Oh no not 211 again!

Locomotives shown on a yellow background are those which I have scored for haulage.

Introduction:
Having bashed most European countries I'm starting to find it hard to score new ones! One that had slipped the net was Ireland, quite surprising given it's proximity to home and the abundance of GM locos, so plans were made for a trip there. I was accompanied by Wez Brown and our flights were booked with Ryanair back in November for a bargain £43.80 return each. Wez had visited Ireland before so all hotel reservations and a basic itinerary were made in advance - thanks also go to Gruntle and Sutty for gen!

THURSDAY 14TH FEBRUARY 2002
Was given a bonus day off work today, so spent the morning tying up some loose ends then met the girlfriend from work to spend the afternoon of Valentine's Day with her (oops, perhaps I should have thought of that before booking the flights?!). Met Wez off the train at International and we caught the Air Rail Link bus round to the airport, in a few months the new son-of-Maglev will be available meaning the time-honoured "Oh Shit we've just missed the airport bus!" will hopefully be resigned into history.

Wez got hossed to oblivion at the security check-point having his bag searched thoroughly. Flight was about 10" late departing but was a right time arrival into Dublin due to Ryanair's slack timings. Shame really because we were hoping to be arriving slightly early in order to catch the 20.40 bus into the City Centre, but we missed it by about 5 minutes so took a taxi instead.

Checked into the cranks' favourite Kingsbridge B&B across the road from Heuston station then spent the evening up the road in Nancy Han's pub which had live music on (and vey good it was too!).

FRIDAY 15TH FEBRUARY 2002
Up fairly early for an 0730 breakfast, where we shared the breakfast room with 7 other males who turned out to be cranks! Not only that but they were planning roughly the same move as we were! Anyway we secured seats in the leading coach on the 0830 Tralee with Tim Gradidge, Tony Underwood and others, then went to see what loco was backing on.

My first Irish engine, 211, backs onto the 08.30 Heuston-Tralee.

The journey was fairly uneventful, but it seemed strange riding in Mk3 coaches in a country other than the UK! The other cranks got off on the way at Limerick Junction, but we carried on to Mallow where we changed onto the Cork shuttle, which surprisingly was an Class 071, 082 to be exact.

082 waiting to depart Mallow with the 11.21 to Cork.

156 having run round the 12.45 Cork-Tralee at Mallow.

The run behind 082 was fairly entertaining - the stock this time being Cravens BR Mk1 lookalikes with steam heat - dreadful! We expected 082 to run round the stock, forming the 12.45 back to Tralee and went to the pub across the road for a beer and a game of pool. We were whipped up to find 156 on the front when we came back!

Festered around Mallow for a while to cover the other turn which produced 146 which we did to Cork and back. On the way back the train was wedged and Wez got invaded by half a dozen gibbering schoolgirls!

Bit of a motion outside Cork station as we stopped for ages waiting for the road.

Back at Mallow we did the InterCity back to Thurles, which was 211 which we'd already had from Heuston earlier! Our plan here was to visit the Dwan brewpub before covering the Ennis, so we had about 2 hours here. Found the pub but Wez was surprised to find it had been extensively refurbished since his last visit. The food was excellent though, even if the atmosphere was a little "plastic".

The Ennis was about 15 late, 167 and 155 backing on at Limerick for the run up to Ennis, which is rumoured to be on the hit-list for closure. Tim and co had joined us at Limerick so there were 9 cranks on board the ECS on the way back, the guard even put us in the First Class! Checked into the Railway Hotel outside Limerick station then spent the evening downstairs in the bar with the others.

SATURDAY 16TH FEBRUARY 2002
Gruntle had SMS'd me the gen that 074 was working trains out of Heuston and that it should work the 06.45 Limerick-Heuston in the morning. Thus it was an early alarm call (and a flagged breakfast) to do it ex-Limerick. We were mega-withered in that the shower was working but there was no hot water!

074 at Thurles with the 06.45 Limerick-Dublin Heuston.

We baled at Thurles, for the train behind to Portlaoise as a fill-in move before covering the Ballybrophy which we knew was 142 as we'd seen it at Limerick. When the rolling riot came round I ordered a tea (for me) and a coffee (for Wez), Wez being slightly detonated when the hot water ran out just after pouring my tea! 211 was the engine on the train back from Portlaoise - 3rd time in 2 days now!

The Ballybrophy-Limerick line is another one hit-listed, rather unsurprising given that it has 2 trains each way per day and this one at least was virtually empty.

142 waits to depart from Ballybrophy on the 09.50 to Limerick.

167 and 155 stand outside Limerick depot.

On arrival at Limerick we went down to the shed to ascertain the gen for this afternoon's trains - 142 was to work the Ballybrophy back again and 169 was on the Rosslare - excellent. Then it was back to the hotel for a second go with the shower, which now produced hot water, and lunch.

124 on the Limerick-Limerick Junction push-pull shuttle at those two places respectively.

We did 124 on the Limerick Junction shuttle then a fill-in move on 201s to Charleville, yes 211 produced for the 4th time on the way back! Then it was for the longest move of the bash with 169 all the way to Rosslare Europort - Tim's group were also doing this move.

169 at Limerick Junction and again at Rosslare Europort.

