Locomotives 161

Irish Railway Record Society

LOCOMOTIVES

121-Class Active 121-class locomotives 124 and 134 continued to give good service. They were normally assigned to freight trains, but they occasionally worked passenger trains when the need arose. On Friday 19 May, difficulties with 075 resulted in 124+184 working Ballina branch passenger trains. This continued for most of the following week.

On Friday 9 June, 124+162 + EGV + 3 Mk IId worked the 19:15 Dublin Heuston-Limerick, but were not were used on the 06:45 Limerick-Dublin next morning. On Friday 7 July, 134+124 worked the 06:25 Waterford-Sligo empty timber train to North Wall, returning empty with 7 Mk IId + EGV to work the Chunkrail Challenger Railtour from Waterford to Dublin Connolly next day. Other locomotives used on the railtour were 177+141 Connolly-Sligo and 181+192 Sligo-Connolly The return leg from Connolly to Waterford via Rosslare Strand, was worked by 134+142.

141/181-Class Locomotive 182 was stripped of parts in Diesel 1 in July and was cut up on 21 August. No. 145 was cut up on 24 August, with 183, 148 and 159 cut up in early September. Other class members withdrawn and approved for disposal included 186, which was being stripped for parts, as was 156. Nos. 153, 154, 155 and 176 were confined to Inchicore. The latter two have been recommended for scrapping.

071-class Locomotive 083 was overhauled in Diesel 1 during the summer. It is the first of the class to receive a new Teloc event recorder. The 071-class are only fitted with a simple Hasler speed recorder, which is not up to current standards. The event recorder will record many parameters such as horn and brake use and is similar to equipment fitted to 201’s, and 29000-class railcars.

DIESEL RAILCARS

2600 and 2700-classes The ‘hybrid pair’, 2609+2716, were in the Running Shed in Inchicore during July and were transferred to Drogheda for final commissioning in August.

In May, IÉ advertised for the refurbishment of seating in the seventeen 2600-class railcar vehicles. In late July, a two-car 2600-class was based in Athlone for crew training to allow the introduction of railcars on Ballina Branch trains.

LED marker lights are being fitted to the 2600-class, with the 2700-class to follow.

29000-class The class continue to exhibit very good reliability. IÉ Chief Executive Officer Dick Fearn told the Railway Study Association that they were achieving 80,000 miles between service failures.

The remainder of this article appears in IRRS Journal number 161, published October 2006.