Eiretrains

Glad you enjoyed exploring the old lines in the west, still plenty to see with a lot of variety. You probably didn't see the station in Bundoran, as unfortunately there's no trace left of the one time attractive terminus. I don't think the track in Clifden is original, more in place for the aesthetic feel of the restored buildings. Glad to read that the Fintown Railway is still operational, the last place you can see a CDR railcar operating on Donegal.

Just a few examples come to mind, after 1958 some of the locomotives that passed to CIE found themselves working suburban trains on the DSE line to Bray, examples being S and U Class, such as No.199 captured by O'Dea at Carlisle Pier. A few acted as pilot engines in Kingsbridge, and ventured to Portlaoise on run-in trips, based either in Inchicore or Broadstone. Workings from Kingscourt afforded some locomotives to travel via the MGWR's Meath Road to Dublin also. The few that did railtours ended up in unusual locations, such as U No.197 running to Mountmellick and Castlecomer/Wolfhill, Q No. 132 to Athlone via Moate (Kingscourt as well on an earlier trip), and VS No.207 and S No.174 to Cork. No.199 itself did a tour to Wicklow Murrough. There could have been others but these are some I thought, very interesting topic

The new railcar depot is exactly on top of the old Buckeys sidings. They cleared the site in the early 2000s to make way for the railcar maintenance shed.

125 did run again, but as others have said, it was never the same and ended up withdrawn following a fire. It sat for some years in Inchicore in its faded livery until cut up in the 90s. I think the driver had to be cut out from the cab. It was remarked that the sturdiness of the GM designed cab contributed to his miraculous escape, similarly to when a driver crawled out from the cab of B132 after it had flipped on its side in the Clough accident. Nice view of the BR container and wagons, albeit smashed. Edit: Some nice photos of 055 moving into Hell's Kitchen http://historical.glynnsphotography.com/p466106870

They look very neat. Although I'm not an electric traction enthusiast, I'm beginning to think a 2-car (unpowered) set of one of those behind a 141 would make for a nice 'DART transfer' style train. http://www.geograph.ie/photo/3255092

Some nice photos on that page, the one of A23r passing an 'old' Monasterevin being very interesting.

In the early 2000s (2003 or so) it worked a Tullamore cement, and a trip working in the Dublin area, so it wouldn't be totally out of place on IE metals. ,

Was always adamant I had seen that image of 086, good to get the solid facts behind when it was running with that livery, know now it got the proper IR treatment by Sept of 1990, be interesting to see now who will be the first to tweak an 071 model into it!

That nice photo of O'Dea's really shows that as well as a gricer, he was a nuts and bolts photographer, going in to document the seldom photographed disused stations.

With the release of the 071 models, this topic crossed my mind recently, and quick google search reveals the photograph I was referring to above, showing 071 Class 086 in the Supertrain livery with the IR points logos applied, passing Inchicore in April 1990. It's the only image I know of it which depicts such a livery combination on an 071 locomotive, I suspect 086 may have been like this for a short time.

Just like the model, some 071+BELL movements recently uploaded by this chap (original was on blip.tv).

It's just photo-shop, it's actually unit 8089 during the MRSI trip in 2008, there's a spate of these images online a few years back in fotopic days which had 8113 in all sorts of liveries!

With the AECs, it's more case that the valance was added than removed. You'll notice the buffers as well, originally they had normal sized ones as delivered (like the GNR sets) but CIE butchered them to fit those larger and unsightly types, think it was so they could match up when coupled to hauled stock. The valance appeared in the early 70s, but the buffers had been done from the early 60s onwards.

That AEC railcar in Mullingar is one of the ex GNR vehicles, it's in the early 1970s NIR maroon and grey livery, you can see the NIR logo on its side. I think some of these ended up in Mullingar, being the only suitable site to dispose of them after NIR were pulled up for dumping similar asbestos ridden railcars and stock into Crumlin Quarry in Co.Antrim, as well being handy for CIE to re-use parts in their ageing AEC fleet.

It's one of Aubrey Dale's (aka Albert Bridge) photographs on his geograph profile. Taken at Carrolls Cross when a number locals stopped the IRRS tour(!) in protest of the closure of the line with the demise of the Quigley magnesite plant at Dungarvan. Do post the original link which contains more info and author's name. http://www.geograph.ie/photo/3093924

As garfield says they were never 'changed' and simply depends on the locomotive, with white/black being done in no particular order. A quick glance reveals 071, 075 and 082 have white numerals for example, were as the rest are black.

From this post onwards and elsewhere, it's a hot topic!

Sometimes a direct link won't load the map, but otherwise it works, if you can't get it to show simply navigate manually to where you want it using the 'pan' and 'zoom' options.

I think this was because originally the three windows were all roughly the same size, but as time went on, when they needed replacement every so often, it was hard to acquire the exact window match, so most were refitted with a smaller cab window off the 141/181s instead. You can see this by comparing photos of the 121s from years ago, to the last remaining in service recently.

According to a thread on IRN which lists most of the A Class names, 055 was Sarcastic Sarah?

A Jonathan M.Allen photo, who has many more on his geograph profile.

It's just the carriage to accommodate an IRRS party over the Burma Rd, 15th June 1968, as was done on several occasions by sticking a carriage onto a regular goods!

Well I'm telling you lads, I'm sure one definitely did as I've seen the photograph myself, if the link still existed I'd post it, but I'm not one saving photos offline sorry! On 121s, locomotive 121 got the new logo but no white stripes till later, I suspect may have been others, I imagine they were quick jobs to slap the new logo on when convenient.

On one of the many fotopics sites there was a photo of an 071 passing Inchicore, still in the Supertrain livery but with the new 'IR' logo. I thought it was interesting as photos of 071s with that livery/logo combination seem uncommon, unlike the 141/181s which some sported for quite some years. - can't remember which 071 it was sorry!

That's A44 at the Sligo end of Kilfree junction, June 1956, an awful smash indeed, details can be found in Dan Rehenan's extensive article on CIE's Crossleys (IRRS journals No.90 and No.91); "Shortly after 06.00 on 15 June 1956 No. A44, working the 22.10 goods from North Wall to Sligo, was diverted into a siding at Kilfree Junction, and crashed violently into the buffer-block. The locomotive and 12 wagons were wrecked, the loco having sheared off her bogies was triple-somersaulted down a 25ft embankment; remarkably, the driver Conlon had a miraculous escape, with only minor injuries. Wreckage blocked the line until the morning of the 16th."