DoctorPan

Likewise, a yes for me.

Clearly it's going to be a model of Pat and Sambo as a collectors pack...

There's a great interview Ronnie gave on youtube as well. A true genleman.

Is there anything to be said about doing another scheme to prevent the question of electrification of the rail freight corridors?

Do you have any idea where? Haven't come across such a press release anywhere in the usual and unusual places.

Updated requirements and the information being out dated.

Platform 10 will become part of the new Heuston West station.

https://www.pleanala.ie/en-ie/case/316119 And the grapevine has borne fruit. South West has it's Railway Order!

Word on the grapevine is that ABP has granted DART+SouthWest it's Railway Order and should be made public today.

Speaking to Paddy, these aren't a solo project, Alstrom have asked him and provided CAD and the sort to help him produce this, hence why a 3D sample model of a full set appeared before real thing!

Tender award for the project and announcement for the winners is due to be made public shortly.

Winners of the recent Navan Line tender are due to be officially announced in the short term future, two main options to be invesitgated, the old D&M alignment or a diverision to bring it closer to Dunshaughlin. In fairness to the NTA, it's not for lack of interest in building railways. Indeed Marcello the head of rail is very eager to push projects through and get shovels in the ground. Indeed he has butted heads with IÉ over they wanting to run services to suit the infrastructure while he wants IÉ to be looking to put the infrastructure in to support the desired services. The NTA of old was more interested in buses but since the change in personal there's a big change coming from their side of the field. It is the departments of finance and public expenditure that are pumping the breaks on projects and requesting increasing levels of reports to show financial benefits as the OPW debacale has spooked the civil service into being afraid of signing off on infrastructure. Cycle lanes are smaller and nimble projects that don't have to go through the same level of regulatorly financial red tape. It's also should be noted that rail infrastructure investment is new again to the island and the industry has taken time to get to grips with delivering these projects but there's been a lot of background enabling works going on that are starting to come on stream which will speed up other projects.

Mine arrived and paid for, including the BnT van. Very much looking forward to this order.

The talk addressed that. Currently 3% of the network is electrified. They could spend the money retrofitting the existing DART network to 25kV AC or use it to expand the electrification corridor. Makes sense to decarbonise more of the network. They do plan to retrofit 25kV AC along the DART corridor eventually and indeed, I can easily see the next gen of DART units being designed to be dual voltage to allow a phased switch over.

The timing of this report has nothing to do with an election. It's been held up for nearly two years because Stormont had no sitting government.

As someone who works in the industry and indeed in a former life worked for Arup, the writers of the report, this is a change in policy from the Department of Transport, Finance and Public Expenditure. Ryan has pushed hard for a lot of behind the scenes changes in the departments and civil service and this is the result of it. All proposals in this report apparently have a benefits to cost ratio of 1:1 so they believe they will break even at minimum. A second factor that pushes the cost of these down is that it may be cheaper to build these then pay the fines to Europe for the breach of carbon emission limits. Thirdly, the European Investment Bank is involved to make monies available for this and indeed reviewing the plan to see which aspects can be deliveried quickly and most bang for buck. And finally another factor is this is being approached as how the motorway network was built in the 2000s and the investment that got. There's a load of movement and growth within the rail industry, hell Irish Rail and private consultants are constantly hiring engineering staff for rail projects.

Hazelhatch had two options considered and both were rejected for flood risk as well plus requiring removal of housing. There's not many locations within the existing study areas that fit the bill. Interesting times ahead.

A new depot location will have to be found. Considering its less than 24 hours since the announcment and ruling, I'm sure a review for a suitable site will occur. And yes a dedicated depot is required. Maynooth was intended to be the EMU version of Laois Train Care with Fairview becoming a stabling point and Drogheda acting as depot outpost. The question now is where can they find a 2km long site for their requirements.

Navan is currently out to tender for Phases 1 & 2, which does include OHLE design.

Yeah it's a Hornby James chassis and tender as its starting point.

Nicky Cox of Erritt Lodge Works on FB did a model of 461 using a James chassis and tender as a foundation.

https://www.atkinsrealis.com/en/media/trade-releases/2024/2024-01-22#:~:text=AtkinsRéalis will develop station location,the Limerick to Ennis Line. Few projects on the go mentioned there along with the Limerick Double Track project aslo.

Indeed the inspiration behind my batch as a lock down project!

Ratio coaches look close enough for turf coaches considering how battered the prototypes looked.

If members in the Laois/Offaly area are talking about BnM preservation, I would suggest making contact with the Stradbally Woodland Railway as they have a collection of ex BnM rolling stock and it would be better to pool resources then attempting a solo run. Séan Cain is involved there and is quite the expert on BnM.