Rob

223's turn this evening. A lengthy 18 wagon set consisting largely of 20ft Tanktainers- two per flat.

The Valet Shed looks very clean in 1993, and without any of the current extracting equipment visible. When was it first built?

216 in action again this Monday evening, similar to Friday- shunting action at the East Wall yard first, then the trip down Alexandra Road to Dublin Port. Very 'navy' blue feel to everything again with both 216 itself and it's complete set of navy containers with just one white exception!

Great photo- looks great. Containers are going very 'navy blue' these days!

216 (used to pulling the Belmond Grand Hibernian) was leading something less glamorous, but still exciting at North Wall today! Reversed out of the East Wall yard before heading down Alexandra Road to Dublin Port with a lengthy container set. Never saw such a gleamingly clean set of tanker containers- was like they were washed and polished! Great to be able to see this freight actionat such close quarters still.

See link to previous thread about the Tara Mines action @ the Dublin Port end with some details. On 'Boards.ie', l found this photo from inside the tipler for unloading which is a rare sight.

I'd love to see that- never knew any record existed of either.

At one end in Ballina and at the other end, in Dublin Port. IWP container and Tara Mines trains travel through North Wall and onto Alexandra Road before disappearing! Never seen any photos of what happens once the trains leave Alexandra Road. Understandably, given the nature of the loads carried in the Taras we never see the unloading of that but would have thought some records exist of the container unloading at Dublin Port. Maybe some day....!!! Photo below of 081 reappearing onto Alexandra Road from the port.

074 action at North Wall today @ 1.30pm with a 12 wagon Tara Mines set. Might be reduced action these days but still great to be able to see 071's and freight action.

Agreed it is disappointing compared to what action there was to be seen there before for sure. On the positive side, although reduced and less varied than before, it is still is one of the few places left that you can see freight / shunting action at reasonably close quarters, obviously not to the same extent as before but we'll take what we can!

Interesting photo comparisons at North Wall. Safe to say a lot has changed in the last 15+ years..... Earlier photos from Ciaràn Cooney / Eiretrains site.

They look great! I was just thinking, how l never encountered this era and it seems so 'historic'. But already, the era l like (IÈ Mark III, or end of the 141 / 181 era etc) is already starting to be 'historic' to others! How time moves on.....

You'd love it 071's always there on the Taras, and some of the Containers- aswell as Spoil Trains, Weedsprayers parked up and general shunting. Most would want to travel from here to your neck of the woods- you could holiday in North Wall

I usually go a couple of times a week- it's within the 5k so that is handy! Good lot of shunting action there last Monday too. It has a great viewing spot for it all! Great day out

There was more 071's than you could shake a stick at in North Wall yesterday. 074 & 080 arrived together. A bit of shunting later, 076 & 080 left. 073 and another grey unidentified 071 were parked up. @DJ Dangerous would have loved it

Looks excellent- really good. Got it just right so the result is spot on- as always. Brilliant

Never knew that all the years l've been watching them- cheers for that.

And it seems to be more the practice now to have just one 20ft Tanker Container on each wagon whereas 10 / 15 years ago, there were more examples of 2 per wagon. Is it less volume of transport nownow so the trains are the length they are and spaced out with one 20ft per wagon?

What time roughly- would be great to see around North Wall?

Seems Hattons couldn't find an image with the current IÉ logo to show what actually is being produced

Looking for a Murphy Models 201 Class Loco lnter City livery (Green Silver). Cheers! Rob.

Any suggestions as regards improving an occasional issue with the large Tension Lock Coupling on a Mark 3 coach. All my locos (141 / 181 / 071 / 201) have the smaller type coupling & work perfectly with the similar type of smaller coupling on the rest of my rolling stock such as the MM Cravens, Tara Mines wagons, 42 Container flats etc. Potential issues arise when the locos are coupled with the rake of Mark 3's as the large TLC coupling on the coach does not obviously sit well with the smaller coupling on the loco- the length of the 'hook' on the Mark 3 is effectively too long to sit in the coupling on the loco when reversing. I don't necessarily want to go 'nuclear' and adapt the whole fleet into Kadee coupling for example,when everything else works really smoothly and there never are issues. Is there any possible way the smaller coupling (like that on the MM Cravens for example) could be adapted onto the Mark 3 coach that couples onto the loco? I don't see how, as the TLC on the Mark 3 is on the bogie whereas the smaller coupling sits on the coach / wagon itself. Any suggestions or help from you experts would be welcomed Rob. (I did search for a similar topic before in case it was covered but could not find)

Yes really looked excellent.

Busy few days

Or maybe say it is one of the Mark 3A Cù na Mara set with the black windows