Inchicore Railway Works, or simply Inchicore or The Works as known in railway circles, was founded by the Great Southern & Western Railway in 1846 and emerged to become the major engineering centre for railways in Ireland. It has a site area of about. The works are responsible for the overhaul, repair, servicing, spraying and washing of locomotives and rolling stock. Manufacture, assembly and rebuild of locomotives and rolling stock has been performed at Inchicore works in the past.
History
At the beginning in 1846 there were a total of 39 employed at the works. The locomotive erecting shop had 18 pits on one side and 16 on the other. By 1886 the works had expanded to 52 acres. In 1934 the erecting shop was replaced by a building with through roads. In 1976 the works employed over one thousand people and was 72 acres in size.
Site
The works are situated alongside and to the south of the Dublin to Corkmain line about out of Heuston station. The line also serves Waterford, Limerick, Athlone, Galway and Ballina. The Dublin to Belfast, Sligo and Wexford lines and North Wall complex can be reached via a link line near Heuston station. Besides the works which is used for overhaul and heavy repairs the site also contains a depot for the regular maintenance of locomotives and carriages. A small stream, sometimes known as the "Creosote Stream" owing to pollutants from the works in earlier times, rises west of the works, runs through the site, and joins the River Liffey close to the Irish National War Memorial Gardens.
Engineering achievements
In addition to building and maintaining trains, locomotives, buses, and trucks, the works achieved a number of notable engineering accomplishments. These included "armoured vehicles, armour-plated trains, experimental battery trains, turf-burning locomotives munitions". While initially Inchicore did not build locomotives by 1851 with the expertise accumulated the GS&WR board felt this was now practical and in 1852 the first locomotive, an 0-4-2number 57, entered service. In the 1920s and 1930s, in conjunction with James J. Drumm, engineers at the works created the "Drumm Battery Train" using electric storage batteries. These ran generally on services to Bray in the period 1931-1949. Issues with the supply of quality coal from 1941 precipitated some experiments with turf burning and other initiatives. Further coal supply issues in 1946 resulted in a conversion of a number of locomotives to oil burning in 1947 and 1948. Increased availability of coal, and issues with oil prices, led to these being converted back to coal from 1948. In 1957, despite the dieselisation programme then being underway, an experimental turf burning locomotive, CIÉ No. CC1, was constructed but never entered full service. It was the last steam locomotive constructed at Inchicore and the last steam locomotive constructed for the commercial railways of Ireland. In 1951, the CIE 113 Class was built at the works. These were the first mainline diesel locomotives in Ireland.
Proposed site developments
Originally proposed in 1972, revised plans for the DART Underground project suggested that a DART station be built within the Inchicore works site. The specifics of these plans were subject to some local opposition, and, as of 2018, the project is not funded or scheduled.
