ttc0169

Its a busy summer Saturday of the bank holiday on the High street......

Summer Saturday at the Lakeview freight yard sees locomotive 181 acting as the freight yard pilot and in the process of shunting some two axle bulk cement wagons into position for unloading at the cement silo.

Another recent addition is the 1990s IR road freight version 2800 DAF tractor unit and trailer seen here passing through the high street hauling Guinness kegs....

Lovely to see the videos adding atmosphere to this wonderful layout

Great to see ''Barrow street'' come alive....keep them coming....

The operating manual for the 121s or GL8s arrived from General motors today...…..

Coming along nicely the lights really add to the atmosphere of the shed, keep up the good work.

Delighted to hear this news, the ease of ordering and prompt dispatch on the IRM site really helps, best of luck with it.

The Park royal branch train set simultaneously arrives at the platform hauled by 184+190 as 187 passes with the Guinness/bulk cement liner as the night time scene descends and the lights come on over Tara junction.

One from the 2000's-the Road liner era when some private owner trucks were branded for Iarnrod Eireann freight use, primarily for containers and Guinness traffic, Here we see a Volvo tractor unit and trailer on Guinness Keg duties at the Lakeview freight yard before being moved to allow locomotive 187 shunt the two axle MX wagons onto the bulk cement-see Tara junction thread for a video.

Anyone fancy a pint of Guinness? Locomotive 187 is seen here coupled to the liner which is made up of two MX 20' wagons with 270 barrels of Guinness on board and some two axle bulk cement wagons, The bulk cement wagons will be dropped off at Tullamore while the Guinness wagons will be left in Athlone with 187 returning light engine to the MPD.

When both power cars of the Highland Chieftain HST got into difficulty near Ashburton grove, the crew were fortunate as class 50 -50 043 was on the loop beside the factory sidings so disruption was kept to a minimum, Here we see the 50 come to the rescue of the HST.....

I am gradually building up a road freight section to compliment the railway operations on Tara junction comprising of vehicles from the CIE,IR and IE period which span the best part of thirty years, I will start this thread off with a vehicle from the 1990s Irish rail era, Based out of Ballina freight depot was this Ford rigid truck which served the Mayo area and was branded for Rail Link traffic, Rail Link was an overhaul and rebranding for the former uniload and transtrack department with Ballina as the railhead for the traffic. The Rail Link truck makes its way through afternoon traffic while returning to the Lakeview freight yard to reload with more supplies for the High street.

Friday afternoon freight sees the 14:00 Platin-Cork bogie bulk cement hauled by locomotive 201 pass through Tara junction station earlier.

Thanks lads...

Another elusive wagon that can be see from time to time on the Irish rail network is the bogie carrying 42' wagon, I first saw the real wagon parked on a siding in Ballina having been included in the consist of a liner train from North wall, the wagon would have originated from the wagon works in Limerick. The reason for the wagon being in Ballina was that a few days previous a bogie timber wagon developed a fault with two of its bogies while en route to Ballina from Waterford and needed replacement bogies, the work was done in Ballina freight yard by jacking up one end of the timber wagon and removing then replacing the bogies at both ends, As I have some surplus MIR bogie wagons I decided to construct the frame and to fit it to the wagon, I loaded four spare ''new'' bogies and the wagon was worked to the MPD by locomotive 083, I recently found a photograph I had taken of the wagon which I have included for comparison purposes,

A delayed departure from the mines due to loading issues, retro 071 is seen here returning the laden Tara mines train to Lakeview freight yard just before midnight.

With the real retro liveried 071 class locomotives 071 & 073 being allocated to work Tara mines trains over the last week, it was time to recreate the scene on Tara junction, 073 is seen here exiting from the Lakeview freight yard and traversing the crossovers with the empty Tara mines train while en route to Tara mines,

Many thanks Jason..

The ARROW railcar 2601+2602 arrives and departs from Tara junction station while working a local service. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfCkfnfjRSI

Well deserved lads, I'm sure the forthcoming 001 class locomotives will be a worthy winner at the awards in the near future too....

A short video clip of C 201 class 225 arriving alongside the permanent way gang with the winch truck and 30t brake van.

Monday evening on Ashburton grove sees the 08 shunt wagons from the loop to the factory sidings having arrived behind the 37 earlier, A southbound HST passes at speed the local DMU as it forms a Leeds - Doncaster service, A 47 hauled express passes the shunting as it heads north to Inverness from Kings Cross.

I suppose I am quite fortunate to be in a position to have access to the real trains, so I can see up close what is required on the model versions, Thank you MM

With some surplus bogie wagons becoming available ,I have found other uses for them, The first one is 30001 which has been converted to a winch wagon consisting of two winches at either end for the lifting of old rails, the winches can be posed as can be seen in the following photos, Here we see a Sunday morning operation where C class locomotive 225 has arrived alongside the permanent way gang hauling the winch wagon and the 30 ton brake van, When the gang have dismantled the track panel, the winch wagon is called for to dispose of the old rails.