• Home
  • Shop
  • Newsletter
  • Podcast
  • Blog
    • Wings
    • Wheels
    • Floats
    • Counties
      • Antrim
      • Armagh
      • Carlow
      • Cavan
      • Clare
      • Cork
      • Derry
      • Donegal
      • Down
      • Dublin
      • Fermanagh
      • Galway
      • Kerry
      • Kildare
      • Kilkenny
      • Laois
      • Leitrim
      • Limerick
      • Longford
      • Louth
      • Mayo
      • Meath
      • Monaghan
      • Offaly
      • Roscommon
      • Sligo
      • Tipperary
      • Tyrone
      • Waterford
      • Westmeath
      • Wexford
      • Wicklow
  • Ireland Images
  • About
  • Press
  • Contact
  • Account
    • Login
    • My account
    • My Cart

Privacy Policy Cookies Policy Copyright © 2023 Ireland Made Designed by Grafton Digital

Search
Close
€0.00 0 Basket
SHOP

ENJOY OUR VIDEOS

Facebook Instagram Twitter Linkedin Youtube
€0.00 0 Basket
SHOP

Guinness Brewery Narrow Gauge Railway – 8 miles long | Season 1 – Episode 52

Wheels Feb 16, 2022

In 1759 Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease on a brewery at St James’s Gate, Dublin.

By 1873 the size of the site was doubled, this new expansion divided the Brewery in two, creating an ‘upper’ level and a ‘lower’ level. However, it became more and more difficult to move materials around the much larger site with horse-power alone.

The Company’s solution in 1874 was to task the Brewery’s newly appointed Engineer-in-Chief, Samuel Geoghegan (1845 – 1928) to construct a railway. In designing the railway, two difficulties had to be overcome. Firstly, the track needed to be narrow enough to navigate through the Brewery, but a connection was still needed to the broad gauge track in the nearby Heuston Station.

The solution was to lay two different types of track – a 22” narrow gauge system for working within the Brewery, and a 5ft 3in broad gauge to link to Heuston Station. Secondly, there was the problem of how to link the track between the ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ levels – with a height difference of 50 feet.

In 1875, to bring the locomotives from the upper to the lower level Samuel Geoghegan built a spiral tunnel underneath St. James’s Street with a radius of 61ft 3” and turning 2.5 revolutions to cope with the difference in height.

Samuel Geoghegan then set about designing the perfect Guinness narrow gauge engine with the sensitive components of the locomotive mounted far above the ground and protected from dirt. His design was an 0−4−0 side tank locomotive engine with horizontally mounted cylinders situated above the boiler driving through a crankshaft and vertical connecting rods, which in turn drove the wheels. This design allowed for ease of access for maintenance, sensitive components protected and a narrow gauge locomotive.

The first Geoghegan engine, the ‘No. 6’, was built by Avonside Engine Company in 1882, another seventeen were manufactured between 1887 and 1921 by William Spence at the Cork Street Foundry. Today Geoghegan engine No. 17 and a Planet diesel engine No. 47 are both on display at Guinness Storehouse. No. 13 – Narrow Gauge Railway Museum, Wales No. 23 – Amberley Working Museum, West Sussex.

Engine No. 22 – Cavan & Leitrim Railway, Leitrim, given on permanent loan by Robert Guinness. This Geoghegan engine is currently in the planning stage to return to steam, requiring new connecting rods and a boiler and when completed No. 22 will be the only Geoghegan engine in steam anywhere in the world.

In 1997 the Guinness Storehouse opened as the Brewery’s visitor centre. Built in 1902 the Storehouse was the first multi-storey steel-framed building to be constructed in the British Isles. The interactive displays explain the history of beer including ingredients, brewing, cooperage, advertising, sponsorship and the history of transporting Guinness across the world. On display are the Geoghegan and Planet narrow gauge engines.

Credit: Images courtesy of Guinness Archive, Diageo Ireland

Credit: Cavan & Leitrim Railway

Credit: Graces Guide: Geoghegan Locomotives, Revd Roger Farnworth

Thanks to: Eibhlin Colgan, Archive Manager at Guinness Storehouse, Diageo Ireland

Photos & video: Ireland Made®

Feel free to share. This post is copyrighted© to Ireland Made® Not to be copied or reproduced without permission.

Tech Specs

  • Geoghegan Engine
  • Boiler: 2ft 5in inside diameter
  • Capacities 3½ cwts coal/ 80 galls water
  • Cylinders (two) 7in diam x 8in stroke
  • Max. loading 75 tons (level track) / 18 tons (1 in 40 grade)
  • Total weight 7 tons 8 cwts
  • Wheelbase 3ft 0in

Written By:

Kevin Reid

With a life-long interest in all things mechanical, Kevin Reid founded Ireland Made® to bring you stories of Irish transport past and present from across the island. If it has wings, wheels or it floats you will find the story here. We hope that you will enjoy our stories.

Do you have an Irish made project old or new you would like us to feature?

Contact Us
Share This Post
Facebook Twitter Linkedin Pinterest Youtube
Newer Older
Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimise our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
Preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Lost your password?