Water Column

The water column is made of cast iron and came from the London & North-Western Railway who installed it at Barrack Street in Dundalk, County Louth. It has the letters 'LNWR' cast into it. The L&NWR owned and operated the Dundalk, Newry & Greenore Railway which connected with the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) at both Newry and Dundalk.

The water column was installed here in 1980 and is directly connected to the nearby water tower. It has a large-diameter bag which allows a locomotive to fill its tender or tank quickly. At one time these bags were made of leather held together with copper rivets. Later they were made of canvas though modern bags are made from toughened plastic sheet. These require many rows of heavy stitching to withstand the force of the water.

It was usually the fireman's job to climb onto the tender or tank to hold the bag in place while the driver operated a rotating handle at about knee level to open and close the valve. Our water column has an operating valve at the top of the column so that the fireman could do the job single-handedly.

Cast-iron water columns are liable to crack in frosty weather and were often protected by burning braziers beside them - what the railwaymen called 'fire devils'. Our column has a built-in space where a small coal fire could be kept burning during heavy frosts. This had the advantage of heating the metal directly rather than just the air around it.

Our water column is used frequently.

The original water column here was opposite the station building but was hit by something heavy and broke in two about 1990; its remains are still about.