Darrman

I've occasionally seen Dublin-Cork be referred to as the "Premier Line". I've seen Nenagh Branch for Limerick-Ballybrophy too.

A thought that came to mind: when the new Darts arrive and the 1980s units get withdrawn, how exactly would one be preserved? I doubt anyone's going to build an electric railway for it to travel up and down - it would be expensive, for starters. Make one a static exhibit somewhere?

https://www.irishtimes.com/transport/2023/03/22/application-lodged-for-extension-of-dart-to-celbridge-and-hazelhatch/ The Dart+ Southwest railway order application has been made. In other news, An Bord Pleanala "need more time" to approve extending to Maynooth.

A quick search of "L&BER" gave me the Letterkenny and Burtonport Extension Railway. I highly doubt they had any flying snails on anything. I also doubt that trains in Donegal would come anywhere near Bagenalstown. I also doubt that the Great Northern ran a standard gauge train on narrow gauge tracks. Is there anything here I can't doubt?

When you actually take a look at the schedule on the Dart website, you'll see a few entries using different fonts than the rest. Check the page on Archive.org and the schedule slip reveals itself. To avoid spamming the thread with screenshots, Dart+ West construction is scheduled for 2024 at the moment. Though the Dart website doesn't say anything, Dart+ Southwest is scheduled to start in 2025 according to the government press release. Will An Bord Pleanala approve things in a reasonable time frame? Will Irish Rail get caught up in a pile of red tape? Will some other nonsense happen? Those are other questions to ask.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-64837601 The BBC says Translink wants to "assess the possibility" of reopening the line. Whether that will lead to anything is another question.

Thank you for the help, everyone. I managed to reattach the fallen couplers and buffer, and though it was incredibly fiddly I finally got the bogie reattached and in line. Haven't run it yet (piles of Monopoly boards to avoid the carpet isn't really a good running environment) but the train looks well again, at least. Thanks again!

The metal piece sticking out on the wheels near the missing bogie piece.

@murphaph Sure, here's some more pictures. The wheel colour in the first picture was just bad lighting. Hopefully these are a bit clearer.

So I managed to pick up a 201 when IRM put up a small bit of extra stock the other day. However, when I took it out of the box both couplers, one of the buffers, and half of a bogie fell off, along with some other minor parts. The train still runs though with an exposed piece of metal that causes sparks whenever it touches the track. I still have the missing pieces. What should I do now?

https://www.irishexaminer.com/property/developmentconstruction/arid-41076857.html The Examiner reports that tenders have been issued. The article says applications for the tender are open until the end of May yet Irish Rail wanted to sign the contract and start construction this April. The estimated completion time of August 2026 and 30 months works out to an April 2024 start instead...

Finally. There's something about train journeys that makes me hungry while on board...

Interesting videos. The line passes next to the airport, Crumlin and Glenavy have about 5,000 people each, and the track is still there, if largely disused. Seeing the line open again would be sensible. As the line's Wikipedia article suggests, a Belfast-Lisburn-Antrim-Belfast loop would be an idea, and would make more sense to me than just shuttling between Lisburn and Antrim.

I'd like to take a look at the full report, but who knows when that will be released. Out of what that Journal article highlighted, I wonder how they'd go about building the Derry-Letterkenny line. As a thought exercise, I'll take a bit of a look at things. Using RailMapOnline as a reference, in terms of getting to Letterkenny the Lough Swilly route was a bit roundabout, and Graving Dock and the route out of Derry from there is long gone. There doesn't seem to be too much blocking the way out of Foyle Road, but building from Waterside and through Victoria Road might be better for through trains, though the Foyle would need to be crossed somehow. I've also heard rumours about the Derry Road, and the GNR route to Strabane is less obstructed. The approach into Letterkenny is now the N13 and the station itself is now a Penneys. The nearby Donegal approach is less built on, but it still gets blocked nearing the town. I drew two routes on the map, coloured green: one via Newtowncunningham (population 1,000) and a more direct route. There may be factors I may be missing (i wouldn't know how the Google altitude highlights translate to gradients, for example.) As for the rest of the things mentioned, seeing Athenry-Claremorris and Waterford-Rosslare come up is good, and the Midelton-Youghal line shouldn't have been turned into a greenway (I'd add Mullingar-Athlone to that too, though I appreciate that Tullamore is a larger town than Moate.) Dublin Airport really should have a proper link to the national railway network, and anything after that would basically devolve into pipe dreams. I dedicated too much space in my own submission to the review to pipe dreams.

Thanks for the answers, everyone. I might have to get my hands on a Mark 3 at some point...

Lower one would have been Cork-Dublin, higher one Mallow-Tralee.

Recently I found some old photos of a family holiday. Sadly no photos were taken of the locomotive (if any), but a few were taken inside the coaches. Killarney, ~2006 Heuston?, ~2008. There may be trains outside the window, but I wouldn't be able to identify them. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Irish Rail says the station's planned to open in November this year. https://www.kildarenow.com/news/home/1019885/work-required-at-train-station-on-kildare-border-that-never-opened.html The tender itself is here: https://irl.eu-supply.com/ctm/Supplier/PublicPurchase/232731/

Thanks for the welcome, everyone. In some far-off future I'd like to have a ex-CBSCR layout, 1950s if I was aiming for accuracy. Right now, my main goal would to be find an Intercity 201 Class loco out of familiarity.

I've been reading the goings on here for a while, but now I'm going to introduce myself. I come from West Cork and I've always liked trains, even if there hasn't been a full-sized one around in over sixty years. Occasional trips to the West Cork Model Railway Village and a bit of reading of related literature kept my interest. During the pandemic I had a bit too much time on my hands and I started reading more about the railway and keeping up with any developments. About a year ago I made it a goal of mine to travel on every railway line in Ireland, and so I checked off much of the network over 2022, taking rather roundabout routes in order to check segments off. For example, last month I returned from Dublin to Cork via Waterford to travel the Dublin-Waterford and Limerick Junction-Waterford lines. At the time of writing I have yet to travel from Dublin to Rosslare, Belfast to Derry, Killarney to Tralee, and various Dublin and Belfast suburban lines. If anyone's interested in the details, I'm more than happy to talk about them. For Christmas I received some railway models, and now a few weeks after that I've decided to show them off. (Between the Tayto truck, Lyons containers, and Guinness kegs, my mother sent a message: bring back the catering!)