Rolling Stock 156

Irish Railway Record Society

Rolling Stock

LOCOMOTIVES

121-Class Locomotive 124 was generally based in Limerick working Limerick-Cork cement trains in conjunction with a 141/181-class locomotive, but it also worked sugar beet trains. No. 134, which had been out of service since 20 March, received a new set of wheels in Inchicore in December. It then appeared in multiple with 124 on the Dublin-Waterford cement train on Wednesday 22 December. No. 123 is withdrawn and stored in Inchicore. All others have been cut up.

141/181-class Locomotives 150, 157 and 188, which had been partially stripped for spares at Inchicore, were withdrawn at the end of September.

201-class The CAF stock for the Dublin-Cork line under construction in Spain will be delivered in a new InterCity livery of silver, grey and green. A number of push-pull equipped 201-class locomotives will be painted in a matching livery to work these trains. The first locomotive to be painted was 228. It has yellow ends, white roof, light green band at top, dark green band, silver body sides, with a dark green lower band. The under-frame and buffer beams are silver-grey.

It entered traffic on Wednesday 1 December on the 12.00 North Wall- Cork liner, departing North Wall at 12.45. The next day it worked the 10.55 Heuston-Cork, 14.25 Cork-Heuston and 19.00 Heuston-Cork. It went into general service and was on Enterprise services from Tuesday 14 December.

DIESEL RAILCARS

New InterCity Railcars In December, IÉ placed an order with Mitsui of Japan for 120 new high specification InterCity railcar vehicles in 3-car and 6-car sets (See JOURNAL 155 for vehicle details). The vehicles will be built in South Korea with bogies made in Japan and represent an investment of €180m. The trains will be delivered in 2007 and will allow major improvements in services to and from Dublin to Limerick , Galway , Waterford , Tralee and Mayo.

2600-class This class now regularly works in multiple with 2800-class on the Dublin-Kildare route. Cork-Cobh services are normally 2600-class. In December, 2600-class operated some Waterford- Limerick Junction- Limerick services in place of the usual 2700-class.

2700-class New instructions were issued in October allowing the operation of railcars 2751 and 2753 as single cars over all lines cleared for the operation of the 2700-class.

Spare Railcars IÉ originally purchased 17 2600-class railcar vehicles in 2-car sets with one spare vehicle. They later purchased 27 2700-class railcar vehicles in 2-car sets and again with one spare vehicle. The two spare single vehicles have been used to make up sets when a vehicle has had to be removed due to damage or defect, but have largely lain unused in Inchicore. The two spare vehicles are currently 2609 and 2716 and these are now to be made up into a single 2-car unit. Over the years parts have been removed from them and these are now being replaced. Hunslet-Barclay was awarded the contract and 2716 was moved to Kilmarnock by road in October, with 2609 following in November.

2800-class Two-car set 2803/04 arrived in Cork for driver and maintenance staff training on this class in late December.

2900-class The existing 2900-class fleet is being re-numbered to accommodate the next batch of 36 vehicles due this year. The vehicles are being numbered by set identity, eg 2977-80 is now numbered 2920, with individual vehicles given an additional digit 2920-1, -2, -3, -4.

Route Availability 2600-class, 2700-class, 2800-class and 2900-class railcars have now been cleared to operate over all open passenger lines except Howth Junction-Howth (cleared for 2600-class only), Mallow-Tralee and Athlone-Westport/Ballina.

Restricted Coupling In November, IÉ issued instructions for restricted operation of railcars with non-safety critical faults on automatic couplers that are awaiting repair. A stencilled temporary plate mounted on the top of the coupler will indicate the restriction. A plate with a crossed out C indicates that the cab cannot be coupled to another vehicle due to damage or equipment malfunction on an automatic coupler, gangway or end-door. A plate with a crossed out E indicates that cab cannot be used as the leading or trailing cab of a train due to windscreen damage, failed windscreen wipers, end-door fault or some cab control defect. In all cases the vehicles may only remain in service provided its coupler condition will allow mechanical coupling to another railcar or locomotive for emergency purposes.

