Irish Railway Record Society

Rolling Stock 

LOCOMOTIVES

121-Class   No more 121-class had been withdrawn by mid-September. Both 124 and 134 continue to be based in Limerick. Generally, 124 worked the 3-piece push-pull set between Limerick and Limerick Junction and 134 worked with a 141-class on Limerick-Waterford and Limerick-Athy bulk cement trains and occasionally on Limerick-Ennis passenger trains with the 141-class. Locomotive 123 remains in Inchicore and is used as a works pilot from time to time. All other 121-class have been scrapped, the last being 127 and 133, which were cut up in Inchicore in May.

201-class   The 201-class has been cleared to operate without restriction from Dublin to Arklow. Previously they were cleared for freight trains to Shelton Abbey and passenger trains to Bray. They have also been cleared to operate without restriction from Dublin to Longford.

The 201-class are now approaching the 1 million mile mark and IÉ has invited tenders for ‘assistance in carrying out scheduled exam work to ensure a high level of availability and reliability’. ‘The provision of services will include material supply and may include hands-on assistance both technical and engineering’.

Several 201-class were out of service during the summer following major failures. These include fire or engine damage to 206, 207, 218, 227, 231 and 234. Most incidents occurred while working Enterprise services, where the engine runs at high revolutions continuously to supply head-end power to the train and consequently wear and tear is accelerated. Reliability of 201s not used on Enterprise services is much higher.

ROLLING STOCK

Mk III Executive   The refurbished Executive train returned to service with an 11.20 Dublin Heuston-Limerick special on Monday 19 May. The President, Mary McAleese, used the Executive train for a Dublin-Cork round trip on 9 July. The vacuum-braked Presidential carriage 5408 has not been used for some time and is stored in Inchicore.

Mk III Push-Pull   Two 6-piece Mk III push-pulls are being upgraded for InterCity work at a cost of €675,000. Work includes providing catering snack equipment including refrigeration equipment, secured food storage area and secured trolley storage area. The public address system will be modified to allow the ticket-checker make announcements throughout the train. The floors will be carpeted and new standard size tables will be fitted. Toilets will be upgraded. Work will take place later this year.

Driving trailers (DT) 6101-6103 are currently fitted with DART style bogies and are unsuitable for speeds above 70mph. Nos. 6104 and 6105 are fitted with standard 100mph Mk III BT22 bogies, but are also restricted to 70mph. New Mk III bogies will be fitted and the speed limit for the fleet will be raised. This work will take place next year.

One of the two 6-piece push-pull sets transferred from Connolly to Heuston after the introduction of an 8-car 2900-class railcar set. It entered service on the 18.05 to Athlone on Friday 22 August, but being towed instead of working push-pull. By Wednesday 27 August, it was working in push-pull mode (DT6103) and established itself on the 10.00 Dublin-Limerick, 14.20 Limerick-Dublin, 18.05 Dublin-Athlone and 20.45 empty return. The push-pull returned temporarily to suburban duties based in Connolly for the early part of the following week. A two-car push-pull set (DT6105) went to Athlone to train Athlone and Westport crews in the first week of September. It ran between Athlone and Roscommon.

Mk IId              On 22 July, standard 5203 returned from Crewe where it received structural repairs to the ends of the vehicle. It will now receive an overhaul in Inchicore. Standard 5208, which received similar structural repairs in Crewe, has been overhauled in Inchicore and returned to service in September.

DIESEL RAILCARS

New Railcars   In September, IÉ invited tenders for new inter regional diesel railcars. The enquiry stated that the vehicles may be purchased or leased. The initial requirement is for 64 vehicles, but future contracts may be placed for further regional or suburban type diesel railcars.

2700-class   The first set painted in the Commuter livery was 2707/08 and was observed in service on 14 September.

2900-class (CAF, Spain)   Deliveries of new 4-car 2900-class railcars continued during the spring and early summer, with eight sets delivered by the end of June. The next delivery was two sets on 7 October.

Night time trials commenced with trains initially based in Limerick. Trains ran between Limerick Junction and Mallow. They were later extended to run between Cork and Portarlington/Kildare. These were described as ‘shakedown’ and ‘ride comfort’ tests, with the objective of accumulating mileage and eliminating teething troubles and faults. Trials were either 4-car or 8-car trains. Each set had to operate 6,000 kilometres of trials before entering service. On Monday 14 July, an 8-car set 2933/34/35/36/09/10/11/12 arrived in Kildare at 13.30 from Cork on a trial. It departed back to Cork at 13.37.

They were cleared to operate between Greystones and Dundalk and were introduced to passenger services on 30 June. The first train was four-car set, 2913/14/15/16, working the 18.45 Connolly-Dundalk. This was later extended to include the 16.20 Pearse-Drogheda and 17.55 Drogheda-Connolly. The new train was generally well received, but the air-conditioning system generally proved inadequate during the hot weather on some cars until it was adjusted. Reliability and performance of the trains to date has been very good.

An 8-car set, 2933/34/35/36/09/10/11/12, was introduced from Monday 21 July. It generally operated on the 07.16 Dundalk-Bray, 09.20 Bray-Drogheda, 15.50 Drogheda-Pearse and 17.13 Pearse-Drogheda. On 4 September, another 4-car set, 2937/38/39/40, entered service and was used to make up a second 8-car set. It later worked the 17.50 Dún Laoghaire-Maynooth link. The fifth set, 2917/18/19/20, was released for service on 17 September, with the sixth, 2921/22/23/24, being readied for service in Inchicore at the same time.

Route Availability   The following is a summary of railcar route availability as of early September:

                                                                                        Class

The remainder of this article appears in IRRS Journal number 152, published October 2003.

Copyright © 2004 by Irish Railway Record Society Limited
Revised: October 06, 2006 .