Irish Railway Record Society
JOURNAL 170 ROLLING STOCK
LOCOMOTIVES
201-Class
227 and 228 were in York Rd Depot in August for fitting of TPWS. With
201-205 and 210-213 in storage in Inchicore, 214 was the sole remaining orange
liveried 201-class in service during the summer, but it was also stored by 21
August.
PASSENGER
ROLLING STOCK
Mk IV
A series of trials to compare ride quality between Mk IV and Mk III carriages
took place on the Dublin-Cork line in June.
On Wednesday 17 June, 234 hauled a mixed formation consisting of 7615 /
7104 / 7129 / 7411 / 4135 / 4132 / 4137 / 4003 from Inchicore to Mallow at
12:30, returning at 16:25. Similar trials were held in following days. In
August, IÉ advertised for approximately 575 ‘replacement axleboxes
castings’ for the Mk IV fleet.
Mk III
The final Mk III push-pull was withdrawn from service on Wednesday 3 June
after working the 09:15 Galway-Dublin Heuston. The train was formed by 6104 +
6319 + 6303 + 6314 + 6312 + 6318 pushed by 234.
A
later movement was the towing by 082 of defective driving trailer 6101 from
Athenry to Inchicore at reduced speed on a wheel skate. The journey was done in
stages over several days; Athenry-Athlone, Athlone-Kildare and finally
Kildare-Inchicore on Sunday 14 June.
With
the taking over of the 17:10 Dublin-Athlone link by ICR on Monday 13 July, the
final regular daily Mk III working ended on the previous Saturday. This left
just the Fridays-Only 16:15 Dublin-Ballina as the sole rostered Mk III working,
along with two sets acting as standby for Dublin-Cork Mk IVs.
The
final scheduled locomotive hauled working of the 10:35 Athlone-Westport and
14:25 Westport-Dublin took place on Sunday 12 July using 226 + 6 Mk III + EGV.
6-car ICR 22042 worked the link the following Sunday.
Three
Mk III sets remained in services at the end of August with all others in
storage. On Friday 21 August they were assigned:
16:15
Dublin-Ballina: 7602 + 7168 + 7407 + 7157 + 7144 + 7143 + 7115
Available
for specials: 7614 + 7171 + 7404 + 7103 + 7114 + 7140 + 7149 + 7132
Standby
in Cork: 7615 + 7104 + 7411 + 7129 + 7113 + 7121 + 7146 + 7102
Spare
vehicles in Heuston: 7609, 7120, 7123
Transfer
Van: 7610
Mk IIIa
Disposal of the Mk IIIa (International or Cú na Mara) set has commenced.
Standards 6204, 6206 and 6207 have been sold to Heritage Transport Supplies,
Loughborough, UK. Standards 6203 and 6205 were sold to the Killashee House
Hotel, Naas, Co Kildare, which also has Cravens 1558 but this is now derelict.
They were all moved by road from storage in North Wall on Wednesday 22 July and
their bogies were scrapped by Hammond Lane. On Wednesday 12 August, 6202, which
was in Inchicore ith scrap wheels and could not be moved, was cut up. Two days
later the body-shell of the proposed Driving Van Trailer that was never finished
was cut up. On Tuesday 18 August, 085 departed North Wall at 12:50 for Inchicore
with coaches 6201 + 6401 + 6208 (+ EGV 7603) to Inchicore for scrapping. The Mk
IIIa’s first arrived in North Wall on Tuesday 22 April 2008 hauled by 086.
|
The remainder of this article appears in IRRS Journal number 170, published October 2009. |
Copyright © 2009 by Irish
Railway Record Society Limited
Revised: October 30, 2009
.