ROLLING STOCK

Mk IId The following vehicles have been withdrawn: 5104, 5204 and 5207.

DART

8520-class A four-car set 8627/8527/ 8528/8628 was the first to enter traffic on Tuesday 31 August. Following further testing and trial running, it entered regular service on Friday 17 September. Further sets entered service during the autumn and winter.

8100-class Major refurbishment work of the original Linke-Hoffman-Busch DART 2-car EMUs will take place by Siemens in the Czech Republic and by IÉ in Inchicore Works. These extremely successful and reliable trains revolutionised suburban train travel in the Dublin area when they were introduced twenty years ago. They have accumulated 50 million miles and continue to have high daily availability. The refurbishment programme will incorporate many upgrades and will extend the life of the vehicles by 20 years. All 76 vehicles in the fleet will be refurbished at a total cost of €60m over a two-year period.

Vehicles will initially be brought to a DB works in Leipzig, Germany for stripping and removing of re-usable components before moving on to Prague in the Czech Republic where the main refurbishment work will take place. This will give the Prague factory what is effectively a body shell, which they will re-fit similar to assembling a new vehicle. Inchicore Works will be responsible for refurbishment of bogies.

The following items will be refurbished or replaced: Pantograph, pantograph compressor, main air compressor and electric motor, equipment cases, batteries, miniature circuit breakers and push-buttons, braking systems, automatic train protection system, fitting sanding equipment new head, tail and marker lights, replacement of inter-car gangways, public address system and new train radios. The Schafenberg couplers and the traction system will also be upgraded, but the original DC traction motors will be refurbished.

Upgrades will take place in passenger facilities such as the installation of an on-board CCTV system, passenger information system with automated PA and text displays, improved interior design and colour contrasts for visually impaired passengers, overhaul and

modifications to doors, heaters and lighting, the enhancement of thermal and sound insulation and an emergency voice communication system for passengers. It is understood that the popular seating will be retained but with upgraded materials that meet current fire standards. All interior and exterior glass will be replaced.

In October, sets 8107 and 8124 were stripped of air compressors and pantographs and re-usable spares such as seats and cushions. They were then brought to North Wall yard for storage pending transportation to DB for stripping before transportation on to Prague . It is anticipated that two units per month will be sent to Germany .

On Friday 22 October, 192 hauled 8324/8124 to Midland Yard North Wall, arriving at 12.30. On Monday 25 October, 8307/8107 was also observed in the Midland Yard. In November, they were joined by 8113/8313 and 8140/8340.

On Thursday 2 December, the DART sets were towed by locomotive 181 from the Midland Yard to the wagon works in the North Wall to have electric equipment removed. No. 8313 was moved by low-loader to the Irish Ferries terminal in Dublin Port on the morning of Friday 10 December, with 8113 following in the afternoon. Sets 8107 and 8140 were moved that night. They were shipped to Siemens on 15 December. Set 8124 remained in the Midland yard and was joined by sets 8123 and 8131.

Multiple Working Modifications have been made to some of the 8100-class to enable them to run in multiple with the new 4-car 8520-class. The purpose of this modification is to make up 6-car trains. On Wednesday 1 October, 8625/8525/8526/8626 entered service and operated in multiple with 8123/8323. This was the first occasion that one of the 8100-class worked service trains in multiple with a member of another class. To work with the 8520-class, a number of minor modifications had to be made to the 8100 set, principally to enable calls from the passenger emergency and wheelchair assistance systems be displayed in the 8100-class cabs. A small grey box on the driver’s desk shows warning lights if either is activated. Further sets were subsequently modified and became a regular feature with 8520-class sets.

Other DART sets 8109, 8111 and 8112 have been fitted with a passenger counting system. It is supplied by Dilax Intelcom GmbH, Berlin . A triangular shaped box is fitted to the sloping panel over the doors and this contains four apertures for lenses.

The remainder of this article appears in IRRS Journal number 156, published February 2005.