Rolling Stock

Irish Railway Record Society

DIESEL RAILCARS

2900-class
Details of the new railcars under construction by CAF in Spain have been released. The railcars are primarily intended for outer suburban use on the Dublin-Dundalk, Dublin-Arklow and Dublin-Longford lines with a set possibly allocated for Cork-Cobh. The maximum speed is 120 km/hour (75-mph).

They will be in fixed four-car formations with a full-width drivers cab at each end. They will be air-conditioned and seating will be a combination of facing and back-to-back. In a four-car set there are 185 seats arranged 2 + 2. Each vehicle is 20-metres long and 2.9 metres wide. The air-conditioning module is situated in the roof space above the doors. As a security feature, they will also feature CCTV monitoring of the passenger areas and will have no hidden areas. A full-scale mock-up of the driver’s desk was constructed and displayed in Inchicore. They will be constructed to a very high fire safety standard.

Delivery of the first vehicles is expected in August with all delivered by April 2003. A short section of Irish gauge track in Spain will allow testing of all vehicles before delivery. Extensive on track testing on IÉ will be carried out at night with the first set expected to be in service within six-months of delivery.

DART

Mixed Trials
To make up as many DART trains to six-car as possible, it is necessary to add a two-car Spanish built 8200-class to the four-car Japanese built 8500-class. Trials in passenger service were observed from December. They generally operated in the middle of the day with the driver accompanied by a District Traction Executive (Loco Inspector). On Monday 7 January, the trial train consisted of 8605-8505-8506-8606-8405-8205 and passed Tara Street northbound at 12.50. Following extensive trials, full commercial operation of mixed 8200-class and 8500-class began on Monday 8 April. This allowed a further increase in the number of six-car DARTs in service.

8510-Class
Following a period of trial operation, the first 8510-class entered passenger service on the Bray-Greystones shuttle on Tuesday 2 April. The set consisted of 8611-8511-8512-8612. The two other 8510-class sets were based in Greystones while on trials and on the shuttle service at this time.