226 Abhann na Suire

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

I agree, I do think building the metro to the same gauge as the Luas makes the most sense as really, with the planned driverless and platform-edge-door infrastructure, mainline trains were never going to use the tunnel anyway. In an ideal world we’d have both Metrolink AND a DART spur. And while Metrolink will be serving the airport, its main aim did start out as connecting Swords - Ireland’s fastest growing town - to the city centre. As you say the airport is just a bonus, but as the islands main international airport I think it does warrant and deserve a heavy rail connection at some point too. I think it should only be built though, in conjunction with a four-tracked Northern Line and DART Underground. And yes transfers are commonplace everywhere you go, but an airport should be a facility that’s accessible with the least amount of them and Metrolink does not provide that at all, instead with some of the worst mainline connections imaginable and no direct connection with the Luas Red Line??? (I still don’t understand why they didn’t relocate the O’Connell Station to be underneath where Sackville Place is, with 3 exits out (like the London Underground) to Abbey Street, Marlborough and O’ Connell GPO Luas Stops but maybe that’s a conversation for another day…) Don’t get me wrong I’m very pro-Metrolink but I think it could’ve been planned a bit better and with more connectivity in mind, and before anyone starts, yes I fully understand that Metrolink was not intended to connect the main train stations and the airport (still think that no Red Line Connection was beyond stupid though) but my point is, is that argument alone not grounds for a seperqte, dedicated mainline connection…?

I know not the topic of this thread, but my god wasn’t Heuston looking well!! Gorgeous natural light through the roof and hanging baskets and everything!! And I was always fierce fond of checked station platforms! Such a shame that there’s been a bit of a decrease in station pride and well-kemptedness with some of these aspects - certainly the station is still well-kept with the new platform surfaces and signage and boards, but the roof windows could certainly use a shine these days and a few flowers wouldn’t go astray!!

Just a few musings for a bored Monday morning... I realise there is already another similar-sounding thread on here about a direct link off the Northern Line to the airport, but unfortunately, with the Metro already serving the airport, and the enviornmental impact air travel has, I see it very unlikely that a rail link, albeit only comprising 5km of elevated track (which could even be single track) would be both publically and financially backed, despite making the most sense and also being in line with the EU's TEN-T regulations. In terms of the Metro though, obviously as things stand, commuters from Sligo, South Dublin, and the Northern Line as far as Drogheda will have only a single change connection to make to be able to board a Metro to the airport. However, the rest of the country, ie. the Heuston-centric lines, will (as things stand) have a three-change connection to get the airport, requiring instead to travel into Heuston, back out to Parkwest and up to Glasnevin before even seeing a Metro train. I'm just wondering if the more knowlegeable people on here would be able to tell me how realistic it would be (with a view to an hourly/near-hourly timetable on all intercity trunk routes by the time the Metro is up and running) to stop every or every second Intercity train at the likes of Hazelhatch or Parkwest or one of the four-track stations, to allow a direct connection with DART+ services through the PPT and up to Glasnevin...? (And also in effect, back the opposite direction towards Kildare). Intercity services could stop serving Newbridge (which would still be served by Portlaoise services and eventually DART+) to allow for this without adding to journey times, but is it possible? Would another one or two Intercity platforms need to be built at this station? And would it be better to alternate the DART+ stations at which the intercity services stop at? It would also be ideal for the Metro to be extended north to either Donabate or Rush and Lusk, the benefits being twofold: all the space and land north of Swords which could be used to build many of those 'transit-orientated-developments' that the big wigs seem so fond of talking of but doing nothing about lately, which would be perfect commuter towns for Dublin, and you would then have a link to the airport with the Northern Line for Belfast and DART+ North trains too, instead of having to change at Connolly to go to Tara, but that's possibly another argument... I do realise that there were problems and constraints with where the Metro could be routed but I find it an awful shame that it could not have been routed it into a more centralised mainline station to get the most connectivity. I do feel that this would be a pretty good comprimise however, and with proper advertising and signage and wayfinding, could take a lot of people out of cars, and could really benefit Irish Rail, the Metro and the enviornment...

Excellent shots George, 131 looking resplendent!! Always been a big fan of the exposed valve gear!

I’m not 100% sure but I think it’s earmarked for huge redevelopment as part of the new Weaver’s Cross area of Belfast, so new living and commercial buildings I think, but again I’m open to correction as I’m not 100% sure

I thought the full final draft was supposed to be published at the end of last year… any word on when that’s coming out..?

I think it was a bit of a visibility issue for drivers apparently… would’ve been a similar story driving steam engines not too long before that though so I’m not exactly sure myself either

Looks unbelievable Denis, as does the countryside of its old stamping ground!! A really intriguing project, I always look forward to updates!!

More sockets would be nice for the 29k’s, similar to what they’re doing on the MkIV’s, I think they’re only at the carriage ends at the moment, but I suppose we can only hope for so much. Plus the journey times are far less than that of their current stamping grounds so if they didn’t already have them, the case for their addition is even smaller. Seats aren’t too bad in fairness, a bit better than the current Cork commuter offering! Still I think the 2600’s have 10 times the character of the 29k’s, I’ll be sad to see them go, despite how rattly and noisy they are! On a side note, does anyone know a) the timeframe for this work, and b) what will befall the displaced 2600’s… more branch line services around Limerick, Galway and Waterford? Hardly scrapped at the ripe young age of 30…???