The line between Limerick Junction and Waterford is the remaining line threatened with closure, so I was pleased I'd been able to cover all 3 of them. There is only 1 train each way per day down this line (the stock does a Rosslare-Waterford peak hour service the next day before working back from Rosslare to Limerick).

On arrival at Rosslare Europort 169 disappeared off with the stock to the sidings and we expected 165 to come in almost immediately afterwards. However it didn't, prompting suggestions that 169 had been run round and was being sent straight back. Thankfully that wasn't the case, they had simply been shunting the gennie vans around due to one being knackered. We all bellowed at Waterford when 5 dong baglets complete with booked cameras round their necks were seminaring the station sign! Then they boarded our train and took more phots of themselves!

We already knew that the line between Limerick Junction and Limerick was closed this evening and tomorrow morning due to a road bridge being built, so the train was booked to terminate at Limerick Junction with a replacement bus forward. The guard was overheard to be well concerned on his mobile to Limerick Junction telling them "Yes Tom there are 14 people on the train for Limerick!" - he didn't seem to believe him! 

Anyway all 9 of us cranks and the 5 dong baglets crammed into a 14 seater minibus, arriving in front of Limerick station at the booked time of the train!

SUNDAY 17TH FEBURARY 2002
My 26th birthday today and I was expecting our first move to be a bus, with the 08.50 to the Junction being bustituted and the 09.15 to Dublin starting from the Junction with a bus connection. We went up to the shed to try and get some gen but no-one was around. Back at the station 219 was backing up to some Mk3 stock in the station. Station Bert crossed out the gen about the 09.15 being bustituted on the poster at about 09.00!

We were hoping to make the -5 at Thurles and it was looking good, but as we pulled in it was just waiting to depart so we carried on to Portlaoise where none other than, yes you've guessed it, 211 came in with our train down to Mallow!

211 arrives at Portlaoise with the 09.50 Dublin Heuston-Cork.

Had to fester for a while at Mallow waiting for the Class 141 turn to Tralee, so we popped down to The Roundabout pub for a pint. Wez kept a look out for the train coming in over the bridge and he was pleased to see 168. Walked up to the station to see 168 - on a freight!! A bit of ranting later and 177+160 produced on the Tralee - hellfire!

160+177 arrive at Mallow with the 12.45 Cork-Tralee (168's freight is on the ajacent line!)

177+160 at Rathmore.

226 arrives at Rathmore with the 13.45 Tralee-Dublin Heuston.

We viewed 201 with the ECS for the 14.55 Mallow-Tralee so devised a plan to include that. We bailed at Rathmore to cover the 201 back towards Dublin then again at Mill Street where we had 2 hours for food. Enquired with station Bert who said town was a 15-min walk away and that there should be somewhere to eat. Town was more like a 20-25 min walk, but it was a pleasant day for it. Lunch was in the Wallis Arms, a hellfire turkey, stuffing and ham dinner. We managed to secure a taxi back to the station (for 7 €) before covering 201 back to Mallow. 

081 produced on the 17.05 Cork-Tralee, so we did this one shack to Banteer for a pint in the White Country inn just down the road from the station for dud 203 back towards Dublin. We wanted to cover the Limerick Junction-Limerick class 141 turn and devised a fill-in move to Thurles. Yes, the diagrams swapped and 211 produced for the sixth time! Dud 167 was on the very-wedged train to Limerick.

We hung around the station to try to see what was on the Ballybrophy and the 09.35 Limerick Junction in the morning, the latter was 159 but the other engine still hadn't arrived by 23.00 so we retired to the hotel planning a nice lie-in!

MONDAY 18TH FEBRUARY 2002
A nice lie-in was duly scooped and we went down for breakfast at 08.30 (Wez popping over to the station to check 124 was still on the shuttle). A Full Irish Breakfast was ordered, I ate mine and really enjoyed it, however Wez had a different idea and tipped the half-eaten breakfast into his lap and onto the floor! Oops! Still it provided entertainment for the other guests in the breakfast room and the serving wench!

159 was indeed on the Junction and winning 224 provided the power into Dublin where we checked straight back into the Kingsbridge.

Number 90 bus over to Connolly and an out on back on the Enterprise service (Dublin-Belfast) as far as Drogheda for locos 234 and 206. 

234 at Drogheda, 206 at Connolly.

Now it was time for a spin-around in the Connolly commuter rush. Problem being that the diagrams didn't hold up 100% due to the introduction of Arrow DMU's! Still I managed a few new engines. 082 didn't help on the Gormanston though - I'd had it right down in Cork two days earlier!

Do Dublin commuters really appreciate the introduction of plastic DMU's. This one departs full and standing from Connolly!

The evening move was the 18.30 Rosslare down to Bray, for the Porter House brewpub (and their excellent potato wedges!) and the return Rosslare back to Connolly for a number 90 bus back to the B&B. 

TUESDAY 19TH FEBRUARY 2002
Simple move today - up early for the 748 bus to Dublin Airport for the flight home. A 10.35 arrival at Birmingham was achieved meaning I had an hour to get across to the station, get changed and start work!

All in all an excellent weekend. The locos are hellfire, it's just a shame that the timetable is so haphazard, making it difficult to do decent moves. I'll be back in April for my first ITG tour and I'm sure I'll be making another visit soon after.

Matthew Reeves    19th February 2002.