Darrman

These would be good calls for intermediate Limerick-Cork stops. There's quite a distance between Drogheda and Dundalk and Dunleer is a decently sized town. A fan of the SLNCR? Unfortunately the greenways have gone into Kingscourt, so good luck getting rid of them. Navan's the largest town in Ireland without a passenger station (disregarding County Dublin and Belfast suburbs), but I won't hold my breath for the MGWR route ever being rebuilt and I don't know how much longer the GNR route will last. Hopefully the Taras come back soon. I had to look this one up - it was on the Swilly. Google Street View has a nice view of it: not a house for miles!

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-68916989 Overall cost at £17 million, and now with ticket machines and barriers. The big hill Yorkgate was on top of has given way to a three floor building in York Street.

The only stations in all of County Limerick are Colbert and Castleconnell (and the tip of Charleville's platforms). Both of them are in the northeast of the county. Dromkeen has the loop, though it's in the middle of nowhere, Caherconlish (the largest village) is 4.5 kilometres away from Boher (also in the middle of nowhere) and Pallasgreen and Oola are small villages of 200 and 300, though at least the stop would be in the village. I suppose it's worth mentioning the Ballysimon park and ride idea too, which could take traffic from the N24 and M7. A town of over 30,000 with a railway line passing through, and there's no passenger service. Sure it would be a roundabout route, but I'm not going to hold my breath for the direct one to be built. Upgrading the track to have speeds of more than 25 mph is the main issue. Considering they're going to the bother of rebuilding the Foynes branch, it would be silly not to. Will they do it for the Ryder Cup? This is probably the most sensible answer: an extra commuter station in Dublin in an area currently bypassed. Building it with the Dart upgrades would be the most sensible time to do it.

Irish Rail or Translink have been given enough money to open a railway station anywhere on the operational network. Where do you open it? The budget does not include anything for laying down new track, but will cover any other operational expense necessary. I'm going to try to be reasonably objective and judge by town populations. The largest town passed through (loosely defined as having a station once named for it on an operational line) without stopping is Dunleer (population 2,143). I wouldn't stop Enterprises there, leaving it to be served the six trains terminating in Dundalk and seven departing from Dundalk, plus the train that terminates in Newry. After that comes Newmarket-on-Fergus (population 1,887), which would have every Ennis and Galway train call, so nine a day each way. However, the former station site is three kilometres away from the village's centre and would slow Limerick-Ennis times further. In third place is Kilmallock (population 1,761), which I think would be a good choice if there were regular Cork-Limerick services. But there aren't, so I'll assume a similar stopping pattern to Charleville: six from Dublin, seven from Cork. Up next is Ballysadare (population 1,747), which is quite close to Sligo. Sligo services largely don't skip stations after Maynooth, so eight trains a day would call. Sligo trains are already slow with many stops, however. Finally for what I'll compare is what the census knows as "Killucan and Rathwire" (population 1,574). Also being on the way to Sligo, the same service provisions would apply. There's a passing loop already in Killucan, meaning trains already stop there. However, the station is isolated, located 2.6km from the centre of Killucan. It could be relocated to better serve Kinnegad (pop. 3,064) in addition, but at best the station would be 3km from Killucan and 4km from Kinnegad, and it would then be off of the passing loop. With the old station site actually within the town, I'd probably go for Dunleer here. But it's difficult to select one station and there are many factors that could be considered, and I could be convinced otherwise.

Got my 141 today. I decided to dust off the train set and run it, but a paper mat over carpet is not a good running surface at all, and it was a struggle to record these clips. Don't mind the livery mismatches and the HST cameos - I wanted a black and tan 141 to have a black and tan loco. What if I told you it was actually an MGWR HST? 20240419_221431.mp4 20240419_205957.mp4

https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/news/limerick-to-ennis-line-to-close-due-to-flooding-fr The line should reopen on Saturday, so about a month's closure in all.

