IE's 071 Class.

Oscar Bravo · 01-02-2012 11:03pm #1

Probably mentioned here before but heres the current status of the Class.
087-Withdrawn,Parts used for remainder of class,ready for scrap.
078-Major Overhaul.
085-Confined to Inch.(Recently got the doors off 162)
074- at Inch awaiting new Bogies.
Of the rest,all are in daily service,however rusting is a problem.072 and 088 have also replacement doors off 141's,cleary seen as there still in orange.081 has aswel,but have been painted black.077 and 084 faiding by the day....

(Note 216 is also at Inch stripped of parts and will more than likely not be out again).

corktina · 01-02-2012 11:27pm

sad to think of any of these fine locos being scrapped. The one Portillo rode sounded good.

Judgement Day · 01-02-2012 11:32pm

It's essential that the surplus locos be cannibalized and scrapped ASAP to prevent them from falling into the hands of any private freight operator daft enough to dip their toe in the Irish railway scene.

corktina · 01-02-2012 11:40pm

SOme up to date photos wouldn't go amiss...

02-02-2012 12:00am

Oscar Bravo wrote: »

(Note 216 is also at Inch stripped of parts and will more than likely not be out again).

I think it's criminal that ANY 201s are stopped, potentially withdrawn. The 071s have at least had 35-odd years of good use. The 201s haven't even had half that.

Maybe the ITG will need to look at 071s for preservation soon. It's a shame the candidate will probably just rot in Moyasta though.

Oscar Bravo · 02-02-2012 12:20am

225 is being rebuilt after its crash last year,but slow work.201-205,210-214 are started twice weekly and are in perfect condition.If you noticed Enterprise 201s on liners recently its because theres nothing else available(loco wise).

CIE · 02-02-2012 12:22am

Judgement Day wrote: »

It's essential that the surplus locos be cannibalized and scrapped ASAP to prevent them from falling into the hands of any private freight operator daft enough to dip their toe in the Irish railway scene

Yes, heaven forbid that the state be shown to be in any way inefficient when it comes to running the railways.

02-02-2012 12:24am

Oscar Bravo wrote: »

225 is being rebuilt after its crash last year,but slow work.201-205,210-214 are started twice weekly and are in perfect condition.If you noticed Enterprise 201s on liners recently its because theres nothing else available(loco wise).

I've a friend in IE who works in the train radios section. He says the radio systems are being updated on the 201s at the moment, but only on the in-service locos. I suppose it's hardly a terminal issue for the others.

gsxr1 · 02-02-2012 12:31am

One passed me today while I was in Malihide station. Tara. It had a red light about 500m before the station on the up road. So when it got the green it came into the station accelerating hard.

Dear god .. the noise was unreal. It shuck the whole station...
I thought to myself . He must have used my weeks allowance of van diesel in just 500m.

Rud · 02-02-2012 2:37am

Oscar Bravo wrote: »

225 is being rebuilt after its crash last year,but slow work.201-205,210-214 are started twice weekly and are in perfect condition.If you noticed Enterprise 201s on liners recently its because theres nothing else available(loco wise).

Great to hear about 225 but a great shame to hear about 216 and 087.If the orange 201s that you mentioned are in perfect condition,why aren't they been brought out of hibernation and put on the liners rather than The Enterprise locos?Is it just down to the paintjob?

Captain Chaos · 02-02-2012 2:44am

I thought 204 was a gonner. It was in the middle of the 141 scrap line for a very long time while all the other stored 201s were inside the depot. Before the 141/181s were withdrawn IE had already planned to reduce the 071 fleet to 12. So the 6 listed above look like the first to go.

corktina · 02-02-2012 9:47am

why are they rebuilding 225 when they have stored locos in perfect condition that would be cheaper to prepare for service than mending a broken one?

Losty Dublin · 02-02-2012 11:45am

225 is fitted for push pull services so it can run on Dublin-Cork services, the stopped ones can't.

corktina · 02-02-2012 12:16pm

i know that but the gear could be transferred to an operational engine from a crashed one presumably

Losty Dublin · 02-02-2012 12:35pm

It could be done but you'd need to strip out fit the push pull equipment, commission both back into traffic and still needing to overhaul the other loco before putting it into storage or just overhaul the one and be done with. The stopped loco's are all ones which can't run push pull so it's probably easier as options go.

corktina · 02-02-2012 1:28pm

No you would only need to commision the converted loco. You strip the other for parts and scrap it.

Jehuty42 · 02-02-2012 2:00pm

I suppose selling the surplus locomotives is out of the question? The non-standard gauge probably rules them out, but they are just BR Class 66's underneath(I think) and those are found all over Europe these days.

