Irish Rail Mark3's

[Noel]

Nice pic but are those not all mk2s?

[jhb171achill]

On 11/10/2019 at 4:18 PM, DJ Dangerous said:

 

From when until when did they run?

Was it only Mk2D's that were painted as such?

Yes, they were the only type of coaches painted thus.

They were initially intended for the Galway line but they ended up appearing in other places too, and they got mixed up with coaches in “ordinary” livery.

I saw one (and a very grubby example at that) at Heuston in the consist of a Westport train.

[Noel]

10 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

Yes, they were the only type of coaches painted thus.

They were initially intended for the Galway line but they ended up appearing in other places too, and they got mixed up with coaches in “ordinary” livery.

I saw one (and a very grubby example at that) at Heuston in the consist of a Westport train.

Does anybody know what was the thinking behind Galway trains having their own livery? Was it a possible trial for the whole network. It was the only coach livery that matched the strange 201 orange/yellow/black livery back then, but at least they matched up. The 201s hauling tippex livery IR/IE never really looked right from a standardised branding point of view.

[jhb171achill]

My understanding is that there had been a view within IE for some time that having the Galway line as a "brand" might assist in generating tourist traffic, and possibly local too. This seems to have developed when they had the BREL "International" set - possibly the most comfortable carriages ever to run in modern times.

The livery was supposedly based on the influence of the yellow bits on the 201s (which, personally, I thought was hideous), and continental practice with class numbers higher up beside doors, rather than lower down on them. This would become the "branded" Galway stuff, the logic would seem to go.

A full set of Galway Mk 2s looked quite well when new and clean, but they seem to have deteriorated - possibly because the administration were running down Mk 2 stock anyway.

 

[DJ Dangerous]

Wow, lovely photos and some nice information, thank you!

So the Galway coaches ran at the same time as the black-roof Orange Intercity coaches?

[jhb171achill]

31 minutes ago, DJ Dangerous said:

Wow, lovely photos and some nice information, thank you!

So the Galway coaches ran at the same time as the black-roof Orange Intercity coaches?

Possibly a slight overlap but I’m not sure, as one seems to have more or less replaced the other.

[K801]

On 6/28/2017 at 7:09 PM, waffles said:

Oxford Irish coaches due in shops 2019 according to Oxford themselves May even do a gen can cost depending.

Any update on the Oxford Mk3's?  Set just sold on ebay for £260 + post

[RedRich]

1 hour ago, K801 said:

Any update on the Oxford Mk3's?  Set just sold on ebay for £260 + post

TBH I have come to the conclusion that there are more minus than pluses about the Oxford MK111's. I've seen a coach and the only redeeming point it has is the gangway corridor connector. The MM Cravens are in a league of their own and still remain one of the finest coaches in 00 especially the first releases which had the correct dimension bogies. If the Cravens are Premier League than the Oxfords are League 2 or lower. It's a shame as they got the livery completely wrong on the IC and Scotrail coaches and wouldn't back down and admit it. They had a chance to correct the lower body side shade and didn't on the Scotrail release.

Right now I wouldn't be confident if they were to do an Irish MK111 unless there were a lot of corrections especially the underframe.

Rich,

[NIRCLASS80]

Please no Oxfords. After the hash they have made of the uk liveries I would have little confidence of a decent Irish version. Hopefully a certain other little team can see a large opportunity that is still there with Oxford slipping up.