As far as I can tell, every railway line in Ireland has a one or two character code, as seen on bridges and level crossings. Some former lines have codes too as CIE owns some bridges across disused lines/owned them as of about 2009 when the first street view images came in. I haven't seen these documented anywhere, so I'll post what I've seen and enquire if there's any more. Some codes appear to be meaningful and have what they likely stand for spelled out in addition to the route covered. I also did some research into bridge numbers as not every route begins with bridge number 1. My sources include Irish Rail FOI requests (especially 136 and 137, linked here), Translink FOI requests (level crossings and bridges), and observations on Google Street View. A: Athlone: Portarlington - Athlone Bridge numbers: 1 - 84 B: Belfast: Dublin Connolly - Border - (Belfast) Bridge numbers: 1 - 160 (continues in North) B (EW): East Wall Cork: Dublin Heuston - Cork - Cobh Bridge numbers: 1 - 438 CC: Conniberry Junction CL: Collooney: Claremorris - Collooney Bridge numbers: 226 - 280 CN: Clonsilla - Navan: Clonsilla - M3 Parkway - (Navan) Bridge numbers: 284 - 296 Docklands: Liffey Junction - Docklands Station Bridge numbers: 218 - 233 DE: Dundalk - Enniskillen Line closed and lifted; bridge 5 remains in CIE ownership E: Ennis: Limerick - Ennis - Athenry - Claremorris Bridge numbers: 1 - 202 (can't check Claremorris GSWR footbridge) F: Foynes: Limerick - Foynes LB = Limerick - Ballingrane, BF = Ballingrane - Foynes Bridge numbers: 1 - 33 (LB), 1 - 17 (BF) G: Galway: Dublin (Broadstone) - Mullingar - Athlone - Galway Bridge numbers: 1 - 173 1-3 were Broadstone cutting, 172-173 noted as Galway-Clifden H: Harbour: Waterford - Rosslare Harbour Bridge numbers: 124 - 227 J: (Macmine?) - New Ross - Waterford Bridge numbers: 349 - 470 K: Kingscourt: Drogheda - Navan - Kingscourt Bridge numbers: 1 - 50, 343 - 355 KW: Kilkenny - Waterford: Kilkenny - Waterford (used for bridges) Bridge numbers: 56 - 124 L: Limerick: Limerick - Waterford Bridge numbers: 1 - 187 LL: Dublin Loop Line: Connolly - Pearse (numbering continues into Rosslare) Bridge numbers: 1 - 51 M: Mayo: Athlone - Westport Bridge numbers: 679 - 799 N: Nenagh: Ballybrophy - Killonan Junction Bridge numbers: 1 - 94 NK: North Kerry: Ballingrane Junction - Tralee Bridge numbers: 34 - 114 O: Great Southern and Western Dublin Port Access: Heuston - Dublin Port Bridge numbers: 1 - 37 P: (Mallow? - Dungarvan) - Ballinacourty - Waterford Bridge numbers: 81 - 122 Q: Howth Junction - Howth Bridge numbers: 0 - 3 R: Rosslare: Dublin Pearse - Wexford Bridge numbers: 51 - 208, 244 - 343, 390 - 421 RW: Wexford - Rosslare Bridge numbers: 235 - 252 S: Sligo: Mullingar - Sligo Bridge numbers: 385 - 610 T: Tralee: Killarney Junction - Tralee Bridge numbers: 1 - 138 U: Mungret siding V: Tralee - Fenit Bridge numbers: 1 - 14 W: Waterford: Cherryville Junction - Waterford Bridge numbers: 1 - 114 WW: Athy siding X: Manulla Junction - Ballina Bridge numbers: 875 - 899 Y: Youghal: Glounthaune - Midelton - (Youghal) Bridge numbers: 1 - 37 Z: Silvermines siding XBBP1: Clontarf Road White Light Crossing turns up in the level crossing list, but I'm not sure what BBP stands for or where it is. NIR use a similar system to Irish Rail for their level crossings, but use an entirely numerical system for their bridges. A: Antrim: Lisburn - Antrim B: Bangor: Belfast Queen's Quay - Bangor Dublin: (Dublin) - Border - Belfast GVS L: L'Derry: Belfast York Road - Derry P: Portrush: Coleraine - Portrush R: Bleach Green Junction - Larne 1: Border - Portadown Bridge numbers: 161 - 242 2: Portadown - Belfast GVS Bridge numbers: 243 - 307 1+2 (D) bridge numbers: 161 - 307 3: Belfast Central 3 bridge numbers: 308 - 315 4: Belfast - Bangor 4 (B) bridge numbers: 316 - 376 5: Belfast - Antrim Bridge numbers: 1 - 78 6: Bleach Green - Larne 6 (R) bridge numbers: 416 - 465 7: Antrim - Ballymena Bridge numbers: 79 - 120 8: Ballymena - Coleraine Bridge numbers: 121 - 186 9: Coleraine - Portrush 9 (P) bridge numbers: 253 - 264 10: Coleraine - Derry Bridge numbers: 189 - 221 5+6+8+10 (L) bridge numbers: 1 - 221 11: Knockmore - Antrim 11 (A) bridge numbers: 1 - 45 12: Greenisland - Monkstown 12 bridge numbers: 23 - 27 The MGWR and NCC appeared to have bridge numbering for the whole network, and there's some unusual gaps in the DSER numbering. The GSWR just started every line from 1, and Bangor's bridge numbers seem to have been changed to follow up with the GNR main line. The M3 Parkway branch using what appear to be the original MGWR bridge numbers suggests to me Irish Rail have some historical bridge database lying around somewhere. Other things worth noting include: the remaining Foynes branch being labelled F, the numbering resets after Ballingrane, with the previous numbers continuing along the North Kerry, bridge numbering going from Mallow to Waterford to Rosslare and then from Wexford down again, what is nowadays known as the Western Railway Corridor continually counts up despite a code change at Claremorris, I is the only unallocated single-letter code (to my knowledge, I couldn't find any code for places such as the Limerick Junction bypass) south of the border.