An idea I had in my head was that a small fleet of 201s should be equipped with Scharfenberg couplers and kept in strategic locations so that a failed DMU (or EMU) could be quickly removed from the mainline. Not sure this would work all that well though, since the costs of moving them back to Inchicore periodically for maintenance checks would add up to a lot of "dead" miles, and crewing the trains would inevitably be a problem . The more practical problem of course is the lack of capacity on the network- there are practically no headshunts or sidings left, nowhere a loco could be left, nowhere a failed train could be easily dumped

As far as the 071s go, I guess they can settle into permanent-way duties and slowly rust away. Permanent way operations are a lot less loco-intensive than they once were now, with the use of dedicated self-propelled units and multi-purpose vehicles and so on. The 071s must be close to full withdrawal now?

corktina · 02-02-2012 2:04pm

I saw a TV ptrog recently (about Stripping Giants I think) which was about a scrapyard in the US breaking GM locos and they were getting phenominal amounts for the parts (six figure sums for an engine iirc)

selling them in bits would certainly be an option if the value as parts for our running fleet is not important.

roundymac · 02-02-2012 3:39pm

Was the push pull an add-on or were they ordered that way. If they were order why was'nt all of them ordered like so?

Losty Dublin · 02-02-2012 4:55pm

They were specifed upon order, so far as I know but they can be retrofitted handy enough. There are cables and electrical equipment that operates the various systems on board from a cab elsewhere on the train. When they were ordered, there was need for them to work the mark 3 PP units to replace 121's and the Enterprise units so some loco's were fitted and some weren't.

02-02-2012 6:59pm

201-205 and 210-214 were from the first batch which could not operate push-pull services, well not officially anyway. The push-pull gear is the same as that for multiple working so it would technically work, the non-retractable buffers and couplers are meant to be the main problem.

206-209 were from a later batch - I believe the reason for the numbering discrepancy is so their names and numbering would mirror those of the GNR steam locos Liffey, Boyne, Lagan and Foyle.

corktina · 02-02-2012 8:40pm

Judgement Day wrote: »

It's essential that the surplus locos be cannibalized and scrapped ASAP to prevent them from falling into the hands of any private freight operator daft enough to dip their toe in the Irish railway scene.

what future for the stored 201s then?:mad:

Captain Chaos · 02-02-2012 11:25pm

corktina wrote: »

what future for the stored 201s then?:mad:

Perway trains and thunderbird duties when all the 071s are gone. Possible tara trains if the Navin branch gets upgraded to take them all the way to the mine.

Jehuty42 · 02-02-2012 11:29pm

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Perway trains and thunderbird duties when all the 071s are gone. Possible tara trains if the Navin branch gets upgraded to take them all the way to the mine.

I think the problem is actually with the traverser in Dublin at the end of the spur being too short for a 201.

02-02-2012 11:32pm

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Perway trains and thunderbird duties when all the 071s are gone. Possible tara trains if the Navin branch gets upgraded to take them all the way to the mine.

The main problem with running 201s on the Taras isn't to do with weight; it's that the the traverser in the Alexandra Road depot cannot take them. It had to be modified to take 071s when the A class was withdrawn, I believe the 201s are too long for it.

Edit: Beaten to it, haha

Jehuty42 · 02-02-2012 11:35pm

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think I remember hearing that the Tara mine is almost exhausted these days, so that traffic may not always be around?

101sean · 02-02-2012 11:53pm

It's OK until 2015 IIRC from something I was reading the other day.

Jehuty42 · 02-02-2012 11:58pm

101sean wrote: »

It's OK until 2015 IIRC from something I was reading the other day.

Sounds right, that is very close at hand though.

dowlingm · 03-02-2012 6:42am

Even the 071s would have loads of time left if run on a North American railroad I'd say - the willingness of IE to let these vehicles literally rust away is unreal. Even if the traverser issue was fixed, there would still be the matter of axle weight limits - even if IE was stupid enough to risk the implications of shutting down bits of the network left decay out of limits without an 071 to haul perway trains, surely NIR would not be similarly stupid keep their 111s around and thus be available to borrow as sometimes happens on the Tara? On the other hand, NIR are the clowns who bought the Gatwicks...

Losty Dublin · 03-02-2012 10:57am

They were bought with the intention of a usable lifespan of 30 years. They are now well over that and that includes their running at close to 100% availability for the majority of their working life, knackered bogies aside. Considering that the majority of their number are still in active service and the lessening duties for them, it's been some performance from them. It will certainly be a pity to see them all retired when it comes to it but the figures sadly are beginning to add up against them.

As for their NIR cousins, I'm mildly shocked they can even move at times

dowlingm · 03-02-2012 3:59pm

Losty Dublin wrote: »

They were bought with the intention of a usable lifespan of 30 years. They are now well over that and that includes their running at close to 100% availability for the majority of their working life, knackered bogies aside. Considering that the majority of their number are still in active service and the lessening duties for them, it's been some performance from them. It will certainly be a pity to see them all retired when it comes to it but the figures sadly are beginning to add up against them.

As for their NIR cousins, I'm mildly shocked they can even move at times

I hear what you say Losty but presumably there's not going to be replacement dosh for a while and the 201s aren't go-anywhere locos...

IE's 071 Class.

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