B class locos

corktina

http://railways.national-preservation.com/diesel-electric-traction/34389-cie-b-class-locomotives-sulzer-engined.html

a link with photos.


(I assume you shouldn't really call them B class as that designated their power rating)

Cookie_Monster

B101 class would be acceptable I suppose (121 and 141 etc were also

The one in Carrick now has a corregated shed on top of it...
How long has it sat rotting outside the depot there?

roundymac

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

B101 class would be acceptable I suppose (121 and 141 etc were also

The one in Carrick now has a corregated shed on top of it...
How long has it sat rotting outside the depot there?

They aquired it in 1993 and there is a picture on the ITG website of it int he snow at Carrick dated 1996, so it's 16-19 years unless it was moved in between and returned.

Run_to_da_hills

I can remember seeing these locos in active use in the early 70's but always in black & tan livery.

Did these locos ever pull "Supertrains" or was it just an advertising guise when they were retired to sound barrier duties at the depot?

Losty Dublin

They were mainly worked out on services from Dublin to Waterford and Limerick during the 1960's but after the GM invasion they were pushed onto freight and branch services more and more. I doubt if they even hauled a mark 2 in service to be honest, by then they were being withdrawn after their Sluzer engines began to wither away and die.

Niles

I remember being told that in their latter years they were common on the Dungarvan route, along with the Dun Laoghaire boat train? Over a decade before my time though.

I seem to remember reading that their fall from favour wasn't so much that they weren't so much unreliable (compared to the metrovicks) but that they were non-standard, being the only non-GM powered mainline locos by the mid 70s.

There is an article about them by D. Renehan in one of the 1980s IRRS journals.

Cookie_Monster

yeah, small non standard class. They were always going to get the boot before 001 and 201 classes.

They had very good route availability and low axle loads though, didn't they so good for infastructure / weed trains over some of the older lesser used brach lines

Cookie_Monster

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

They had very good route availability and low axle loads though

Yep, the only CIE diesels to use the A1A-A1A wheel arrangement.

Losty Dublin

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

yeah, small non standard class. They were always going to get the boot before 001 and 201 classes.

They had very good route availability and low axle loads though, didn't they so good for infastructure / weed trains over some of the older lesser used brach lines

True. They even ran the last trains on a fair few branches as well so they were something of a bad omen to some.

I've a drivers manual for one around here somewhere; what have I bid for it?

CIE

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

I can remember seeing these locos in active use in the early 70's but always in black & tan livery.

Did these locos ever pull "Supertrains" or was it just an advertising guise when they were retired to sound barrier duties at the depot?

Don't think they would have been suited to that duty what with their 75-mph maximum speed gearing. They were dual-service locos rather than fast passenger engines primarily, even though I have to say that they had an impressive horsepower rating for a turbocharged six-cylinder (960 horses; BR's Class 25s with the same engine got horsepower in the 1250 range). Apparently before the decision to buy the JT22CWs (071-class), CIE was toying with the idea of upgrading them with GM engines of indeterminate cylinder number; the frame looks like it could have supported turbocharged 645 12-cylinders though, without increasing the weight load on axles.

Losty Dublin

When they were initially ordered, the plan was for 6 dual engined locos intended to work the Cork and Mail trains but a change of government almost scuppered the deal and it was put on hold. The parts laid idle for a few years before money was asked off CIE from a walk away clause in the contract. The order was adapted for 12 single engined locos, with an axle per bogie staying unpowered. They were good engines in service but they began to act up after about 15 years of service due more to the lack of spares than anything, the engine being one of Sulzer's first ever diesel rail motors. They did indeed look at refitting them with EMD 654's but the whole electrics and bogies would have needed replacing so it wasn't practical.

The first 4 were retired before they hit their 20th birthdays, all of the fleet being retired by the late 70's, 106 being the last in class to see service in Feb 1978.