There's a small bit of Irish content in train simulators, though there hasn't been any commercial efforts in decades. Microsoft Train Simulator had Irish Enterprise North and South by Making Tracks, which combined cover York Road to Connolly. It covers the Navan Branch too, and was the only commercial endeavour that visited Irish shores. Here's a video with some clips from the route: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya1uEYHuWeY For Train Simulator Classic there are routes from Dublin to Cork and Dublin to Rosslare, along with a few smaller lines by Brendan Moran. The Cork route covers the GSWR main line from Heuston to Cork, and extending to Cobh and Midelton from there. The South Kerry to Tralee and Limerick via both Limerick Junction and Nenagh are present as well. This video covers the Dublin-Cork run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VXoU3tk9mY. The trip to Rosslare covers the full DSER main line, and it extends to Malahide and Howth to allow for the Dart. The route isn't fully complete as the release was rushed to get something out before the website it was originally hosted on shut down. The assets have since been mirrored in this Reddit thread. That's about it for train simulators. On a related note, I have another hobby where I modify games I like, and I ended up with the idea of stopping a runaway train for a game jam. Being the Corkman I am, I made it a 2600, or at least an attempt at one. Now that I look at it, the name Arrow applied to a modern livery isn't the most accurate, but what other name could I put in? Cattle Cars, as whoever wrote the Wikipedia 2600 page (I suspect that person is not a fan of the 2600) calls them? Overall, it was a very silly project: the protagonists hop on a 2600 in Limerick and take it up the Western Railway Corridor (even though it's disconnected at the Athenry end) because they were reading an old map and nearly fell off the missing bridge over the N63.

https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/news/limerick-to-ennis-line-to-close-due-to-flooding-fr Limerick to Ennis closed until further notice and bus substitutions in operation. It's only been four years since the last time it flooded, according to the article. Irish Rail's piece also has an explanation on why Ballycar floods so often and how it should be fixed: the cost being given at €16.7 million by 2020 prices - so double that probably. Just how many times has Ballycar flooded?

Nothing would bring me to the Irish Ikea branch, so I've never been. But my bedroom is lined with Ikea shelves, and they work just fine. Some assembly required, though!

