jhb171achill

When Senior was on the GNR, even senior GNR men referred to it (privately!) as "the slowest named train in civilisation"! He saw it crawl through Enniskillen all the time - between the very sharp curve in the station, and its apparent inability to exceed 35 miles an hour anywhere west of Dundalk, its appearance was something that he saw as a non-event; a bit like a yellow machine or ICR at Stacumny Bridge on a wet February Tuesday morning, or a 29 at some graffiti and concrete halt in the Pale nowadays........... but what wouldn't we give to witness this slow-motion "express" today!

OK, yes, confusion abounds! Firstly, until the 1970s there were some trains which were not Enterprises. The last steam workings in the mid-60s between Dublin and Belfast, for example, were through trains all right, but not Enterprise-branded. The last REGULAR steam loco on these trains, which were a Belfast set, was Vs no. 207, now owned by the UTA. From 1957 the GNR had one diesel railcar set on the actual "Enterprise" but the belfast set was still steam. After the UTA took over, this situation continued for a short time, but after 1961 CIE's new B121s were used - in fact, the Enterprise was, as far as I recall, the first regular run for B121s; their earliest forays of any sort were on goods. For a while, loco-hauled services had a CIE diesel as far as Dundalk, where a UTA loco - by now a "WT" class 2.6.4T, would take over. After a short while of that ridiculously unwieldy practice, railcars were used by the UTA and NIR (until 1970s), with CIE using diesel loco-hauled sets of coaches. Initially these were ex-GNR loco-hauled stock, gradually repainted into green, then black'n'tan, with various varieties of laminates and eventually cravens thrown into that eclectic mix. Standard CIE dining cars mixed with ex-GNR ones; one coach (brake 3rd 114, later in RPSI ownership) retained its brown GNR livery until 1967, the last GNR vehicle operating in GNR livery. Within this period of time an old GSWR dining car appeared on the Enterprise at least once. All was modernised within a decade, with the Hunslets and identikit Mk 2s in 1970 from NIR, and 141s with "Supertrain" aircon Mk 2s from 1972. The troubles in the north led to the derailing of a CIE "Supertrain" set, so CIE, anxious to keep their best coaches in good order, promptly changed to using varied sets of a mix of park Royals, laminates and so on, on the Enterprise - scarcely a Craven even - for some years. By the time the 071 / 111s appeared in the late 70s / early 80s, CIE reverted to using more modern stock, and eventually the De Deitrichs. While the short-lived loco change was at Dundalk, customs was at Dundalk and Goraghwood until they closed the latter station in 1965, after which it was carried out via a "green / red lane" system in Belfast Central and in Connolly. Nobody bothered much with it. I brought two bottles of the very best Donegal poítín through it once.............. Incidentally, if you look up today's Translink website, which other than the atrociously unwieldy Bus Eireann website is the most truly awful website that exists; note their description of stations. Within the north, Translink uses the term "train station" for everything from large places like portadown or belfast, to tiny graffiti-strewn one-platforms halts in the boondocks. Yet, on the "Enterprise" listings, if you can find them amongst the No. 32 bus from Buckna to Desertmartin, Dundalk station is listed as "Dundalk Rail Halt". Is it me getting old and cranky, or are these people mentally challenged in some way? It could be. They put a new railcar set on it at that time. However, what he might mean is the last Dublin-based one, as the Belfast set remained steam for a few months longer. Lambegman will have exact dates, I am sure.

I'm pretty partial to them myself, Noel!

Was it the SAR coaches & vans? I'm getting a 12mm gauge 6J 4.6.0 to go with them, hopefully for some sort of portable mini-layout based on an imaginary Cape Province terminus in the 1960s.

This won't open any more. What does it show - SAR brake vans? If so, I got them on fleabay.

Which is precisely why a RTR J15 and AEC sets are essential!

May we assume that Mikado biscuits were not unknown in the past on the Ballina branch?

Enlightenment.

I think that if I presented this to the Chief Executive of the Dept. of Domestic Policy, Implementation and Expenditure, I would end up partly-dismembered on the scrap line in Inchicore, along with those oul 201s.........

Outstanding!

I see there's a youtube of it in steam..........

Quite a long way to there, in fairness....

Doesnt count!

And amend the question to what is there more than one loco preserved of, excluding industrials? DCDR sugar engines Donegal 2.6.4T DCDR O & K J15 Diesels…. A C G E 80 class …….?

Never thought of those.... I was thinking "G" class. 611 - extant, DCDR / ITG 612 - scrapped 613 - extant, DCDR 614 - scrapped 615 - scrapped 616 - extant - ITG 617 - extant - DCDR / ITG

100%! For ten bonus points, one more “majority preserved”? Hint; also locomotive.

The answer is "yes, all of them".............. And I think that "rattling numbers" would be more appropriate than "running numbers"!!

That surprises me! There were a total of 22 of these BR vans (of several different types) as far as I remember; that's almost half of them. Quiz question (winner gets to buy me a pint): What Irish rail-borne thing on wheels has the MAJORITY of its members preserved? (Not counting one-offs, lime CVR / CDR Railcar 10)

Yes. You're seeing the central "third" of the wagon, and the right hand "third". The left hand side is obscured by the shed. It's a GNR standard, assembled in Dundalk from a Provincial Wagons kit..... What might be seen as interesting is that at this stage, long before UTA neglect, the GNR was neglecting the cosmetic appearance of its wagons to some extent.....

Which, I suppose, amplifies my point......! Livery variants here were as follows: 1. In traffic, only black'n'tan. 2. Maintenance use, all yellow. 3. RPSI - first maroon, now pinky-purple. That's yer lot. The DCDR one remains in CIE black'n'tan.

Never in my life did I see such publicity for a routine locomotive, a container on a wagon, and an old brake van….! Shows how standardised the whole railway is now and how little of interest there is. Fast forward to March 2051; the hedgerows of Stacumny Bridge are alive with gricers hoping to catch a glimpse of the only Class X* railcar with a squashed moth on its left-hand windscreen wiper! (The class X will replace every single type of train now in use, in 2044. Remember where you heard it first. Britain and mainland Europe have them too. Every single train is the same…..)

Exactly; but that's another story! There's triple-ality involved; there's one at Downpatrick too!

Do we need to call it a "they"?

I raised this point with several closer to the RPSI action in the past, and have been told over the years that the reason it was maroon was in case it was ever needed with any heritage stock. But it isn't, and the likelihood that it ever will is almost nil. But this ghastly colour (sorry, DJ!!) isn't even maroon, or anything near it! Plain blue would possibly be best, though I do not want to open up a debate about what way to paint a vehicle whose entire life in its current guise was black'n'tan.....

Very gaudy! Would look much better in its old maroon, or better still to match the blue on the Cravens. The lining is in an odd position too.