AEC Railcar Project

[Mol_PMB]

1 hour ago, jhb171achill said:

Yes, I wrote the dates the wrong way round! Corrected....

 

Likewise I have added some more info now that I've consulted my records. From the overhaul records I think we can date it to December 1956 or January 1957.

There's an almost-legible paint date by the buffer which may end in 57.

Edited September 2 by Mol_PMB

[DSERetc]

On 2/9/2026 at 5:01 PM, Mol_PMB said:

And another snippet from the IRRS archives, 2652 had a General Repair from October to December 1956, so this is almost certainly seen on completion of that overhaul. 

Regarding the second entry in the list, Railcar 2614, this was damaged in the Hazelhatch accident in the evening of the 4th January 1955 at about 17.25.            Dave Murray in his article in the IRRS Journal  Vol 17, No.109, June 1983, page 63, 'Collision at Hazelhatch', describes what happened.  Due to an error in communication, and not using the bell codes correctly to 'BLOCK BACK' to Lucan South, the signalman at Hazelhatch had a slow pick-up goods train reverse from the up line to the down line to allow a fast passenger train from Cork to overtake it.   The goods train was too long to fit in the sidings.  It was crossing back to the up line when the Dublin to Waterford via Abbeyleix train, wrongly admitted into the section, struck six wagons at the crossover and was derailed. The driver, guard and five passengers were injured.   2614 lay outside the carriage shop in Inchicore for some time.  It was repaired and fitted with suburban seats for the DSER line. Later it was converted to a 'Powered Intermediate' as No.2666. In the 1970s it was converted again to Push-Pull trailer 6321.   

 

 

 

 

 

               

   Dave Murray, in the IRRS Journal Vol 17, October, 1991,  No.116, recalled the 'Collision at Dundrum 1957' almost two years after Hazelhatch on Dec 23rd, 1957, when the 17.40 from Bray ran into the back of the 17.20, again because of a signal mans error.   The rear railcar of the 17.20 was No.2647 and the leading railcar of the 17.40 was No.2644.  The driver of the 17.40, Andy Larkin from Bray was killed.  The rear railcar had a fire in August, 1957 in Dundrum Station and had only returned to service shortly before the collision.  It was repaired and returned to service in November, 1958.   2644 returned to service in early 1959.  In the Push-Pull conversions in the 1970s  2647 became a trailer 6301 and  2644 became an intermediate trailer 6209.  They were both withdrawn from service on 26th October 1983 and cut up in Mullingar.   (By the way, a young man, 6 months after finishing school and a cub reporter with the Evening Press Newspaper was walking on a road beside the line, {Eglington Terrace?} heard the crash and climbed down to help. With a Garda, they were able to extract the body of the driver of the 17.40 and laid it on a door, He was Niall Andrews, later an MEP. He was also the son of Tod Andrews who was responsible for closing the line just over a year later,  Dec 31, 1958.) 

 

On a slightly different topic, anyone who was thinking of scratch building an AEC Railcar might consider building the Bulleid version of the AEC railcars.  Inchicore bought six more AEC chassis and built the bodies in the works,  They were numbered 2660 - 2665 and were 6 inches higher than the other railcars and had a flat slightly pointed front. Some people thought they were ugly, others thought they looked powerful. They had a notorious feature, the overhead luggage racks were metal and rattled every moment of the journey.  After a few years service,  they were converted to Powered Intermediates.  Three other railcars were rebuilt as PIs.  2614 (Hazelhatch) was re-numbered 2666,  2617 (?) was 2667 and 2656 (Damaged in fire at Geashill} as 2668.   Were there only 9 Powered Intermediates?

According to Mr P Cuffe in his article in the IRRS Journal, Vol 10, No 57,  February 1972,C.I.E.'s Railcar Fleet - Mechanical,  2600 to 2646 were built for mainline work, 2647 to 2656 were for suburban work although with 'mainline seats'    2657,8,9 were built with bus seats for the Waterford - Tramore service.  Later all the suburban railcars got bus seats.

 

DSERetc