Galway Beo report Irish Rail are about to apply for planning permission for a passing loop at Oranmore. The article also reports a councillor's call to build a station in Renmore. Extra stops for locals to Athenry can't hurt, though I wouldn't have any intercities call. The only public road leading down to the railway line in the Renmore area is in the left circle I drew. In a world where there are frequent Galway suburban services I'd consider opening a station in Roscam at the level crossing on the right circle, but it might be too close (about a mile) to Oranmore. If old Oranmore's site was used instead it would be an easier prospect, I think. Any such developments should come with double tracking, and I'd have Athenry become the last stop before Galway for Dublin services.

https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2024/0124/1428430-dart-airport/ A bit of an old report, but this has the Irish Rail CEO suggesting it could be done in about five years. He also did not cost it, nor is it funded. The closest to a detail you can get is him suggesting going over the M1. While I think having an airport link is important, I am under no illusion that it will be built - nor do I have any faith in the Dublin Metro being built either. Pretending it will be built for a moment, I'd say the service should either be direct to Connolly or maybe allow a stop at Clongriffin for people to change onto locals. Of course, there's only so much capacity on the line and it's jammed enough as is. Divert them to the new Docklands station when/if that's built to relieve Connolly? Won't fix Enterprise traffic jams without extra tracks, which would require a lot of construction in its own right. A nice idea, but would need a lot of work to do correctly.

The rumour mill is spinning: a piece in the Examiner quotes an Irish Rail official as saying reopening to Youghal hasn't been ruled out. He also suggested putting in a bus lane! All of these would be next to the cyclists. Personally, I think the smart thing to do is crack on with the current plans: they're big enough. Once the line to Midelton is doubled, then go on to Youghal.

Santa Claus has finally arrived...

In the end, I just went for it: pre-ordering items is free. Again, a sad day for railway modelling.

Bad news all around. I hadn't pre-ordered any CIE coaches in the hope I could possibly buy them on release: I don't see that looking too likely now. Should I pre-order a few of the remaining coaches now? It's an orderly shutdown, but they are shutting down.

Since it covers several lines, I'll just make a new thread for this. The latest revision of the TEN-T network is going around Europe for approval. Its purpose is to enhance connectivity across Europe, but since Ireland is on an island this doesn't really achieve much for us. The important part is being eligible for funding from Europe: what government would turn down free stuff? Being on the core network (lines in bold - Dublin - Cork and the border) need a top speed of at least 160km/h by 2040 - Cork's already there. No speed requirement is given for the comprehensive network, though the thought of 100mph Nenagh trains is funny. Signalling also has to be converted to Europe's standard, which seems spectacularly pointless to me and a waste of money as there'll never be any trains from the continent, but if ERTMS really does make things significantly more efficient, I'm all ears. Airports with more than 12 million passengers a year (Dublin) need "long-distance rail" connections - in other words, the Dublin Metro won't cut it. Cork is a core airport too, but falls well below the rail connection threshold. As much as I'd like to see one (one foot back in the door to West Cork), how would it even be done? Finally, the expected date for completion is 2030 for the core network and 2050 for the comprenshive network: plenty of road for the can to be kicked! Left: 2023 draft, right: 2017 version. There's seperate maps for passenger and goods services: the only difference is the Foynes Branch and Limerick Junction to Limerick is a core line for goods, along with showing sea ports (Dublin, Cork, Foynes as core, Waterford, Rosslare, Galway as comprehensive) instead of airports. Additions include reinstatement of the South Wexford and Athenry to Claremorris, along with inclusion of the Nenagh Branch and South Tipperary - possibly a sign that they won't get closed. Foynes is currently in progress, and the reinstated Navan line is still there as an aspiration. While several towns were listed in the 2017 map, only four cities are in this year's; they all have to come up with "sustainable urban mobility plans". And of course, a certain political event resulted in the elimination of everything north of the border, leading the Dublin-Belfast line to be unceremoniously cut off. An improved railway is always a good thing. Let's hope the money comes in.

Galway Beo report that vegetation clearance is underway on the line. In addition, the Mayo News reports that Government have agreed to apply to include Athenry-Claremorris and Waterford-Rosslare into the TEN-T network, which would open up funding from Europe. Not directly related to the WRC but still important is the signing of a contract to refurbish Ceannt Station, bringing Galway from two platforms to five, as reported by the Independent. I've tried to find relevant planning applications, but Galway City Council's website is rubbish and any time you try to search for something it breaks. The significant capacity upgrade would serve Mayo services well.

