in use until 1975. Two of the original narrow-gauge engines are now on display at the Guinness Storehouse in the Transport exhibition.
The steadily increasing output from Guinness’s Dublin Brewery in the Victorian era had reached such proportions by the 1870’s that the movement of large quantities of heavy and bully raw materials and waste products within the brewery was proving a serious obstruction to any future projected expansion.
the standard tip wagon, built to carry grain, hops and other bulky goods about the brewery. It was built as large as possible within maximum limits of a width of five feet, overall length of eight feet, a height of six feet, and a three feet wheelbase.
These four wheeled vehicles had a maximum capacity of eighty cubic feet and a weight in working order of 4 ton. The wagon body, made of bin steel plate, rested on end frames, with rollers enabling the body to be tipped sideways when the load was to be discharged.
The Guinness Brewery in St James’s Gate, Dublin was founded by Arthur Guinness in 1759, one of dozens based on the pure water available from the River Liffey. Guinness outlasted and outgrew all its competitors to become one of the greatest brewing empires in the world.
During the nineteenth century the business benefited from an explosive growth of sales in Britain. Output reached 750,000 barrels in 1875 and 1.2 million barrels in 1886, by which time St James’s Gate was the largest brewery in the world.
The steadily increasing output from Guinness’s Dublin Brewery in the Victorian era had reached such proportions by the 1870’s that the movement of large quantities of heavy and bully raw materials and waste products within the brewery was proving a serious obstruction to any future projected expansion.
The existing methods (horse tramway, and horse and cart) were both slow and cumbersome and very inefficient.
With the acquisition of land between the existing brewery and the River Liffey, further expansion was able to tale place and some activities previously carried out in the old brewery were transferred there. Moreover, as this land was situated near the Kingsbridge terminus (Great Southern & Western Railway), a direct connection with the Irish railway network could be effected, with barges working to and from a quay on the Liffey.
The solution to the transport problem lay in the construction of a narrow gauge railway network serving the entire brewery.
The solution to the transport problem lay in the construction of a narrow gauge railway network serving the entire brewery.
Much of the basic system was laid between 1873 and 1877 under the supervision of Samuel Geoghegan who joined the brewery engineering staff in 1872 at the age of 28 and rose to the position of Head Engineer in 1875.
Mr Geoghegan set himself certain limits on the size of the narrow gauge lines and rolling stock. The track maximum gradient was to be not steeper than one in forty. A difference in levels of about 50ft existed between the old brewery and the newer land which sloped sharply down to the Liffey, the two areas being separated by James’s Street.
To connect the two halves of the works and overcome the difference in levels, Mr Geoghegan constructed a spiral tunnel in the old brewery and tool the narrow gauge line under James’s Street. The spiral section replaced a short-lived hydraulic lift, a clumsy and slow apparatus which could only manage to tale one wagon at a time, causing trains to be broken up and re-assembled on different levels. The single track spiral tunnel contained the line’s steepest gradient, 1 in 39, and, in 2.65 turns raised the line about 35ft, with a spiral radius of 61.25ft.
The narrow gauge track was largely laid in granite setts, for the benefit of road vehicles in the brewery yards, and this also applied to lines laid on the quay.
To connect the two halves of the works and overcome the difference in levels, Mr Geoghegan constructed a spiral tunnel in the old brewery and tool the narrow gauge line under James’s Street. The spiral section replaced a short-lived hydraulic lift, a clumsy and slow apparatus which could only manage to tale one wagon at a time, causing trains to be broken up and re-assembled on different levels. The single track spiral tunnel contained the line’s steepest gradient, 1 in 39, and, in 2.65 turns raised the line about 35ft, with a spiral radius of 61.25ft.
The narrow gauge track was largely laid in granite setts, for the benefit of road vehicles in the brewery yards, and this also applied to lines laid on the quay.
Great piece of history! Thanks.
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