Branchline121

I already posted a comment on this thread before, but if I was asked a second time I’d say Cabra, or, as many others have said, Navan. If we were opening Navan on the GNRI branch, I’d also reinstate Duleek, and maybe extend the line into Kells. Finally, if there was infinite money for building new lines, I’d love to see Navan—Armagh to open as envisaged back in the 19th century to tie in with the All-Island Strategic Rail Review, it’d certainly be a useful diversionary route!

Well, action has now started taking place for the reopening of the Derry Road (article), which I find somewhat interesting considering the AISRR didn’t recommend undertaking for another 10 years, but I’m still glad it’s starting sooner rather than later.

Huh. I wonder if it’d be worth anything creating an article for the 80000 Class too then?

Seemingly a Wikipedia page has sprung up detailing the new DART fleet. “IÉ 90000 Class,” is there any proof that they use those numbers yet? No sources either, so I’m confused as to where the author got the numbers from. Other than that, the page has little information, not even an infobox — I guess it’s too early for an article, considering the info about the fleet has been scarce at best.

Found this article that says Irish Rail are considering buying Stadler Euro Dual electro-diesel locos similar to the Class 99 entering service in England, apparently to replace the 071s and 201s. Didn't think the 201s need replacing (the 071s are good too but I suppose they are almost 50) but here we are; either way, the article's worth a read.

The BBC article about the opening is here if anyone is interested. There’s a short bit about the late Noel Playfair’s son too. Hopefully the Lisburn-Antrim line reopens soon enough so the station can be filled up a bit, but overall it’s good to see it open.

This locomotive has seemingly been preserved… sort of…

Croatia and Serbia have a similar problem. The border between them was drawn up during the federalisation of Yugoslavia, but the problem lies in that Serbia claims the border follows the modern course of the Danube (thereby giving them more land), whereas Croatia asserts it should follow the original course drawn before the Danube was straightened for ease of navigation. This leads to one piece of land being claimed by neither. Naturally, this has lead to some chancers to travel to the land and claim it as their own ‘micronation’, such as a Czech man who proclaimed “Liberland” on the territory, although neither Serbia nor Croatia take him seriously. While not on the topic of unclaimed land, I feel, seen as this is a railway forum, I should mention the peculiar Belgian-German border. After the Great War, the Treaty of Versailles granted some land to Belgium as reparations — one of these is the Vennbahn, a strategic railway line that crossed the border. The Vennbahn’s path would be granted to Belgium, in the process separating land west of the line from the rest of Germany. Although the line is closed now, the irregular border remains.

It hasn’t seen a passenger service since 1995 AFAIK (albeit that was a special), but you’d think that the GNRI station could be opened in the interim for a service to Dublin to bridge the gap between now and when the ex-D&M reopens in 2036, a good 12 years from now, especially considering the line is so sparsely used now. The lack of a Navan branch platform is an issue, but a wooden platform could probably be thrown together hastily, right?

The GeoHive Maps also have satellite imagery that is, in many cases, much higher quality than Google Maps; although the satellite imagery is all pre-2015..

I used to have a large layout that covered my whole bedroom floor when I was younger, but it's all stored up in boxes now...

It’s a strange idea alright — but I’d hate to see Malahide or the other stations destroyed for quadruple-tracking like they did to all the stations between Heuston and Hazelhatch.

Interestingly, the All Island Strategic Rail Review suggest only 4 tracking up to Clongriffin, and making a new direct line that follows the M1 for fast services (Enterprise) and rejoins the northern line at Drogheda. I wonder if it would be beneficial to complete that project first?

Interestingly the review states it did study a Navan—Derry railway line but did not consider there to be enough demand.

You’d really think they’d just convert the 1.5 V DC on the DART to 25 kV AC instead of extending the redundant DC system when it could be AC from Greystones to Belfast.