First time at a model event. Had a good time, met a few forum members, and came home with a nice haul of stuff.

The Dart+ Southwest plans for Kylemore Road bridge mention making provision for a station at that location, though they won't build any station as part of that project. Source: https://www.dartplus.ie/getattachment/9fb2b4a1-400c-4a27-898e-4778ba33cd1c/Volume-3C-Option-Selection-Le-Fanu-Bridge-to-Kylemore-Bridge.pdf The plans also make mention of passive provision for a station at Cabra where the sidings used to be (link here). Image is from page 19. While I see nothing stopping Irish Rail from building something at Cabra tomorrow, it's probably better to do Kylemore with the Dart works. Building a station just to knock it a few years later to allow four tracks would be foolish. The Dart plans entail doing Dart+ West first, which is all well and good. Unfortunately, Ireland's planning system is glacial, as you all know, and when I went to the railway order page, it turns out Irish Rail have submitted an updated enviromental impact statement this month forcing yet another statutory consultation... I'll link the statement here for those interested. Needless to say, this wasn't much publicised. Maybe it will be done at the end of the decade? Regarding the MGWR main line, putting a big bike track on top of it is a ridiculous notion, and that's exactly what happened. Rip it up - not that it will be. I passed through Athlone a few months ago; the railway (if you can call it that) is in a sorry state. Does anyone have any idea how well-used the "greenway" is? I took a photo looking towards Dublin. From memory the line had been lifted beyond the last level crossing in the Galway direction, but I didn't take a photo of that side. It would be a lot of work to reinstate Mullingar-Athlone. You'd have to reopen Athlone Midland, relay the entire line, bulldoze the bike track or fence off the cyclists. If the cyclists can stay, what do you do for passing loops? Divert them around Moate? Cyclists on a platform would only lead to trouble. If doubling the line, the cyclists have to go. I've no idea of the state of Mullingar: is the Galway side of the station still connected? Doubling Maynooth-Mullingar should be little trouble though. Getting a platform under the bridge at Kilcock does seem awkward, but since the line was built as double there shouldn't be much of a problem. Even if Irish Rail thought full doubling was too much, actually using Enfield's second platform would be a very simple measure. How much does a footbridge cost? If going on to Sligo, the MGWR's limit of doubling was Longford, I believe; going further would therefore be more expensive. I'd like to see just how many trains a day go by which line segments to see where doubling is best, but this post is getting long enough and it's already very late.

Will the suburb Woodbrook is being built to serve come about or will we end up with another Kishogue situation? Certainly I see a whole lot of fields, but there is evidence of construction close enough. The station will roughly be where I drew a red circle (source: the planning permission page and documents within). Let's hope we don't end up with every single Dart stopping for a graveyard and golf course, and that the relevant construction doesn't have something stupid end up happening. Knowing this country, stupidity is inevitable. In Cork, they keep trotting out the "events centre" of non-existence every so often...

I was only in Downpatrick the other day for the Halloween trains, and it was a great day. Such a shame to see the place flooded.

EDIT: Double post, ignore.

Train was 40 minutes late into Belfast, but it was a full Enterprise service. It took ten minutes to get to Clontarf Road and it was held outside Drogheda to let another train pass. I returned on the 12:35 today. I intended to travel first class but I was greeted with a bus substitution until Dundalk with an ICR the rest of the way due to flooding on the line between Portadown and Newry. The train was ultimately about 40 minutes late into Dublin. Combined with a lack of Luas transfers (I heard there was a crash on Abbey Street from the taxi driver), the transfer to Heuston was more eventful than I'd like, but it did work out.

The Echo reports construction on Platform 6 at Kent has begun. The article includes a map illustrating where the platform will be: next to Platform 5, east of the train shed. https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-41254498.html The printed article and online article are a bit different: the print version has politicians suggest Cork might get "all-electric trains, which are currently in storage in Dublin" - wires? 8200s? Wikipedia says there's five 8200s: with eight 2600s that doesn't add up, let alone once you add Mallow into the mix.