Chris Tarrant in Ireland

[popeye]

Chris Tarrant is in Ireland tonight looking at the railways north & south.

9.00PM Channel 5.

[WaYSidE]

skytv? other options for channel 5, use, button on right on top,

[Robert Shrives]

Great prog , several good inside shots of railcars and a few minutes of the  80 class - hopefully when IRM Towers make the model allowance for fitting head board possible - magnetic perhaps? 

A good showcase of all that is good about the isle and its railways large and small also it has to be said a gentle touch on the political history across all of Ireland.  

Apart from a bit of 80 class footage the best bit was going over the Boyne bridge in the 201 on the Enterprise service to Dundalk, CIE picked a good driver to chat with Chris.      

Well worth it on catch up telly or whatever .

Robert 

[jhb171achill]

It was an excellent programme..... highlights for me were the Lugacurran Railway (Jim Deegan's; Jim had chauffeured Tarrant round the place) and the 80 class at Downpatrick, driven by Noel Playfair.

I am sure that when Noel first joined the railway years ago that he never dreamt that he would one day drive on the BCDR main line!

The "Peace Train" was of course an NIR GM and Mk 2s, rather than an 80 class - 113 was shown in the vid clip doing the honours. Several "Peace Trains" ran, and I suspect at least one, maybe more, were 80-powered. The late, great, Belfast writer Sam McAughtry (who I had met a couple of times) was the brains behind it - lovely man.