226 Abhann na Suire

That’s brilliant!! Very exciting and they look very very well indeed! I was never mad about the orange triangle on the cabside of the artist’s impression images so I think this new livery looks much better without it. A few queries though, does anyone know is there an immediate confirmed plan ready to go for the next phased order of trains…? I presume they’re waiting for the Maynooth depot to be built and line electrified before they order the next batch…? And where will this fleet be maintained between now and the Maynooth depot coming online? Does anyone know how the fast charging at Drogheda before the return journey will work…? The article says it’ll take ‘under an hour’ but with a proposed every-10-minute service, is this really doable? They do look brilliant though and I have to say charging points at every seat is a huge plus too! And with their longer distance battery capabilities and wide scale operation, for once Ireland is out in front for public transport infrastructure!!

Surely a Jeep…?

That’s intriguing, wow!! Just goes to show that what a bit of outside the (signal) box thinking can do!!

RPSI steam jaunts down the DSER seem to be cursed of late!! I know last years ‘Sea Breeze’ only made it beyond Greystones and the few the previous years also didn’t make it the whole way. I wonder what it is?? The ghost of Brunel…?

Extra crew, yes, and that was possibly where the problem arose. Then again, a two car train arguably doesn’t need a conductor, now for the Nenagh branch where at the time, ticket machines were few and far between, a guard would be how lots of people got tickets, but today I don’t see why you couldn’t you could get away with two drivers, one for each set. All the uncoupling though as far as I’m aware was done from the cabs of the units so no staff needed there. Again though not 100% sure

I know that 2700 units used to be used in pairs on a Limerick to Nenagh service around the turn of the century where once reaching Nenagh, the set would split with one half continuing to Ballybrophy with the other half returning to Nenagh. Not sure why they stopped doing this kind of service, would be a great idea for these kinds of lines, ie Waterford to Clonmel and on to Limerick Jnct with one half returning to Waterford…

And you’d wonder if with the year that’s in it will a retro 201 be to follow…?? A few more retro liveries would be great to brighten up the network!

Is there an official timed service…? Surely the RPSI would run a special you’d think? Awful shame that the 111’s are no longer passenger-stock-certified, would’ve been the perfect outing for them

Not a bother Derek, happy to help if I can. Ohh ok that’s weird, I’m not sure what happened there then, there’s not much to the videos though I was just demonstrating the sound it makes but looking at the video you have on the other thread, the sounds are similar. Yes I’d say you’re dead right, it’s likely down to the controller. I’ve had a similar sounds off of other locos before so I presumed it was just the way certain locos sound on DC and didn’t see it as much of a problem, and to this day all of my stock runs perfectly. Do any of your other stock, MM or otherwise have similar issues? Ahh ok well that’s it then I’d say! Thanks a million for the help Dave, case closed!!

Looks unbelievable Denis!! Congratulations that’s quite the achievement and quite the space!

Thank you! :)) I’ll attach a few videos but yes mine emits a low kind of buzzing/humming noise at around 40/50% speed however when you increase the speed from then on up the noise gets much quieter so it might just be a running-in thing. My MM 071 does a similar thing at low speeds so it could be my controllers too but the noise isn’t really audible over the noise of a train on the tracks. It’s DC operation and I have two Hornby train set controllers, one for the ‘up’ and ‘down’ line. They’re connected to the track with those Hornby power feed joiner yokes because I’m using Code 75 rail which obviously isn’t compatible with the Hornby power track and I’m also no good at/too scared to try soldering! When the track is in good nick and clean they do provide pretty good reliability in fairness. IMG_4794.mov Running light at 40/50% speed IMG_4793.mov Running light at 70% speed IMG_4790.mov Running with a train, you can’t really hear the humming anymore

Thank you so so much all of you for the really lovely messages and birthday wishes, and the kind comments about the layout, you’re all very good and it’s much appreciated! Oisín :))

Well I arrived home today to a belated but completely surprise 18th birthday present from the auld tuismitheoraí and suffice to say from the title of this thread, it was orange, black and has 8 wheels!! I was absolutely overjoyed and I just adore the little thing already! Running in proving a little difficult on my less-than-ideal trackwork but 163, resplendent in IÉ orange and black with the signature DayGlo panels is a gorgeous runner and a very very grateful and welcome addition to the collection!! Thank you Murphy Models! I also want to pass on a sincere commendation from my dad, he said the crew at IRM were an absolute pleasure to deal with specifically Patrick whom I think he was in contact with. Keep up the amazing work lads, great customer service is so so valuable and means so much to us customers and the one stand out comment about IRM (aside from their unbelievable models of course) is their outstanding customer service so thank you kindly lads! Happy Friday folks :)) Oisín

