Rolling Stock 159

Irish Railway Record Society

Rolling Stock

CAF Mainline Carriages Trials of the first CAF Intercity set based in Limerick Junction continued into October. The set visited Cork during daytime for the first time on Friday 14 October. Trials were temporarily halted following a collision between a trial train and a cow near Grange between Limerick Junction and Thurles on the evening of Tuesday 18 October. The train was operating in push mode and the coupler of the leading driving trailer broke off and caused damage to the underneath of the train. The 19:30 Cork-Heuston was delayed by the incident. The damaged train returned to Limerick and was brought to Inchicore in November.

A second set was delivered by the MV Flintermaas to Dublin on Monday 24 October. Locomotive No. 160 was used to tow the set off the docks. The second set was also based in Limerick Junction for running-in trials. Trials continued at night between Dublin and Cork. A third set was delivered by the MV Flinterdunn on Thursday 17 November and locomotive No. 184 hauled the set from the quays. The MV Flinterdunn delivered the fourth set on Thursday 22 December with No. 155 used for haulage. The three spare vehicles had also been delivered to Inchicore by year’s end.

Numbers have started to appear on vehicles. The control-cars (driving trailer with generator and guards compartment) are in the 4001 series, the catering vehicles are in the 4401 series, standard class in the 4101 series with first-class in the 4201 series.

Cravens Cork-Tralee trains have been worked by Cravens carriages in recent years but have been dogged with unreliable heating from elderly GSVs. Railcars have now taken over nearly all services with the new timetable on 11 December. The last rostered Cork-Tralee Cravens working before the timetable change was the 13:00 Cork-Tralee on Saturday 10 December and was formed by 076 + GSV + 6 Cravens + GSV.

Generator-Steam-heating-Vans (GSV) GSV 3187 was damaged by fire in Cork on Monday 2 January.

The remainder of this article appears in IRRS Journal number 159, published February 2006.