Railer

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.

I have the 29k drawings that were part of an IRRS journal from 2003 if they are any use. I'm sure others would have them too.

Sure it's the lowest top speed rated intercity train in Ireland. Makes up for it in comfort I suppose.

Aer Lingus getting rid of the blue band was a big change to me. It was a small change but made a big difference overall imo.

Badly needed too. Very hard to do any rail fanning or 071 bashing after dark with UICs. Trying to get the number of a slate '71 at Eastwall junction the other night, couldn't tell if it was 071,077 or 088 in the dark. 088 can be easy to tell sometimes as they fecked up the spacing between the 8s leaving a gap.

Far better logo than the Irish flag double arrow they went with for everything else. It looks OK in black on the DARTs and white on 071s but awful in green white and orange on the ICRs, DMUs and 215. I reckon this logo was more NIR inspired than IE and if so it really shows.

As far as I know the cab end UIC no.s are optional but UIC requirements state that the full 12 digit number has to be printed at least once on each side. Not like the slate 071s that look like rolling Enigma machines.

I've never seen a 201 coupled to Enterprise stock at the no.1 end ever. Even when a set gets turned the odd time the 201 stays with that set until it's turned right way round again. In the days of HEP the no.2 end cab was very noisy so that's why IE turned all the pushpull 201s from around 1997 onwards. Some ended up the wrong way from time to time at Heuston but they always made sure they were the right way round before going Connolly side of the network for Enterprise duties.

Just noticed the yellow face is well off centre on both ends. Look at the marker light clusters on both sides at each end. There is less yellow on the drivers side LEDs both ends.