Niles

Recap of the railtour now on our blog: https://www.tailtetours.com/post/premier-rose-railtour-postscript (Recap of the Sunday tour to follow when get a breather between day jobs ).

Whether it will come to pass or not is quite another thing, but the 2040 Freight Strategy refers to hybrid locos being sought to replace the 071s towards the end of the decade. I'm calling it now, 5'3 gauge Vectrons...

Following the success of our "Premier Rose" railtour, we are now putting on our remaining badge stock on general sale. Prices are €10 for badge or 4 for €30. Postage & Packing to Ireland/Northern Ireland is free and €5 for overseas. To order either message me here or email hello@tailtetours.com and I can send you a payment link. These badges will help cover some of our running costs so that we can release more money towards the various heritage groups we're supporting. The designs are: Iarnród Éireann mkIV Control Car CIE Green 800 Class steam loco GSWR Bury 2-2-2 No.36 (As preserved in Kent Station, Cork) Modern Enterprise livery 201 class loco

Funny, I was only chatting to someone on Saturday about the merits of preserving one of these when the bell does toll (we also decided there and then that it'll be in Arrow livery, we'll worry about little things like storage, cost and logistics later )

A pleasure guys, the support was way beyond what any of us expected. It was heartwarming to see so much cross-cooperation from across the modelling community, the general enthusiast community, the heritage community, and Iarnród Éireann themselves (and I know some of you fall into all those categories!). We'll say more in time but for now all I can say is, the question has changed from 'if' we run a 2nd tour to 'when' we run a second tour. Oh, little model-related tidbit, when I was arranging the headboard with the supplier we used a photo of a Bachmann Woolwich mogul as a reference.

Features on Saturday's tour have been confirmed to include: Irish Railway Record Society stand County Donegal Railway Heritage Centre stand (I believe @airfixfan will have some lovely new books and badges for sale) Clifton Flewitt's renowned railway book stall Raffle (seriously, the prizes to be had will make it worth entering, @mphoey and @jhb171achill have managed to get some fantastic prizes thanks to some generous sponsors who'll be revealed soon... If you haven't got your ticket for the tour you can still do so at: https://www.tailtetours.com/events/the-premier-rose-railtour

'53 looks better than you'd think after the fire a few years ago, would have thought it a goner. Good to see otherwise.

The perfect compromise (it was taken on a Nokia C3-01 so excuse the quality, an alleged 'hybrid' smart/normal phone, remember them?) I agree, I like to think in another universe there's one going around like that on charter work...

It's due in at 14:35 and out 17:35. For those not travelling/would prefer to photograph from the lineside (which is fair enough) but who would like to support, we have a 'donation' ticket option to help fund the running costs so that we can handover more to the preservation groups at the end, amount at the donor's discretion. https://www.tailtetours.com/events/the-premier-rose-railtour

I've been going through some of the prizes donated so far with @mphoey this evening, and, wow. Just, wow. Biased though I am(!), being in with a chance of winning of some these items will nearly make it worth travelling alone . We're not revealing all just yet, but the generosity of the donators to this raffle has been heartening.

A few snaps of the special delivery here (should work even if you're not on Facebook) https://www.facebook.com/downrail/posts/pfbid02eaVz4EBjw4shwNrdsjGLQrXXCXbNaPrzq1dia25myQxJfuxkBNU6y3WemiDY92oRl (Didn't come in a green box though )

More prep work for the Premier Rose, but what exactly are we up to? You'll have to travel to find out... https://www.tailtetours.com/events/the-premier-rose-railtour

Possibly might have if a UTA breakdown crane was loaned to CIE? I know CIE ones worked north, plausible the inverse might have happened.

That's an interesting point I never thought of before, though possibly poor 802 beat 27 on the short working life thing... I maintain there's a parallel between the 800s and the non-pushpull 201s. Nothing essentially wrong with them, but came at the end of their motive power type's reign and never really got to fulfill their destinies.

Are we forgetting the infamous Turfburner? or Ireland's first new build loco, the Difflin Lake Railway's 2003-built "Duchess of Dlfflin"? (hey, narrow gauge still counts in my book). And if the RPSI W Class is successful they'll be yet another word... the dead never shut up it seems.

Lovely - were these GSR issue? I have a Gomm one of Maedbh from the 90s in light GS green, which is why we decided to go with the darker CIE shade for this one (and 3/4 view versus side on).

We actually overran so we didn't get to cover half the stuff or footage lined up but there'll be another at the end of the month

Sneak peak of a 4th badge which will be on sale on the day...

I was a bit neglectful in posting this in time but we're having a summer Zoom meet over on Irish Railways Present, Past and Other Interesting Railways this evening, with a few surprises in store. Grab a drink, take the laptop out to the garden and enjoy the party. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3040263673

class job!

Ooh now even I'm intrigued... We've also added a Kildare pickup/set down if that makes it handier for anyone.

@mphoey and @jhb171achill are the raffle dream team, it's great to have them onboard. Thanks to everyone who has booked so far, we're hoping this will be quite a special day indeed. And if you haven't ... https://www.tailtetours.com/events/the-premier-rose-railtour If you can't travel or would prefer to chase from the lineside but would like to support this event, we have a 'donation ticket' option if you scroll down the list, price at the donator's discretion.

His depressive outlook is a manifestation of guilt for his past.

Old IRRS journals and possibly some ITG ones might have recorded some workings... I can have a browse through what I have and see what's there, is there specific line you're looking for @murphaph?

There's a pic in the excellent All Our Yesterdays - Irish Bashing group on Facebook showing some ferts in the sidings at Kildare (early 1990s), hardly still unloaded in Kildare then? Unless they were rogue wagons taken off a liner with hotboxes or something but seems unlikely as there's at least two... As an aside, I remember waiting in Dundalk with my Dad when I was 12 and seeing a 201 arrive with an absolute monster of a train comprising ferts, bubbles and kegs, there was a bit of a shunt to take the latter off there. I've some ferts on order to join my bubbles but I don't think I'll quite have the room for this size of train, to my young eyes it seemed to stretch for miles.