GNRI v UTA AEC railcars

[Branchline121]

I was having a look at the article on Wikipedia (I know it isn’t that reliable in terms of Irish railways) for the ‘UTA AEC Class’ and noticed that it is proposed to be merged with the ‘GNRI AEC Class’ page. I was always a bit foggy on all those Northern railcar classes so is the two similar enough to be one article or is it unwarranted? I personally didn’t think there was much of a difference but are they the same or are there at least slight differences?

[jhb171achill]

23 minutes ago, Branchline121 said:

I was having a look at the article on Wikipedia (I know it isn’t that reliable in terms of Irish railways) for the ‘UTA AEC Class’ and noticed that it is proposed to be merged with the ‘GNRI AEC Class’ page. I was always a bit foggy on all those Northern railcar classes so is the two similar enough to be one article or is it unwarranted? I personally didn’t think there was much of a difference but are they the same or are there at least slight differences?

The GNR AEC cars were more or less the same as the CIE ones; detail differences existed in terms of guard's compartments and heating boilers etc. But basically the same type of yoke. Very noisy especially when accelerating, but in terms of seating comfort, by light years the most comfortable railcars ever to run on this island, especially in the first class. Heating could be an issue; when it worked, it was fine!

[Mayner]

The two UTA AEC Raicars 6&7 which entered service in 1951 were built in Belfast and different in design and outline from the GNR & CIE AEC railcars.  The bodies were converted from ex-NCC 1920s built coaches and the mechanical design anticipated British Rail DMU practice with the engine mounted horizontally.

While 6&7 had 'open' plan seating layout and end gangways, they usually ran as a 3 cars set with an non-gangwayed compartment coach. The bodywork of 6&7 appeared dated compared with the AEC built railcars being similar to 1920s built coaches with raised panneling. Worsley-Works produce a set of parts for 6&7, Kirley who posts these days on RM web may have produced a model of 6&7. Colm Flannigan "Diesel Dawn" unreavels the UTA railcar story

The terms of the GNR break up required the locos and stock to be devided evenly between CIE and UTA with each getting 10 ex-GN AEC cars and 12 BUT cars, one theory was that it would have been more efficient for UTA to acquire the entire fleet of 24 BUT cars and CIE to add the 20 AEC cars to its fleet.

Main difference operationally was that the control system of the GN AEC cars could only control two power cars, while the control system of the CIE cars could control 4 power cars. Allowing the GNR to run 3-4 coach trains, CIE up to 8 coaches.

Edited July 31 by Mayner

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

Which version does this drawing represent ?

The reason I ask is that I'm building it for a friend despite not being overly familiar with Irish stock.

Progress so far.

Gibbo.

[Darius43]

That looks like a GNR AEC railcar - see this thread.

I built the UTA Railcar 6 & 7 three-car set a couple of years ago using Worsley Works etched sides on cut down Dapol coaches.

Cheers

Darius

 

Edited July 31 by Darius43

[Mayner]

3 hours ago, gibbo675 said:

Hi Folks,

Which version does this drawing represent ?

The reason I ask is that I'm building it for a friend despite not being overly familiar with Irish stock.

Progress so far.

Gibbo.

The CIE and GNR AEC railcars were virtually identical visually. The main difference was operational the GNR railcars could only run in multiple with 2 power cars generally running 2 or 3 coach trains while the CIE cars could run in multiple with 4 power cars with a maximum train length of 8 coaches. The GNR and CIE versions used different types of train heating boiler.