Railer

It is odd that there are only 2 numbers of standards, same with the black roof 5210 and 5217. But you can always buy more and renumber if you want but leads to shortages as we can see. Then you have the supertrain Mk2s that got 2 EGV running numbers. But still you have the IR Mk2s to come, if they will ever see the light of days is another thing.

I got 5236 from your good self Dave almost 2 years ago and it was hard to get then too, pity it was shop weathered but still just happy to get my hands on it. Right now 5229 is also heading that way from the looks of things and I don't have one of those yet. Wouldn't mind a clean 5236 like Ray is looking for either.

It's a Mk1 GSV behind the TPO.

That's it fotopic, they was some cracking collections on there. Such a loss. There was a great collection I really enjoyed that was taken all around Fairview, Connolly, Pearse and the Boston sideings and Bray in the pre DART days. The DART depot at Fairview being an old shed for the C201s and 6100 pushpull sets was an amazing find for me.

I was lead to believe it will be a chocolate and custard type livery? Can't wait to see the train running next year.

Thanks for the link. I could not get on the site for a few months now with a bookmark I have. I thought it was gone because they was talk around January of taking the site offline because of the low traffic numbers. When I type in irishrailwaynews.com I get a page saying the name is recently listed in the domain market place so I assumed it was gone. There used to be far more photos on that stie but one of the photohosting sites went bang a good few years ago and a few members with thousands of great photos said they won't bother to upload them again which is a massive shame. So much raailway history lost from so my fans.

Shame IRN is no more. There was a ton of info I wanted to lift from old posts there such as day to day operations and what locos were where. There was even a full running numbers list of all current freight stock, even the stuff that is stored out of use.

Suppose they could take the TPWS system out of 230 and install it into 216. Problem solved. 230 is a spare parts loco now anyway.

With 216 being refitted for this I take it it will get an NIR equipment fit with TPWS and NIR radios seeing as this train will service Belfast.

What is with 215's bogies? The were painted in silver only a few months ago and now they are painted gold.

I think they have more carriages than they need right now. They are still working on 2 ex IE Mk2Ds and I think they have acquired 4 Gatwick Mk2Fs, don't know where they are going to store all the stock. And weren't IE trying to push them out of Inchicore as they want to see off land or did at one stage.

There is a few 071s going around like that. I think they just replace them with whatever they have a the time. 082 had a new one fitted about 2 years ago and it was in oxide red so it stood out like 087's. The bogies don't look fully brand new. When 206 was shown in the paint shop recently you could see 087 behind it with it's bogies removed, whatever the hold up was getting 087 back into traffic seems bogie related anyway.

Wow,back from the dead almost. They were a very long time with her though. I believe she was painted up over a year ago.

Cheers TTC. Not only do you put on a great show and tell with the layout, you also keep up to the cutting edge.

Ok I'll bite, Noel, being one for accuracy when to comes to liveries has 080 become the newest member of the slate club for real?

Another Cravens in the blue and cream livery, is that 1508 by any chance?

You still need a powerful and heavy loco for the limited freight that we do have. Last year 084 struggled with an IWT liner out of Northwall, it made a few attempts and 071 was even used as a banking loco to get the train to North Strand. 084 finally failed outside Heuston and had to be replaced. Late last year 201s were struggling hauling liners out of Northwall too with poor rail conditions. These are 600-700 ton freight trains and 110ton 3,200hp locos are having a hard time. Lighter bo-bo locos would be no good for these jobs. Also once you go bo-bo your axle load goes up, just look at the new Class 68s in the UK. We could do with locos like that here but they would need to be co-co configuration but the 68 design does not allow for it.

Currently the 071s that have been rebuilt and overhauled and painted into the new slate livery are: 071 076 (finished sice last June and has not left Inchicore yet) 077 078 084 085 087 (It's been painted for a while but still yet to leave Inchicore, last time it was in service was 2011) 088 All these locos have had full cab rebuilds, improving sound proofing and less vibrations and the drivers are reported as being very happy with the improvements. The first 071 through the program and released back inot traffic was 077 almost 2 years ago now.

One would wonder was that landslide the excuse IE needed to go in there and strip the place out while they were "repairing the damage". It's like they are doing their best to remove all freight links and chartered passenger operations for any possible future operator.

Wow, loving the detail you are putting in to get an exact NIR Mk2 rake. I didn't know NIR ever had Mk2Ds. Though they were all B and C versions and only the Gatwicks being E types. Were the NIR Mk2s air braked unlike IEs Mk2s?

It's still the "right way", no2 end facing Heuston/Connolly like all the push pull 201s.

I actually really like this livery. I'm fed up with all the green and silver everywhere. The green 29ks look god awful and the new tricolour logo is so tacky looking, they look like a special Paddy's Day train. This is something fresh and new and a step out of the comfort zone for once.

Thanks, I have a spread sheet with the full EVNs for all the 071s, 201s and surviving BGMs but can't find it now.

Anyone get it's full EVN. I can see it on the mid sole bar. From what I can gather it should be 92 60 0310206-x, don't know it's check number. 0110 201s are non push pull 0210 201s are push pull, autocoupler capable 0310 201s are push pull, autocoupler capable with NIR package. Don't know if 208 and 209 will be 92 70 or 92 60.

When the loco is on Enterprise duty it always is facing the same way, the no2 end livery is designed to match the coaching stock. The no1 end never ends up facing the coaching stock.