The problem is that if they wanted to they could absolutely add at least 3 passing loops between Greystones and Dublin. Bray is an ideal place for Rosslare services to pass DART services with the third track down the middle so I think that DARTs and Intercities should pass there and commuters for the south of the city can change at Greystones for a DART northbound. Intercities then shouldn’t make any other stops on the way to Connolly, aside maybe from either Pearse or Dun Laoighre at the very most but preferably not even. Passing loops can be very easily installed at Grand Canal Dock (just continue the line though Platform 2 out to far side of the station) and one could be added at Salthill and Monkstown. This would involve needing to build out onto the promenade coastal walk and involve a track being directly beside the Irish Sea. However the walk can be easily rerouted and that part of Irish Sea tends to be very calm anyway. If needs be another loop section of track could be added dug into the cliffside between Dalkey Tunnel and Killiney…? These are my no means ideal solutions and probably not at all doable but better than the current proposal, and the kind of thing the NTA should at least be suggesting instead of seemingly giving up completely. Greystones to Connolly is just over 30 kilometres and yet takes Rosslare trains over an hour to traverse it, on top of the over two hours it already takes to travel the mere 130 or so kilometres between Rosslare and Greystones. Even if adding passing loops between Bray and Dublin isn’t viable, track, passing loop and linespeed improvements can definitely be made between Rosslare and Greystones to compensate. Over 3 hours to do what the car can do in 1hr 50? Not good enough

I personally see this as being the argument for the Clongriffin link ALONGSIDE the metro for the airport. Manchester, London, Stockholm, Paris, Berlin, and Copenhagen all have both a metro/light rail link (which serves other populated locations on the way) to the city centre AS WELL AS a heavy rail link for fast tracking to the main rail stations. I think this should be the case for Dublin. Metro was clearly designed as a metro which links the city centre and some currently unserved populated suburbs with a link to some non-central rail stations and by happenstance, the airport. But it won’t have the capacity in the peak hours with all the commuters coming from north Dublin to handle all the airport traffic and the associated baggage. We also need a separate dedicated fast route to the airport (even more important when you think we’re an island nation compared with all the mainland European cities that have it!) Ideally DART trains (and slightly modified ones at that - more baggage space etc…) would leave the airport - be it an elevated or underground station - to travel on a double track corridor to Clongriffin where a stop would be made to interchange to DART and Intercity services south for Connolly and north for… well, the north. It would then join the fast lines south and travel non-stop to Spencer Dock where it would join the DART Underground tunnels under Dublin to Heuston and terminate at Hazelhatch. This provides the most connectivity (Clongriffin for Drogheda and Belfast, Spencer Dock for Maynooth and Sligo, Pearse for south Dublin and Rosslare, and then Heuston for everywhere else) but I really feel that the airport DART could not be done without Project FourNorth and DART+ Tunnel. That’s just my spake on it but I feel that the argument of ‘sure we’ll have the metro’ really doesn’t stand up properly as an argument against an airport DART as well. And while the airport DART is not a priority with the metro already being there, and projects like FourNorth, and line enhancements, reopenings, and new stations outside of Dublin, I do think we will eventually need both metro and a heavy rail connection to properly cater for capacity.

Thanks @NIRCLASS80, that’s brillaint to hear, and about time too! Hopefully they bring it in as planned in conjunction with the opening of Grand Central

Just curious, but do those in the know have any idea about the proposed timetable…? Or at least will they be a pre-9am arrival to both cities…?

I think the plan was to have 8 sets…? Not 100% sure though but that would make more sense for an hourly service with a few contingencies in cases of a failure…

Oh good lord above, it can’t surely be true…! I sincerely hope not… or if they do, I only pray that they upgrade the seating offering from the UK version… In fairness I do think it’s quite unlikely they’ll be UK-outline units though, as they wouldn’t be constructed in the UK - ie outside the EU (and a standalone factory in Ireland to build 8 units makes no sense) so if being constructed in Europe it’s far more likely they’d be built to a European train base design. I’d heard murmurings that they were hallmarked to be Stadler ‘Flirts’, and this to me makes a lot of sense as they are European built with many existing factories in Europe, are tried and tested all over the world and are a very flexible base, with many different power supplies possible as well as the potential for very easy decarbonisation on the future. Alstom is another option as they are already producing the new DARTs… Just as long as they’re comfortable, efficient, fast and reliable (not much to ask in todays world you’d think but…) I’m happy! Looking cool and a potentially slick new livery would be an added bonus! Just not an IET… please…

This is revolutionary! I’m surprised at how under the radar this has gone too. Is this to coincide with the opening of Grand Central? Also I presume a pre-9am arrival to each city is also on the cards for this new timetable?

