Irish Railway Record Society

Locomotives

121-Class   Locomotives Nos. 124 and 134 continued in freight service in multiple with 141/181-class locomotives during winter and spring. They also occasionally worked the 17:10 Heuston-Ennis passenger train on Fridays between Limerick and Ennis.

On Saturday 5 February, 134 +171 arrived in Ballina on an empty timber train. This was reported to be the first visit of a 121-class locomotive for three years. Locomotives 124+172 worked Ballina branch trains on Saturdays 5 and 12 March.

In April, 134 was in Inchicore Works having its radiator replaced with one from 123, while 124+162 were active on various freight and permanent way trains. On 14 April, 124+162 worked a long welded rail train from Ennis-corthy to Waterford . On Saturday 16 April, they worked the Irish Traction Group special from Limerick to Mallow where 124 was taken off.

141/181-class The number of working members of these classes continues to drop as more passenger services are worked by railcars and IÉ continues to withdraw from freight. Locomotives were stripped of usable parts before scrapping. In February, 150, 157, 188, 164 and 143 were cut up in Inchicore Works.

Notwithstanding withdrawals, pairs of 141/181-class are regularly working permanent way and freight trains. For example, at Claude Road, Drumcondra, on Tuesday 15 March, 160+145 passed at 12:15 with 15 laden ballast wagons, 124+172 worked the North Wall-Heuston Guinness transfer of 7 bogie and 16 four-wheel wagons and 149+176 passed at 12:00 with 12 empty timber bogies from Waterford. They also work singly as illustrated by the Guinness transfer the next day when 192 passed Claude Road at 11:20 with 4 bogie and 16 four-wheel wagons.

Regular passenger train workings are now confined to some Cork-Tralee services, the 07:00 Cork-Cobh and 07:40 Cobh-Cork. On Wednesday 13 April, 149+156 worked Ballina branch trains. One of the more common passenger train workings is the Limerick-Ennis portion of the 17:10 Dublin-Ennis on Fridays-Only. Typically, the locomotives would have earlier worked the 04:10 Limerick-Cork laden and 11:50 Cork-Limerick empty cement trains. The locomotive hauled 17:10 Dublin-Ennis would be a through train of Mk III stock on most Fridays, with the Limerick-Ennis portion worked by a railcar on other days.

201-class   Locomotive 213 appeared in traffic in a variation of its existing orange livery on Saturday 5 February. The change is to the front, which is now yellow. It is understood that locomotives from the first batch of 201s (201-205 and 210-214), which are not fitted with retractable buffers and drop-head couplers for push-pull working, will be painted in this livery while push-pull locomotives will be painted in the same green-silver-grey livery as 228. No. 229 was the second locomotive painted in green-silver-grey and 214 was the second in orange with yellow fronts. Enterprise locomotives 206, 207, NIR 8208, NIR 209 and 230 remain in their grey-green livery.

Enterprise locomotive 206, which suffered serious generator damage in a fire near Lurgan on 21 May 2003 , returned to service after repair in Inchicore on Wednesday 11 May when it worked the 11.45 Dublin-Cork liner.

Most 201s have one million miles ‘on the clock’ and work continues in Inchicore on major overhauls including engine rebuilding. Work also included improving soundproofing of the cabs.

DIESEL RAILCARS

InterCity Railcars    On  Monday  31  January, the Minister for Transport Mr. Martin Cullen signed the order for 120 new InterCity railcars at a ceremony at Heuston station (See JOURNALS 155 & 156). It represented the largest ever order for new trains by IÉ, valued at €262m, and was awarded to Mitsui & Co. Ltd. of Japan, in association with the Tokyu Car Corporation (TCC), also of Japan, and Rotem of Korea.

Mitsui & Co., Ltd. is a Japanese sogo shosha, or general trading firm, which operates as a trading, investment, and service enterprise. The company trades in a broad range of commodities and services to customers throughout the world. Mitsui has contracted TCC and Rotem to actually construct the rolling stock. Rotem will construct the bodyshells, while TCC will be responsible for the bogies and traction units. Final assembly will be at Rotem in Korea before shipment to Ireland .

TCC's Railway Division constructs Shinkansen high-speed trains, Electric Multiple Units (EMUs), Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs) and passenger carriages in mild steel, stainless steel and aluminium alloy. It also produces urban transportation systems, Maglev rolling stock, low emission toilet systems, railway track, containers, ropeway carriers together with other facilities and equipment. Mitsui and TCC have previously supplied the 2600 and 2800-class diesel railcars and the 8500, 8510 and 8520-classes of EMU to Iarnród Éireann. The 2600-class and the 8500-class represented the first time complete DMUs and EMUs were exported to an EU country from Japan

Rotem, is a member of Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group. It is the biggest and most competitive rolling stock manufacturer in Korea . The company has two plants and two R&D centres. The plants are located in Changwon and Uiwang. The Central R&D centre is located in Uiwang and Technology Research Institute is located in Yongin. Rotem manufactures all kinds of trains such as EMUs, high-speed trains, light rail vehicles, locomotives, passenger coaches, freight wagons and is currently developing Maglev systems.

The trains will enter service in 2007 and 2008 on Dublin-Westport/Ballina; Dublin-Galway; Dublin-Limerick/Ennis; Dublin/Cork-Tralee and Dublin-Waterford routes. (See JOURNAL 155).

2700-class   On 29 December, both 2751 and 2753 were in operation as single-car trains on the Nenagh line, with 2753 operating the morning services and 2751 operating the evening services. Single-car railcars took over most operations on the Nenagh line in 2005 and were also observed on the Limerick-Ennis line from the spring. Limerick Works has successfully maintained the single and two-car 2700-class including dealing with the historical problem of overheating engines.

2900-class    Renumbering the existing eighty vehicles commenced in February. Vehicles are being renumbered into a five-digit series based on set numbers to allow space for the delivery of 36 more vehicles due from CAF this summer. 

The following serves to illustrate:

Renumbering brought some interesting number combinations in the interim period when some sets had been renumbered and others had not. Newly renumbered set 17 consisting of 29117-29217-29317-29417 was observed coupled to 2917-2918-2919-2920. However, unlike practice adopted by NIR for 3000-class, the renumbered set does not bear the number 2917 so there was not a case of the number 2917 painted on two different vehicles.

Other   In March, IÉ advertised for a three-year maintenance contract for the repair and maintenance of under-floor mounted fire suppression system as fitted to IÉ fleet of 180 DMU vehicles and separately for a three year contract for the overhaul of DMU and EMU auto-couplers, including replacement of un-repairable units and parts supply for minor components. They also advertised for a three-year agreement for the overhaul of DMU and EMU gangways, including replacement of un-repairable units and parts supply for minor components and for a three-year agreement to overhaul radiators and heat exchangers for locomotive and DMU fleets, including replacement of un-repairable units and parts supply for minor components.

The remainder of this article appears in IRRS Journal number 157, published June 2005.

Copyright © 2005 by Irish Railway Record Society Limited
Revised: August 23, 2005 .