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A LIFE SPENT CHASING TRAINS

  2. Trains
  3. Overseas

Ireland 1975 - 2017

I became interested in Irish railways as a teenager growing up in East Sussex. Our library in Haywards Heath had a good selection of David & Charles railway books, which included the E M Patterson histories of the legendary narrow gauge railways and Michael H C Baker's Irish Railways since 1916. I was hooked.

Of course by the time I crossed the Irish Sea for the first time the narrow gauge was no more (apart from the peat operations of Bord na Mona) but the broad gauge operation was equally fascinating, being both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

These pictures were taken over a period of 40+ years on both CIE (now Iarnród Éireann) and NIR (now Translink) and includes both steam and diesel (and a little bit of the electric DART operation)
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June 16th 1975
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June 16th 1975

In June 1975 I went to Ireland on my first solo holiday 'abroad'. I stayed at a B&B in Drumcondra, run by a Mrs Creagh, riding CIE most days on a rover ticket. Arriving on a Monday morning from Holyhead I caught the boat train from Dun Laoghaire to Connolly (rather horrified by the plastic seats IIRC :-)

Not being able to check in to the B&B until the afternoon I hopped on the first train, the 08:20 mail train to Galway, which ran over the M&GW route via Mullingar, today the Mullingar to Athlone section via Moate is OOS. Metro Vick/EMD A class 054 is waiting to leave Connolly. Nice set of GNRI signals. E421 is the station pilot.

IrelandCIE A ClassE421Dublin

  • June 16th 1975
  • 054 at Galway waiting to leave on the return, the 12:35 to Dublin Heuston (via Portarlington). Like many Irish provincial stations Galway was very simple, a single main platform which was used by both arrivals and departures and a low overall roof
  • June 17th 1975
  • The 08:30 was double headed by a pair of the small GMs, one of the single cabbed 121 variety and one of the double cabbed 141s. At Mallow platform staff unload flowers from Sussex as the train prepares to leave, I changed for Tralee.
  • At Mallow passengers await the 18:30 Cork to Heuston whilst a pair of MetroVick/EMD A class loiter. A58r was running round the carriages of the train from Tralee prior to heading south to Cork.
  • June 18th 1975
  • Cork Kent station from Glanmire Road
  • Cork Kent is a through station, trains to Cobh and now Midleton leave from the east end. On the right is Glanmire Road shed with a fine assortment of early CIE diesel motive power on view.
  • A liner (intermodal) train awaiting the signal to head through Cork en-route to the Cork container terminal at North Esk which was east of the city on the Cobh branch. It was opened in 1975 and closed in 2006 when IE virtually retired from the freight market.
  • A snatched picture as we sped through Thurles en route back to Dublin, one of the Brush/Sulzer B class. The only picture I have of this class.
  • June 19th
  • Limerick Junction; B129 is one of the original single cabbed B class which convinced CIE of the superiority of EMD power over the Metro Vick/Crossley diesels they had struggled with for five years. The 08:30 to Cork is on the left, B129 is on the connecting service to Limerick
  • One of CIE's Deutz-built shunting tractors, G617 at Limerick
  • August 1985
  • The Great Southern and Western, which connected Dublin with Cork, Waterford and Limerick, was Ireland's 'Premier Line'. Like all railways solely operating in the Irish Free State it was amalgamated by the government into the Great Southern Railways in 1925. CIE semaphore signals were quite unique and instantly recognisable.
  • The 11:40 arrived at Portarlington at 14:01, where we passed a late running 13:10 Dublin Heuston to Westport (Portarlington 13:57). Quick dash to the overbridge for this picture as the Westport prepared to leave.
  • One more train was scheduled to leave before my train back to Cork, the 13:55 Dublin to Galway, consisting of older CIE and Cravens built stock. 071 class 082 was in charge.
  • 072 is at the head of my train back to Cork, the 14:40 from Dublin Hueston (Portarlington 15:21). From Kent station I walked to Parnell Place bus station for the 18:15 Expressway bus back to Schull (arr 21:00). It was a long day out.
  • Final picture, taken from the rear Mk 2 of the 14:40 from Dublin as it stops at Mallow at 17:11, arrival in Cork was at 17:40.
  • My second foray on the bus to Cork and a ride to Charleville/Rathluirc, which is a small town of approximately 4000 inhabitants, on the Cork to Dublin mainline between Mallow and Limerick Junction. In 1985 it was also a block post with a signal box and a small functioning freight yard. The resident 141 class no.158 which presumably shunted the yard was shut down (it being a Saturday) behind the up platform.
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