A lot of connectivity problems with the metro could have been very easily solved by a direct link with the Red Line at O’Connell Street, the Red Line bring the direct connection between the country’s 2 (and 3 when the new Spencer Dock opens) rail termini and it was in my opinion the biggest missed opportunity and waste of resources to not connect the two. I understand @DoctorPan’s points above about curve radii and TBM width but even still, the route already plans to run directly under Sackville Pl which with 3 exits could have provided an amazing transport interchange hub in the city centre. On a side note, I also think that not building the Luas Cross City Extension as a double track line up Westmorland O’Connell Streets was a huge mistake. O’Connell Street should have been pedestrianised a long time ago and could have been done very effectively here (buses and taxis only on the western lane and double tram tracks on the eastern lane with more pedestrian space either side as a result) but the government was as always too scared to hurt the private car… Abbey Street Station could have been moved to Middle Abbey Street in front of the Oval and a cross platform right angle corner interchange station between the cities two tram lines could have been achieved, which combined with Metrolink would have been an unbelievable City Centre Transport hub. Tara Station could have been relocated to Pearse instead if the stations were to be ‘too close’, and this would in fact have been a much getter interchange as it would connect with DART Underground and is a much larger station for high capacity interchange than Tara Street. The line from here could still have very easily continued to Stephen’s Green too and overall would have very little impact on the route. However I do feel that a Red Line connection was the biggest missed opportunity of the Metro. I am very much for Metrolink and I do believe that it will be citywide-and nationwide-transformative when complete. I just feel that for Dublin’s first ever metro project and the nations largest rail infrastructure ever, all the stops should have been pulled out.

Didn’t think about that actually Stephen, that’s my bad. Yeah no you’re dead right like a huge upgrade is way more likely and by far the better option, but it was an interesting proposal put forward by the AIRR

Knowing the state of the relationship between politics and brown coloured envelopes in this country, I’d say there’s every chance that there’s skulduggery at play, and definitely more than we might think, but that’s a very interesting theory for the otherwise awfully and uselessly places O’Connell stop…

Not trying to be controversial at all guys but I’m just throwing out a few potential points. I don’t know all the facts at all and I am not myself a Wexfordian, and I really don’t want to annoy people by saying this, but I don’t think it’s outright the worst idea, on paper anyway… Wexford to Dublin is by far the worst intercity line in Ireland, numbers wise, infrastructure wise, and timetabling/line speed wise so a solution is needed quickly and it may need to be a drastic one. While the Rosslare to Greystones section is poor, the Greystones to Connolly section is obviously where the problem is capacity wise. The option as proposed in the AIRR is to have intercity services from Wexford run via a heavily upgraded South Wexford and Waterford-Dublin line, which according to them, would be significantly faster than the current journey and the car, and simultaneously have an hourly Rosslare to Greystones commuter service where a morning and evening train from this would be extended directly to Connolly for commuters from Wicklow etc. I don’t think that this would be bad at all as commuters from everywhere along the line would have a direct and competitive service to Dublin in the morning and evening with Wexford maintaining that throughout the day and all other stations only requiring one change from a DART at Bray/Greystones. Now this is a pretty drastic, and I personally think that a way better idea would be a serious upgrade of the entire line south of the Bray Head tunnels, with higher speeds, much more loops, station upgrades etc, so that the inevitable slowing down for the last 30km from Bray Head to Connolly will be offset by an otherwise much quicker route Finally, I think stopping services (if that’s what they do) at Greystones and Wicklow makes not a lot of sense compared with Bray, which already has a terminating south-facing platform which could be used and space to add a second. This way DART services could all run as far as Bray where a cross-platform interchange to hourly Rosslare trains could be made much easier. I do think that just upgrading the line is the way better option though, for everyone on the line and maybe an eventual three/four tracking south of Connolly could improve things further.

And while this is true, the top of O’Connell street is nobody’s first stop when they arrive in Dublin, and to only connect with the northbound branch of the Green Line here (and a 500m walk with suitcases to the Red Line) was a big mistake, as opposed to a connection with both Luas lines, only 300 metres further along the route, and a mainline connection at Tara and a DART Underground connection at Stephen’s Green. That would be a pretty fantastic Metro System