hexagon789

I think Blaine is alluding to the belief that the 071 is the superior locomotive class. A tenet which I subscribe to I must admit, though I don't hate 201s. If it didn't model railways wouldn't exist you could argue, or wouldn't be as financially viable at least.

Perhaps a bit late in the day, but I feel I should point out that in spite of the designation the Irish Mk2D coaches are based on the British Rail Mk2E bodyshell not 2D. The toilets are to the later smaller 2E design and are diagonally opposite on the Open Standards (as per BR 2E and 2F) not the same side as with the BR Mk2D.

After the Cherryville Accident in 1983. It was one of the recommendations of the report produced into the accident.

Either that or they are taking on Bachmann and Hornby's offerings

The full set was launched on the 23rd July 2001, all the refurbished vehicles were still on the books in January 2008 and were among the very last Mk2D carriages in revenue service.

Quite, sometimes you just have to take the plunge or risk missing out entirely or playing the long waiting game with the potential for increase costs as well.

Let me find my WTTs and double check, but I think pre-1984 the full 75 linespeed applied over most if not all that section.

I read with interest recently, that many of the mainlines in Ireland had no prescribed maximum linespeed until the late-1940s/early 1950s when a 70mph ceiling was imposed, there were just limits for junctions and curvature. Apparently 80mph was not uncommon when drivers were looking to make up time. This rather mirrors the situation with the GWR in Britain where Sectional Appendices prescribed no maximum linespeed but rather stated: "the maximum speed may be as high as is required to maintain the timetable". A situation which lasted until 1939 and then from 1955-1960 when a 90mph ceiling was imposed for a few years until regularly scheduled 100mph running was introduced.

Oh right, got you now. I thought you meant the base livery. Yes, the bilingual logo is later - 2012/13 iirc.

I understood the current IÉ InterCity livery dated from 2006 (when the Mk4s were introduced) and the Mk2D stock lasted until March 2008, the Mk3s until October 2009 and the latter were certainly hauled by Green/Silver 201s

Could be Alloa then - the Wickham cars saw use earliest on the Stirling-Alloa-Dollar service, another lightly used rural line. Alloa being yet another large station with a service greatly lower in proportion than the amount of track provided, though there was a reasonably frequent Stirling-Alloa shuttle from memory until the line closed and of course it's now been re-opened for 10 years and served by a regular hourly electric service from Glasgow!

Some form of catering vehicle? The wee railbus is one of the Scottish Region 'Wickham' cars, these were used on a variety of lightly used rural branches, but one of the best known was the Gleneagles-Creiff-Comrie line. Crieff was actually a huge junction station but by the railcar era it had only the 6 railcar services each way through it despite having four mainline length platforms and 5 through roads. I think that may be Crieff in your picture, the canopies are right but I can't really make out any surrounding detail.

That's a shame, but I suppose at least the photo was of interest!

Sent you a PM, will try and check the journals for the other info tomorrow.

I can check the IRRS Journals later for that information. I'll PM you

Could you provide a link to the photo @jhb171achill? Might be able to find the information you're looking for if I can follow the link.

The electrific sliding doors on Mk3 p-p, 4 & D-D stock certainly as the doors are all controlled by the driver. Normal IC Mk3 sets I believe the guard controlled the doors - at least that was the original method, it may have changed when the 201s appeared. Slam-doors I presume would have been the guards responsibility to ensure they were closed. Yes, can PM you.

And of course the number of TSRs grew and grew right up until the late-1990s when a lot of relaying was done and the speed ceiling on the Western routes was raised then from 70 to 80mph and on the Sligo Road from 70 to 75mph. Quite scary to think about the unofficial speeds attained on some of those less than perfect sections of track. I wonder if Irish Rail drivers had a similar attitude to those in Britain in the days before widespread speed monitoring. I believe IR had recorders on the 071s and later locos, not sure about the older GMs but did these dissuade drivers from pushing speeds at all? In Britain the attitude was often that exceeding linespeed by a moderate amount was tolerated if it was ever discovered but not that of exceeding PSRs or TSRs by any significant margin.

Yes, definitely. Well used with Mk4 and D-D sets, I'm guessing also with Mk3 P-Ps given the mirrors on their DTs. Not sure whose responsibility the doors were on normal Mk3 sets but I'm not sure that's relevant.

I don't think that photo shows it, but the 201s, as per other surviving IÉ locos, had LED marker lights fitted during the early 2000s replacing the original ones. This does give an noticeable change in appearance. One of the NIR 111s was so treated by IÉ when on loan to them as well. I believe the IRRS journals detailed the changes, but I won't be able to check them until tomorrow afternoon, so I'll get back to you on that. While I'm at it I'll look out the issue which details the 201 Class entry to service and gives all the various technical details. I'm guessing it's the change to LED markers, sadly my go to photo resource of Flickr appears to be having some hiccoughs involving some naughty pandas right now, so I can't link in a few photos to show what I believe is being referred to here to illustrate the difference. With any luck the issues will be resolved tomorrow and I'll be able to link some photos, but if you've any to hand JHB of 201s as new and then from about 2001/2-ish onwards I think you'll spot the difference with the marker/tail lights.

It's fine when the articles are backed up by authorative sources, but so many are backed up by poor sources or none at all. Personally I'd rather just go to the authoritative source in the first place if possible. It has its uses as a quick way of obtaining an outline picture and some of the historical articles are an interesting read, but I find anything transport related, particularly rail, seems to lack clarity and accuracy in data all too often. One only has to look at the reasons why editing on the article on British Class 390 Pendolinos is locked without admin approval to see what I mean!

It depends what exactly your looking for, but important to say DO NOT rely on Wikipedia as a source. A lot of the technical data on the IÉ 201 Class on Wiki is, to be kind, somewhat innacurate. Power-at-rail is 2,480hp not 2,970 Their maximum speed is 165km/h (and yes it is km/h and not an even 100mph though that is their maximum in service), that is what they were designed to. Little things of this nature. I would trust the data from the IRRS Journal of the period, provided with data straight from IÉ themselves more than facts from Wikipedia some 25+ years later that anyone can theoretically input. Good luck with your project.

Or contact the society direct? They've been very helpful in enabling me to obtain certain back issues of the journal in the past.

Fair enough then, the DEMUs are not quite my area of expertise - I'm more a coaching stock man

Perhaps because the earlier ones had the same three-pipe air brakes the 80 Class used? Just a guess, any of the later coaches would've needed conversion as they were two-pipe.