Branchline121

It may have took 20 years but at least we’re (nearly) getting there.

Correct, it was an error on my part. It should be fixed now.

The coaches have been exported to GB, courtesy of Belmond. Here's a picture of them in their new life:

With the UK having invented trains you'd really think they'd be better at them. With so many gaps in their network despite the population density you would imagine there would be more projects in the last few years (all I can think of recently is the Borders Railway, EWR and HS2). Not to mention the age of their stock (many railcars around the country are '80s-era) and general lack of electrification. It's no surprise Westminster isn't funding projects in the North.

Not sure if this was posted here before but 43028 of British Rail was put into a one-off mock Irish Rail livery in 1997, to haul boat trains from Holyhead. Seemingly it didn’t last long, but it’s interesting to see nonetheless.

It’s good to see it going ahead after 20 years. I wonder how they’ll route the trains? When I was in Warsaw the services were classified with a number (R1, R2, etc.). A similar system could be useful once the DART has more than one line.

I always thought if Inchicore was ever scaled down that it'd be neat to use one of the buildings as a museum -- like an Irish equivalent to the NRM in York. There wouldn't be running costs or anything of the sort at least but there's a good chance something else could come up I suppose.

I'm looking forward to whenever it releases. I hadn't played Roblox in years but recently discovered 'British Railway' a good fun simulation game, and if this is anything similar it'll be great.

The tramway will reopen in 2027 if all goes according to plan, so it's not over yet. Source: https://www.dublinport.ie/e9-million-investment-in-rail-freight-yard-at-north-wall/

Looks like the tendering process has begun.

Can’t say I ever liked the livery — but it is sad to see it gone.

Are the 141s still there? I thought they’d all be gone by this point, a FOI from December 2023 lists them as “disposed,” and I didn’t see them when I was at Inchicore a few months ago (mainly because the Cravens were blocking any view of them). But Google imagery from last November shows 3 still intact, and a TikTok taken with a drone from a few days ago would lead me to believe they’re still there. If they are still there, why haven’t they been scrapped yet? It’s not that I want them to be, but it’s strange that they mightn’t be gone yet considering they’ve been withdrawn for almost 15 years.

The Drogheda-Dundalk section should really see more service. It’s ridiculous that Drogheda-in-Oriel and Dunleer are left unserved when such growth is happening. The same could be said for Navan but I think everything I could say has already been said on that.

I assumed they’d have used the names of the Forgotten Ten if they wanted to name more stations after revolutionaries, or instead maybe pre-1916 figures like Charles Stewart Parnell or Daniel O’Connell.

The review of last year suggested lowering the TACs so hopefully they’ll be reduced in the coming years, if not months. I sometimes wonder if a company from Europe like DB Cargo would be interested in operating here but I think the lack of freight flows and suitable locos/wagons probably turns them away. I wonder if they offered to buy the spare 201s would they be allowed? A 201 in DB traffic red would look dapper.